10:55pm: Minnesota is sending minor leaguers Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick back in return, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic.
10:49pm: The Mets are trading lefty reliever A.J. Minter to the Twins, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s the first of a series of veterans being shipped out by New York, while Minnesota adds much needed bullpen help.
Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll said on Tuesday the front office was preparing to buy. The Twins have been surprisingly competitive and aren’t far off the pace in the AL Central or the Wild Card picture. Minnesota pulled off a dramatic comeback with two outs in the ninth, capped off by a Kody Clemens walk-off grand slam, to move back to .500 this afternoon. Their 55-55 record has them in third place in the division, three games back of the White Sox. They’re only a game behind the Guardians, who currently hold the last Wild Card spot.
The bullpen is the obvious priority. Minnesota relievers have an earned run average close to 5.00, the fifth-worst mark in the league. They’re sixth from the bottom in strikeout rate and have the sport’s second-highest walk percentage (better only than Cincinnati). They’ve improved from a run prevention perspective in July but still issuing too many free passes without a ton of strikeouts.
Minnesota can at least feel confident that Minter will attack the strike zone. He has only walked two batters and hit one across 23 innings on the season. Minter isn’t going to maintain a walk rate quite that low (2.2%) but has had above-average control for the last few seasons. He used to have big swing-and-miss stuff during his time with the Braves, but that hasn’t returned since he underwent season-ending lat surgery in May 2025.
Minter needed a full calendar year to recover from that operation. That kept him from making his season debut until late May. He has a career low strikeout (21.7%) and swinging strike (10.9%) rates, each of which are a hair below league average. His four-seam fastball velocity has dipped to 93 mph, down a tick from last year and quite a bit from the 96-97 mph heat he had early in his career.
Opposing hitters have pummeled that diminished fastball. Minter has responded by leaning more heavily on an upper-80s cutter that remains an effective pitch. He carries a 2.35 earned run average, though he has been scored upon in three of his past six outings. Minter was in middle relief for New York and has only recorded one hold this year.
The 32-year-old should get more late-inning opportunities in the Twin Cities. Kody Funderburk and Taylor Rogers have been Minnesota’s top lefty relievers this season. Funderburk has a 3.52 ERA but an equal number of walks and strikeouts across 30 2/3 innings. Rogers has an ERA a little above 5.00 with a career-low 19% strikeout rate.
Minter, Rogers and mid-July trade acquisition Tommy Nance are the only veteran relievers in Derek Shelton’s bullpen. They’re relying mostly on rookie Andrew Morris and journeyman Yoendrys Gómez, who has pitched well since being acquired in early May, at the back end. This should be the first of multiple bullpen adds, as they could also use a reliable right-hander to mix into the late innings.
An impending free agent, Minter is making an $11MM salary in the second season of his two-year free agent deal. If there’s no cash involved, the Twins would take on just under $3.5MM for the stretch run. As shown on MLBTR’s new Payroll Tracker, Minnesota had an approximate $101.4MM payroll before the trade. That’ll climb to roughly $105MM, which is still nowhere close to last year’s end-of-season payroll in the $130MM mark. They’re not going to spend that much in 2026 but clearly have a bit of flexibility from ownership to make some mid-tier pickups.
The Mets will save 110% on any salary they shed over the next few days. Offloading Minter without any cash considerations would save them just over $8MM. It’s their first small bit of business with trades of Freddy Peralta, Clay Holmes, Brooks Raley and Luis Robert Jr. surely forthcoming. New York could also move Luke Weaver and Huascar Brazobán, each of whom would command a superior return to what they’re receiving for Minter.
More to come.
