{"id":643349,"date":"2026-05-02T16:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/643349\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T16:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:28:07","slug":"twins-place-cole-sands-on-15-day-il-promote-john-klein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/643349\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Place Cole Sands On 15-Day IL, Promote John Klein"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Twins announced that right-hander Cole Sands<\/a> has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left forearm strain.\u00a0 The placement is retroactive to April 29.\u00a0 Right-hander John Klein<\/a> was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move, and Klein was already added to Minnesota\u2019s 40-man roster last November in advance of the Rule 5 draft.<\/p>\n

More information on the severity of Sands\u2019 injury should be known later today when Twins manager Derek Shelton speaks to the media.\u00a0 Some forearm strains are very minor, but naturally teams tend to proceed with caution when a pitcher has any sort of forearm or elbow-related issue.<\/p>\n

Sands has a 4.63 ERA, 22% strikeout rate, and eight percent walk rate over 11 2\/3 bullpen innings for Minnesota this season, and batters have a hefty 51.4% hard-hit ball rate against his offerings.\u00a0 Sands\u2019 fastball is averaging 93.1mph, down from the 95mph velocity he posted in 2025.\u00a0 His 3.65 SIERA is almost a full run better than his real-world ERA, however, and the fact that Sands allowed two runs in his most recent appearance (two-thirds of an inning against the Mariners on April 28) could imply that his forearm issue had something to do with that tough outing.<\/p>\n

While Sands hasn\u2019t been as sharp this year, he has been a workhorse reliever for the Twins since the start of the 2024 season.\u00a0 His absence is another hit to a Minnesota bullpen that has been pretty ineffective, and the Twins now have another hole to fill in covering Sands\u2019 high-leverage innings.<\/p>\n

Klein may be able to at least help in the depth department, as the 24-year-old has been a starter for most of his five minor league seasons.\u00a0 Klein has had a rough go of things in 2026, posting a 7.48 ERA and allowing 10 homers over only 21 2\/3 innings (starting six of seven games) for Triple-A St. Paul.\u00a0 This extreme difficulty at keeping the ball in the park is a new issue and maybe even just a fluke for Klein, who has posted solid homer rates over the rest of his career.<\/p>\n

Klein will be making his MLB debut whenever he appears in his first game, and pitching for the Twins carries some extra hometown weight for the native of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.\u00a0 An undrafted free agent who signed with the Twins in 2022, Klein has been hit hard at the Triple-A level in both 2025 and 2026, but he has a respectable 24.17% strikeout rate and 8.32% walk rate over the entirety of his 288 2\/3 career innings in the minors.<\/p>\n

MLB Pipeline ranks Klein 20th on their list of Twins prospects, and Baseball America has the right-hander 24th on their list.\u00a0 Both outlets project Klein more as a swingman or long reliever than as a starter at the big league level, as Klein lacks any plus secondary pitches.\u00a0 Klein\u2019s top pitch is a mid-90\u2019s fastball that has topped out at 97mph, but there could be a higher ceiling given how Klein has added a couple of miles of velocity within the last two seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Twins announced that right-hander Cole Sands has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,219570,131966,462,82],"class_list":["post-643349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cole-sands","tag-john-klein","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}