Twins give newest pitcher Tommy Nance a proper welcome to Minnesota

La Velle E. Neal III, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jul 11, 2026

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — As Tommy Nance wrapped up his first media session as a Twin, Royce Lewis hovered nearby and waited for the scrum to break up.

“Hey, I’m Royce,” the infielder said as he approached with a hand extended.

It was that kind of morning for Nance, the former Blue Jays right-hander who was acquired by the Twins on Friday along with international bonus money for minor leaguer Ryan Sprock.

Meeting new teammates and coaches. Getting his bearings after landing at 11:45 p.m. Friday night on a flight from San Diego, where the Blue Jays were playing Friday.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting [the trade], but I’m happy to be here,” Nance said. “The guys here have already been super welcoming, and the staff and everything is going great so far. So I’m excited to get going here.”

Nance was put in the mix right away Saturday, pitching the seventh inning during the Twins’ 5-3 victory over the Angels, He gave up a one-out infield single to Zach Neto. With two outs, Neto stole second and then scored on Nolan Schanuel’s single that tied the score at 3-3.

Twins manager Derek Shelton wasn’t concerned about Nance giving up a run, noting his travel schedule and how changing clubs can be a whirlwind experience.

But the Twins offense retaliated in the bottom of the inning. Lewis led off the inning with a double against Los Angeles left-hander Mitch Farris, and his teammates followed with an RBI double by Victor Caratini and a line-drive RBI single from Alan Roden.

Yoendrys Gómez had to work out of a two-on, one-out jam in the ninth. But he retired Jorge Soler on a broken-bat popup and struck out Vaughn Grissom to earn his 11th save in 11 opportunities.

Nance got the victory in his Twins debut.

The Twins took a 3-0 lead in the second when Lewis gave Nance a welcome gift, a two-run homer to left off of Angels starter Ryan Johnson. Luke Keaschall added a sacrifice fly.

Twins right-hander Joe Ryan held the Angels to two runs over six innings, both coming off on Soler’s RBI double in the third. Ryan is in line to be available to pitch in Tuesday’s All-Star Game, made possible last week when Shelton juggled the rotation.

“I was very aware of where Joe was pitching for the All-Star Game,” Shelton said before the game. “We were very aware of where he was lined up.”

Nance wasn’t walking into a clubhouse full of strangers. An undrafted free agent out of Santa Clara, Nance was coached by current Twins hitting coach Keith Beauregard there. Nance played with Caratini in 2021 with the Cubs, Pablo López with the Marlins in 2022 and Roden in recent years with Toronto. He played with Cole Sands’ brother in the minors.

Introductions aside, Nance also had the important conversations with the pitching coaches and catchers. They discussed his season and what his strengths are and what he can do to get the most of his abilities. It was a chance for Nance to learn how the Twins do things.

Right now, what the Twins are doing is trying to renovate a bullpen that entered Saturday with the second-worst ERA in baseball at 5.24. And that was a one-spot improvement from the day before.

Nance uses a sinker-slider-curveball mix to defeat hitters. His sinker can touch 95 miles per hour, and his slider broke sharply to strike out Logan O’Hoppe to start the seventh.

“We know Nance is a baller,” designated hitter Josh Bell said. “He’s been doing it for a long time. He’s going to help our bullpen out a ton. We don’t really have a slider specialist in the ‘pen, at least a righty one. It’s good knowing we can have more of an arsenal out there, and hopefully get some more W’s at the end of the day.”

To get W’s, the Twins need the bullpen to raise its game. They plan to be in buy mode leading up to the Aug. 3 trade deadline, but too many games have been lost in the mid-to-late innings. The adjusting has begun.

In a span of five days, the Twins have brought three relievers to the organization. They added right-hander Woo-Suk Go on Tuesday following a trade with the Tigers. Go pitched a scoreless eighth on Saturday, leaving two runners on.

After dealing for Nance on Friday, the Twins claimed right-hander Jack Anderson from the Red Sox and assigned him to Class AAA St. Paul.

The Twins hope to be busy later in the deadline window. But they couldn’t wait to get started.

Nance couldn’t either, helping the Twins avoid a three-game losing streak.