Twins agree to minor-league deal with reliever John Brebbia
The day before Opening Day, KSTP's Darren Wolfson reported that right-handed reliever John Brebbia had agreed to a minor-league deal with the Minnesota Twins.
Hear the #MNTwins are signing reliever John Brebbia to a minor league deal. Was in camp with the Rockies, has lots of big league experience. pic.twitter.com/t0nCDaxpDh
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) March 25, 2026
Brebbia made seven appearances with the Colorado Rockies during spring training. Five were great, one was bad, and one was awful. He threw a scoreless inning in four of his outings and two scoreless innings in one of his appearances. He allowed two earned runs over one inning on March 15, then surrendered five earned runs on five hits (two homers) over two innings on March 19. Overall, he collected 11 strikeouts and allowed nine hits and zero walks across nine innings during spring training.
Brebbia relies heavily on a low-to-mid-90s four-seam fastball and a mid-80s slider. He also occasionally mixes in a mid-to-high 80s changeup and a low-70s curveball.
Brebbia was a late bloomer, making his MLB debut with the St. Louis Cardinals two days shy of his 27th birthday in 2017, which was arguably the best season of his career. He posted a 2.44 ERA with 51 strikeouts and 11 walks during his rookie campaign.
Brebbia pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2017 through 2019, sporting a 3.14 ERA with 198 strikeouts and 54 walks across 175 innings. He underwent Tommy John Surgery on June 25, 2020. The righty then signed a deal with the San Francisco Giants during the 2020-21 offseason and returned to the big leagues in 2021, posting a 5.89 ERA in 18 1/3 innings.
The new Twins righty led the National League in appearances (76) in 2022, managing a 3.18 ERA across 68 innings. He then had a 3.99 ERA across 38 1/3 innings in 2023 before signing a deal with the Chicago White Sox. Since then, Brebbia has logged MLB innings with the Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers. He had a poor 6.29 ERA over 48 2/3 innings in 2024 and an even worse 7.71 ERA over 23 1/3 innings last season.
While Brebbia isn't the most exciting addition, it never hurts to stack minor-league bullpen signings. Unless he struggles significantly in the minors or suffers an injury, the righty should be back in the majors with Minnesota at some point later in the season, as even the teams with the best bullpens tend to use a large number of relievers throughout the course of a season. If a Twins reliever pitches a lot of innings in a short span, struggles or suffers an injury, Minnesota will likely consider having Brebbia take their spot on the 26-man roster.