When the Twins traded for minor-league utility man Diego Castillo and sent him to the injury-riddled Saints on April 5, it amounted to adding a warm body.

Sunday afternoon at CHS Field he was the hottest of a suddenly hot-hitting Saints lineup, as the Saints opened up an 8-0 lead and held on for a 13-11 win over the Iowa Cubs.

Castillo, acquired from the Baltimore Orioles organization for cash considerations, led off the bottom of the first inning with his second home run with the Saints before adding three singles.

He said opening the game with a home run definitely got the juices flowing. “It gave me a lot of confidence to keep going,” Castillo said.

The 26-year-old Castillo appeared in 96 games with Pittsburgh Pirates in 2022, hitting .206 with 11 home runs and 29 runs batted in. The Twins are his sixth organization since then, but with the number of the injuries the Twins and Saints have had, it looks as though he has landed in a good spot.

“Opportunities are out there all the time,” Castillo said. “It’s a good opportunity whenever I’m still playing baseball.”

Primarily an infielder, Castillo said he learned to play the outfield while with the Pirates. He played right field on Sunday, after making three starts at second base, three at third base and two at shortstop.

That versatility can only enhance his chances of getting back to the majors, and Castillo is confident he will get another opportunity.

“I feel like playing hard is the key for every player,” Castillo said. “I was there with the Pirates; I spent a good amount of time there. The big leagues are the best. I feel working hard and playing hard are going to take me there again.

“Wherever they send me to play I am going to give my best. If they send me to the big leagues, it will be the same.”

Castillo had a lot of company when it comes to offensive stars on Sunday. The first four batters in the Saints’ lineup — Castillo, DaShawn Keirsey Jr., Yunior Severino and Chris Williams — were a combined 10 for 20, with three home runs, two doubles and nine RBIs.

Severino, who hit 35 home runs last season between Double-A Wichita and the Saints, which tied for the most in minor-league baseball, is hoping his slow start to the season is behind him. He entered the game with a batting average of .095, with one home run and two RBIs.

Severino hit a three-run homer in the third inning and added a two-run double in the fifth.

“I feel good,” Severino said through Castillo, who served as his interpreter. “I never changed my routine. I’ve been working hard, and I know good things are going to come.”

Coming off such a big year, which moved him up among the Twins’ top prospects, the 24-year-old Severino said he has not felt any added pressure this season to duplicate — or exceed — what he did last year.

“There’s no pressure on me,” Severino said. “This is a new year. I’m going to keep giving 100 percent. I’m not thinking about last year.”

Saints starter Caleb Boushley was staked to an 8-0 lead after three innings, but he wasn’t able to stick around to pick up the win. He held the Cubs hitless through the first three innings, but was touched up for six hits and three runs before exiting with two outs in the fifth.

The Cubs scored three runs in the sixth and four in the seventh to change the complexion of a game that appeared on its way to being a rout.

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DETROIT — Caleb Thielbar decided to switch up his routine to start incorporating more running into it after not doing much over the past three years.

Why?

“To prevent lower body injuries,” Thielbar said.

The irony is that Thielbar ended up suffering the type of lower-body injury that he was hoping to prevent, straining his left hamstring while running during spring training.

He didn’t pitch in a spring game and missed the first couple of weeks of the Twins’ season. But on Sunday, he was finally activated from the injured list after a pair of rehab outings in St. Paul.

“It was frustrating. More just frustrating how it happened, me being an idiot,” Thielbar said before Sunday’s game. “I learned my lesson, so thankfully I only missed 10 or 12 games, whatever it ended up bein. So plenty of time to end up having a good, productive season and help these guys out.”

Thielbar has been one of the Twins’ most productive relievers over the past four seasons, though his return Sunday did not go quite to plan.

He allowed a home run, a hit that likely should have been ruled an error, and another single before departing Sunday. Three earned runs were charged to him, and he recorded just one out in the Twins’ 4-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers.

“He’s a good pitcher, so yeah, it’s not what you expect,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But he’s not going to make any excuses. It’s his first outing back in the big leagues. Been out a while, and sometimes it takes time to be sharp.”

The 37-year-old lefty is now one of three southpaws in the Twins’ bullpen, more than they usually carry. To make room for him on the roster, the Twins optioned Jorge Alcala, rather than rookie lefty Kody Funderburk. Steven Okert, the other lefty in the bullpen, has been seeing some high-leverage opportunities that likely would have been Thielbar’s in his absence.

Thielbar provided a fresh arm for a bullpen that was heavily taxed during Saturday’s doubleheader. Alcala pitched two innings, picking up the win in the first game. He had yet to allow an earned run in 8 1/3 innings at the time he was optioned back to Triple-A.

“I talked to Jorge about a couple of things specifically — working ahead of hitters, coming in with his best stuff — but he did a good job for us,” Baldelli said. “We just know over the course of the season, the bullpen guys will take the brunt of some of this at times when we do need to activate someone or bring a new arm up.”

Wallner off to tough start

Matt Wallner sat most of Sunday — he pinch hit and walked in the ninth inning —  amid a slump that has seen him strike out in 16 of his 32 plate appearances this season.

The Twins’ left  fielder has collected just two hits in 24 at-bats. One, a home run, came on Saturday against Zach McKinstry, a Detroit infielder. But Baldelli has often praised Wallner for his ability to make adjustments. And though he has had a difficult start to the season, he pledged his faith in the outfielder.

“He’s had a tough go of it. I don’t think there’s any way around the fact that he’s either not seeing it well or the swing doesn’t feel right to him,” Baldelli said. “He’s a player that we believe in, though. … This happens to everyone at one point or another in their career and in their path. It’s not an easy thing to go through, but he can handle it. He’ll be OK.”

Briefly

The Twins will send Louie Varland to the mound Monday in Baltimore, where they will see Major League Baseball’s top prospect, Jackson Holliday, who was recently called up by the Orioles. Chris Paddack and Pablo López are also lined up to face Baltimore.

A shot at the No. 1 seed was still in play in the regular season finale Sunday.

But any path to that required a victory Sunday against Phoenix.

And, uh, that didn’t come to fruition.

Phoenix blitzed Minnesota 125-106 at Target Center, knocking the Timberwolves down to the No. 3 seed and moving Phoenix up to No. 6.

So the Wolves, who were non-competitive in all three games against Phoenix this season, will square off with perhaps with the team they match up worst against in Round 1.

Game 1 will be next weekend at Target Center.

Minnesota better search for some answers between now and then. Because the Wolves never were within single digits in the second half of any game against Phoenix all season.

In the first matchup of the season, the Wolves were on the second half of a back to back. So that loss was chalked up to that. In the second loss, the Wolves essentially said they just weren’t themselves and didn’t knock down shots. Plus, those games were in Phoenix, so Sunday was a good test to see how the Wolves would fare at Target Center.

Answer: Not well.

There was no ready-made excuse for Sunday’s debacle. Minnesota had loads of incentive to win. But it again sputtered out of the gates, committing an insulting 19 first-half turnovers, which tied an NBA record.

And Phoenix continued to get seemingly whatever it wanted offensively. Prized offseason acquisition Brad Beal went 6 for 6 from deep en route to 36 points. Grayson Allen was 8 for 11 from the field. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, frankly, didn’t have incredible days. And it didn’t matter.

Because Minnesota’s size can’t seem to lineup man to man against Phoenix’s plethora of scorers. The Wolves’ path to victory in the first-round series will be to out-size Phoenix. They did to some extent Sunday. Jusuf Nurkic was in foul trouble for much of the night. Rudy Gobert drew one foul after another. The center helped Minnesota make mini runs in the second half. But every Wolves’ burst was greeted by another Phoenix made shot to stem the tide.

If nothing major changes in the playoffs, the Wolves may be making another early-round exit.

The Lynx stacked their roster in free agency, signing the likes of Courtney Williams and Alanna Smith, while trading for Natisha Hiedeman.

So the needs to add to the roster via Monday’s WNBA Draft isn’t entirely pressing for Minnesota.

“Obviously, we were really aggressive in free agency. We landed well with some players that gave us depth and balance. So we feel good that we have a long list of draft prospects here that are quality players and can help us, no matter what,” Lynx general manager Clare Duwelius said. “And I think their role, given that we’ve added some talent across the board on our roster, they’ll be in a really unique situation where they can just come in, do what they do, do what they’ve done to get themselves in this position. We’re happy with the work that we did in the offseason.”

Whoever that player is will be added at No. 8 on Monday, as things currently stand. Because Minnesota swapped the No. 7 pick with Chicago for the No. 8 pick.

Minnesota also added a second-round pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft and forward Sika Koné from the Sky, while Chicago also received the rights to forward Nikolina Milić. The Lynx also will get the option to swap first-round picks with Chicago in 2026 should they choose to do so.

Those are the types of moves — adding potentially valuable future resources to slide down a spot today — that you can make when you’re comfortable with where your current roster stands.

“We added a lot of good pieces that are going to be really great for Phee, K-Mac, Dorkha, Diamond and obviously they’re working really hard right now,” Duwelis said. “We feel really good about that progress, but there’s always more than can be done.”

And, even at No. 8, there are pieces Minnesota can nab. LSU forward Angel Reese could be available there, as could Australian guard Isobel Borlase, Utah wing Alissa Pili or Syracuse guard Dyaisha Fair.

Frankly, Minnesota was likely outside the range of selecting a surefire star at No. 7. There’s probably not a Napheesa Collier to be found in the middle of this year’s first round. But that doesn’t mean the Lynx can’t still get a quality player at No. 8.

“The strengths of the draft class — it is a strong one. I think  — is a lot of solid, quality post” players, Duwelis said. “We talk about the floor and the ceiling of players a lot. You know what these players,top prospects, especially where we’re drafting … you know exactly what they’re going to give you every night.

“I think that’s fun in trying to figure out exactly what you want to plug into your roster. I think there’s a lot of quality posts and then, yeah, just trying to see those things that translate to the W, exactly.”

The Lynx also hold the No. 31 pick in the draft.

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