Welcome home: Dodgers acquire RHP Brock Stewart from Twins for OF James Outman

Who says you can’t come home again?

The Los Angeles Dodgers are finalizing a deal to acquire right-handed reliever Brock Stewart from the Minnesota Twins, sources tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2025

The Twins are receiving OF James Outman for Brock Stewart. It’s a one-for-one deal.

Outman, 28, is hitting .289 with 20 HR and 74 RBI in a hitter-friendly AAA league.

— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) July 31, 2025

Former Dodger farmhand Brock Stewart is back to help strengthen the beleaguered bullpen. Stewart, 33, was the Dodgers’ 6th-round selection in the 2014 MLB Draft. After a mostly down tenure in Los Angeles, he was waived in 2019. Since then, he made a stop in Toronto, the Independent League before finally landing in Minnesota. As a Twin, he has been borderline phenomenal. in 77 1/3 innings, he has a 2.33 ERA, 2.91 FIP and a 22.2 K-BB%.

That’s a pretty impressive Statcast profile. He does everything the Dodgers look for in a reliever — misses bats, limits hard contact and keeps the ball in the yard.

As a former starting pitcher, Stewart has more of a repertoire than most relievers. His primary pitch is a a mid-90s 4-seam fastball that he throws 54.8% of the time. He has a sub-.200 batting average against, a .180 xBA, .242 wOBA and .238 xwOBA. His 34.5 Whiff% on the heater would be second on the team after Kirby Yates‘ 36.3% (Blake Treinen has a 42.9 Whiff%, but he’s thrown a 4-seamer all of 22 times this season). His non-4-seamer offerings vary, but he throws them all about 10-11% of the time. He throws a mid-80s sweeper and mid-90s sinker almost exclusively to righties, a 90 MPH changeup reserved for lefties and a low-90s cutter that he’ll throw to either-handed hitter. The worst off those pitches is his cutter, which has a .308 BAA, .276 xBA, .379 wOBA and a .337 xwOBA.

Stewart is a right-handed bat killer. His 35.6 K-BB% against righties is second only to new Padre (barf) Mason Miller‘s 39.3%. His 0.49 WHIP is best, with still-Padre (barf) Robert Suarez closest at 0.63. Hat tip to Allan for these numbers.

There is injury concern with Stewart, as he has missed significant time in his career — and it’s why the trade announcement was as delayed as it was — but the Dodgers need relief help for a bullpen that leads the league in innings pitched. With Evan Phillips out for the season and guys like Brusdar Graterol and Michael Kopech unknown for the rest of the season, this move was a must. He’ll be slated for, mostly, middle relief, provided the higher-leverage relievers are both healthy and figure their stuff out. Stewart is under team control through the 2027 season, so he’ll be here for a bit.

Going to Minnesota is James Outman, who looked like he might be a mainstay in center field for LA after a strong 2023 rookie season that saw him hit .248/.353/.437 with 23 home runs and a 116 wRC+. The former Sacramento State Hornet hasn’t come close to sniffing that level of success at the plate, hitting just .137/.245/.269 with 6 home runs and a 49 wRC+ since then. His defense is still well above-average in center field, and he might get a chance to play a little bit in Minnesota with Byron Buxton hitting the injured list earlier this week.

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Seeing what Miller and, to a lesser extent, Jhoan Duran went for in trades, this is a much more palatable price to pay for not only a big need, but for a pretty good pitcher. Outman, obviously, wasn’t in the Dodgers’ long-term plans, while Stewart slides in as one of the top right-handed arms in the bullpen. That said, the return for the Twins seems pretty light, so let’s hope the medicals on Stewart aren’t completely FUBAR. I wrote on Tuesday that, of the targets listed in the article, Stewart was the most likely acquisition. I get something right everyone once in a while.

Now, let’s see if Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes and Co. have anything else planned (Steven Kwan?) before the 3 p.m. deadline.