Twins minor leaguer is trying to force the team’s hand after exercising opt-out clause

Things have been firmly on the razor’s edge lately for the Minnesota Twins.

After the team placed Joe Ryan and Brooks Lee on the IL and lost Brock Stewart and Luke Keaschall for the rest of the season, Minnesota pulled off a doubleheader sweep of the Cleveland Guardians. A loss on Saturday still only puts the Twins 2.5 games out of first place in the AL Central and comfortably in a position to make the postseason.

If that happens, the Twins are going to be waltzing into October with a very banged up roster and one that lacks the sort of depth typically needed to make a deep run. That’s something Matt Bowman, who is currently at Triple-A St. Paul, is trying to use to force his way back onto an MLB roster and hopefully give himself a chance to earn his keep once and for all.

Matt Bowman reportedly exercises opt-out clause to force a promotion to Twins roster

According to MLB insider Jon Heyman, the Twins will have a decision to make on Matt Bowman who exercised his opt-out clause on Saturday. Monday is the deadline for Minnesota to decide on whether to add him to the 40-man roster and call him up to the MLB roster or allow him to be released and sign elsewhere.

It’s a truly tough decision, as Bowman has been pretty great at Triple-A as of late. He has a 1.37 ERA over 29.2 innings with 33Ks and 1.01 WHIP in St. Paul so far this season and could help plug some holes in a bullpen that suddenly is running out of help.

Bowman exercising his opt-out clause came just hours before the Twins pulled Justin Topa off his latest rehab assignment and just a day after Brock Stewart’s season ended. Minnesota failed to make any meaningful additions at the deadline with Trevor Richards — the sole acquisition — looking pretty shaky in his first two apperances.

It’s a rather brilliant strategic move by Bowman to try and force the Twins’ hand. He knows the team is hurting for bullpen help and wants to leverage it to earn himself another shot to stick on an MLB roster. He’s 0-for-2 in that department so far this season, having bounced between the Diamondbacks and Mariners with little success. He was traded by Minnesota to Arizona back in May before winding up back with the Twins at the beginning of July, and perhaps the second time will be the charm.

Then again, Bowman ending up on the MLB roster after essentially leveraging the Twins lack of depth against them is further proof of how the team’s house of cards strategy when it comes to trying to build a World Series contender.