Twins designate former All-Star Aaron Sanchez for assignment

The Twins announced Friday that they’ve recalled right-hander Louie Varland from Triple-A St. Paul and designated fellow righty Aaron Sanchez for assignment to open a spot on the roster.

Sanchez, 30, has appeared in seven games with the Twins this season and pitched to a 4.00 ERA with a 21.6 percent strikeout rate and 6 percent walk rate in 27 innings. The right-hander was an All-Star in 2016 and led the American League with a 3.00 ERA that season but has seen that promising career derailed by a series of injuries, most notably including 2019 shoulder surgery.

Sanchez logged a career-high 192 innings back in that 2016 season, but he’s only managed 366 big league innings since that time, pitching to a 5.24 ERA along the way. The Twins will place him on outright waivers or release waivers in the next few days.

Varland, 24, will get the start for the Twins in tonight’s game. It’ll be the third of his career, as he made a pair of appearances earlier this month, pitching well through 5 1/3 innings at Yankee Stadium in his MLB debut before struggling in a five-inning outing in Cleveland.

A Minnesota native whom the Twins selected in the 15th round of the 2019 draft out of Division-II Concordia University in St. Paul, Varland skyrocketed through the system in 2021. He’s had a strong follow-up showing between Double-A and Triple-A this year, logging a combined 3.06 ERA in 126 1/3 frames. He’ll be in the mix for a rotation spot for a pitching-needy Twins club next year, making his late-season audition well worth monitoring for Twins fans.