Simeon Woods Richardson has turned into one of the strangest success stories on the Blue Jays’ roster, and if you’re the Twins, it has to sting a little.
Toronto brought him back more out of necessity than anything else. The club needed arms, Woods Richardson already knew the organization, and Minnesota had clearly decided it was done waiting.
That looked like a classic short-term patch when it happened, and for a moment it played out that way. He got into three games from Jun. 8-17, was designated for assignment, cleared waivers, spent some time in Triple-A, and then got another shot in August.
Since returning, he’s made the most of it. In six total appearances for Toronto, Woods Richardson has thrown 16.2 innings and given up just one earned run, leaving him with a 0.55 ERA.
That one earned run even came with a giant asterisk. It came in the middle of the strange sequence in which the Boston Red Sox scored on a sacrifice, inning-ending double play, with the play tangled up in the now infamous "fourth out rule" situation after the umpiring crew appeared to mislead John Schneider on when an appeal could be made.
Take that mess away, and what’s left is a pitcher giving the Blue Jays exactly the kind of late-season innings contenders crave: cheap, useful, and run-preventing.
The catch is that the underlying picture is far messier than the ERA. Woods Richardson has walked 5.51 batters per nine innings, the third-highest mark on the Blue Jays since the beginning of June behind Brendon Little (8.79) and the recently traded Adam Macko (6.43). He’s also struck out just 12 batters, so he’s not blowing people away or pitching his way out of trouble with swing-and-miss stuff.
A lot of this has come down to survival. Toronto’s defense has helped, while Woods Richardson has also posted a 94.4 percent left-on-base rate and a .200 BABIP against.
In other words, hitters are reaching base, but a lot of the damage is getting wiped away once the ball is put in play. The expected metrics tell a less flattering story: a 4.46 xERA and 5.12 xFIP sit well above his actual ERA, though his 3.45 FIP does at least show he has limited the biggest mistakes better than some of the other numbers suggest.
He doesn’t look like he’s suddenly become a shutdown reliever. But he is giving Toronto bulk innings right now, and that matters.
For Minnesota, it makes the whole thing feel even worse. Woods Richardson was one of the key pieces the Twins got from Toronto in the José Berríos blockbuster at the 2021 trade deadline, along with Austin Martin.
The hope was that Woods Richardson would grow into a rotation piece. After 9.2 innings of MLB experience between 2022 and 2023, he joined the Twins’ rotation full time in 2024 and, over the next two seasons, put together respectable results: a 4.11 ERA across 245 innings in 51 games, 50 of them starts, with an 8.23 K/9.
The peripherals weren’t perfect, with a 4.30 FIP and .275 BABIP against, but at least after his age 24 season, Minnesota could point to real progress. Then 2026 unraveled quickly, and he was out the door and back with the Blue Jays, who had originally acquired him from the New York Mets in the Marcus Stroman deal.
And Toronto isn’t just getting Woods Richardson’s rebound. The Twins also sent Louis Varland to the Blue Jays last trade deadline, and he has developed into one of the best closers in baseball.
Minnesota then added Jeff Hoffman from Toronto at this year’s deadline while trying to reshape its bullpen. Hoffman has been solid enough with a 2.57 ERA in seven innings, but he’s also allowed hard contact at a 62.5% clip and has given up some costly hits, including in a recent loss to the Brewers.
His expected numbers are ugly too, with a 6.39 xERA and 4.74 xFIP.
The Blue Jays still know what Woods Richardson is at this point. A pitcher walking that many batters and striking out that few is not built on a foundation you trust for the long haul. But for now, the results are there, and in a race for that final Wild Card spot, that can be enough to matter.
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