The Minnesota Twins have designated for assignment 25-year-old starter Simeon Woods Richardson, ending what started as a promising tenure with the organization.
Aaron Gleeman reported the move on X, noting that Woods Richardson “was a solid back-end starter for the Twins in 2024 and 2025” despite being just 25 years old.
The writing was on the wall after Woods Richardson’s brutal 2026 campaign. He’s posted a 7.74 ERA with an 0-7 record and accumulated -1.4 bWAR — numbers that’ll get you DFA’d pretty quickly in today’s game.
What makes this move particularly tough is Woods Richardson’s recent track record. He wasn’t spectacular the past two seasons, but he was serviceable — posting a 106 ERA+ in 2025 and a 100 ERA+ in 2024. That’s exactly the kind of league-average production teams need from back-end starters.
But this year’s been a different story entirely.
Woods Richardson lost his rotation spot and couldn’t find his footing in relief either. His 55 ERA+ tells you everything you need to know about how far his performance dropped off.
The Twins are sitting at 27-31 right now, which is actually better than most people expected coming into the season. They’ve gotten solid production from Joe Ryan, Taj Bradley, and Bailey Ober in the rotation, but Woods Richardson became the odd man out.
What’s Next for Woods Richardson
At 25, Woods Richardson isn’t done yet. Some team might see enough in his previous track record to claim him off waivers or work out a trade before the DFA period expires.
The track record is there — 65 games with Minnesota since 2022, including those two respectable seasons. Sometimes a change of scenery is exactly what a young pitcher needs to get back on track.
But right now, the Twins couldn’t afford to keep waiting for Woods Richardson to figure it out. When you’re trying to stay in the postseason hunt, even as a fringe contender, you can’t carry a starter with a 7.74 ERA and hope things turn around.
It’s a reminder of how quickly things can change in baseball. Woods Richardson went from rotation regular to DFA’d in the span of two months, all because the results just weren’t there when Minnesota needed them most.
