St. Louis Cardinals News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/st-louis-cardinals/ Minnesota sports, but different Sat, 08 Feb 2025 01:40:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=32,height=32,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-cropped-MSF-favicon-1.jpg St. Louis Cardinals News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/st-louis-cardinals/ 32 32 Minnesota Twins Make Trade to Open Roster Space https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-twins/minnesota-twins-news/michael-helman-trade-st-louis-cardinals/ Fri, 07 Feb 2025 16:39:14 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=60125 With Spring Training looming the Minnesota Twins have had a busy couple of days. On Tuesday, they added Danny Coulombe to fortify the bullpen. One day later, Harrison Bader signed a deal to become the team’s 4th outfielder in 2025. But after their flurry of signings this week, the Twins’ 40-man roster was suddenly full. So late Thursday, they cleared some space with a trade.

Minnesota Twins send Michael Helman to St. Louis

Michael Helman made his major league debut for Minnesota last season, which made the utility man a member of the 40-man roster this offseason. In fact, Helman even made the trip to Minneapolis last weekend for Twins Fest. Just a few days later, he was shipped off to St. Louis for “cash considerations”.

We may never know how much money the MN Twins received in this deal, but the money is usually considered inconsequential. In this case, it’s the 40-man roster spot that president Derek Falvey and his front office was seeking to clear.

Helman was an 11th round pick by Minnesota back in 2018. After six seasons in the minor leagues he earned a call-up in 2024. Helman played in nine games for the Minnesota Twins last season. He had three hits in ten at bats. Two of them were doubles, and he scored a pair of runs.

After a slow start to his professional career, Helman found significant success at Triple-A each of the past two seasons. In 2023 he hit .296/.356/.546 across 27 games. Last year he had a .271/.350/.487 slash line.

Minnesota needed to clear a pair of 40-man spots in order to add their recent free agent acquisitions. The Cardinals trading for Helman allowed them to find one without needing to designate him for assignment.

Related: Minnesota Twins Trying to Add More Infield Depth, Specifically SS

It would have been difficult for Helman to find playing time at the big league level in Minnesota. He is already 28 years old and behind plenty of other utility options. His spot on the 40-man roster was well-earned, but was always going to be difficult to keep.

With the Cardinals, he can compete at multiple positions and look to break Spring Training with the major league club.

Ronny Henriquez DFA’d by MN Twins

On top of clearing a spot by moving Helman, the Minnesota Twins also designated Ronny Henriquez for assignment. He has seen this fate multiple times over his Minnesota career, and the bullpen was going to be tough for him to crack.

Minnesota acquired Henriquez in the Mitch Garver trade with Texas a couple of years ago. He didn’t pitch in the big leagues during 2023 but made a return last season. Across 19 1/3 innings, Henriquez posted a 3.26 ERA with 15 strikeouts.

Related: Minnesota Twins Sign Gold Glove Outfielder

Command has often been the problem for the young reliever. He is still just 24 years old and should have plenty of opportunities in front of him. If the Twins can squeeze him through waivers again, it makes sense to stash him as a depth arm in St. Paul.

]]> Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:40:28 +0000 Minnesota Twins News Minnesota Twins Twins Turn to Pitching and Finish Off Sweep of Cardinals https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-twins/twins-turn-to-pitching-and-finish-off-sweep-of-cardinals/ https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-twins/twins-turn-to-pitching-and-finish-off-sweep-of-cardinals/#respond Thu, 30 Jul 2020 03:28:58 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=28016

The Minnesota Twins improved their record to 4-1 Wednesday night, with a 3-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, to complete the 2-game sweep! This team just knows how to win and I can’t get enough of it. Rich Hill dominating his debut/comeback helps…

Rich Hill > Daniel Ponce de Leon

Twins SP Rich Hill was dominant in his first outing as a Minnesota Twin. It was the second night in a row that a Twins starting pitcher debuted. Hill pitched 5 innings and only gave up 2 hits. If the season would have started on time, Hill would have found himself on the IL while recovering from left elbow surgery. Instead, he looked like an important piece to the shortened 2020 season, tonight.

Cardinals SP Daniel Ponce De Leon can’t say the same. He LABORED through his start, SLOWLY working to one of the weirdest 3.2 IP stat lines in the history of baseball.

Just One Bomba?

The Twins starting the scoring early (as they usually do) when Nelson Cruz hit a double to the right center, driving in Luis Arraez.

It wouldn’t be a Twins game without a Bomba, though, which was provided by Eddie Rosario, tonight. It was his first of the year and I’m pretty sure this one landed in Brooklyn Park.

The Twins bullpen shut things down once again tonight as Sergio Romo, Tyler Duffey, Tyler Clippard, and Taylor Rogers all pitched scoreless innings. This is starting to look like the normal routine for Baldelli & Co. Our very own Seth Toupal has come up with a new motto for the Twins.

The Best

The Minnesota Twins debuted their new powder-blue retro uniforms tonight. Let me just say, Bombas look a hell of a lot better in that blue. I am in love with these uniforms, to the point where I am strongly contemplating buying every player’s jersey. If you missed the game tonight, here is a look at the new threads.

The Worst

Miguel Sano is now just 1-14 on the season. I get that it is early, but with everyone else on the squad picking up where they left off, it makes it look that much worse. One thing I do know: if the Twins want to win their 3rd World Series, they are going to need Sano to figure things out.

The Twins kick off a pivotal early season series against the Cleveland Indians tomorrow night at 6:07 pm CT. The series kicks off with a dynamite pitching matchup: Jose Berrios (0-0) 11.25 ERA faces off against Shane Bieber (1-0) 0.00 ERA.

Cameron Thomson | Minnesota Sports Fan

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