The Minnesota Twins have signed starting pitcher Huascar Ynoa to a minor league deal, signaling a return to the organization that once traded him in one of the most infamous deadline moves in team history.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein, Ynoa will receive an invitation to Minnesota’s big league Spring Training camp as part of the deal as he looks to revive his career after four injury-riddled seasons with the Atlanta Braves.
Ynoa signed with Minnesota during the 2014 international signing period and spent three minor league seasons with Minnesota, posting a 2-5 record with a 2.70 ERA with the Dominican Summer League Twins in 20215, a 3-5 record with a 3.18 ERA with the Gulf Coast League Twins in 2016 and six starts at rookie-league Elizabethton in 2017.
The Twins traded Ynoa to the Braves in the summer of 2017 in a deal that brought Jaime Garcia to Minnesota. While Garcia lasted a week before being flipped to the New York Yankees, Ynoa continued to rise through the Atlanta organization and made his big league debut in 2019.
Ynoa appeared in parts of four MLB seasons with the Braves from 2019-22 but his best season came in 2021 when he posted a 4-6 record with a 4.05 ERA, 100 strikeouts and 25 walks in a career-high 91 innings to help Atlanta win the World Series.
But injuries prevented him from being a mainstay in Atlanta as he was removed from the NLCS roster with a shoulder injury and he missed three months after breaking his hand while punching a bench in the dugout in frustration that summer.
The injuries piled up as Ynoa pitched 6.2 innings in 2022, underwent Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for the entire 2023 season and was limited to 29.2 minor league innings before he was shut down due to a stress reaction in his elbow last summer.
The laundry list of injuries convinced Atlanta to non-tender Ynoa this winter and the Twins scooped the 26-year-old up in hopes they can rekindle his career.
This is not the type of signing that will get Twins fans excited coming off a late-season collapse in 2024 but it could be a way to build depth they didn’t have a year ago. With limited funds also preventing them from making a free-agent splash, Ynoa could be the first minor league deal to add some major league arms to the organization.
Still 26 years old, Ynoa posted a fastball velocity of 96.4 mph in 2022 and the Twins have nothing to lose having him compete with David Festa, Simeon Woods Richardson and Zebby Matthews for a spot in the back end of the rotation in 2025.