The Twins have outrighted left-hander Danny Coulombe, according to Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Coulombe cleared waivers and elected free agency.
Coulombe, 33 next week, has been on and off the Twins’ roster over the past few years. He was signed to a minor league deal prior to the 2020 season, got his contract selected but was designated for assignment shortly thereafter. He signed another minors deal for 2021 and spent a few months with the team before losing his roster spot at year’s end again.
A third straight minor league deal followed prior to 2022, with Coulombe getting selected to the big league team once again. He tossed 12 1/3 innings with a 1.46 ERA despite a 17% walk rate but made two trips to the IL due to a hip impingement that eventually required surgery. For his career, he’s thrown 192 2/3 innings with a 3.92 ERA, 22.1% strikeout rate, 9.9% walk rate and 52.5% ground ball rate.
The Twins suffered a large number of injuries this season, leading to them placing many players on the 60-day injured list. However, since there’s no IL between the World Series and Spring Training, those players will soon have to take up roster spots once again. In anticipation of that, the club has been placing some players on waivers in recent weeks, having lost Caleb Hamilton to the Red Sox, Jake Cave to the Orioles and Jermaine Palacios to the Tigers, in addition to outrighting Jhon Romero, Devin Smeltzer and now Coulombe. Players who have more than three years of MLB service time or who have been previously outrighted in their career are eligible to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Coulombe qualified on both counts.
Given that Coulombe and the Twins have continued to re-engage each other in recent years, it’s entirely possible that they do so again. However, Coulombe will be free to pursue other opportunities for the time being, while the club will likely wait and see how the lefty recovers from his surgery.
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