FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — The Minnesota Twins signed right-handers Liam Hendriks and Julian Merryweather to minor league contracts with invitations to major league spring training and acquired left-hander Anthony Banda in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, adding three veteran options for deepening a rebuilt bullpen.
The 32-year-old Banda had a 3.18 ERA in a career-high 71 games last season for the World Series champion Dodgers, who received an unspecified amount of international bonus pool money in the deal. Banda, who has pitched for eight major league teams in nine years, was one of 12 left-handers in MLB with a sub-3.15 ERA and a sub-.215 opponent batting average combined over the last two seasons.
The 34-year-old Merryweather pitched in parts of the last three seasons with the Chicago Cubs. The 37-year-old Hendriks, a three-time All-Star, has totaled only 19 appearances over the last three seasons because of injuries.
Hendriks, a native of Australia, signed with the Twins as an amateur free agent in 2007. He made his major league debut in 2011 and pitched for five other teams, most recently the Boston Red Sox in a brief stint last year after going 680 days between major league appearances. His 2025 season was shortened by right hip inflammation.
Over a four-season stretch from 2019-22, two with the Oakland Athletics and two with the Chicago White Sox, Hendriks logged 114 saves with a 2.26 ERA and 359 strikeouts and just 47 walks over 239 innings.
Hendriks was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after the 2022 season, delaying his debut in 2023. Then he was sidelined after just five appearances by right elbow inflammation and eventually had Tommy John ligament replacement surgery.
The Twins made room on the 40-man roster for Banda by designating for assignment right-hander Jackson Kowar, who was claimed last week off waivers from the Seattle Mariners.
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FILE - Boston Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks delivers in the fourth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays in Fort Myers, Fla., Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers' pitcher Anthony Banda throws against the Toronto Blue Jays during the seventh inning in Game 4 of baseball's World Series, Oct. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Thursday reported two major incidents that occurred in recent days tied to the massive buildup of forces in the Caribbean Sea — a Marine who died after falling overboard and a collision between two Navy ships that left two sailors with minor injuries.
A report was made Saturday that Lance Cpl. Chukwuemeka E. Oforah, 21, of Florida, had fallen from the USS Iwo Jima amphibious assault ship, the Marine Corps said in a press release. The military used five Navy ships, 10 aircraft and an Air Force Reaper drone in “an extensive, around-the-clock 72-hour search and rescue operation,” the release said, but he was declared dead Tuesday.
It appears to be the first publicly announced death of a service member during the U.S. military operation in the region. The Trump administration built up the largest military presence in the region in generations before carrying out a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug boats since September, seizing sanctioned oil tankers and conducting a surprise raid last month that captured Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolás Maduro.
Also Thursday, U.S. Southern Command announced that the destroyer USS Truxtun and the supply ship USNS Supply collided as the warship was getting a new load of supplies. The maneuver typically has the vessels sailing parallel, usually within hundreds of feet, while fuel and supplies are transferred across the gap via hoses and cables.
The collision occurred when the supply ship was refueling the cruiser USS Gettysburg on one side and the Truxtun approached from the other side, according to a U.S. official familiar with the collision, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a mishap that is under investigation.
Southern Command said two personnel reported minor injuries and that both were in stable condition. The two ships now are sailing safely, the military statement said.
The USS Truxtun left its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, on Feb. 3. The destroyer had to return to port for several days to conduct “an emergent equipment repair” and it ultimately set sail for the Caribbean on Feb. 6, according to a Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operational details.
In the Caribbean, the naval presence alone stands at 12 ships, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as the Iwo Jima and two other amphibious assault ships, which are carrying thousands of Marines.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the collision, which is rare for warships. The Navy's most recent collision occurred in February 2025 when the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a merchant vessel just outside the Suez Canal near Port Said, Egypt. That resulted in minor damage to the Truman but no injuries.
An investigation released in December revealed that as the aircraft carrier was running behind schedule, the officer navigating the ship drove it at an unsafely high speed.
As a merchant ship moved into a collision path with the carrier, the officer in charge did not take enough action to move out of danger and the ship also was traveling so fast that it would have needed almost a mile and a half to come to a stop after halting the engines, the report found.
FILE - U.S. warship the USS Truxtun sails in Bosporus Strait en route to the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, March 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, file)
