Twins Bullpen Gets Another Look at a Familiar Face as Playoff Push Heats Up

The Minnesota Twins have circled back to Matt Bowman again. The veteran right-hander signed a minor league deal Wednesday and was assigned to Triple-A St. Paul, giving the organization another experienced arm to lean on down the stretch. It’s the third time Bowman has joined the Twins in some capacity over the past two years.

He’s 35. He’s been around. And he keeps finding his way back to Minnesota.

Bowman started the 2026 season with the Twins on a minor league contract but opted out when he didn’t make the Opening Day roster. He re-signed quickly and pitched well at Triple-A with a 1.69 ERA over 21.1 innings. Then he opted out again in May and joined the Toronto Blue Jays organization. That didn’t go great. Bowman struggled at Triple-A Buffalo with a 10.38 ERA and got released on July 5.

Now he’s back in the Twins system. The numbers at Triple-A this year aren’t flashy overall — a 4.20 ERA across 30 innings — but the underlying stuff looks better. He’s striking out 26.8% of batters faced, walking just 7.1%, and generating ground balls at a 54.3% clip. The .325 BABIP and 69.1% strand rate suggest some bad luck too.

A Bullpen That Needs Bodies

The Twins relief corps has been the worst in baseball by ERA at 5.25. That’s not a typo. They’ve burned through options and injuries have piled up. Anthony Banda, Cole Sands, and Marco Raya are all hurt. So yeah, they need arms. Any arms. Preferably ones that don’t walk everyone.

Bowman has pitched in parts of seven big league seasons and owns a 4.38 ERA across 240.2 innings. His track record is what it is — a decent depth piece who can eat innings and keep the ball on the ground. In 2024 with the Twins, he made a brief appearance and posted a 2.35 ERA in 7.2 innings before getting designated and traded to Arizona. He later bounced to Seattle and then Baltimore, where 20 relief appearances in 2025 produced a 6.20 ERA.

Not great. But the Twins are shopping at the bargain bin right now and Bowman knows the organization. That counts for something when you’re trying to patch a bullpen leak midseason.

Ground Balls and Strikeouts

One thing Bowman still does well at Triple-A: miss bats and keep the ball down. His 26.8% strikeout rate and 54.3% ground-ball rate are legitimate. If those numbers translate even partially at the big league level, he could be useful in the seventh inning or as a bridge guy. The walk rate has always been manageable at 8.0% for his MLB career.

So here they are again. The Twins and Matt Bowman keep finding each other. Nobody’s calling this a franchise-saving move. But in a playoff race where every inning matters and the bullpen is drowning, it’s another body with experience. That’s worth something.