Twins may have made mistake by demoting Minnesota native to clear spot for trade acquisition

Twins option John Klein to clear roster spot for Yoendrys Gómez

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Twins acquired right-handed reliever Yoendrys Gómez from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for cash considerations. Minnesota designated right-handed reliever Christian Roa to clear a 40-man spot for Gómez. The Athletic's Dan Hayes announced after Thursday's 7-5 loss to the Washington Nationals that the Twins made room for Gómez on the 26-man roster by optioning right-handed reliever John Klein to Triple-A St. Paul.

Gómez posted a 6.23 ERA with a 15.9% strikeout rate and 12.2% walk rate in 17 1/3 innings across nine appearances with Tampa Bay this year. He had a 5.17 ERA over 62 2/3 innings last year, and made just five appearances in 2024 and one in 2023.

Meanwhile, Klein, a Brooklyn Park native, shined in his MLB debut against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, hurling a perfect inning on 12 pitches. The righty made his second MLB outing against the Nationals on Thursday, pitching a scoreless sixth inning before allowing two earned runs on two hits (one homer) and a walk while recording just one out in the seventh inning.

Klein, 24, has struggled with Triple-A St. Paul this season, posting a 7.48 ERA across 21 1/3 innings. Still, he's an intriguing arm with a mid-to-high-90s fastball, solid low-80s curveball, mid-80s splitter and upper-80s cutter. For many teams, demoting Klein to make room for Gómez would make sense. But for the Twins, it's perplexing that the team optioned Klein instead of getting rid of right-hander Luis García, who has posted a poor 19.64 ERA in 3 2/3 innings across five games since joining the Twins' roster last week.

Many Twins fans wish Klein remained on Minnesota's big-league roster

García isn't the only Twins reliever who has struggled this season. Lefty Anthony Banda has an 8.70 ERA over 15 2/3 innings, lefty Taylor Rogers has a 4.70 ERA across 15 1/3 innings, righty Eric Orze has a 4.86 ERA over 16 2/3 innings, and righty Justin Topa has a 7.88 ERA in 16 innings. Many Twins fans believe Minnesota would have been better off by keeping Klein and getting rid of either García, Banda, Rogers, Orze or Topa.

Given the ever-changing nature of the Twins' bullpen, Klein will likely be back in the majors later in the year. For now, Minnesota wants to give the 24-year-old righty more Triple-A experience.

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