Twins Sign Former Cy Young Winner Dallas Keuchel to Minor League Deal

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Jun 22, 2023

Dallas Keuchel won a Cy Young in 2015, at the age of 27. Now, he’s 35 years old and signing a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins, after failing to land a big league deal early this season.

Dallas Keuchel from Hero to Zero

Keuchel was one of the league’s top pitchers from 2014-2020, posting a 3.25 ERA and 1.192 WHIP in over 1100 innings. He’s never had a lot of velocity (87-90 MPH) on his fastball nor has he ever been a strikeout king (career 6.09 SO/9).

Nobody cared about that when he was dominating hitters in the mid-late 2000’s but his production fell off a cliff in 2021 and 2022. Suddenly, the soft-tossing lefty couldn’t get anyone out. In 222.2 innings during those two seasons, Dallas saw his ERA rise to 6.25 and his WHIP balloon to 1.675.

For the first 1/3 of the 2023 season, Dallas Keuchel has been working with Driveline Baseball to keep himself ready for whatever team he signed with. That allowed the Twins and other interested teams to track his progress and keep track of where his movement and pitch speeds stood.

What is the Minnesota Twins’ plan for Keuchel?

Keuchel is being brought in as a depth piece for the Minnesota Twins’ rotation, just in case anything should happen to one of their current starters. But his left-handedness and elite past makes his signing a bit more intriguing. What if he does regain some of the form we’ve seen in his past.

The Twins do not have a lefty in their rotation and the #5 spot seems to be up for grabs. Kenta Maeda has been underwhelming and oft-injured, since his return from Tommy John surgery, and Louie Varland just got demoted, after a fast big league start sputtered and stalled out in recent weeks.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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