Twins to add first free agent of offseason, reuniting with Danny Coulombe

With about a week to spare before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, the Twins are signing their first major league free agent of the offseason and bolstering arguably their biggest strength on the roster.

The Twins have an agreement with Danny Coulombe on a one-year, $3 million contract, a source confirmed to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The signing is pending a physical exam, which is expected to take place Thursday, and has not been announced by the club. The Twins have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once Coulombe’s signing is official.

It will be Coulombe’s second stint with the Twins after the 35-year-old lefty reliever pitched for the team from 2020 to 2022.

Coulombe, who spent the last two seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, posted a 2.12 ERA in 33 relief appearances last season with 32 strikeouts and five walks in 29⅔ innings. He missed three months after he had surgery to remove bone chips from his left elbow, before returning to pitch in four games in September and one playoff game with a noticeable dip in velocity. The Orioles declined his $4 million club option earlier this winter.

“Danny’s done a ton for us, been enormously successful the past couple years and we really enjoyed having him,” Orioles General Manager Mike Elias said in November.

The Twins traded Coulombe to Baltimore ahead of the 2023 season when he attempted to make the team as a nonroster invitee in camp. Coulombe, who added a cutter when he pitched for the Orioles, returns as the clear top lefty reliever in the Twins bullpen. Kody Funderburk and Brent Headrick are the only lefthanded pitchers on the team’s 40-man roster.

Coulombe boosts a Twins bullpen that, on paper, rates as one of the best in baseball. The Twins have closer Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax for the final innings in most games while Cole Sands, Brock Stewart, Michael Tonkin and Coulombe form a group in front of their best late-inning arms. Louie Varland is an option to shift to the bullpen during spring training, too.

Caleb Thielbar, the Twins' top lefty for the past couple of seasons, signed a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Chicago Cubs in December. The Twins traded another lefty reliever, Jovani Moran, earlier this winter to Boston for utilityman Mickey Gasper.

In Coulombe’s first stint with the Twins, he compiled a 2.42 ERA across 41 relief appearances. During a career that has spanned parts of 10 seasons, lefty batters have totaled a lowly .607 OPS against him. Last year, he allowed seven hits in 40 at-bats against lefties (.175 batting average) with zero walks, two doubles and zero homers.

The Twins, one of the last teams to sign a major league free agent, currently have an estimated Opening Day payroll sitting around $136 million, which equals the Detroit Tigers for the highest in the American League Central Division.

Whether it’s through trades or free agency, the Twins remain in the market to add a first baseman and a righthanded-hitting outfielder.