One-time top Guardians prospect reunites with Twins on minor league deal 

With the official start of spring training less than 48 hours away from most teams, we’re at a point in the MLB calendar where the players lingering in free agency are beginning to ink deals with teams so they know they have a spot for the upcoming season. 

That sentiment was evident with another team in the American League Central on Monday, as former Guardians farmhand Gio Urshela inked a minor league contract with the Twins.

The deal is a reunion for Urshela, as he spent the 2022 season with the Twins and put together one of the best seasons of his career. 

Former Guardian Gio Urshela signs minor league contract with the Twins 

Urshela’s 2923 campaign was him at the height of his powers, as he hit .285 with 13 home runs, 27 doubles and 64 RBI after coming over as a part of the Twins’ dump of Josh Donaldson’s salary. 

It only proved to be a one-year pairing, however, as the Twins traded him to the Angels after the season. That proved to be the beginning of the proverbial end for Urshela’s career. 

While he played well in 62 games with the Angels in 2023, he suffered a season-ending pelvic fracture in June. He split the 2024 season with Tigers and Braves and played in 59 games with the Athletics before being designated for assignment. 

Urshela signed with Cleveland as an international free agent in 2008 and slowly rose his way up the prospect ranks before making his big league debut in 2015. 

He ended up playing in 148 big league games with Cleveland across 2015 and ‘17 before Cleveland traded him to the Blue Jays for cash. 

After spending the 2018 season with the Blue Jays, Urshela joined the Yankees in 2019 and recorded 21 home runs and 74 RBI in a breakout season. He was just as good in the shortened 2020 season (six home runs, 30 RBI) and added a huge grand slam against James Karinchak in that year’s Wild Card Series. 

But he’ll have a bit of an uphill climb to make the Twins’ roster given the fact that he doesn’t have the same kind of versatility that he had earlier in his career due to that aforementioned injury. 

He’s appeared at every infield position through his career, but has played almost exclusively at third base over the past two seasons. 

Urshela will still likely make a big league appearance for the Twins given that Royce Lewis has struggled with injuries in his career, but it’s hard to believe that he’ll be in there everyday.