Twins reliever Cole Sands to miss remainder of season after arthroscopic elbow surgery

The Minnesota Twins will lose right-handed reliever Cole Sands for the remainder of the season after he underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery on Tuesday, according to Yahoo Sports. The move immediately removes a bullpen option from manager Rocco Baldelli’s late-inning group and raises the urgency of depth planning for the final weeks of the regular season.

Sands has been part of Minnesota’s relief corps in a role that matters most when games tighten, but arthroscopic elbow surgery typically involves a longer runway than teams can afford in a condensed stretch toward the postseason. With Sands unavailable, the Twins will likely need to redistribute innings among their existing setup relievers and middle-inning arms, while also deciding whether to search for a comparable profile at the trade deadline.

For Minnesota, the timing is particularly notable because teams around MLB are calibrating their roster strategy as the deadline approaches. Yahoo Sports reported that the injury news is not expected to fundamentally change how the Twins approach the trade market, suggesting the club has already been weighing bullpen needs and potential upgrades independently of Sands’s status.

That said, even if a team had internal priorities for the deadline, a season-ending injury to a relief pitcher can still force adjustments to internal workload plans. When a reliever is removed from the rotation of options, it changes who is called upon more frequently, and it can influence how quickly a team turns to higher-leverage pitchers in games that otherwise would have been handled by Sands or like-profile bullpen teammates.

The Twins now face the practical question of how to stabilize their bullpen throughput through the end of the year, particularly in matchups that rely on right-handed arms or certain pitching sequences. With Sands out, Minnesota will be looking for others to cover higher-leverage outs while ensuring additional pitchers do not face accelerated fatigue demands.

The key for fans and evaluators to watch next is how Minnesota fills the innings gap between now and the deadline, whether through internal promotions, bullpen reconfiguration, or a more targeted pursuit of a reliever. As the team proceeds, Sands’s rehabilitation timeline will also matter for what Minnesota can reasonably expect from him when attention shifts to next season’s roster planning.