MINNEAPOLIS – The Twins placed reliever Jeff Hoffman on the 15-day injured list on Saturday due to right forearm inflammation, making room to activate shortstop Kaelen Culpepper (Minnesota's No. 3 prospect, No. 31 overall) from the IL. Culpepper missed the minimum 10 days due to a mild hamstring strain.
Hoffman, acquired from the Blue Jays at the Trade Deadline, has pitched extremely well since being acquired but scuffled a bit in his last appearance, in San Francisco on Tuesday. He said he has not been bouncing back from outings as well as he’d hope recently, and ultimately he and the club decided to shut things down rather than trying to pitch through it.
“It wasn't something that I was wanting to push through, being out of the race and everything,” he said. “So, yeah, I just felt it was smart to shut it down and take care of myself.”
Hoffman expressed minimal concern regarding the injury, believing that rest will knock it out. He expects to have a normal offseason and said that there is no issue with the elbow joint or ligaments.
“It's kind of just forearm soreness,” he said. “And as we all know, like, that can be a precursor to more serious stuff. So I just wanted to take it – be safe with it and just take it slow and, like I said, just get a head start on the offseason program.”
Hoffman is under contract with the Twins for 2027 and projects to be one of their top relievers.
Culpepper, meanwhile, was reinstated as expected after a minimum IL stint. That had been the hope all along, and in fact under different circumstances it’s possible the club would not have placed him on the IL. But the Twins wanted to make sure he didn’t push too hard to get back and endanger his chances at a full healthy offseason.
“I think when we knew he went on [the IL] that it wasn’t something that was major,” said manager Derek Shelton. “But with where we were at, and just quite honestly who he is, we were not going to let him push through and then he goes into the offseason being in a situation where he’s not healthy. But the rehab has been seamless. He’s run the bases, he’s done baseball activities fine. So it’s nice to be able to get him back on the field to finish strong.”