CLEVELAND, Ohio — After trading 11 players since Monday, including eight on deadline Thursday, the Twins needed reinforcements to field a team Friday night against the Guardians at Progressive Field.
The Twins recalled six players from Triple-A St. Paul and selected the contracts of two veteran pitchers to give them a 25-man roster, one below the limit, before Friday’s first pitch.
Players recalled from St. Paul included right-handers Travis Adams and Pierson Ohl, infielders Ryan Fitzgerald and Edouard Julien, outfielder Alan Roden and utility man Austin Martin.
Veteran right-handers Erasmo Ramirez and Jose Urena had their contracts selected to bolster the pitching staff.
Martin, Roden and Julien were in the starting lineup Friday.
On Monday, the Twins traded right-handers Chris Paddock and Randy Dobnak to Detroit. Dobnak was not on the big-league roster.
On Wednesday, they traded closer Jhoan Duran to the Phillies. On Thursday, they traded everybody but Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.
The eight Twins sent packing included:
SS Carlos Correa (Houston).RHP Griffin Jax (Rays).RHP Louis Varland (Blue Jays).RHP Brock Stewart (Dodgers).LHP Danny Coulombe (Rangers).OF Harrison Bader (Phillies).UT Willi Castro (Cubs).1B Ty France (Blue Jays).
The Twins spent Thursday’s off day in Cleveland. Ten players were gathered in one hotel room watching the 6 p.m. trade deadline approach. Twins pitcher Bailey Ober told reporters before Friday’s game that three of the players in the room received phone calls from the Twins front office telling them that they’d been traded.
The Twins are for sale. They currently have just $38 million in contracts on the books for 2026.
Empty spaces
When reporters walked in the Guardians’ locker room on Friday, the first thing they noticed was that the lockers of Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase had been cleaned out.
Their lockers have been left untouched since MLB and the players association placed them on a leave of absence while MLB investigated them for gambling allegations.
They are under investigation until Aug. 31.
The lockers of Shane Bieber and Paul Sewald, who were traded Thursday, were also cleaned out.
Manager Stephen Vogt said the four lockers were cleaned out because the Guardians didn’t know how many players they might acquire before Thursday’s deadline expired.
A source said the emptying of Ortiz and Clase’s locker is not connected to the investigation, which is continuing.
Did they do enough?
The Guardians started Friday’s game, nine games out of first place in the AL Central and three games out of the third and final wild card spot. Other than retaining Steven Kwan and completing the Bieber and Sewald trades, the Guardians made no moves to help their stretch run.
Just don’t tell that to Vogt.
“I love where we’re sitting right now,” said Vogt. “It’s been an up and down year. We’ve gone through a lot. We’re going to go through more.
“To be three games back with 54 games to go, you couldn’t ask for a better position to be in right now. Confidence is high in that room. We’ve been playing really good baseball for the last few weeks.”
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