Here’s the issue: Derek Falvey and co have (charitably) ten million left to spend this offseason, the bullpen is headed by Justin Topa, Cole Sands, and Kody Funderburk, and excluding catchers there are only eight players on the 40-man roster who can hit right-handed. That’s Josh Bell, Byron Buxton, Gabriel Gonzalez, Luke Keaschall, Ryan Kreidler, Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, and Austin Martin.

Bell, Buxton, Keaschall, Lee, Lewis, and Martin figure to be in the lineup most days. Ryan Kreidler has a career .383 OPS in 89 games, so if he does crack the major league roster it will be for his versatility at 2B, 3B, SS, and CF. And Gabriel Gonzalez has a very intriguing bat but doesn’t seem like someone the Twins would call up just to hit off the bench. This means that in a best-case scenario, the only RHH bats on the Twins bench prior to today were Ryan Kreidler and Alex Jackson. But Falvey simply does not have the money to both bolster the bullpen and sign someone like Austin Hays.

Enter Eric Wagaman.

First off, the basics. Wagaman has a career .250/.296/.378 slash line, good for a .674 OPS and an 85 wRC+ in 588 plate appearances. He’s under team control through the 2030 season, at which point he will be 33. Wagaman has logged 117 games at 1B, 20 games at 3B, and 23 games in the corner outfield spots. He grades out as a slight negative defensively for each position per OAA (Outs Above Average), but his numbers at 1B and OF (-1 OAA at each) are marginal enough that I feel comfortable positing him as a fairly neutral defender.

For all of the despair surrounding the Twins these past two seasons, one rare bright spot was in their back-to-back Gold Glove wins at first base between Carlos Santana and Ty France (France was traded away at the deadline, but given that he logged 812.1 of his 976.2 innings at 1B with the Twins I feel comfortable claiming that as a win for Minnesota.) These awards were especially noteworthy because neither Santana nor France were thought of as exceptional fielders prior to winning them; Santana put up a combined 6 OAA from 2021–2023 and then a league-leading 14 OAA after joining the Twins in 2024. Ty France’s transformation was even more dramatic, going from the literal worst first baseman in baseball with -12 OAA in 2024 to leading the league with 10 OAA in 2025.

Now I typically know better than to put heavy stock in a sample size of two, but these two first basemen saw such dramatic improvement upon joining the Twins that I’m willing to believe that first base defense is a niche area the Twins infield staff have figured out. With that in mind, I would not be shocked if the Twins see a path to turning Wagaman into a good defensive first baseman when currently they have none. Of course, hypothetical first base defense is a moot point if you can’t hit. So can Wagaman hit?

Maybe! Here’s his 2025 month-by-month OPS numbers:

March/April: .700
May: .659
June: .629
July: .424
August: .868
September/October: .754

Through it all, however, Wagaman maintained a 114 wRC+ against LHP in 184 plate appearances. If he can stay within that range he’s a capable platoon bat that can give Trevor Larnach or Matt Wallner a day off against a lefty. Even if the defense doesn’t improve and even if he cannot hit RHP, that is still a useful type of player that the Twins did not have yesterday. That being said: I think Eric Wagaman might have another level in him.

The leaderboard linked above shows league leaders in EV50, which provides the average exit velocity of a batter’s top 50% hardest hit balls. Essentially, it shows who hits the ball the hardest when limiting the batted ball sample only to hard-hit instances; Oneil Cruz sits atop the list because he’s a force of nature, but rounding out the rest of the top 10 is Aaron Judge, James Wood, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Yandy Diaz, Juan Soto, and Junior Caminero. Sitting at 48th in in EV50 is Eric Wagaman, just below Christian Yelich, Wyatt Langford, and Carlos Correa, and right above Elly De La Cruz, Alejandro Kirk, and Lawrence Butler. Not everybody in Wagaman’s range is a star, but they’re all considered quality major leaguers with all star potential in a way that Wagaman is not.

Truthfully, I am not versed enough in advanced statistics to tell you why Wagaman performed poorly in 2025. But exit velocity is one of baseball’s most reliable predictors of success, and knowing that Wagaman can really impact the ball makes me think that he may not be far off from becoming a quality hitter with the right adjustments.

I suspect that this is their main RHH add for the offseason and I’m certainly not thrilled about that, but if you want something to dream on there’s a world in which Eric Wagaman forces his way into a starting role (moving Bell to DH), puts up a 112 wRC+, and plays a very solid first base. There’s also a world where he’s off the team by July. It’s a big year for Eric Wagaman.