The Minnesota Twins traded international bonus pool allotments to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for left-handed reliever Anthony Banda on Thursday, they announced. Twins Daily’s John Bonnes was on site in Ft. Myers for the news.
Banda, 32, has pitched in nine major-league seasons for eight different teams. He has an unimpressive 4.44 career ERA, but since the start of 2024, he’s appeared in 119 games and has a 3.14 ERA. He pitched in 17 postseason games for the Dodgers during their back-to-back World Series championship runs. He struck out 23.3% of opposing batters over those two campaigns.
Despite having pitched in each of the last nine big-league seasons, Banda has only amassed a bit over 4 years of major-league service time. The Dodgers agreed to a $1.625-million deal with Banda in early January, to avoid arbitration, but they designated him for assignment a month later. Now, the Twins have a chance to control Banda through 2027, at a low price. They designated right-handed journeyman Jackson Kowar for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Banda.
With a low three-quarter arm slot and a plus sweeper, Banda is tough on fellow lefties. He throws both a sinker and a four-seamer, each around 96 miles per hour, leaning on the former against lefties and the latter against righties. His changeup is nothing to write home about, but as a left-handed middle reliever, you can do much worse than Banda. He joins Taylor Rogers and Kody Funderburk as likely candidates for the lefty side of the Minnesota bullpen this year. Slowly and late in the game, the team is cobbling together a semi-reliable bullpen, although they still lack anyone who feels like a relief ace.