Minnesota Twins Demote Struggling Outfielder One Last Time

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Minnesota Twins Demote Struggling Outfielder One Last Time

Matt Wallner - Minnesota Twins — Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Eric Strack · Minnesota Sports Fan

Thu, May 14, 2026 ·

3 min read

Minnesota Twins option Matt Wallner to Triple-A

But as the season got going, starting right fielder Matt Wallner inexplicably jumped onto the struggle bus, and slowly started driving toward the nearest cliff. And this week, it officially tipped over the edge.

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After the Forest Lake, MN native suffered his second-straight FOUR strikeout game — pushing his batting average down to .167 and his OPS an ugly .551 (53 OPS+) — the Minnesota Twins exercised Wallner’s final minor league option year and sent him to St. Paul.

Travis Adams is also heading back to Triple-A. Ryan Kreidler and Zebby Matthews — whose 2026 debut we covered in detail earlier this morning — will replace Wallner and Adams on the active roster

The #MNTwins are calling up Zebby Matthews and Ryan Kreidler and are optioning Matty Wallner and Travis Adams to Triple-A. We’ll have more on a Twins Show this morning.

— Declan Goff (@DexsTweets) May 14, 2026

Now, Matt Wallner finds himself in the same position as Larnach did last year. There is nowhere for him to play in the Minnesota Twins outfield, if Martin and Larnach continue to play well (see below).

And behind all three of them are top prospects like Emmanuel Rodriguez and Walker Jenkins. However, both of those youngsters are currently injured , so Matt has some time to get right. What he does with this career correction opportunity in St. Paul is now up to him, however.

Twins early Comeback POY Candidates – Austin Martin , Trevor Larnach

With Wallner’s 2026 demise, we’ve seen exactly why the MN Twins weren’t comfortable offloading guys like Larnach (2018) — who’s quietly pushed his average on the season up to .268, with a .780 OPS and 119 OPS+ — and Austin Martin, who’s been a regular starter in left field all season (37 games: .327 BA, .864 OPS).

Trevor Larnach drives in 2 more and it’s all Twins in DC pic.twitter.com/jgfBmxyfbw

— Barstool Baseball (@StoolBaseball) May 5, 2026

Austin Martin – Minnesota Twins (1) pic.twitter.com/x6cvcoHXCf

— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) April 15, 2026

Think about it. Just a couple of months ago we thought there was no way the Pohlads would pay Larnach’s $4.5 million arbitration salary , just to be a bench player.

And most of us were shocked when Game 1 of 162 rolled around in Baltimore in late March and the former first round pick (2018) was indeed on the 26-man roster and available for new manager Derek Shelton off the bench.

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