A.J. Minter has been with the Mets since signing with the team in free agency in 2025. Hunter Martin / Getty ImagesJuly 31, 2026 Updated 12:29 am EDTThe Minnesota Twins are acquiring left-handed reliever A.J. Minter from the New York Mets, people close to the situation confirmed Tuesday night. Those people spoke under condition of anonymity to freely discuss a deal that had not yet been announced.New York is landing prospects Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick in the deal, which came ahead of the MLB’s trade deadline, set for Monday at 6 p.m. ET.A 19-year-old shortstop who bats left-handed, Agbayani brings a name that will be familiar for Mets fans of a certain age. His father, Benny, played four of his five big-league seasons with the Mets, from 1998 to 2001. The elder Agbayani was a key part of the 2000 team that lost to the Yankees in the famed Subway Series.
Bruin Agbayani was drafted in the sixth round in 2025, with the 179th overall pick.Minter, 32, has been one of the game’s best late-game left-handed relievers for nearly a decade, wielding a hard fastball and one of baseball’s best cutters. Most of that work was done in Atlanta, where over eight seasons he compiled a 3.28 ERA as a primary set-up man and occasional closer. He excelled in the postseason, especially during the club’s run to the 2021 championship. Overall, he’s posted a 2.88 ERA in October.While Minter’s effectiveness hasn’t waned, a pair of serious injuries and some questionable peripherals follow him. He missed the end of the 2024 season because of surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip, then was out for 13 months because of surgery on his left lat in May 2025. Since returning from the lat procedure, his fastball velocity has dipped 2 mph and his strikeout rate has fallen back to league average. His walk rate has also plummeted, but he’s unlikely to keep it quite as low as it is right now.ESPN first reported the news.
