Today Aaron Gleeman announced that the Minnesota Twins signed LHP Taylor Rodgers to a 1-year $2 million dollar deal for the 2026 season.
Rodgers was an All-Star for the Twins in 2021 and was a long time closer for the team before being traded alongside OF Brent Rooker on the 2022 Opening Day to the San Diego Padres for RHP Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan. Rodgers has played for many teams since being traded off the Twins such as, half a season with San Diego, half a season with Milwaukee, two seasons for San Francisco, half a season with Cincinnati. and half a season with the Cubs. Rodgers used to be a full-time closer and gained almost 80 career saves until 2023 where he was used more against lefty’s to play matchups. Rodgers still has a good pitch mixed in his repertoire like his sweeper, but with his other pitch the sinker, it isn’t so good. Batters hit a ludicrous .326 with a .537 slug against that pitch in 2025. Rodgers obviously isn’t as good as he was back in his heyday with the Twins, but for 2 million dollars in a market where players are receiving contracts worth north of 10 million dollars a year a lot of the time, this is a bargain.
Rodgers will now serve as one of the two lefties the Twins have in their bullpen with Kody Funderburk being the other one. The Twins still need one to two more reliable arms if they want to a have a bullpen that wont be dreadful to watch. A corresponding move will have to be made to create room on the 40-man roster, I suspect this is where the Twins will cut some of the either first basemen they have or 4 catchers they have.
What are your thoughts about this reunion?
