The twins chose well Austin Voth because of the assignment and the selection of a small lefty Kendry Rojas at Triple-A St. Paul, according to the club’s announcement. Their places in the active list will go to the left Kody Funderburk and the right hand Marco Rayaboth recalled from Triple-A. Raya will be making his first major league appearance on the mound.
Voth, 33, was signed to a minor league contract late last month and was named to the major league roster this week. He made one appearance as a Twin, last night, when he scored five earned runs on 11 hits and a walk over four innings of long relief. Voth pulled off a tough assignment against the powerhouse Dodgers to relieve now-nominated Rojas, who pitched two innings to open yesterday’s game.
The well-traveled Voth pitched a major league-high 10 innings this year between Toronto and Minnesota, giving up 11 earned runs in that span. It’s been three games of hot streaks, but the veteran skater has a better record than this year’s show. Voth entered the 2026 season with a 4.70 lifetime ERA in 360 1/3 innings and posted a 3.69 ERA in 61 frames as recently as 2024 with the Mariners. He spent the 2025 campaign pitching for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he posted a 3.96 ERA in 125 innings. Voth has pitched well in Triple-A between the Jays and Twins organizations this season, posting a 3.65 ERA over 11 starts.
Minnesota will have five days to trade Voth, place him on waivers outright or release him. The waiver will be a 48-hour process, so his DFA will be resolved in no more than a week. Voth reserves the right to reject a direct offer in favor of a free offer if no waiver is requested.
By sending Rojas back to St. Paul, the Twins will give the promising young southpaw a chance to stretch as a starter. He entered Minnesota’s rotation in late May after being drafted by the team Simeon Woods Richardson with the share but you will still build all the way up to the beginner’s workload. He hasn’t gone more than four innings in any appearance this season (majors or minors) and recently spent three weeks on the injured list due to inflammation in his left triceps.
The Twins got Rojas and an outfielder Alan Roden last summer in a trade to send a reliever Louis Varland to the Blue Jays. Rojas is widely seen as one of the organization’s top prospects and a potential long-term option in the rotation. He posted a 1.65 ERA in his first 16 1/3 MLB frames and pitched well in St. Louis. Paul before allowing five runs in his recent minor league rehab. He should be given the opportunity to establish himself in St. Paul also, health permitting, will likely get an honest look with the big league team later this summer.
Raya, 23, was a fourth-round pick of the Twins in 2020 and has been considered one of their program’s better arms ever since. The quality of his stuff has rarely been questioned, but the 6’1″, 170-pound Raya has a small frame relative to other starting pitchers. Strength and command concerns have plagued him throughout his professional career, and Minnesota moved him to the bullpen full-time this season — a move that many scouting reports had considered a possibility in recent years.
A move to relief duty this season has produced mixed results. Raya’s 5.54 ERA in 39 innings at Triple-A is unspectacular, but that number was skewed significantly by one disastrous outing in which Raya allowed six runs while recording just one. He posted a 4.18 ERA in his other 24 appearances. Raya also struck out 24.1% of his opponents against a systematic walk rate of 7.4%. He’s sitting 96 mph on his four-seamer this season and combining that pitch with different fastballs (slider, curveball) that sit in the 85-86 mph range. Raya also throws a rare cutter and changeup, both of which sit around 90-91 mph.
Minnesota has cycled through a number of rebounding weapons in its attempt to assemble something resembling a capable bullpen this season. It didn’t work. After trading five pitchers last summer and doing nothing to fix the ‘barn this winter, the Twins will have one of the worst bullpens in MLB – if not the worst. Twin relievers ranked last in the majors with a 5.35 ERA. They are also tied for the fourth lowest strikeout rate (20.3%) and fourth highest walk rate (11.7%) of any major league club. Raya’s promotion is different because the club may see him as a legitimate long-term option. That doesn’t mean he’s any kind of lock to stick with, but he has more staying power than the fair number of DFA holders that have gone through this season (eg. Justin Lawrence, Zak Kent, Luis GarciaVote).
