Minnesota Twins Land Former A's Prospect

The Minnesota Twins are making moves, and it's more out of necessity than fine-tuning. The Twins are dealing with injuries to Matt Walner, who was just placed on the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain, Carlos Correa is dealing with a wrist issue, and Willi Castro left Wednesday's game with an oblique ailment.

In an effort to increase their production, the team is reportedly set to call up Luke Keaschall, MLB Pipeline's No. 57 prospect, and the No. 3 guy in Minnesota's system.

In addition to Keaschall, the Twins also added recently claimed Jonah Bride and added him to the 26-man roster. Bride, 29, was designated for assignment by the Miami Marlins earlier this week after starting the season 4-for-40.

The Owasso, OK native was selected by the Athletics with the 683rd pick in the 2018 MLB Draft out of South Carolina, and made his MLB debut with the A's in 2022 after consistently getting on base at above a .400 clip in the minors.

After stints with the A's in Oakland in '22 and '23, Bride was DFA'd by the A's in February of 2024, and swooped up by the Marlins in a trade for cash. He spent 71 games with Miami last season, batting .276 with a .357 OBP, which included 11 home runs and 10 doubles, along with 39 RBI.

He finished the year with a 120 OPS+, well above his production level with the A's at 65 and 43 the previous two seasons.

Now, Bride is out of options, so if things don't work out with the Twins, then he would be subject to waivers yet again. He has primarily played either first or third base in the big leagues, but has also received some time at second. He's been roughly league average at all three spots. With Castro leaving the game this week, third could be where Bride lands.

Bride is a great guy in the clubhouse and in previous seasons has had an affinity for playing MLB The Show in his free time.

The one knock on him offensively would be that while he has been able to get on base at a high clip, he's more likely to land on first base. This season, all four of his hits were singles, and last year, even when things were going well, 21 of his 64 hits went for extra bases.

In his time with the A's, it was 5-of-33 hits for extra bases in 2022, and 3-of-15 in 2023. If he's able to find more gaps in Minnesota, then this could be a great fit between player and club.

At the very least, Bride has shown that he can be a guy that keeps the line moving in the lineup, either by drawing a walk or getting a base hit.

The Twins are 7-12 heading into the weekend, sitting in fourth place in the AL Central, ahead of just the Chicago White Sox. Their upcoming series in Atlanta will be an interesting one, between two teams that have performed below expectations thus far this season.

This has the potential to propel one team for the next couple of weeks, while really sinking the other.