{"id":951049,"date":"2026-10-29T20:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/951049\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T20:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:34:11","slug":"twins-outright-anthony-banda-aaron-sabato-tristan-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/951049\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Outright Anthony Banda, Aaron Sabato, Tristan Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Twins removed three players from their 40-man roster Thursday, passing lefty Anthony Banda<\/a>, first baseman Aaron Sabato<\/a> and infielder Tristan Gray<\/a> through waivers. The team announced the moves.<\/p>\n

None of the three are terribly surprising. Banda had a decent season out of Minnesota\u2019s bullpen after coming over in a trade with the Dodgers, who\u2019d designated him for assignment. However, he suffered a torn lat midseason that required surgery and is expected to sideline him well into next year. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected<\/a> the lefty had been for a $2.3MM salary in his final year of club control. It\u2019s possible the Twins will look to bring him back on a minor league deal, but they understandably weren\u2019t willing to carry him on the 40-man roster all winter and pay him a guaranteed salary north of $2MM when he\u2019s facing a lengthy injury absence and would\u2019ve been slated for free agency following the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

When healthy, Banda logged 34 1\/3 innings with a 4.46 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 39.2% ground-ball rate. He had a slow start in his new setting but had been on a roll when the injury bug bit; in his final 20 1\/3 frames of the season, Banda notched a sparkling 1.33 ERA with 20 punchouts and 10 walks. He also gave the 2024-25 Dodgers 114 1\/3 innings of 3.14 ERA ball. Banda has more than five years of big league service, so he\u2019ll elect free agency.<\/p>\n

Sabato, 27, was Minnesota\u2019s first-round pick in 2020 \u2014 No. 27 overall. A slugging first baseman out of the University of North Carolina, he was viewed as a potential quick-to-the-majors source of right-handed power who could step in at first base or designated hitter in Minneapolis. It didn\u2019t pan out, however. Sabato showed plenty of pop and a huge walk rate in the low minors but was exceptionally strikeout prone right out of the gate \u2014 even as a college hitter in the low minors. He regularly posted strikeout rates north of 30% as he climbed the minor league ladder.<\/p>\n

In 2026, Sabato showed some improvement in that regard, but a 25.3% strikeout rate in his second stint at the Triple-A level still isn\u2019t especially encouraging, particularly considering it came with a career-low 8.7% walk rate. . He popped 25 homers and batted .273\/.349\/.528 (121 wRC+) in Triple-A before getting a late look in the majors. Sabato received six plate appearances but went hitless. He\u2019s now off the 40-man roster and could land in minor league free agency himself.<\/p>\n

Gray is a 30-year-old journeyman who\u2019s played in the Rays, A\u2019s, Pirates, Marlins, White Sox and Twins organizations. He\u2019s seen big league time with the Rays, A\u2019s, Twins and Fish. Minnesota gave him 188 plate appearances early in the year. He had a big grand slam early on but struggled as the season progressed. By the time he was optioned to Triple-A, Gray was batting just .225\/.267\/.324 with a 31.9% strikeout rate.<\/p>\n

In parts of four major league seasons, Gray has batted .218\/.266\/.342 in 310 plate appearances. He can play all over the infield and had been about a league-average hitter in Triple-A prior to this season, before he stumbled to a .200\/.273\/.344 line in St. Paul. He\u2019ll head to minor league free agency and latch on with a club looking for a lefty bat who can bounce around the diamond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Twins removed three players from their 40-man roster Thursday, passing lefty Anthony Banda, first baseman Aaron Sabato…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[246365,26799,49,48,462,82,20877],"class_list":["post-951049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-sabato","tag-anthony-banda","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-tristan-gray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951049","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=951049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}