The St. Paul Saints announced the Twins have signed JT Riddle to a minor-league deal, with an invitation to major league camp.
Twins sign former Marlin, Pirate JT Riddle to minor-league contract
January 7, 2021 at 4:46PM
Riddle, 29, played last season with the Pirates, hitting .149 in 67 at bats. He had one home run.
An infielder/outfielder, he has played mostly at shortstop. In 246 major league games, he has a .222 batting average with 19 home runs in 787 plate appearances.
After playing college baseball at Kentucky, Riddle was a 13th round pick by Miami in 2013. He played 70 games for the Marlins in 2017, hitting .250 with three home runs, then spent most of 2018 with Miami, hitting .231 with nine home runs in 102 games. His 2019 season was hampered by injury; he hit .189 in 51 games.
Riddle is the ninth former major league player signed to a minor league contract by the Twins during the offseason. The others are Tzu-Wei Lin, a utilityman for the Red Sox for the past four seasons; former Royals pitchers Luke Farrell and Glenn Sparkman; pitchers Danny Coulombe and Juan Minaya, who had cups of coffee with the Twins last season when the team had a taxi squad at CHS Field in St. Paul; veteran catcher Tomas Telis, who has been with the Twins organization the past two seasons; outfielder Rob Refsnyder, who played for the Rangers last season; and pitcher Derek Law, who was with the Blue Jays.
Emmanuel Rodriguez had an abbreviated season after being hit by the injury bug, but he showed promise as a disciplined hitter.
