Minnesota Twins’ DaShawn Keirsey, right, gets a home-run helmet placed on his head by Harrison Bader after hitting a two-run home run against the Boston Red Sox during the third inning of a baseball game Monday, July 28, 2025, in Minneapolis. Minnesota Twins’ Christian Vazquez also scored. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig)
MINNEAPOLIS — The trade deadline is rapidly approaching, and things aren’t getting any easier for the Minnesota Twins.
The players don’t entirely know who will be their teammate and who won’t by 6 p.m. ET on July 31. The first domino dropped Monday afternoon, with Chris Paddack going to the Detroit Tigers. Still, through a blown lead and a rain delay, the Twins managed to win their series opener over the Boston Red Sox at Target Field on Monday, 5-4.
The win pushed Minnesota (51-55) to five games behind the third Wild Card spot.
Pregame transactions
The Twins made their first major sale of trade-deadline week Monday afternoon. Paddack, a right-handed starter in his fourth year with Minnesota, was dealt to the Detroit Tigers. The news was first broken in a story by Dan Hayes, Ken Rosenthal and Cody Stavenhagen for The Athletic.
The Twins also sent right-hander Randy Dobnak in the deal. In return, they acquired catching/first base prospect Enrique Jimenez.
Paddack, 29, saw mixed results through his career with Minnesota. But this season had been his healthiest yet, with his 21 starts the most since he made 22 with the San Diego Padres in 2021. He had a 4.95 ERA in 111 innings this year, with 6.7 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.
Paddack underwent the second Tommy John surgery of his career in 2022.
His new club, the division rival Tigers, entered Monday in first place in the NL Central by eight games.
“Challenging day saying goodbye to a guy that you care about that’s done good work for us,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “…Kind of an emotional day.”
Dobnak, meanwhile, had spent most of this season with Triple-A St. Paul. The 30-year-old posted a 7.12 ERA in 60 2/3 innings over 17 appearances (10 starts). He’d been with the Twins organization since 2017, when he signed as an undrafted free agent.
With Jimenez, the Twins add some low-level catching depth to their system. Jimenez is just 19 years old and has a .779 OPS in Rookie ball this year.
Paddack had been scheduled to pitch Tuesday. Instead, Minnesota called up Pierson Ohl to make his MLB debut, per Chase Ford of MiLB Central. Ohl was the Twins’ 14th-round draft pick in 2021.
Twins rally after rain delay
Despite the Twins’ reality as sellers sinking in, they rallied for a come-from-behind, rain-lengthened win into the late hours of Monday night.
Jhoan Duran — another name that’s been hot on the trade deadline circuit — surrendered a run-scoring single in the top of the ninth. The Twins had let some chances slip away and trailed 4-3 going to the final frame. But a sudden rain delay halted everything for 90 minutes. When the teams finally came back, they rallied for two runs to win it against Jordan Hicks.
“It’s that time of the year where sometimes there’s movement on the roster,” Baldelli said. “To be able to focus and just play a really good ballgame, to challenge guys in different spots and watch them come through — you have to want it.”
Brooks Lee played hero with the two-RBI, walk-off knock.
“Sick!” Lee exclaimed on the field after getting drenched by Gatorade. “That was fun. I was laying on the ground in our clubby’s office, but got back up at 11:05 and won another ballgame.”
Between a home run by DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and some strong early work from Simeon Woods Richardson, the game was going Minnesota’s way early Monday evening.
Keirsey Jr.’s blast in the third inning was just his eighth hit and second homer of the season. He entered the game batting .099 in 71 at-bats. But he got ahold of a first-pitch slider from Boston right-hander Richard Fitts to put the Twins up 2-0.
Woods Richardson kept Boston off the board for the first four innings. He stranded a pair of hits two different times, getting Ceddanne Rafaela to strike out to end the top of the fourth.
But after a leadoff single by Abraham Toro in the fifth, Woods Richardson walked Roman Anthony to set the table for the Sox. Alex Bregman, who’s in the first season of a three-year, $120 million deal, was all over a fastball high in the zone. He sent it out to left field for a go-ahead bomb.
Woods Richardson’s evening ended with three runs charged to him in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five, walked two and allowed seven hits.
Fitts, though mostly effective, only threw 58 pitches and went four innings.
The Twins managed to scratch out a run against the Red Sox bullpen to tie it in the sixth inning. After Royce Lewis singled against left-hander Chris Murphy, Boston brought in Jorge Alcala. The righty struggled with control, throwing only eight strikes out of 20 pitches. He walked Harrison Bader and Ty France, with Christian Vazquez’s sacrifice fly making it 3-3.
Griffin Jax, another Twins pitcher who’s been in trade talks, threw a clean seventh. Brock Stewart worked around a double in the eighth, bridging the gap to Minnesota’s coveted closer, Duran.
He immediately got himself in a tight situation by walking Toro. David Hamilton pinch-ran and stole two bases, and Anthony promptly flicked a single to put the Red Sox up 4-3.
It was exactly 90 more minutes before the teams got to play again. When they did, the Red Sox brought in right-hander Jordan Hicks, a recent addition from the San Francisco Giants. Baldelli said his hitters took some time in the cage to be ready to go when the long wait was over.
Keirsey Jr. — who’d homered nearly four hours earlier — fought off a series of foul balls before lining a single into right. The very small crowd on hand cheered rambunctiously.
“It’s not that easy to sit around and then just show up and head out there facing a guy throwing 100 mile-an-hour sinkers, and win the at-bats,” Baldelli said.
The Twins were also without their best position player this season, Byron Buxton, who was out of the lineup with cartilage irritation in his rib cage. He’s considered day-to-day.
But Hicks hit batters on back-to-back pitches to load the bases. With one out, Lee — on an 0-2 pitch — fought off a 99 mph fastball the other way into left field.
Two runs scored. It may have been late and damp, with the team’s future up in the air, but the Twins found a way to emerge as victors.
“They all went out there and had good at-bats, every one of our guys,” Baldelli said. “Made Hicks throw strikes and get in the zone, and fouled some pitches off.”
Game 2 of the three-game set is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. Tuesday.
