On Sunday night, while the Dads were in Houston playing the Astros, a scary moment happened at the first base bag, involving Arraez and Astros second baseman, Mauricio Dubon. It all started when Arraez attempted to pull a drag bunt with him down the first base line.

Collision lands former Minnesota Twins fan favorite in Houston hospital

The bunt was fielded cleanly by Houston first baseman, Christian Walker. He turned to his left and flipped the ball to Dubon, who was running behind him to cover the first base bag, as was his responsibility with the switch-hitting Arraez batting lefty for this plate appearance.

Unfortunately, Arraez and Dubon arrived at first base at the same time, resulting in an ugly collision that the former Twin got the worst of. Luis fell to the ground and appeared unresponsive. Eventually, a cart was brought out and he was wheeled off Minute Maid Field, before being transported to Houston Methodist Hospital.

Luis Arraez was placed on a stretcher and carted off the field after colliding with Mauricio Dubon at first base.

Arraez gave a thumbs up as the cart was driving off the field. pic.twitter.com/C0yM3KsJIS

— ESPN (@espn) April 20, 2025

Entering tonight’s game, Luis Arraez was batting .287 with a .755 OPS (113 OPS+) on the young 2025 season. As a member of the Minnesota Twins, the eccentric Venezuelan hit .314 over the course of four seasons.

Luis Arraez is currently awake and responsive

Thankfully, the San Diego Padres’ most recent update revealed that Luis Arraez is currently “conscious, responsive and able to move his extremities”. Given how bad this story started, this is about the best possible update we could have gotten.

Luis Arraez has been transported to Houston Methodist Hospital for further evaluation. He is currently stable, conscious, responsive, and able to move his extremities.

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 20, 2025

In an age where the home run is king, Arraez is a taste of old school hitting greatness, posting a career batting average of .322, earning him three All-Star appearances and three batting titles, the first of which came in 2022 as a Twin.

Related: Brock Stewart is Finally Back in MN Twins Bullpen

He’ll never be an .800 OPS guy, which is why he has been traded twice, despite his incredible ability to hit the ball where fielders are not. But tonight, none of that matters. We all just hope and pray that the news coming out on Luis Arraez continues to be positive, and he makes a full recovery, sooner than later.

If this was the end of Chris Paddack's season, his final stats will include 135 2/3 innings, a 3.38 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. Since 1986, José Fernández and Walker Buehler are the only rookie pitchers to finish with equal or better numbers in those three categories.

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) September 12, 2019

Later in the night, Taylor Rogers was reported as part of the package heading back to San Diego. Then Thursday morning, it broke that the Padres were also including right-handed relief pitcher, Emilio Pagan. The final piece to the puzzle came a few minutes later. The Twins were parting with 27-year-old power-hitting corner outfielder, Brent Rooker, an MLB-ready prospect coming off injury.

Rooker or Larnach

Brent Rooker was the worst of three young corner outfield prospects in Minnesota, all of which are much better with the bat then they are chasing down fly balls. Now, they have more at-bats for Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach. Kirilloff will get some time at 1st base too. Larnach projects as a DH down the road and is starting his year in St. Paul. It was Larnach who was rumored to be in this trade last night. That was after he was surprisingly scratched from the Saints lineup just before their second game of the season.

Trevor Larnach is no longer in the starting lineup for tonight, the @StPaulSaints announced. Was originally batting 3rd and playing left.

— Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) April 6, 2022

So when driving my kids to school this morning, I was happy to hear it was Brent Rooker heading West and not Trevor Larnach. Settling on Rooker, instead of Larnach, could be why the Twins had to eat a large chunk of Taylor Rogers’ salary, to get the deal done. If so, it was worth it.

Classic Twins move

Make no doubt about it, this is a classic Minnesota Twins move. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good one. Taylor Rogers is scheduled to be a free agent after this season. Clearly, the Twins weren’t going to bring him back. He would’ve been dealt at last year’s deadline had he not been injured. Now, they get an additional year of control in a legitimate bullpen arm, with Emilio Pagan.

The Twins have the young high-powered arms in the Minnesota bullpen, that we shouldn’t miss Taylor Rogers that much. Chris Paddack is more in return than anything they’d get for Rogers at the deadline. Paddack is another back-end starting pitcher — this one with three years of control — who has the upside of a top rotation arm.

If Derek Falvey and Thad Levine couldn’t find a front-end fix to their rotation, this deal with the Padres is as good of a consolation prize as I could have imagined. And still, the Twins roster and payroll is primed for a bigger blockbuster move before the deadline. Hopefully for a playoff-grizzled, still high-end starting pitcher.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

Twins working to acquire Chris Paddack from Padres, sources tell @TheAthletic.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 6, 2022

Chris Paddack burst onto the San Diego scene in 2019, as a 23-year-old rookie. He hurled 140 innings, posting a 3.33 ERA, 126 ERA+, 0.981 WHIP and 9.8 K/9. Back then, he looked like one of the best young pitchers in baseball. But Paddack slammed back to reality in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and fell even further in 2021.

• 2020: 59 IP | 4.73 ERA | 89 ERA+ | 1.220 WHIP
• 2021: 108 IP | 5.07 ERA | 77 ERA+ | 1.265 WHIP

It’s unlikely Rosenthal tweets something like this if the deal isn’t all but complete. The bigger questions surround what the Minnesota Twins are giving up, in exchange for Chris Paddack. Given how poorly he’s thrown over the last two seasons, I can’t imagine his price would be that high. Seems like a great buy-low acquisition for Falvine.

UPDATE (4/6 -7:30 PM):

It looks like Taylor Rogers is the Padres’ target, in return for Paddack. Rogers has just one year of arbitration remaining but he’s a huge piece of the Twins’ bullpen. You’d have to think the Twins want more back in return than just Paddack.

Source confirms to me and @DanHayesMLB: Padres’ target is Taylor Rogers. Talks fluid, lots of moving parts. https://t.co/3HSSjEtC1w

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 7, 2022

UPDATE (4/7 – 9:00 AM):

On Thursday morning, the trade between the Padres and Twins became more official and details rolled in via baseball insiders across the country. When the dust settled, San Diego had agreed to send (SP) Chris Paddack and (RHRP) Emilio Pagan East to Minnesota in exchange for Taylor Rogers and (OF) Brent Rooker heading West.

There may be some money and “player(s) to be named later” swapped, as well. Pagan is is an established 30-year-old relief pitcher and should be a valuable asset to the bullpen. But much like Paddack, Emilio Pagan was dominant in 2019 (70 IP, 2.31 ERA, 190 ERA+, 0.829 WHIP) but struggled in the last two seasons, with ERAs over 4.50 and ERA+ well below 100 (average). Brent Rooker is an older (27) knock-off version of Trevor Larnach so the Twins probably celebrated when the Padres agreed to take him as the final piece to this trade puzzle.

The Minnesota-San Diego trade, per sources:

Twins get right-handed starter Chris Paddack and right-handed reliever Emilio Pagan

Padres get left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers and outfielder Brent Rooker.

Money and a PTBNL possibly involved, too.

Opening Day deal! Love it.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 7, 2022

Paddack has three years of team control. Pagan has two years remaining. Both are buy-low, high upside acquisitions. Taylor Rogers is due to be a free agent after the 2022 season and would have been traded at last year’s deadline, had he not been hurt. The trade makes sense, even if the timing doesn’t. That can be partly blamed on the lockout, partly on the Twins’ refusal to make any moves in free agency before the lockout began.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan