NEW YORK — Trevor Richards had a feeling he would be on the move on Tuesday. He just didn’t know where he would be going.

Prior to this year’s trade deadline, the veteran relief pitcher already had been traded three times in his career, including twice at the deadline. And this year, the Blue Jays had given him a heads up that it might happen, too, to prepare him for the possibility.

“It’s always a whirlwind,” Richards said. “This is the fourth time being traded, though, so I kind of know how it goes, and luckily I was on the road, so it’s easier to just pick up and go and meet the team.”

Once he got the news, he hopped in a car and made the drive from Baltimore, where the Blue Jays were playing, to New York, getting in Tuesday night.

Richards, a seven-year veteran, will slot into the Twins’ bullpen, where he will give the Twins another look against lefties and should be able to throw multiple innings.

“He’s a guy that when you bring him into the bullpen, you have a guy that’s pretty much open to anything and is like, ‘Just pitch me,’ ” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It makes our lives very easy, and we can find very good ways to use him.”

He was activated by the Twins on Wednesday, taking the roster spot of Brock Stewart, who was placed on the injured list with a shoulder strain.

It’s a tough blow for both the Twins and Stewart, a late-inning reliever, who first landed on the injured list on May 3 and was out until July 24, spending nearly three months recovering and rehabbing from right shoulder tendinitis.

“I feel for him,” Baldelli said. “He’s very upset after working his way back and again dealing with something health-related. It doesn’t mean his season is over. I don’t believe that.”

Baldelli said Stewart was healthy when he returned — “He was as healthy as you could want him to be after that period of time,” the manager said — but he started feeling something again in his shoulder on Monday.

When he has been healthy across the past couple seasons, he has been one of the most effective relievers in the majors and has been a late-inning set-up option for the Twins. But keeping him healthy has been a monumental task.

Stewart had been knocked around since his return, giving up eight runs in just 2 1/3 innings, including four on Monday in an outing in which he recorded just two outs.

“It’s challenging. It’s difficult. It’s tough,” Baldelli said. “It’s rough news. That’s the reality of the situation. Brock’s going to meet it head on, as are we.”

Briefly

The Twins might be getting another reliever back soon with Justin Topa (knee) progressing well on his rehab assignment. He threw 14 pitches and struck out two during a one-inning outing for the Triple-A Saints on Tuesday. Topa has yet to make his season debut. … Carlos Correa (plantar fasciitis) has progressed to hitting overhand-pitching batting practice. If all continues to go well, he could start jogging in the upcoming days. … Wednesday was the first day this season that Willi Castro did not appear in the game. Though the all-star said playing 162 was a goal of his, he said he wasn’t sad to not play Wednesday. “I just think being healthy right now, I don’t have to play all the games,” Castro said. “They put me in there, and as a player, you want to be in there.”