Former memorable Twins Nick Gordon, Kenta Maeda just lost their roster spots with their new teams
The Kansas City Royals released former Twins fan favorite Nick Gordon, who’d been playing for Triple-A Omaha, on May 1. Gordon, 29, agreed to a minor league deal with the Baltimore Orioles in the offseason before getting sent to the Royals for cash on Apr. 5. He has a .270/.333/.333 slash line with a 31.9% strikeout rate in 69 plate appearances at the Triple-A level for Baltimore and Kansas City this season.
Former Twins general manager Terry Ryan selected Gordon out of high school with the fifth overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft. Gordon was a highly regarded prospect for a while, ranked as the Twins’ No. 1 prospect by MLB Pipeline in 2017 and was regarded as a top-100 prospect per MLB every year from 2015-18.
Unfortunately, Gordon, Dee Strange-Gordon’s brother, never lived up to the hype. He finally got the call to the major leagues by Minnesota in 2021, where he hit .240/.292/.355 (79 OPS+) with four home runs and 10 stolen bases in 216 plate appearances.
Gordon had his best season at the major league level in 2022, where he accumulated 1.6 bWAR with a .272/.316/.427 (111 OPS+) batting line, nine home runs and 28 doubles in 443 plate appearances. He only played in 34 games for the Twins in 2023 before landing on the injured list with a right tibia fracture, sidelining him for the remainder of the season.
The Twins traded Gordon to the Miami Marlins for left-handed reliever Steven Okert in the 2023-24 offseason. After hitting an abysmal .227/.258/.369 with eight home runs in 275 plate appearances for the Marlins, Gordon was designated for assignment on Aug. 5 and outrighted to the minor leagues before signing his contract with the Orioles in December.
On the day Gordon was DFA’d, Maeda, who had a 4.02 ERA, 3.81 FIP and 310 strikeouts in 277 ⅓ innings for the Twins from 2020-23, suffered the same fate.
The Detroit Tigers DFA’d Maeda, who’d been pitching out of the bullpen, on May 1 after he allowed seven earned runs, nine hits and six walks in eight innings this season. He had a 6.09 ERA in 112 ⅓ innings as a starter last year for Detroit.