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The Minnesota Twins have signed veteran lefty Dallas Keuchel to a minor-league contract and assigned him to Triple-A St. Paul. Keuchel, the 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner, is also a two-time former All-Star and a five-time recipient of the Gold Glove Award.

Keuchel, 35, last pitched in the majors in September 2022 as a member of the Texas Rangers. He's also appeared in games with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, and, of course, Houston Astros. Over the course of 11 big-league seasons, he's compiled a 3.98 ERA (103 ERA+) and a 2.49 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His contributions have been worth an estimated 19.3 Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference's calculations.

Keuchel has not been effective at the big-league level since 2020, and even that performance (224 ERA+ and fifth-place finish in Cy Young Award voting) came as part of the truncated season. Over the last two years, he's tallied a 6.35 ERA in 222 innings pitched.

It's perhaps worth noting that Keuchel had been working with Driveline Baseball. Chris Langin, Driveline's director of pitching, tweeted out some metrics last week from a simulated game Keuchel pitched. He averaged 89 mph on his sinker, or what would be his highest mark since 2018.

The Twins' 6-0 win over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday (box score) moves them to 38-38 on the season, or good for first place in the AL Central. Keuchel won't be the only veteran starter trying to work his way back into the fold for Minnesota: Kenta Maeda is expected to return from a strained triceps injury on Friday, while Chris Paddack continues to recover from last summer's Tommy John surgery.