logo
Rangers Reportedly Make Deal for Twins Left-Handed Reliever

Rangers Reportedly Make Deal for Twins Left-Handed Reliever

Newsweek31-07-2025
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
The Texas Rangers have decided to make upgrades and try to make a run at a postseason berth.
As first reported by ESPNs Jeff Passan, a bullpen that already holds the fourth-best ERA upgraded Thursday with the acquisition of Minnesota Twins left-hander Danny Coulombe.
DENVER, CO - JULY 19: Danny Coulombe #54 of the Minnesota Twins delivers a pitch in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on July 19, 2025 in Denver, Colorado.
DENVER, CO - JULY 19: Danny Coulombe #54 of the Minnesota Twins delivers a pitch in the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on July 19, 2025 in Denver, Colorado.Coulombe is in his 11th season in MLB and will now join the fifth different team of his career.
He has been phenomenal for Minnesota this season, as he has a 1.16 ERA with 31 strikeouts across 40 appearances and 31 innings pitched.
The best seasons of Coulombe's career have come with the Twins. He compiled a 2.24 ERA across 81 appearances and 81 1/3 innings pitched for Minnesota.
The Danny Coulombe file:
• 35 y/o LHP
• 1.16 ERA in 31 IP with Twins
• His 2.11 ERA over last three seasons is the lowest among qualified relievers in baseball
• Righties have hit .164 against him this year pic.twitter.com/15sZ02O2J7 — Shawn McFarland (@McFarland_Shawn) July 31, 2025
At 35 years old, Coulombe probably doesn't have much baseball left in front of him and he is set to be a free agent after the season is over.
For the Rangers, a move to acquire bullpen help was needed, especially after the plethora of moves made by both the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners.
With Houston's acquisition of its former shortstop Carlos Correa and Seattle trading for its former third baseman Eugenio Suarez, the lineups in the American League West have become quite scary for opposing staffs.
Nearly every team in the AL West has made a blockbuster move outside of Texas but is making the under the radar type moves that can sometimes outweigh the blockbuster deals.
Coulombe certainly isn't the needle-moving move that propels the Rangers straight to the World Series picture, but he can certainly help get them into the postseason where anything can happen.
More MLB: Dodgers Reportedly Acquire Twins Reliever, Send Back Former Top Prospect
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Yankees fans have some worries. Here are their biggest right now
Yankees fans have some worries. Here are their biggest right now

New York Times

timean hour ago

  • New York Times

Yankees fans have some worries. Here are their biggest right now

Sometimes, when a player is struggling, he's sent to Triple A in hopes that facing weaker opponents will help him figure things out. The New York Yankees received a similar kind of reprieve over the last week. With Sunday's 8-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, the Yankees completed the three-game sweep and won their second straight series. The Cardinals (.488) and the Minnesota Twins (.468), who the Yankees played before St. Louis, had a combined winning percentage of .478 going into Monday. This is not to say the Cardinals and Twins are Triple-A teams, only that it was an opportunity for the Yankees to beat up on lesser talent and get back their mojo. Advertisement 'I think we know we're a good team,' manager Aaron Boone said, via the YES Network. 'We believe that. Even through some of the down times and some of the dark moments of the season. I don't think we've ever lost that confidence. Look, we're capable of this. We've got to go prove it, though.' The victory cut the third-place Yankees' deficit in the American League East to 5 1/2 games. At 67-57, they now hold the third and last spot in the wild-card standings with 38 regular-season games remaining. Could the Yankees be on an upswing? 'I hope so,' first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said. 'These last five or six weeks will tell.' Of course, Yankees fans have some concerns. Here are their biggest: Giancarlo Stanton's health — Anthony (@amper0627) August 17, 2025 When Giancarlo Stanton worked a pinch-hit walk in the ninth inning, it was his first action since Wednesday. He was out of the starting lineup all three days in St. Louis after Boone said he had more difficulty than expected recovering from playing right field Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. Early Sunday, Stanton declined to tell reporters if he was dealing with an injury. It remained unclear whether Stanton would be able to start Tuesday vs. the Tampa Bay Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field. The Yankees need Stanton healthy and, ideally, he would be able to handle playing right field as Aaron Judge works back from a right forearm flexor strain. But it seems that the experiment, while successful in the moment, may be off the table going forward. The Yankees can't afford for Stanton to go on the injured list, and playing him anywhere other than designated hitter clearly presents problems for the oft-injured 35-year-old. It would be in the Yankees' best interests to have Stanton and Judge in the lineup at the same time. But if Judge can't throw, he has to DH over Stanton. The Yankees can't push Stanton into injury, or else the boos will be mixed with a lot of 'I told you so' from everyone who could see it coming. Judge's ability to play the OF, Fried getting a few reset spots, consistency in the pen and Boone not using the inconsistent ones. — David Rifkin (@davidrifkin) August 17, 2025 There's still no timetable for Judge's return to the outfield, which isn't necessarily concerning yet. Boone told reporters that Judge has played catch at about 150 feet, but has yet to throw to bases. His ramp-up seems to be on track, if not perhaps a little slow, which would be understandable considering his importance to the Yankees. Expect the Yankees and Boone to continue to be vague in their updates on Judge's progress. The last thing they want is to set an unrealistic expectation for their star and to cause a distraction. Max fried is the biggest concern — John Farel (@farel_john) August 17, 2025 Fried has been terrible since the All-Star break, going 2-2 with a 7.00 ERA over his last five starts. His worst came on Saturday when he gave up seven earned runs in five innings. Nobody seems to be sure what's going on with the 31-year-old. He was in discussion for starting the All-Star Game after going 11-3 with a 2.43 ERA in 20 starts. Now? He's lost his signature command, the spin rates on all his pitches appeared slightly down in his last start, and he's already had one blister problem this season. Boone pointed to Fried's faltering strike-throwing ability. Advertisement 'It's disappointing in this stretch that I haven't been able to do that, and it's putting us in holes,' Fried said Saturday. 'I definitely have to change something and change it up quick.' He's right, because the Yankees can't complete their playoff push without their No. 1 starting pitcher. -SP regression: Rodon & Fried dont look like the first half versions-Judge's health-Dominguez development (defensive routes & hitting for less power) — DoubleH (@HdubbsH) August 17, 2025 Jasson Domínguez actually had a nice series at the plate, going 5-for-14 (.357). He entered Saturday with a 100 OPS+ — league average. That's not great, considering the offensive force the Yankees hoped he would be. But he's also a rookie. But his defense in left field has been atrocious, no matter how the Yankees want to spin it, and he made another awful misplay coming in on a ball Saturday, allowing it to bounce all the way to the wall and for the batter to reach third base. Going into Sunday, the advanced statistics also pointed toward Domínguez struggling on defense, posting -8 Defensive Runs Saved, -8 Outs Above Average and -9 Fielding Run Value. That has to stop. The team can't continue putting players in a position to struggle. the manager — Sandman (@Sandman7591) August 17, 2025 Boone has been the member of the Yankees under the most heat during their months-long struggles. It's to the point that he gets booed during pregame introductions at Yankee Stadium. Yankees fans have been most upset lately with Boone's bullpen decisions, including using less-proven relievers over the team's studs at key parts of the game and sticking with struggling reliever Devin Williams in pressure situations, though that's stopped of late. They have also criticized Boone for appearing too upbeat for a team that was sliding in the standings while also making lots of boneheaded plays over a short period of time. But he's struck a firmer, more grounded tone in the last week. Advertisement With Boone, it's always going to come down to authenticity, and he's naturally positive and looking for ways to back his players. It's a mix that works well for a major-league clubhouse, but doesn't necessarily translate to fans who want to see their own emotions reflected in the Yankees' leader. That is, of course, unless the Yankees finally win a World Series. Starting pitching going through 6 and bullpen. — Luke Garrison (@SHCBackupAcc) August 17, 2025 The bullpen continues to be a headache for the Yankees, even after they brought in three arms (David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Jake Bird) at the trade deadline to try to solidify it. On Sunday, it was Doval stumbling again, giving up a solo homer in 1 1/3 innings and raising his ERA to 6.43 in eight appearances with his new team. The Yankees still haven't brought back Bird after demoting him on Aug. 5. Bednar has seemingly taken over as the new closer. Plus, starting pitcher Will Warren lasted just 4 2/3 innings, a day after Fried just went five frames and two days after Luis Gil lasted 5 1/3 innings. Going into Sunday, Yankees relievers had posted a 4.77 ERA since June 13, ranked 25th in the league over that span. Their starting pitchers had given them 294 2/3 innings, the 10th-best mark over that period. (Photo of Aaron Judge: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle

Dodgers-Padres takeaways: A rejuvenated Los Angeles club sweeps a struggling San Diego offense
Dodgers-Padres takeaways: A rejuvenated Los Angeles club sweeps a struggling San Diego offense

New York Times

time2 hours ago

  • New York Times

Dodgers-Padres takeaways: A rejuvenated Los Angeles club sweeps a struggling San Diego offense

LOS ANGELES — It was touted as the biggest series of the month. It was billed as a potential passing of the torch, with the San Diego Padres threatening to win the National League West for the first time in 19 years. Instead, Sunday's finale ended in a three-game sweep — and a relatively convincing one, at that. Advertisement The Dodgers might be staggered, but until someone knocks them out, they remain the defending division and World Series champions. Still missing several key contributors, the Dodgers recovered from their worst stretch of the season to play their best series since taking three out of four during a mid-June matchup. Their opponent back then? The Padres, of course. It remains too early to say the Dodgers have returned to being overwhelming favorites for another NL West title. Yes, they flipped a one-game deficit into a two-game lead. But both teams have close to a quarter of a season left to play. And they will soon meet again, beginning this Friday in San Diego. In the meantime, here's what we learned from the weekend: The Dodgers were playing ugly baseball before the Padres came to town. Their focus was lacking. The types of miscues they pride themselves on taking advantage of, they were committing. Their offense disappeared for prolonged periods with uncompetitive at-bats, and their pitching staff wasn't able to execute strike one often enough. Don't run on Will! — Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2025 They remained cautiously optimistic that facing a division foe, and suddenly trailing in the standings, would be enough to ignite a new level of focus. It worked. They reversed roles with a sloppy Padres crew that ran into almost as many outs on the bases (four) as it scored total runs (six). 'I hate saying there's a switch you can flip on and off,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. 'It's a dangerous way to live.' If there is one, the Dodgers have found the right time to flip it. Even if this isn't true, it looks like it is. That's an issue for a team that plays its best baseball with a healthy amount of swagger. Advertisement The Padres arrived at Dodger Stadium this weekend after winning 14 of their last 17 games. Fortified by a blockbuster trade deadline, they appeared as complete as they'd been all season. They had excelled in all facets during a convincing, three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants. Then, they were swept by a short-handed Dodgers team that had just fallen to 0-6 against the Los Angeles Angels. The Padres consistently beat themselves in what was billed as the biggest series of the year. Their failure to execute included a four-walk inning by Dylan Cease, missed catches by Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill, and three unsuccessful stolen-base attempts in the span of two innings. Saturday's two-way debacle might have been San Diego's worst performance of the year. When the self-combustion was over, at least for this weekend, the Padres had lost the season series, dropping to 2-8 this season against a Dodgers club that still isn't at full strength. Including the final two games of the 2024 National League Division Series, when they failed to score a single run, the Padres have lost 10 of their last 12 meetings against L.A. Which starters can the Padres trust over the final weeks of a pennant race, let alone in the postseason? At the moment, it's certainly not Cease, who has struggled to find consistency since the NLDS. It's difficult to have much more confidence in Yu Darvish, given his age, ERA and history of elbow trouble. Nick Pivetta has been the rock of the rotation, but he's made only three career playoff appearances. Michael King, the team's Opening Day starter, has spent virtually all of this summer on the injured list. Time could soon tell how much the Padres miss rookie starter Ryan Bergert, who, despite his inexperience, continues to impress for the Kansas City Royals. Advertisement Having the league's deepest bullpen helps, but a combination of ineffective starting pitching and intermittent offense — more on this later — tends to keep those high-leverage relievers out of the game. The Padres need King to return to action later this month. Whenever he comes back, they'll desperately need him to stay on the mound. So much of the Dodgers' bullpen woes this season can be traced back to one ugly metric: They've had to throw more innings than any relief unit in baseball. That ties directly to a starting rotation that struggled to accumulate innings or stay healthy in the early part of the season. Tyler was cruising. 🔥 — Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2025 This weekend, however, reflects a rotation that is finally the group the organization envisioned when spending so lavishly the last couple of offseasons. Tyler Glasnow's two runs over five innings Sunday gave the Dodgers a total of 17 innings and just three runs allowed from their starters this series. They have their dream postseason rotation intact with Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Glasnow, with Clayton Kershaw continuing to show his vintage form despite a fastball that sits around 89 mph. This is the biggest separator from this year's potential Dodgers team to the one that won it all last October. The Dodgers might actually be able to ride their starting pitching, while hoping a reduced workload and renewed health are all it'll take to get their bullpen back to the formidable unit it was last postseason. Fernando Tatis Jr. hasn't homered in his past 97 plate appearances, the longest such drought of his career. Luis Arraez's three-hit Sunday raised his OPS this month to a mere .659. Machado, who's never finished a calendar month with fewer than five RBIs, has driven in one run in August. These are the top three hitters in a lineup that has mostly remained fixed since the trade deadline. Meanwhile, since he was acquired at the trade deadline, Ramón Laureano has provided a team-leading 1.082 OPS; he has spent most games batting sixth or seventh. Another newcomer, 2025 All-Star Ryan O'Hearn, has started nine of 15 games. Gavin Sheets has taken only nine at-bats this month, supplying two doubles and a single. Like Arraez, O'Hearn and Sheets are lefty hitters, albeit lefty hitters with significantly more pop. Both of them should probably be playing more. They might in the coming days; Merrill is day to day with a left ankle injury. You can also make a case that Laureano should move up in the order. After Sunday's game, manager Mike Shildt did not rule out that possibility, but he did not sound prepared to enact a major shakeup. None of it will matter if Tatis and Machado, the team's biggest stars, don't turn it on. Advertisement 'We need the guys at the top to continue to do what they're capable of doing,' Shildt said. The Dodgers are still, as the late Padres owner Peter Seidler said in 2022, 'the dragon up the freeway.' For as much as the Padres have made up ground in the division, they've squandered just about every chance they've had against the Dodgers. The Dodgers have played .800 baseball against San Diego this season, already clinching the season series and securing a season-long tiebreaker in the process. The Dodgers' two-game lead in the division is now effectively a three-game lead as a result, which could be critical if this race remains close in the stretch run. And for as close as the Padres have come to trying to topple the Dodgers, this is a trend going back to last season, as the Dodgers have taken each of the last five series — regular season and postseason, when the Dodgers overcame a 2-1 NLDS deficit — against their neighbors to the south. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle

One year later, Twins are still struggling to break free from last season's collapse
One year later, Twins are still struggling to break free from last season's collapse

New York Times

time2 hours ago

  • New York Times

One year later, Twins are still struggling to break free from last season's collapse

MINNEAPOLIS — Sunday marked exactly one year since the start of last season's Minnesota Twins collapse, which began with Jorge Alcala rapidly blowing a four-run lead against the Rangers in Texas on Aug. 18 and ended … well, it hasn't, really. That's the problem. As of last Aug. 17, the Twins had the American League's fourth-best record at 70-53 (.569), with playoff odds well above 90 percent. They've played 163 games since then — a full MLB season, plus one game — going 70-93 (.429) for the AL's second-worst record, ahead of only the Chicago White Sox. Advertisement It started last season, when the Twins fumbled away a playoff spot with a 12-27 collapse down the stretch, and the poor play has continued this year. Despite a 13-game winning streak in May, they're 58-66 overall, including 32-46 since the streak ended and 11-17 since the All-Star break. There were seemingly few signs of impending doom when Alcala took the mound in Texas last Aug. 18. Not only were the Twins in prime position for a playoff spot two-thirds of the way through the season, they were coming off a 2023 division title and their first playoff series win in two decades. And then, as if a switch was flipped from 'good' to 'bad' without anyone realizing it, they just stopped winning, for 12 months and 163 games. And counting, because the final 38 games of this season don't figure to be very pretty. They are 7-9 since trading 40 percent of the roster at the deadline. The @Rangers have scored 5 runs in the 7th and take a 5-4 lead on Josh Jung's home run! — MLB (@MLB) August 18, 2024 Prior to Sunday's sweep-avoiding 8-1 win over the Detroit Tigers, manager Rocco Baldelli was asked about the collapse starting a year ago. For a half-hour, he reflected on the anniversary and answered follow-up questions, on both his role and his view of where it went — and continues to go — wrong. 'It's something I've thought about many times before,' Baldelli said. 'And probably will think about at some different points in the future.' Baldelli repeatedly stressed that he considers 2024 and 2025 to be separate entities, attributing a major part of last season's collapse to being without injured stars Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa and Joe Ryan throughout much of the second half. That same trio was largely healthy this season. 'It would be very convenient for me, or for you, or anyone else, to connect the last two months of last year with this season,' Baldelli said. 'I try not to do that most of the time, although it's hard to completely separate.' Advertisement After he went into greater depth on the impact injuries had last season, and other ways 2024 and 2025 are different, he landed on what may ultimately be the biggest takeaway from the entire conversation: 'I don't have a one-sentence explanation, or even a one-paragraph explanation. I really don't.' 'Frankly, we just have to play better,' Baldelli said. 'That's really the only way I can look at it. I look in the mirror every day and always will take full responsibility for our team, even more so when we don't play well. And we just frankly have not performed the way that we have to perform.' It's fair to note 'responsibility' can be a tricky subject with fans of a poor-performing team, particularly when the Pohlads just pulled the franchise off the market, Twins president Derek Falvey's job status appears secure and the front office already exercised Baldelli's contract option for 2026. A letter from the Pohlad family: — Minnesota Twins (@Twins) August 13, 2025 It's also tough to ignore the widespread ineffectiveness of the roster built by Falvey and managed by Baldelli. As usual, injuries have been a factor, but too many of the Twins' core players, from veteran leaders to younger building blocks, simply haven't produced anywhere near expectations. Over the past 365 days, the Twins' lineup has been 24th in OPS and 24th in runs out of 30 teams. Royce Lewis hit .209 with a .577 OPS. Brooks Lee hit .233 with a .634 OPS. Edouard Julien and Jose Miranda each batted under .200, and Miranda hasn't returned from a Triple-A demotion in April. Correa hit .273 with a .734 OPS for the Twins before being traded/salary dumped. Christian Vázquez hit .181 with a team-worst .481 OPS, and he's likely out for the season with a shoulder infection. Buxton (.878) and Matt Wallner (.818) are the only still-present hitters with an OPS above .750. Advertisement 'We have some areas where we've come up short relative to what we've projected,' Falvey said on deadline day. 'There have been a few position players that, if you ask them, they'd say, 'I'm not performing quite to my abilities.' Some of those are health-related. It's not for a lack of effort.' During that same year-long period, the Twins' pitching staff is 23rd in ERA and 24th in Win Probability Added. Alcala, whose Aug. 18 implosion started this mess, had a team-worst 8.38 ERA before being traded in June. And the good-performing members of the bullpen were all traded at the deadline. Ryan and Pablo López had sub-3.00 ERAs, but each missed extended time with injuries. And every other starter posted an ERA worse than 4.60, from veterans Bailey Ober (5.24) and Chris Paddack (4.96) to youngsters Zebby Matthews (5.91), David Festa (5.19) and Simeon Woods Richardson (4.63). 'We had been hovering around or under .500 and just couldn't quite get things going in the right direction,' Falvey said. 'We've got to find a new way to do it. Part of that decision was, at this deadline, to reset a few of those spots, to think differently about the way the roster is constructed.' The Minnesota Twins take home the title of 'busiest sellers at the deadline' after moving 10 players this week. 👀 — TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 1, 2025 It's been 365 days and 163 games of very poor play for the Twins, starting with a seven-week collapse that took down a playoff-bound 2024 team and continuing with five months of underwhelming 2025 performances ruining what was supposed to be a playoff contender this season. 'I don't want this conversation, that question and the response, it shouldn't sound good,' Baldelli said. 'I shouldn't be using fancy words to make it all sound any better than it is. We have to do better offensively, defend better, pitch better. And we have to continue to develop our players better.' In some ways, the Twins' front office has tried to turn the page by paying the Houston Astros to take back Correa and trading essentially the entire bullpen, but doing so also guarantees the losing won't stop for the rest of this season and increases the chances of more losing in 2026. Advertisement Watching what has become of the Twins over the past 163 games, it can be difficult to comprehend how they were a defending division champion with a 70-53 record exactly 12 months ago. How did it go wrong, so suddenly and so thoroughly? No one seems to know, and that might be the scariest part. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store