The Minnesota Twins made a minor offseason move last week, releasing 18-year-old right-hander Eliezer Lucena. The young pitcher signed a minor league contract with the Twins on Jan. 15, 2025. He made 11 appearances in the 2025 Dominican Summer League before missing the entire 2026 season due to an injury.
It's typical for teams to release lower-level unranked prospects in the offseason, and it's usually not big news. This decision definitely isn't something that is on many fans' radars, but it's interesting because he had solid results in his short time with the Twins organization.
In his 11 outings with the DSL Twins, Lucena posted a strong 3.35 ERA over 37 2/3 innings. At first glance, it seems puzzling that the Twins let him go given his respectable ERA, but a deeper look at his stats explains why Minnesota released him.
In his 37 1/3 innings with Minnesota, Lucena struck out just 31 batters and walked 19. He also hit five batters and allowed 38 hits. With a .264 opponent batting average and 1.51 WHIP, Lucena is lucky his ERA wasn't much higher.
Then, in the 2026 season, the Twins placed Lucena on the 60-day injured list on June 26. Minnesota never activated him from the IL before releasing him last week.
Twins' release of Eliezer Lucena is a standard offseason move
Lucena could get an opportunity with another team. He is still young, and although his performance with the DSL Twins was poor, his strong results may be enough for another MLB team to sign him to a minor league deal.
Lucena is the eighth minor leaguer the Twins have released since Sept. 10. The others were right-handers Jesse Bergin, Jake Cover, Matt DesMarets, Halton Hardy and Nick McAuliffe and outfielders Caleb Roberts and Misael Rodriguez. Chances are, most Twins fans don't recognize a single name on that list, proving how difficult it is for players to rise through the minor league ranks.
The Twins will likely release even more lower-level minor league players throughout the offseason. It's standard procedure, and every other team does the same.
While the looming lockout means teams won't be able to make MLB transactions starting in early December, organizations can still make minor league moves. If the lockout extends through the regular season, which is likely, the minor league season will still be played. Players not on 40-man rosters will be able to participate.
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