Five years after the Minnesota Twins sent Nelson Cruz to Tampa Bay, the deal still looks better every time Joe Ryan takes the mound.
What started as a painful deadline move in 2021 has aged into one of the most important trades in franchise history. The Twins said goodbye to one of the most beloved players of the era, but in return they landed the pitcher who would become the face of their rotation for years. That kind of outcome doesn’t come around often.
Cruz was far more than a designated hitter in Minnesota. Over two and a half seasons, he became the pulse of the clubhouse and the centerpiece of the 2019 “Bomba Squad,” the group that helped the Twins break the MLB single-season home run record and bring real energy back to Target Field. He came back for the shortened 2020 season and entered 2021 hoping to power one more run with a veteran core that still thought it had a shot.
Instead, the season fell apart. Injuries piled up, production sagged, and inconsistency dragged Minnesota to a 73-89 finish and last place in the American League Central.
Once that reality set in, the Twins made the hard call and moved Cruz, along with minor-league pitcher Calvin Faucher, to Tampa Bay. Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman came back in the deal.
At the time, it looked like a reasonable baseball trade. Now it looks like a franchise-changing win.
The Rays got what they wanted, too. Cruz had been on their radar for years, and once they finally landed him in July 2021, he delivered exactly the kind of punch they expected. The 41-year-old hit 13 home runs and drove in 36 runs over 55 games, helping Tampa Bay win another AL East title.
Minnesota’s side of the deal became something bigger. The Twins took a player Tampa wasn’t willing to fully commit to and turned that chance into an All-Star-level arm.
Ryan wasn’t some mystery prospect when the trade happened. In 2019, his first full professional season, he put up a 1.96 ERA and struck out 183 batters in 123 2/3 innings across three levels. Even with that production, his road to the majors still wasn’t clear.
Instead of gearing up for a big-league debut in 2021, Ryan was with Team USA in Olympic qualifying and then helped the Americans win a silver medal in Tokyo. It was a major accomplishment, but it also showed where he stood in Tampa Bay’s system.
The Rays had the luxury of patience. The Twins didn’t.
Minnesota was in a transition period and needed pitching right away. Ryan came back from Japan, made just two Triple-A starts in the Twins organization, and got the call to the majors.
The early signs were electric. In his second career start, Ryan took a perfect game into the seventh inning against Cleveland.
Two outings later, he struck out 11 Cubs hitters at Wrigley Field. Those weren’t random bursts.
They were the start of something real.
Ryan has kept changing since then, and that’s a huge reason this trade has held up so well. When he debuted in 2021, he leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball, using it about two-thirds of the time. It worked, but Ryan knew he needed more.
After the 2022 season, he went to Driveline Baseball to build a splitter and sharpen his pitch mix. The next offseason brought another trip back to Driveline and work on a sinker. More recently, his curveball has taken on a bigger role.
That constant tinkering has turned him into a more complete pitcher. Ryan has never been about overpowering hitters with pure velocity.
His four-seam fastball usually sits at 93 to 94 mph, but it plays up because of the way he throws it. He releases from one of the lowest arm slots among starting pitchers and gets exceptional riding life through the top of the zone, which makes the ball look like it jumps above barrels.
It misses bats anyway. That’s why the pitch has ranked among baseball’s most valuable fastballs over the last several seasons. Ryan has shown that movement, deception, command, and sequencing can still beat a radar gun.
The Cruz trade will always carry some emotion because of what Cruz meant to the Twins. He was the defining figure of one of the most entertaining stretches in recent team history, and he left as one of the most respected players ever to wear the uniform.
But the deal also showed what smart organizations do when the moment demands it. Minnesota gave a veteran a shot at a championship run and, in the process, found the foundation of its rotation.
Five years later, the trade is remembered less as the end of the Bomba Squad and more as the start of the Joe Ryan era.
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