{"id":573088,"date":"2026-02-15T00:23:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573088\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T00:23:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:23:37","slug":"twins-add-veteran-lefty-andrew-chafin-on-minor-league-deal-minnesota-twins-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573088\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Add Veteran Lefty Andrew Chafin on Minor League Deal – Minnesota Twins Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Minnesota Twins continued reshaping their bullpen on Saturday by signing veteran left-hander Andrew Chafin<\/a> to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. As camp opens in Fort Myers, the organization is clearly investing in relief depth and experience. Chafin\u2019s addition may seem modest on paper, but in what figures to be a tightly contested American League Central race, reliable left-handed options could quietly influence the team\u2019s postseason outlook.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNews of the agreement was first reported by Jon Heyman<\/a>, who noted that Chafin will report to Minnesota\u2019s big league camp to compete for a bullpen job. According to Darren Wolfson<\/a>, Chafin would earn $2 million if he makes the active roster, with an additional $1.25 million available through incentives.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tChafin enters his age-35 season, and what would be his 13th year in professional baseball. While the deal does not guarantee him a spot on the Opening Day roster, it immediately throws him into legitimate competition for a role. This is less of a speculative flyer and more of a calculated depth play by a front office intent on fortifying the relief corps after last season\u2019s midyear bullpen turnover.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe veteran split the 2025 campaign between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Angels, posting a 2.41 ERA across 33 2\/3 innings. He struck out 36 hitters against 19 walks and limited left-handed batters to a .136 average. That type of platoon effectiveness remains especially valuable when navigating late-inning matchups against division rivals built with left-handed thump throughout the middle of the order.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tEven with strong run prevention on the surface, some of Chafin\u2019s peripherals told a more complicated story. His elevated walk rate, paired with an 81.9 % strand rate, pushed his SIERA to 4.11, a number that sat well above his actual ERA. Outside of the command concerns, many of his underlying indicators remained encouraging, though durability remained his biggest hurdle. A right hamstring strain and later inflammation in his left triceps each led to injured-list stints that cost him more than five weeks of the season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis also marks the second consecutive offseason in which Chafin has signed a non-guaranteed contract. He followed a similar path last year after agreeing to a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers in February. Chafin exercised an opt-out near the end of April and soon secured a major league opportunity with the Washington Nationals, making 26 appearances before being dealt to the Los Angeles Angels at the trade deadline.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMinnesota has now added three left-handed relievers in the past month. Taylor Rogers<\/a> signed earlier in free agency, and Anthony Banda<\/a> arrived via trade. Minnesota also already had Kody Funderburk<\/a> on the 40-man roster. Chafin\u2019s presence intensifies competition while expanding the Twins\u2019 flexibility against left-handed heavy lineups within the division.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross 12 major league seasons, Chafin owns a 3.35 career ERA while pitching for eight different organizations. If he can replicate anything close to last season\u2019s surface-level results, this minor league deal could evolve into meaningful in-season value rather quickly.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe message from Minnesota\u2019s front office is straightforward. The Twins are stockpiling experienced arms in an effort to stabilize the late innings and create internal competition before Opening Day decisions are finalized. With multiple non-roster invitees and recent acquisitions now in camp, the bullpen battle is shaping up to be one of Spring Training\u2019s defining storylines.\n<\/p>\n

View full rumor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Twins continued reshaping their bullpen on Saturday by signing veteran left-hander Andrew Chafin to a minor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[1705,5,822,60,3190,4,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-573088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-andrew-chafin","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-twins","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116071799533826284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573088","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=573088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}