Former Cy Young Winner Hits Open Market After Opting-Out of Contract

After failing to receive a promotion to the Minnesota Twins, former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel has opted out of his deal.

Former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel is now a free agent after opting out of his minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins.

The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

Keuchel opted out of his contract with the Twins on Tuesday, Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reports.

ANALYSIS
Keuchel signed a minor-league deal with the Twins in late June, and he will now enter the open market after failing to receive a promotion to the majors. The 35-year-old southpaw put up a 1.13 ERA and 1.25 WHIP through 32 innings over six starts with Triple-A St. Paul.

Keuchel certainly pitched well enough to warrant a look but with five healthy starters (Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez and Kenta Maeda), he never got the call. Given that the Twins also didn't trade away any starters at the trade deadline, he wasn't going to - it didn't appear.

Keuchel likely will get a look from someone given his Triple-A numbers, but his signing will undoubtedly come with trepidation among contenders.

He carries an impressive career mark of 101-91 and a 3.98 ERA, has made the All-Star team twice, won five Gold Gloves and helped the Astros win the World Series in 2017, but hasn't been of much use to a major league team since the 2021 White Sox.

Keuchel won the Cy Young award in 2015 when he went 20-8 for the Astros. He spent 2012-2018 in Houston, spent 2019 in Atlanta (8-8 in 19 starts) and then signed with the White Sox before the 2020 season.

He helped lead the White Sox to the playoffs in the COVID 2020 season, going 6-2 but then saw his stats plummet from there. He went 9-9 in 2021 but pitched to a 5.28 ERA, then was DFA'd after going 2-5 with an ERA of 7.88 for the Sox in 2022. He landed with the Diamondbacks after that and went 0-2 with a 9.64 ERA and then went 0-2 with the Rangers with an ERA of nearly 13.

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