Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson currently leads Major League Baseball with six losses, and the underlying numbers suggest it is not simply bad luck. Through nine starts, Woods Richardson owns a 7.71 ERA, a staggering 1.86 WHIP, and opponents are hitting .335 against him. He also ranks third in baseball in hits allowed despite pitching only 42 innings (58 hits allowed). At some point, the conversation has to shift from patience to reality.
Enough is enough with Simeon Woods Richardson as a starter.
The Twins simply cannot keep running Woods Richardson out every fifth day, hoping things will suddenly stabilize. He is clearly moving in the wrong direction, and it has now reached the point where it is actively hurting a team already struggling to stay afloat in the American League Central.
Over his last seven starts, Woods Richardson has posted a 9.79 ERA while going 0-5. The strikeout numbers may be the most concerning part of all: just 14 strikeouts in 30.1 innings during that stretch. Modern starters can survive without elite velocity, as we've seen this season with Bailey Ober, but they still need some way to consistently miss bats or limit hard contact. Right now, Woods Richardson is doing neither. The recent game logs only reinforce the problem:
6 earned runs in 3.0 innings vs. Miami
5 earned runs in 4.1 innings vs. Washington (no-decision)
4 earned runs in 4.2 innings vs. Toronto
This is no longer just a young pitcher working through inconsistency at the major league level. The Twins have now watched this same pattern repeat for weeks: early traffic, limited swing-and-miss ability, rising pitch counts, and games slipping away before the middle innings even arrive. At some point, continuing to send Woods Richardson back to the mound every fifth day stops looking patient and starts looking stubborn. Or clueless.
Simeon Woods Richardson has allowed 38 runs in his last 30 1/3 innings while raising his season ERA from 2.31 to 7.71.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 14, 2026
After another clunker last night, Simeon Woods Richardson owns a 7.71 ERA.
— Ted (@tlschwerz) May 14, 2026
His -0.5 fWAR is literally the worst mark among all 93 pitchers (min 40 IP).
Are the Twins finally ready to make a change with Woods Richardson?
The timing of Zebby Matthews’ promotion from Triple-A feels impossible to ignore. As Twins Territory already knows, Matthews is not a finished product, and the club knows there will likely be growing pains. But what Matthews still offers is upside—something the current version of Woods Richardson simply is not showing right now. Honestly, it is unlikely that he could be any worse than Woods Richardson.
Matthews can miss bats, and his fastball has life. There are still some gaps to be filled in his development, but at this point, Twins can justify living through inconsistency if there is still a realistic path toward a higher ceiling on the other side. That is becoming much harder to say about Woods Richardson in a starting role.
Even looking beyond the disastrous recent stretch, the season-long numbers are becoming impossible to ignore. Woods Richardson currently leads MLB in earned runs allowed and, as mentioned earlier, ranks among the league leaders in hits allowed. Across 42 innings, he has managed just 20 strikeouts while also issuing 20 walks, and he has already surrendered nine home runs this season.
A pitcher allowing this much contact simply has almost no margin for error. Once runners get on base, everything starts snowballing quickly because there is no put-away pitch consistently ending at-bats.
A bullpen move may be the best path forward for Woods Richardson
That does not necessarily mean Simeon Woods Richardson has no future value to the organization. In fact, the Twins may be doing him a disservice by continuing to run him out as a starter. A move to the bullpen could make real sense.
His delivery and pitch mix could potentially play up in shorter outings where hitters only see him once. The Twins have already seen major success stories converting starters into relievers, most notably Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran. Not every pitcher is built to turn over lineups multiple times, and there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that reality before more damage is done. But right now, the Twins need answers in the rotation, not more survival starts.
Calling up Zebby Matthews may be the clearest sign yet that the organization finally understands that, too.
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