Simeon

Woods Richardson

Corbin gave up four hits, including a two-run homer to Adolis García as he allowed four runs for the second consecutive start. The interesting wrinkle here is that Simeon Woods-Richardson tossed four scoreless innings out of the bullpen in his Toronto debut, which could set up a potential piggyback situation moving forward. Corbin is not a recommended fantasy option when he faces the Yankees on Sunday.

Woods Richardson provides Toronto’s injury-ravaged pitching staff with some much-needed rotation depth after being jettisoned from Minnesota’s roster last weekend. The 25-year-old was shipped to the Twins as part of the José Berríos trade a half-decade ago. He’s struggled mightily this season with a bloated 7.74 ERA, 1.89 WHIP and 25/26 K/BB ratio across 47 2/3 innings. However, he makes sense as a temporary stopgap solution for the Blue Jays until Dylan Cease (hamstring), Max Scherzer (forearm) and Shane Bieber (elbow) are ready to return from the injured list.

This qualifies as a surprise since Woods Richardson was one of Minnesota’s better homegrown arms after coming over as a prospect in the José Berríos trade back in 2021. Still, he was out of options and the Twins had little choice but to move on given his recent performance. He was torched for five runs over 2 2/3 innings by the White Sox during a spot start in place of an injured Kendry Rojas earlier this week. The 25-year-old’s strikeout rate has plummeted this season while struggling to an inflated 7.74 ERA, 1.89 WHIP and 25/26 K/BB ratio across 47 2/3 innings in a swingman-type role. He would make a ton of sense as a zero-risk reclamation project somewhere else and there should be plenty of interest on waivers.

Woods Richardson, who pitched two innings out of the pen on Monday, got the ball after Kendry Rojas was scratched before the game. He got through two innings allowing only one run, but the White Sox had four hits off him to knock him out of the game in the third. Woods Richardson is 0-7 with a 7.74 ERA and a 26/25 K/BB in his 10 starts and two relief appearances this season. He’s out of options, so the Twins can’t simply send him down. He’ll probably stick around as a middle reliever.

Kendry Rojas was scratched with an injury ahead of the game. Obviously, with a 7.20 ERA and 0-6 record, there’s little reason for fantasy managers to give Woods Richardson a chance until we see better work.

Rojas’ previous two outings for the Twins came out of the bullpen, though he threw multiple innings in each appearance. He took the rotation spot of Simeon Woods Richardson, who was the first man out of the bullpen and threw a scoreless fifth inning. It’s unclear what the Twins plan to do going forward, but it’s difficult to imagine them putting Woods Richardson back in the rotation right away given these results.

It’s unclear if Woods Richarson will work behind him of if the Twins might try to get through the game without him. Woods Richardson was lit up by the Marlins last time out, leaving him 0-6 with a 7.71 ERA in nine starts this season.

It’s another day that ends in “y” and another awful outing for Woods-Richardson. The Marlins had a run on the board against him before he recorded an out, partially due to an error, and he never settled in. After the Twins tried to stretch him through the fourth inning, he let the first four batters of the inning reach safely, was yanked, and both inherited runners he left came around to score. This latest blowup pushed him to an abhorrent 7.71 ERA on the season with 20 strikeouts and 20 walks through 42 innings. The Twins are likely thinking about anyone in the organization that could possibly take his rotation spot.

The Twins already had to be thinking about keeping Connor Prielipp in the rotation over Woods Richardson following Mick Abel’s return, but with Abel having something of a setback, one wonders how much longer they’ll wait to make a move. Woods Richardson is 0-5 with a 6.92 ERA after this. He’s struck out a total of 19 batters in 39 innings, and he’s given up 27 earned runs over 27 2/3 innings in his last six starts. Zebby Matthews had a rough April in Triple-A, but he has pitched well in his last couple of starts, making him an option to step in.

There’s a phrase for outings like this one by Woods-Richardson: he got pieced up. Of the 20 balls the Blue Jays put in play against him, 12 were hard-hit and Kazuma Okamoto took him deep twice. He doesn’t have an out-pitch, high-end velocity, or particularly good command. It’s hard to see the Twins continuing to send him out there every fifth day much longer.