MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins signed left-hander Taylor Rogers to a one-year, $2 million contract to bring the veteran reliever back to his original team as part of a bullpen revamp Friday, while also finalizing a two-year, $14 million deal with catcher Victor Caratini.
Rogers and Caratini were at Target Field for their physical exams to make their signings official, after recently agreeing to terms. Rogers had a 3.15 ERA in 319 appearances over his first six major league seasons with the Twins, accumulating 361 strikeouts in 314 2/3 innings. He became a closer in 2019 and made the All-Star team in 2021.
“The Taylor Rogers we knew in ’18 and ’19 is going to be different than this guy, but he’s still a really good reliever and I think he’s going to have a big impact in our bullpen not only pitching-wise but with the ability to lead our group,” said new manager Derek Shelton, who was the bench coach for the Twins during part of Rogers' first stint with the club.
Over the last four years, Rogers has pitched for five teams. He was traded to the San Diego Padres right before the 2022 season and then to the Milwaukee Brewers right before the deadline. Rogers signed with the San Francisco Giants in 2023 to join his twin brother, Tyler Rogers, and was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds in 2025. The Reds traded him to the Chicago Cubs at the deadline last summer.
The 35-year-old Rogers has a career 3.34 ERA in 566 relief appearances, with 626 strikeouts in 541 1/3 innings and 83 saves. Rogers, who was drafted by the Twins as a starter in the 11th round in 2012 out of Kentucky, was converted to relief just before his major league debut in 2016.
The Twins traded their top five relievers during the week leading up to the deadline last season: Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Brock Stewart and Danny Coulombe. Rogers will mix in with bullpen holdovers Cole Sands, Justin Topa and Kody Funderburk.
“It’s the most obvious area of need coming into the offseason, something we feel like ‘Rog’ is a step in that direction, but help in that regard is going to come in all shapes and sizes," general manager Jeremy Zoll said ahead of the team's annual fan festival.
The 32-year-old Caratini, who will also be in the mix at first base and designated hitter while backing up catcher Ryan Jeffers, hit .259 in 2025 in his second season with the Houston Astros and set career bests with 12 homers, 46 RBIs and 386 plate appearances.
The 32-year-old switch-hitter has a .244 batting average over nine major league seasons. The Twins will be his fifth different team. Among active catchers with a minimum of 3,500 innings behind the plate, Caratini's catcher ERA of 3.92 ranks eighth best in baseball.
To make room on the 40-man roster for Caratini and Rogers, the Twins designated right-handed reliever Pierson Ohl and catcher Jhonny Pereda for release or assignment.
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FILE - Houston Astros' Victor Caratini sprints to third during a baseball game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas., Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
FILE - Chicago Cubs' Taylor Rogers throws during the eighth inning of Game 2 of a National League wild card baseball game against the San Diego Padres Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley,File)
When Kevin Ketels bought an electric 2026 Chevrolet Blazer last year, he wasn't thinking about the cost of gas. He just thought EVs were better and “wanted to be part of the future.” Now that the Iran war is spiking prices at the pump, the Detroit man is happy he is no longer filling up his 11-year-old gas-powered SUV.
“Electricity can go up, but it won’t go up nearly as much as gas will and it won’t go up nearly as fast, either,” said Ketels, 55, an assistant professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University.
Experts say prolonged high gas prices may drive some EV interest and sales, especially if drivers assume their electricity prices won't be affected by the crises.
But many factors influence consumer EV purchases — and electricity rates.
Drivers of gas-powered vehicles are much more vulnerable to fluctuating prices that result from global conflict than those who charge their cars. The national average for a gallon of regular gas this week was $3.57, up from $2.94 a month ago, according to AAA.
Meanwhile, “residential electricity prices are regulated and are much less volatile than gasoline prices,” said University of California, Davis economics professor Erich Muehlegger. “As a result, EV owners are largely unaffected by oil price shocks.”
But experts say electricity prices have been increasing nationally for a variety of reasons, including surging power demand from new data centers.
“This is an inflationary event,” Holt Edwards, principal in Bracewell’s Policy Resolution Group, said of the war. “Is this the driver in electricity prices? I think probably not. But it’s certainly a contributing factor.”
To what extent oil and gas conflicts could translate to the electricity sector is yet to be seen.
When it comes to the electricity an EV owner is tapping, much of the cost depends on which sources of electricity are in a local grid's power mix, experts say.
Because regulators set residential electricity prices annually, most households are sheltered from month-to-month changes in natural gas costs. Though experts say higher natural gas prices can increase the cost of generating electricity, natural gas prices haven’t risen as quickly or as much as oil prices have recently.
Those are just two of many energy sources — including coal, nuclear and renewables — that power the electric grid.
“The energy component varies depending on the energy you’re using and the price of the energy that you’re using to generate electricity,” said Pierpaolo Cazzola, an energy expert at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “What happens is that in the U.S., the variation of the price of the energy component is smaller than it is elsewhere.”
The experts said persistent war could affect electricity bills in the future. And that is all the more reason for countries to transition to clean power, they said.
“Clean power and electrification combined is what provides the most security,” said Euan Graham, an analyst at energy think tank Ember.
Michael B. Klein, a 56-year-old software developer in Evanston, Illinois, has driven EVs for the past eight years to save on fuel costs and because of environmental concerns.
Every time electrical grid efficiency improves — especially as renewables are added — “I get that benefit no matter what,” said Klein, who drives a Chevy Bolt. “They can improve the efficiency of gas engines, but you have to get a new car in order to reap the benefit of that.”
Several experts say high gasoline prices are a strong driver of EV sales, particularly if high prices persist. Drivers also consider more gasoline-efficient hybrid vehicles during these times.
Car-shopping resource Edmunds analyzed consumer shopping data for the week starting March 2, after the Iran war had begun. They found that interest in hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery EVs accounted for 22.4% of all vehicle research activity on their site that week, up from 20.7% the previous week. Analysts also looked back at the last major nationwide fuel price surges in 2022, and they saw that consideration of electrified vehicles rose sharply then, too.
But whether this means more EV purchases depends on whether buyers expect to save not just now but in the future, experts say.
Adding to the complexity: A sudden increase in EV demand could drive up prices, Graham said.
“I think the real step change would be in whether this causes governments to shift tax, tariff policies around EVs,” Graham said. Doing so would help reduce fossil fuel dependence, he said.
Pretty much.
People who buy EVs have a “really substantial” gas savings over the life of their vehicles even without government tax credits, said Peter Zalzal, an attorney with Environmental Defense Fund.
“We’re talking about thousands and thousands of dollars” in savings, Zalzal said. “And as gas prices increase, those savings are only greater. Fuel costs are a big piece of overall vehicle costs, and increases in fuel prices have significant impacts on people.”
However, the upfront cost of a new EV is still more than that of a gasoline-powered vehicle; new EVs sold for an average of $55,300 last month, while new vehicles overall sold for an average $49,353, according to auto-buying resource Kelley Blue Book. Some experts also expressed national security concerns with EVs because China dominates significant parts of the EV supply chain.
Ketels, the EV owner and professor, said he believes EVs and renewable energy should be a strategic priority for individuals and the U.S. because they could be produced domestically “and we don’t have those fluctuations and those worries.”
But because the federal government has withdrawn many incentives for both, “it puts us at a disadvantage globally,” Ketels said. “I think it’s been a terrible mistake to withdraw these incentives and to attack the sustainable energy industry,” and the war “is just making it that much more obvious.”
Read more of AP’s climate coverage.
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An electric vehicle charges at a station Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Lincolnwood, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
An electric vehicle charges at a station Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Lincolnwood, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Electric vehicles charge at a station Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Lincolnwood, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
