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Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Shipley: Randy Dobnak, unbound from Twins, thriving in Kansas City
- Story byPioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
- Shipley: Randy Dobnak, unbound from Twins, thriving in Kansas City
As far as tethers go, a five-year, $9.25 million contract to play baseball is about as good as it gets, and Randy Dobnak is grateful to have been given that chance by the Twins in Spring 2021.
It changed his life, set his young family up for life.
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"My wife was able to retire and be a fulltime mom," he told the Pioneer Press last week. "We're good for money. We'll never not be good for money."
Undrafted after four years at small Alderson Broaddus College in his native West Virginia, he caught on with Minnesota after playing independent ball in Michigan, where he supplemented his income by driving for Uber. Still, he acknowledged wondering whether that contract kept him tethered to an organization that, soon after the deal was signed, had moved on from him.
After he missed nearly two seasons because of a rare finger injury, the Twins didn't have a major league job for Dobnak, and the contract made him too expensive — $3 million in the final season — for another organization to take a flier on.
"I've thought about that all the past five years," he said. "In hindsight, I'd still sign it."
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Dobnak has been healthy for a while now, long recovered from a weakened tendon that joined his right middle finger to the rest of his hand . But he had made only six combined appearances for the Twins in 2024 and 2025, and so was happy — and surprised — to have been among the 11 players the Twins unloaded at the 2025 trade deadline.
"When they called, I thought I was being DFA'd," he said. "I was in Toledo (with the Saints) when (general manager) Jeremy Zoll called, and I thought I was being released. And then he was like, 'I want to thank you for everything. You and Chris Paddack are being traded to the Tigers.' "
The Tigers were officially sending Dobank to Triple-A Toledo, "And I was already there," he noted.
No matter. Dobnak, finally, had a chance to show a new organization he could still pitch in the majors, even if it took two more moves to get him one. After being released by Detroit , he signed a minor league deal with Seattle , then used the upward mobility clause to seek a major league roster spot elsewhere.
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Kansas City bit, and it's been good for Dobnak and the Royals. Through Wednesday's games, the right-hander was 2-1 with a 1.76 earned-run average in eight appearances (six starts) with the Royals.
"I was in Minnesota for parts of six years," he said. "When I was traded, it was nice to see how different organizations did things."
Meaning …
"Some are results driven, some are analytics driven," Dobnak said.
In his last appearance with the Twins, Dobnak allowed one run on two hits, including a home run, in 5⅓ innings of long relief in a 9-2 loss to St. Louis . The next day, he was released and, after clearing waivers, was assigned to St. Paul.
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Late last month, Dobnak returned to Target Field and pitched seven scoreless innings for the Royals in a 4-0 win to earn his first major league victory in five years. He did it throwing a four-seam fastball that tops out under 92 mph and offspeed pitches that sit in the low-80s.
With the Twins, he said, "I'd come out after a good performance and they'd say, 'Yeah, you got your outs, but you shouldn't have because the numbers weren't there on the (radar) gun.' I pitched seven shutout innings against them (on July 29). They hit some balls hard right at people, but there were still a lot of ground balls, and it was still seven shutty."
Dobnak's success late this season could push him past a minor-league, camp-invite deal next spring — potential lockout notwithstanding — but when that possibility is broached, he declines to bite. It's been a long five-plus years, made palatable by the deal the Twins gave him in 2021, but long nonetheless.
Since his hand injury, he's been optioned, DFA'd, released and traded almost as many times as he has pitched in the majors, sometimes because he hasn't pitched well — see: 2025 at St. Paul — and sometimes because that contract made him the safest guy to put through waivers.
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Without it, it's possible he might have caught on elsewhere more quickly, but Dobnak also acknowledges that without that contract, "I might not be in baseball."
So, excuse Dobnak if he declined to speculate on what's next.
"The past year and a half has been unique. I just live in the moment," he said. "I don't worry about the future. I just live day to day and hope things will be better tomorrow."
