The Twins added reliever Eric Orze in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, their first move of the offseason addressing their bullpen, and they added six prospects to their 40-man roster.
Rebuilding the bullpen will be one of the priorities for the Twins this winter after it was torn apart at this past season’s trade deadline. Orze, a 28-year-old righthander, had a 3.02 ERA in 33 relief appearances in 2025 while picking up three saves. He struck out 40 and walked 19 in 41⅔ innings.
Orze, a splitter-heavy pitcher, spent much of the second half of the season at Class AAA, where he had a 2.20 ERA in 28⅔ innings. In exchange for Orze, the Twins dealt away minor league pitcher Jacob Kisting, who was picked in the 14th round of the 2024 amateur draft out of Bradley University.
Ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday to protect eligible players from the annual Rule 5 Draft, the Twins rostered pitchers Connor Prielipp, Andrew Morris, Kendry Rojas and Brooklyn Park native John Klein, along with outfielders Gabriel Gonzalez and Hendry Mendez.
Prielipp, Morris and Rojas were starters at Class AAA to end the season. Prielipp, a second-round pick in 2022, was named the Twins’ minor league pitcher of the year. Morris, a fourth-round pick in 2022, had a 4.09 ERA in 94⅔ innings for the St. Paul Saints this season, and Rojas was acquired from Toronto in the Louie Varland trade.
Klein was a long reliever who had a 3.98 ERA in 106⅓ innings with 128 strikeouts and 37 walks between Class AA and AAA. Klein, who graduated from Osseo, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Twins in 2022 after he pitched for two seasons at Iowa Central Community College.
Gonzalez was initially acquired from Seattle in the Jorge Polanco trade before the 2024 season, and the Twins added Mendez from Philadelphia in July through the Harrison Bader deal. Gonzalez, a righthanded hitter who started last season in High-A, ranked sixth in all the minor leagues in hits (159) and second in doubles (38).
The Twins’ 40-man roster is now full.
