Yoendrys Gómez has been a gift for the Twins since arriving in early May, and Minnesota has treated him like the late-inning answer it needed. In 35 innings with the club, the right-hander has put up a 1.80 ERA, piled up a team-best 1.88 Win Probability Added, and worked more high-leverage situations than any other reliever on the roster.
That usage tells the story. Gómez has settled in as the closer, and even after the Twins added Jeff Hoffman at the trade deadline, there’s been no sign that Minnesota plans to pull him out of the ninth inning. When the game is on the line and a lead needs to be protected, Gómez is still the first choice, and his results have made that easy to justify.
Still, the surface numbers come with plenty of warning signs underneath. Gómez’s season ERA sits at 3.27, but his 5.05 expected ERA paints a much shakier picture. That gap is the 13th-largest in baseball, which puts him among the luckiest pitchers in the majors by that measure.
The contact profile isn’t helping his case, either. Gómez sits in the bottom third of the league in both hard-hit percentage and barrel percentage, a rough combo for a reliever entrusted with the biggest outs of the night. His 5.01 xFIP is even more alarming - sixth-highest among relievers in baseball - and it points to a pitcher whose results have been better than the skill indicators behind them.
The control issue may be the loudest red flag. Gómez ranks in just the 11th percentile in walk percentage, and the free passes have put him in danger more often than the Twins would like.
He has done a strong job of escaping trouble, stranding 79% of the runners who have reached against him, but that kind of escape act is hard to bank on forever. With a strikeout rate that is solid but not elite, the margin for error is thin.
There have already been signs of strain. Gómez took the loss in extra innings against the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend, then gave up a home run against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday. Even more troubling, he has issued 10 walks over his last 12 innings, which is a lot of traffic for someone handling the highest-leverage spots on the staff.
None of that erases what he’s meant to the Twins. Gómez has been a slam-dunk addition and a major source of value since Minnesota picked him up. The issue is not whether he’s helped - he clearly has - but whether the Twins can expect this level of run prevention to last when so many of the underlying numbers point toward regression.
The encouraging part for Minnesota is that the front office has given the bullpen more depth to absorb any dip. The Twins were aggressive at the deadline, and they now have real alternatives if Gómez’s results start to catch up with the metrics.
A.J. Minter, Jeff Hoffman and Andrew Morris all give them options in important innings if the ninth inning eventually needs a new face.
For the moment, though, the Twins are sticking with Gómez at closer. He’s earned that run, and there’s no obvious reason to move him just because the underlying numbers are ugly. But if the walks keep piling up and the hard contact keeps coming, Minnesota shouldn’t be shocked when the ride gets a little bumpier.
In Other News...
Derek Shelton Is Testing What Really Held The Twins Back
The Twins entered the offseason with a clean break at manager, moving on from Rocco Baldelli after the 2025 season and turning the clubhouse over to Derek Shelton. Early in Sheltons first year, the most noticeable shift has been less about lineup cards and more about tone, with a new emphasis on edge, accountability and a different kind of day-to-day energy around the team.
Josh Donaldson recently added an outside voice to the discussion of what had been holding Minnesota back, pointing to a broader issue with the organizations identity under Baldelli. Sheltons challenge is to prove the change is more than cosmetic, and the early signs suggest he is trying to build something that asks more of players while also trusting them more, which is exactly the kind of test this roster and front office will be watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
Twins May Be Overlooking A Right-Handed Bat They Could Use
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For a Minnesota club that can always use more depth on the right side of the plate, Ross is beginning to look like the sort of internal option worth keeping an eye on. His recent surge suggests the bat is no longer just flashing in stretches, and if the Twins are looking for a player who can help at the major league level, he may be making his case a little louder with every week. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Still Have One Big Polanco Trade Question Left
When the Twins acquired Justin Topa as part of the trade that sent Jorge Polanco away, the hope was that the right-handed reliever would be one of the useful pieces that made the deal feel more balanced over time. Instead, Topas stint in Minnesota ended with a designation for assignment and release after he struggled to an 8.05 ERA over 19 innings in 2026, a reminder that the return in a trade is often judged as much by the development curve as the original headline.
Topa has since moved on, signing minor-league deals with the Blue Jays, Royals and Yankees, with New York sending him to Triple-A. For the Twins, the bigger question now is how the rest of the Polanco return settles in, because these kinds of trades are rarely decided by the first impression alone and the final verdict often depends on whether the other pieces eventually help Minnesota in a more meaningful way. [Read more 🡒]