The Minnesota Twins\u2019 starting rotation remains the best strength of the team going into the 2025-26 offseason, but not all names are locked in to remain a part of the team next season.<\/p>\n
However, Simeon Woods Richardson<\/a> established himself at the end of the season. In September, he posted a 2.33 ERA over 27 innings, striking out 36, walking only nine, and holding hitters to a 0.81 WHIP in five starts. It was a great sign after Woods Richardson missed a month due to a stomach parasite<\/a>.<\/p>\n Woods Richardson is more than likely a lock in for Minnesota\u2019s rotation next season. Meanwhile, teammates Pablo L\u00f3pez<\/a> and Joe Ryan<\/a> will be included in trade rumors<\/a> all offseason. Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey didn\u2019t give a clear indication<\/a> of whether the Twins intend to move either of their top two starting pitchers in trades this offseason. Still, talked up Woods Richardson\u2019s future in it during Minnesota\u2019s end-of-season press conference on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the last week to 10 days of the season watching some young pitchers take steps forward and seeing Mick Abel<\/a> being able to finish the way he did,\u201d said Falvey. \u201cTaj Bradley<\/a>, Simeon, and others to join hopefully what will be a healthy group in Pablo and Joe and Bailey up top, who have done it before at a very high and elite level, it feels like it sets up a really nice core for a lot of our pitcher group.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll the names, it\u2019s promising talent,\u201d said Woods Richardson. \u201cThen you back it up with Joe, Bailey, Pablo \u2014 it\u2019s promising. You learn from those guys. You pick those guys\u2019 brains and you try to add to your repertoire out of your game because you\u2019re watching some of the best to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite no clear answers on what Minnesota\u2019s plans are with L\u00f3pez and Ryan this offseason, fans should prepare for the Twins to move one of them in a trade. That will make way for one of Minnesota\u2019s other young starters to step up and become a top-of-the-rotation arm, one they can rely on every fifth day.<\/p>\n Woods Richardson made the best case to be that guy next season during his five starts in September. However, his numbers against teams that made the 2025 postseason. Woods Richardson made 11 starts against postseason teams this season, and he allowed more than three earned runs in only one of them. He went 3 \u2154 innings and allowed five runs in his start against the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n Woods Richardson always tries to bring his best stuff to each outing, but his starts against contenders showed how important being a competitor is to him.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been a competitor,\u201d Woods Richardson. \u201cI\u2019ve always been one of those guys who wants to face the best, compete against the best. In the big leagues, everybody is the best. But there\u2019s also powerhouses in this league. If I can knock down the powerhouses, it\u2019s like a miniature game that you play with yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n His teammates have always appreciated seeing the amped-up competitive side of Woods Richardson on the mound, especially during those good times.<\/p>\n For example, his start against the New York Yankees on Sept. 15 was arguably the best of his season. He shoved for six shutout innings against the Bronx Bombers, allowing just two hits, three walks, and setting a new career high in strikeouts in a game with 11.<\/p>\n When Woods Richardson handed things off to the bullpen in the seventh, Kody Funderburk<\/a>, Pierson Ohl<\/a>, and Travis Adams<\/a> all did their part to earn Minnesota\u2019s first shutout against the Yankees at home since August 11, 2008, at the Metrodome.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of great outings out of him,\u201d Austin Martin<\/a> said following their Sept. 15 win over the Yankees. \u201cObviously, today he was lights out. His splitter was working really well. He was attacking the zone, and it was just nice. I mean, when you go out there and you put up a couple of runs and you go back out and then your pitcher just \u2014 it\u2019s almost like you step foot in the outfield, and I was already headed back into the dugout.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of them,\u201d Woods Richardson said. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy that our bullpen came in and shut the door. Because throwing a shutout in the big leagues is not easy. So yeah, it\u2019s a huge team win on that part for the pitching staff. And then our offense came together and just did the runs we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n Woods Richardson still faced adversity this season. He pitched poorly over three starts in May, allowing 15 hits, eight walks, and 10 earned runs in 13 \u2153 innings, and the Twins demoted him to Triple-A St. Paul to work on his stuff.<\/p>\n Woods Richardson\u2019s three starts with the Saints weren\u2019t the most stellar. Still, they showed enough that he had corrected his mistakes and earned a rotation spot again.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s one of the biggest positive takeaways for Woods Richardson this season. He showed maturity in responding to the bad starts in his second full season in the majors, and improved at getting out of jams when opposing lineups put him there. That was the case in the first inning of his last start at home this year.<\/p>\n The Cleveland Guardians were pesky against Woods Richardson. Steven Kwan<\/a> hit a solo shot to start the game, then another run came across on a Bo Naylor<\/a> sacrifice fly. Still, Woods Richardson escaped the jam with a strikeout and didn\u2019t allow a run to score the rest of his outing.<\/p>\n \u201cConfidence, perseverance. I don\u2019t know what you want to call it,\u201d said Woods Richardson. \u201cStamina. I don\u2019t know what you want to call it. It was a long one after that first inning, but I was like, Okay, you\u2019ve got to buckle down and get going now. You kind of wasted a lot of your pitches getting through the first, so now you\u2019ve got to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s moments like that that show Woods Richardson is ready to take the next step in 2026 and show he can be a dependable No. 2 or 3 starter over 30 starts. That\u2019s what the Twins will need from most of their young arms because of the starting rotation\u2019s uncertain future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Twins\u2019 starting rotation remains the best strength of the team going into the 2025-26 offseason, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,7045,822,60,3190,4,3478,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-393847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-derek-falvey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-twins","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-simeon-woods-richardson","15":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115418015399205875","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}