Former MN Twins Gold Glover Now Available for Plucking

This offseason the Minnesota Twins decided to look at first base as something of an afterthought. They handed veteran Ty France a $1 million contract, less than $300k above the league minimum, and washed their hands.

France proved to be mediocre, a bit less than league average, and was shipped north of the boarder with Louie Varland. It’s unfortunate, but not surprising it didn’t work out.

Of course, it could have been worse. Minnesota could have opted to run it back with Carlos Santana. Tuesday he was sent packing by the Cleveland Guardians.

Cleveland Guardians place Carlos Santana on waivers

Last season Carlos Santana rocked a pink glove and won a his first Gold Glove Award while playing first base for the Minnesota Twins. This season he lost his roster spot with the Guardians before August came to an end.

Guardians have placed Carlos Santana on outright waivers pic.twitter.com/KRtCXusdnV

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 26, 2025

The Minnesota Twins paid Santana $5.25 million in 2024. After his standout season, he was going to get a raise, and it never would have been wise to pay for that. Instead Minnesota watched their division rival pay with their heart as Cleveland brought the 39-year-old back where it all started. They did so to the tune of a whopping $12 million.

Santana struggled down the stretch for Minnesota, and his lack of production was part of their epic collapse. Of course that’s to be expected when you’re 38 years old. Cleveland ignored the caution signs anyways.

After posting a 109 OPS+ with Minnesota, Santana leaves Cleveland with just an 80 OPS+ this season. Across 116 games he has batted a paltry .225/.316/.333 with 10 doubles and 11 home runs. Even besides the standard for a corner infielder, the production looks lackluster.

Santana’s defense remained good-not-great this year contributing seven outs above average and five fielding run value. Virtually every underlying offensive metric is a nightmare though. He will pass through waivers as no other team will want to pay what’s remaining on his 2025 contract.

Don’t celebrate the Guardians waiving Carlos Santana.

Sure, it’s the right baseball decision. And maybe Los gets a final run with a contender that needs a defensive 1B.

But he gave it all for the city for 11 seasons. With class. Celebrate his contributions, not his leaving. pic.twitter.com/dc1BGnFDrD

— Monte the Color Man (@Monte_Colorman) August 26, 2025

It’s possible a postseason team will value Santana’s leadership enough to bring him in for a few games in September. It’s also entirely possible this is the end of the line.

Related: Minnesota Twins Release 2026 Regular Season Schedule

Across his 16-year big league career, Santana has played in 2,196 games and has hit 335 home runs. He made the All-Star Game in 2019 with Cleveland and won a Silver Slugger that year two. It was three separate stops with the Guardians, and while the third time wasn’t the charm, there were plenty of memories made along the way.