Right-hander Austin Voth cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. Voth was designated for assignment by the Twins two days ago. Players with at least three years of service time or a previous career outright have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of free agency. Voth qualifies on both counts.
Voth heads to the open market on his birthday, as he turns 34 today. The journeyman has been a passable swingman in his big league career. He has appeared in 210 games, 39 of those being starts, and logged 370 1/3 innings. He has allowed 4.84 earned runs per nine with a 21.5% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. He also spent 2025 in Japan, posting a 3.96 ERA for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball.
This year, he has been an emergency arm for a few clubs. He started the season with the White Sox on a minor league deal. He was released at the end of camp but quickly landed a new minor league deal with the Blue Jays. Toronto twice added Voth to their roster when they needed a bulk guy. The first time, in April, he allowed one earned run over 2 2/3 innings. He was cut from the roster after that, elected free agency and re-signed. He was added to the roster again in May and allowed five earned runs over 3 2/3 innings.
Once again, he was cut from the roster after just one appearance. This time, instead of returning to the Jays, he signed a minor league deal with the Twins. Minnesota added him to the roster earlier this week when Joe Ryan was scratched from his start due to illness. Voth tossed four innings against the Dodgers but allowed five earned runs in the process. He was off the roster the next day and is now a free agent again.
Voth’s 9.90 ERA in the big leagues this year obviously doesn’t look nice but he has been more serviceable in the minors. He has thrown 44 1/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 3.65 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.
Since he cleared waivers, it can be assumed that no club wants to give him a big league job right now, but he should be able to get minor league offers. Plenty of teams around the league, such as the Cubs and Angels, have been hit by a number of rotation injuries of late. Those clubs and others need to have fresh arms on hand as situations arise, so Voth should be putting pen to paper somewhere in the coming days.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
