To take his place on the active roster, the Twins recalled John Klein from Triple-A St. Paul.

Betsy Helfand | Pioneer Press

The Twins had a set of decisions to make earlier this month on a trio of struggling players, players who had been key contributors in past seasons.

They made their decision on Matt Wallner first, optioning him to Triple-A for a reset. Days later, they decided to do the same with Royce Lewis. It wasn’t quite as easy with Simeon Woods Richardson, who was out of minor league options and couldn’t be sent down without being exposed to waivers. Instead, the Twins shifted him to the bullpen.

Less than two weeks after the bullpen experiment began, the Twins designated Woods Richardson, who first established himself in the majors in 2024, for assignment.

“I think we would’ve liked a longer look (at him) in the bullpen to see because we saw some things that were trending right,” manager Derek Shelton said. “When you have short starts and a bullpen that gets depleted, sometimes there ends up being an odd-man out — and it ended up being Sim.”

Woods Richardson made two scoreless outings out of the bullpen before being pressed into starting duty on Thursday in Chicago an hour before the game when Kendry Rojas was scratched due to injury. He lasted 2⅔ innings, giving up five runs.

All told, Woods Richardson was 0-7 this season with a 7.74 earned-run average. The Twins were 1-9 in games that he started. The 41 earned runs he had given up in 47⅔ innings innings are the most among pitchers in the American League, and second-most in the majors this season behind just Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen.

Had Woods Richardson, 25, had an option remaining, it’s likely the Twins would have optioned him to St. Paul to try to work things out there — as they did last year. The results upon his return were much better, and his September was especially promising.

“This is a kid who had some success, especially last year,” Shelton said. “His first couple starts to the year were pretty good. (It’s) just the inconsistency of location; any time when you’re a starting pitcher and you’re not throwing the ball where you want, there is going to be frustration there.”

The move further erodes the starting pitching depth that the Twins had to begin the season. The Twins came to camp with eight pitchers in the mix for five rotation spots. Of those eight, the Twins are now without Pablo López, who is out for the season, David Festa and Mick Abel because of injuries, and now Woods Richardson because of performance.

The Twins have dipped into their minor-league depth, too, with top pitching prospect Connor Prielipp and Zebby Matthews now in the rotation. Rookie Andrew Morris has been called up and is pitching in relief, Rojas is now hurt, and fellow rookie John Klein was called up on Saturday to take Woods Richardson’s roster spot and pitch out of the bullpen.

“I’m concerned every day when I wake up, from the time I got the job, about starting pitching,” Shelton said. “The fact we did have the injuries to Pablo and Festa earlier, and the fact that Sim is not here anymore, yeah, there is always concern about where those innings are going to come from. It’s just something we’re going to have to continue to look into.”

Larnach hits the water

Trevor Larnach paused for a second after making contact with Jared Jones’ pitch on Friday night to watch and see if the ball he had hit for a two-run home run had cleared the right field wall. Beyond the wall sits the Allegheny River, an ambitious target for left-handed hitters.

“There was a bounty for someone to hit it in the water, so I wanted to see if it went over,” Larnach said. “I didn’t really start jogging until I saw it. That way, I could go to whoever set the bounty and look at them and be like, ‘Yo, what have you got?’ ”

Larnach did not hit the ball into the Allegheny River on the fly — later in the day, Oneil Cruz hit just the seventh ball to land directly in the water — but he did become just the 54th player to hit a ball into the river since the ballpark opened in 2001. His home run marked the 86th such occurrence; Cruz’s was the 87th.

Twins teammate Josh Bell knows a little something about splashing down in the river. He played five seasons in Pittsburgh and hit two of the seven balls that have landed directly in the river.

Briefly

Shelton said Rojas’s MRI revealed triceps inflammation. The Twins placed him on the injured list on Friday. … Matthews (1-2, 2.37 ERA) will take the ball for the series finale on Sunday opposed by Braxton Ashcraft (4-2, 2.75 ERA). The game is scheduled to begin at 12:35 p.m. CT.