There was a time when Marco Raya looked like one of the Twins’ next homegrown arms ready to climb straight into the rotation conversation. That picture has changed quite a bit, but it hasn’t vanished entirely.
Drafted in the fourth round in 2020 out of high school, Raya had to wait to get his professional career rolling after a shoulder strain wiped out his entire 2021 season. When he finally got back on the mound in 2022, he answered with a 3.05 ERA and 76 strikeouts over 65 innings in Low-A, then kept building in 2023 at High-A before earning a Double-A promotion at just 20 years old.
By 2024, he was one step from Triple-A, and his lone start at that level was a clean one: five scoreless innings. At that stage, it looked like Minnesota might have a starter moving fast.
Since then, though, the road has gotten rougher. Raya has spent much of the last couple of years in St.
Paul, and the flaws have become harder to ignore. The Twins have moved him into a relief role, and that old frontline starter upside no longer looks like the obvious outcome it once did.
Even so, Raya’s story isn’t over. He made his major-league debut in 2026, appearing in three games before going back to Triple-A.
In that brief look, he allowed two earned runs over six innings. That’s a tiny sample, and it doesn’t tell the whole story, but there were enough encouraging signs to notice.
His secondary pitches missed bats, he kept hard contact in check, and the overall mix still looked capable of working in the majors.
The stuff is still there. Raya’s fastball has been sitting around 96 miles per hour in St.
Paul, and his sweeper and curveball both have strong movement. The sweeper, in particular, drew plenty of whiffs during his short time in the majors.
He’s also leaned into that pitch more this season, while increasing his changeup usage as well. That changeup comes in a little firmer than usual, around 90 MPH, but it brings enough deception to play well off the fastball.
That kind of mix could fit in a bullpen. Raya also has a cutter, though he’s barely using it now.
The pitch has more of a hard-slider look than a true cutter, which may be part of why it has faded from his arsenal. Still, it could become useful again if the Twins want to bring it back into the fold.
The real issue is whether he can turn the raw material into dependable results. His Triple-A numbers this season haven’t been strong, and the home run problem has followed him.
One out of every four hits he’s allowed this year has left the ballpark, and that has taken a toll on his line and on how he’s viewed as a possible late-inning option. But there’s been progress, too.
His walk rate and strikeout rate are both much better than they were in 2025.
If he can limit the long balls, there’s still a path to a real role in the Twins’ bullpen. It’s not the path anyone expected when he was racing through the system as a 20-year-old, and it’s certainly not the same kind of upside that once made him such a buzzworthy starter prospect.
But Raya is still only 24, and Minnesota has enough reason to believe there’s something useful here. A 96-MPH fastball, a whiff-heavy sweeper and a changeup with movement give him the kind of ingredients teams can work with.
The next step is figuring out how to make it all click.
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