Simeon Woods Richardson was a solid back-of-the-rotation starter for the Twins in 2024 (4.17 ERA in 134 innings) and 2025 (4.04 ERA in 111 innings), and seemed to take his game to another level last September by unveiling a new swing-and-miss splitter on the way to a 2.33 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 27 innings.
This spring in Twins camp, there was quite a bit of optimism surrounding Woods Richardson, who was still just 25 years old and ended 2025 on the highest note of his big-league career. For the first time since his top-100 prospect days with the Blue Jays, he looked capable of being more than merely a useful back-end starter.
And then it all just fell apart.
After back-to-back decent outings to begin this season, Woods Richardson went 0-5 with a 9.79 ERA over his next seven starts, allowing 38 runs in 30 1/3 innings. He totaled more walks (17) than strikeouts (14) and opponents batted .361 against him, with seven homers and a .623 slugging percentage.