The Braves have rotation concerns with Spencer Strider on the mend, while Max Fried and Charlie Morton potentially leave in free agency, but one old friend won’t be contributing for Atlanta this season as Huascar Ynoa has found a new home.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein, Ynoa and the Twins have agreed to a minor league contract with an invitation to Minnesota’s big league Spring Training camp.
Ynoa, along with the slew of other talented arms to come through the Braves farm system, burst onto the scene before flaming out due to injuries and inconsistencies. In parts of four seasons with Atlanta, he posted a 4.05 ERA while topping out at 91 innings during the 2021 campaign.
Some years ago, like Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson, and so many other talented pitchers, Braves fans thought Huascar Ynoa would be a staple at the top of Atlanta’s rotation for years to come. He was pitching at an All-Star level before a terrible outing against the Brewers, which prompted an outburst that resulted in a broken hand. He missed significant time and would never be the same.
Multiple injuries derailed his 2021 campaign, and more setbacks came in 2022. Ynoa only pitched 6.2 innings in the majors, spending most of the season in Triple-A Gwinnett before undergoing Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2023 campaign.
Eventually, he returned to only pitch 29.2 innings in the minors before being sidelined by a stress fracture in his elbow, leading to the Braves non-tendering Ynoa, even though his projected arbitration salary was south of $1 million.
Huascar Ynoa will now return to Minnesota. The Twins originally signed him during the 2014 international signing period, where he pitched parts of three seasons before being dealt to Atlanta in 2017. There’s some upside in the 26-year-old for the Twins if he can remain healthy.
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David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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