{"id":638342,"date":"2026-03-23T04:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/638342\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T04:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T04:00:20","slug":"matt-bowman-exercises-opt-out-in-twins-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/638342\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Bowman Exercises Opt-Out In Twins Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bowmama01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Matt Bowman<\/a> has exercised the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Twins, as per <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2035698619559358861?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jon Heyman of the New York Post<\/a>.\u00a0 Bowman isn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/03\/33-veterans-with-looming-opt-out-dates.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">an Article XX(B) player<\/a> but he has a similar opt-out provision in his contract, so Minnesota now must decide between adding Bowman to the Opening Day roster or letting the reliever re-enter free agency.<\/p>\n<p>Bowman allowed one hit over two scoreless innings in the Twins\u2019 7-3 win over the Braves today, and the righty has yet to be charged with an earned run over 7 1\/3 frames of work in Spring Training.\u00a0 His spring work also included three more scoreless innings for Israel\u2019s team during the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n<p>It makes for an awfully strong case for a roster spot, yet Bowman is one of multiple pitchers competing for what appears to be just one opening in Minnesota\u2019s bullpen.\u00a0 According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7135154\/2026\/03\/20\/twins-rotation-liam-hendriks-andrew-chafin-released\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Athletic\u2019s Dan Hayes<\/a>, the Twins look to be going with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rogerta01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Taylor Rogers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fundeko01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kody Funderburk<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bandaan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Anthony Banda<\/a> as the three left-handers, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/topaju01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Justin Topa<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sandsco01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cole Sands<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=kentza01,kent--001zak&amp;search=Zak+Kent&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Zak Kent<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/orzeer01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Eric Orze<\/a> as the right-handed contingent.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/altavda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dan Altavilla<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lawerco01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Cody Laweryson<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=baker-007tre,baker-002tre&amp;search=Trent+Baker&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trent Baker<\/a> are Bowman\u2019s primary competition for the last bullpen assignment, and Hayes suggests that Altavilla is \u201clikely in the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Bowman doesn\u2019t break camp with the Twins, another move will be on the horizon for a player who has generated seemingly half of MLB Trade Rumors\u2019 content over the last couple of years.\u00a0 Bowman pitched at the big league level for four different teams (including the Twins) during the 2024 season, then spent most of 2025 being repeatedly designated for assignment, outrighted, and selected again by the Orioles, before he was released at the end of August and then signed by the Astros.<\/p>\n<p>Through all the transactions, Bowman posted a 5.20 ERA, 17.1% strikeout rate, and 7.7% walk rate over 55 1\/3 innings in the Show during the 2024-25 seasons.\u00a0 His grounder rate dipped to 39.7% over the last two years, after sitting at an impressive 56.3% over his first five seasons in the bigs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right-hander Matt Bowman has exercised the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Twins, as per&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,1790,822,60,3190,4,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-638342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-matt-bowman","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-twins","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116276495809422826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638342","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=638342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}