The Minnesota Twins announced their 16 non-roster invitees to spring training on Monday, ahead of the team's Feb. 13 reporting date for pitchers and catchers and the first team workout, which is slated for Feb. 17.
The Twins will play their first spring training game on Saturday, Feb. 22 — a 12:05 pm affair at home with the Atlanta Braves.
A list with 16 players feels a bit lean, but there remains the possibility of the team adding more minor-league free agents, in addition to Ronny Henriquez possibly being invited if he clears waivers in the near future.
The list also does not include any shortstops or players who are specifically designated as outfielders, so it's an exercise in oddity but, again, subject to change.
So let's look at the 16 players; you'll likely know some of them, but there's a surprise or two in the list:
9 Right-Handed Pitchers
Scott Blewett: He proved to be a capable middle reliever for the Twins down the stretch last season, posting a 1.77 ERA (3.94 FIP) with 8.0 strikeouts and 3.5 walks per nine innings. With his limited track record — 8.0 career innings between 2020-21 with the Royals — he was taken off the 40-man roster after the season and re-signed with the Twins in late November.
Blewett's fastball isn't overpowering (93.7 mph average, but it did touch 96.4), but he throws a good split and mixes in a slider as well (both pitches have a swinging-strike rate of nearly 16 percent). He'll be among the first options when the Twins dip down to St. Paul for relief help.
Randy Dobnak: He's a tremendous dude and a pretty solid pitcher who'll be back for another go-round in the organization in 2025. He could be the Opening Day starter for the St. Paul Saints, but would need some things to come together to return to the big leagues (as they did in 2024).
He's on the last year of the extension he signed back in 2021, and will make $3 million before his $1 million buyout of a $6 million option is declined this offseason.
Ryan Jensen: The 26-year-old righty has never appeared in the big leagues, but was with the Saints last season, tossing 56.2 innings with an ERA of 4.76. He struck out 81 batters (12.9 per nine innings) but also walked 50 (7.9 BB/9), so that'll have to be reined in before he gets any meaningful work in St. Paul, let alone Minneapolis.
Jensen was the No. 8 prospect for the Cubs in 2020 after his first-round selection in 2019 (No. 27 overall), with MLB Pipeline grading his fastball as a 70 on the 20-80 scouting scale and his slider a 55. At the time, his fastball touched 98 with run and paired nicely with a heavy two-seam fastball, but he's a developmental project to be sure.
Cory Lewis: The 24-year-old knuckleballing righty was No. 14 on Minnesota's MLB Pipeline top 30, and he'll get an invite to camp based on his age and how he's fared at each rung up the minor-league ladder. He's only made one appearance at Triple-A St. Paul, but in the minors overall he has 41 appearances (39 starts) with a 2.50 ERA and 10.5 K/9 (1.17 WHIP).
The reports on Lewis suggest he doesn't throw the knuckleball an overwhelming amount of the time — somewhere in the vicinity of 10 percent, or so — but it'll be worth monitoring if that changes as he continues on his path through the minors. He hasn't encountered much turbulence on his path, but as he does, he may turn to the knuckler a bit more if his fastball (low-90s, touches 93 mph) stops missing bats.
Darren McCaughan: He turns 29 in March, and has big-league experience in parts of three seasons with the Mariners (2021-23), Marlins (2024) and Guardians (2024) totaling 56.0 innings. In those innings, he has a 6.43 ERA (6.32 FIP), 13 home runs allowed (2.1 HR/9) and a K/BB ratio of 40-22.
So why is he here? It seems to be a mix of things, as he's shown very good command in the minors (2.2 BB/9) with the ability to get strikeouts which has waxed and waned from time to time, but often sits at or above a hitter per inning. He doesn't throw particularly hard, but throws a ton of strikes — sometimes to his peril, if you peep his home-run rate — and has a good enough changeup to throw it to lefties, says Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs in his Mariners top-prospect list from 2023.
Longenhagen ranked McCaughan 23rd in the Mariners system back then — one spot behind Darren Bowen, whom the Twins received in the Jorge Polanco trade.
Andrew Morris: The 23-year-old righty has blitzed through the system since being a fourth-round pick out of Texas Tech in 2022. After three years at Colorado Mesa, Morris had an uneven but promising enough season with the Red Raiders in 2022 that the Twins saw fit to grab him early in the draft, even after he posted a 4.58 ERA in 88.1 innings.
Morris has a 2.56 ERA in 218.1 minor-league innings, and soared through three levels from High-A to Triple-A last season, combining for a 2.37 ERA and 133 strikeouts in 133.0 innings. His Triple-A stats weren't to the level of his previous stops, but a 3.48 ERA and 27-11 K/BB ratio in 33.2 innings (1.13 WHIP) while being five full years younger than the average player at the level is nothing to sniff at.
Morris was No. 6 on the most recent MLB Pipeline update, with evaluators there noting a unique angle on his fastball and some deception in his delivery. At the very least, he's proven to be a nice find from the fourth round and should be able to help the big club in the near future if they come calling.
Alex Speas: He has a bit of big-league experience in the last two seasons between the Rangers and Astros — a combined 4.0 innings — which is a common theme among these invitees. Eight of the 16 invitees have some big-league experience.
Speas is coming off a bizarre 2024 season where he pitched in Triple-A for the Red Sox, White Sox, A's and Astros. If one were to wonder why he was all ofer the map, it's because he combined to pitch 29.2 innings, allowing 40 earned runs (12.13 ERA) with 45 strikeouts (13.7 K/9) and 43 walks (13.0 BB/9).
Speas' minor-league career has spanned seven seasons, and he's posted a 5.56 ERA, 1.69 WHIP and 267/162 K/BB ratio in 173.1 innings.
So how does a pitcher like that make the big leagues? Well, he throws the absolute (redacted) out of the ball. His average fastball in his limited big-league time has been clocked at 99.0 mph, and he throws a demon cutter in the mid-90s and an upper-90s slider. If the Twins can help him find command, he could be a really nice find. That seems like a pretty big "if" however.
Huascar Ynoa: The Twins signed Ynoa — the younger brother of A's super prospect Michael from years ago — as an amateur free agent in the 2014 July signing period, then traded him to the Braves for their one-start rental of Jaime Garcia in 2017.
Ynoa made his big-league debut in 2019 with the Braves, and put together a pretty nice 2021 season — 1.3 bWAR in 91.0 innings with 100 strikeouts, 25 walks and a 1.11 WHIP — before arm issues derailed his career, starting with Tommy John surgery in 2022.
Ynoa missed 2023 after surgery, and spent 2024 in Atlanta's system before being non-tendered last fall. The righty, who turns 27 in May, made 14 appearances in the minors last season with a 6.37 ERA and diminished numbers across the board. However, another year away from surgery will almost certainly prove beneficial for Ynoa, who could be a part of a really strong pitching staff at Triple-A St. Paul.
1 Left-Handed Pitcher
Anthony Misiewicz: The 30-year-old lefty has pitched in the big leagues in each of the last five seasons, but only got into one game in 2024, throwing a single inning for the Yankees.
For his career, Misiewicz has an unsightly 4.67 ERA in 115.2 innings, but his secondary numbers look better than that (8.9 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 3.92 FIP). He throws relatively hard for a left-handed reliever (94.1 mph career average fastball), and his statistical profile is a bit of a weird one as he's been a fly-ball pitcher with a high BABIP. Fly balls that aren't caught are usually home runs (which aren't counted in BABIP).
Misiewicz has worked with a three-pitch mix for most of his career, mixing a four-seam fastball, cut fastball and curveball all at relatively similar rates, and all three pitches have posted swinging-strike rates of better than 10 percent. In short, he's another intriguing gamble.
2 Catchers
Alex Isola: Isola followed up a strong season at Double-A Wichita in 2023 (.846 OPS) with an uneven one in 2024, hitting .215/.301/.332 in 89 games split between the Wind Surge (19 games) and Saints (70). The catching depth chart at St. Paul last season was a strange one, with three players getting 40-plus games played behind the plate.
Isola wasn't one of them, however. He played just two games behind the plate, and saw time at first base (22 games), left field (22) and right field (seven). He also played more left field than anywhere else at Double-A, so the Twins inviting him to camp as a catcher seems more along the lines of teams needing extra catchers early in the spring to make sure all their pitchers get work more than anything else.
Pat Winkel: He was one of the three catchers who played at least 40 games behind the plate for the Saints last season, leading the way with 68 games and 576.0 defensive innings back there.
Winkel hasn't thrown out more than 20 percent of runners at any stop in the minors, but he did hit .266/.362/.424 as a 23-year-old in Double-A in 2023. Last season at St. Paul, Winkel hit just .228/.280/.362 in 297 plate appearances, meaning he's likely ticketed to head back there to battle for time behind the plate with the newly acquired Diego Cartaya, among others.
4 Infielders
Armando Alvarez: The 30-year-old Alvarez made his big-league debut with the A's this season and got into 16 ballgames, going 9-for-37 (.243 batting average, .552 OPS) while seeing action at first, second and third base as well as in left field.
Alvarez hit an exceptional .315/.407/.560 in 75 games at Triple-A Las Vegas last season, but the PCL and Las Vegas are both considered extremely favorable to hitters. Still, Alvarez has been a league-average or better bat pretty much everywhere he's been since debuting in the Yankees organization in 2016, and the ZiPS projection system likes him quite a bit (106 wRC+, 1.0 fWAR).
If you're looking for someone to come out of left field in Fort Myers to claim a job on the big club, this might be the guy.
Mike Ford: The 32-year-old Ford is a plodding first base-only type with some power and plate discpline but also quite a bit of swing and miss and...not much else. Seattle caught lightning in a bottle with Ford when he hit .228/.323/.475 (125 wRC+) in 84 games in 2023, and it was still only worth 0.8 fWAR due to positional adjustments for first base, among other things.
Ford isn't considered a great baserunner, and he hit just .150/.177/.233 in a 17-game cameo with the Reds last season. He's probably more along the lines of a Lucas Duda spring training invite type than he is someone the Twins are expecting to challenge for a roster spot.
Luke Keaschall: The 22-year-old's future with the Twins is unclear, but not for the reasons one might think.
Keaschall is exceptional when he's on the field. He hit .303/.420/.483 in 102 minor-league games last season (158 wRC+), but an elbow injury ended his season early and there were rumors the Twins offered him to the White Sox for pitcher Erick Fedde, though Chicago preferred not to deal him within the division.
That might end up being a big mistake by Chicago, but it also doesn't rule out the idea that the Twins may still be willing to move him. He's a tremendous player, and has made his way into multiple global top prospect lists this offseason, but the Twins are flush with infield options to sort through, and it's still a work in progress to see if he has a future in the outfield.
Even if he does, the Twins still may see fit to cash him in as a trade chip. He's a stud, though.
Yunior Severino: The 25-year-old hit a respectable .254/.342/.434 with Triple-A St. Paul last season (101 wRC+), and has been an above-average hitter everywhere he's been dating back to 2019. Still, Severino was taken off the 40-man roster this offseason and re-signed with the Twins on a minor-league deal.
Where he fits positionally is anyone's guess. Longenhagen had him as a third baseman in his pre-2024 rankings, but he played just eight games at the hot corner for the Saints (65.0 innings) while doing most of his defensive work at first base (91 games, 751.1 innings).
Could he be an option for the Twins at first base? It can't be ruled out, though the Twins aren't really in a position to hand the spot to an unproven, first-time big leaguer given their expectation of contending in the division and how the rest of the roster lines up. It'll be hard for Severino to get a fair shot in Minnesota, but a lesser team might be able to give him a longer, deserved look in the major leagues sometime in the near future.
1 Utility Player
Jeferson Morales: The 25-year-old Morales spent some time catching as his career got underway, but the 5-foot-8 Venezuelan has moved around in recent seasons, including spending considerable time in left field and even some second base last season.
Morales made it to Triple-A St. Paul for the final month of the season and played mostly left field, and in 60 plate appearances acquitted himself nicely by batting .359/.433/.585 after posting a .787 OPS in 88 games with Wichita.
He's a pretty deep sleeper, but his mix of discipline, pop and versatility could make him an option for the Twins at some point this season. It certainly doesn't hurt that he's a right-handed hitter in addition to playing the corner outfield.