MN Twins Get Recently Released Pitcher Back

The 4-9 Minnesota Twins will take to Target Field on Friday night vs the Detroit Tigers, just trying to keep their 2025 season from completely falling apart at the seems. Through 13 games, only the Chicago White Sox have a worse batting average than the Twins, who also sit below the league average in most team pitching statistics.

It’s difficult to win baseball games with underwhelming pitching combined with abysmal hitting, something that the MN Twins have found out first hand to start the 2025 MLB regular season. Of course, much of that is to do with early injury issues.

The Twins infield is without Brooks Lee, who is on a rehab assignment, and Royce Lewis. Earlier this week, they lost Pablo Lopez, who is expected to be replaced by David Festa in the rotation, at least for this weekend. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s bullpen has had its own injury issues, going back to spring training.

That’s what got right-handed reliever Darren McCaughan called up by the Twins on March 31, after they signed him to a minor league deal over the offseason. McCaughan was immediately thrust into cleanup duty later that evening, in a blowout loss vs the Chicago White Sox.

Darren McCaughan re-signs with Minnesota Twins

Over the next week, McCaughan pitched three times for a total of 5.1 pretty impressive innings — 1.69 ERA, 6 K, 1 BB, 1.40 FIP. But in the last of his three outings (April 6), the 29-year-old veteran out of Long Beach, CA threw 22 pitches against the Houston Astros (0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1BB), and was DFA’d the next day.

On Friday, after looking around Thursday for a team that might need a big league bullpen arm more immediately, McCaughan signed a minor league deal with the Twins, and was placed on the St. Paul Saints roster.

Darren McCaughan is re-signing with the Twins on a minor league deal after he cleared waivers and elected free agency.

— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) April 11, 2025

Darren McCaughan’s success with the Twins earlier this season was an outlier, compared to the rest of his career. In four years of MLB service time, McCaughan has tossed 61.1 major league innings, where he holds an unimpressive 6.02 ERA and 1.565 WHIP.

Related: New Day, New Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Injured

That’s not the guy we saw on the mound a week ago, though, which is why I expect McCaughan to get another shot with the Minnesota Twins, sooner than later. All it takes is something unfortunate to happen in the bullpen.