The Twins are known to be working with little to no financial flexibility as the deadline approaches, as ownership’s big-picture revenue concerns continue to limit how much new money the front office can add. RosterResource projects Minnesota’s payroll at roughly $127.8MM, as offseason cuts have already significant reduced spending from the team’s $158.8MM payroll from 2023.
Exchanging salaries might be the Twins’ most logical way of adding some help to their roster, and with this in mind, The Athletic’s Dan Hayes writes that “the Twins have listened to offers” from other teams about such controllable players as closer Jhoan Duran, and more obvious trade candidates like pending free agents Max Kepler or Manuel Margot.
Of course, listening to offers is a long way off from actively shopping players or having any particular inclination to move them, as Hayes notes that “the cost for Kepler and Duran is said to be extremely high.” It can be assumed that Margot’s price tag is significantly lower, which isn’t surprising for a backup outfielder hitting .243/.302/.341 over 235 plate appearances this season. Margot has roughly $1.3MM still owed on the Twins’ $4MM share of his overall $10MM salary for 2024, as the Dodgers are covering the other $6MM as per the terms of the February trade that brought Margot to the Twin Cities.
Kepler’s name has popped up in trade talks several times over the years, and he has about $3.33MM left on his $10MM salary for the 2024 season. Kepler is a trickier player for Minnesota to replace since he is the primary right fielder and a solid defender, though he hasn’t traditionally had much success against left-handed pitching. Even against righties, Kepler is hitting a modest .258/.317/.403 in 244 PA this season, so he doesn’t exactly offer a big splits advantage.
With this in mind, it seems perhaps a little odd that the Twins want an “extremely high” return for rental player like Kepler. However, the Twins likely aren’t keen to substantially diminish their outfield depth given how many injuries the team has already fought through this year, and moving Kepler would then present Minnesota with another challenge in finding a replacement.
Duran is a different story altogether as a trade candidate. For a team with a limited payroll, Duran is a particularly huge asset since he doesn’t reach arbitration eligibility until this winter, and he is under team control through the 2027 season. Trading the closer therefore wouldn’t provide any help to Minnesota’s financial concerns, unless perhaps the Twins attached a larger contract along with Duran as part of a trade package. That tactic, however, would lessen the value of one of the Twins’ top trade chips, in terms of what the team would receive in terms of an on-field return.
In another report earlier tonight, Hayes wrote that the Twins had some talks with the Dodgers about Duran, but wanted players who could help this season, rather than the Dodgers’ preferred offer of prospects. Trading a closer might be simpler for a team just looking to cut payroll, yet the Twins are trying to thread the needle by both limiting spending and remaining competitive, as the team is in possession of an AL wild card spot and they’re 5.5 games behind the Guardians for the AL Central lead.
Kepler would make some sense for the Mariners
Phillies could pony up Justin Crawford, Mick Abel, Griff McGary, and Carlos De La Cruz for Duran
McGary isn’t worth much if anything anymore. Almost walking a batter an inning. And I don’t know if Phillies would sell so low on Abel
The Twins have been trying to trade Kepler for years. The Mariners have no use for an outfielder who can’t slug even .400 and needs to be platooned. We already have two lefty hitters who have to be platooned — Raley and Rojas. Clearly the Twins are delusional if they think anyone is going to give them good prospects for Max F Kepler!
two of the last 3 years Kepler has hit single digits in homers. What a great player.
Weird metric to use to judge a player on their offensive contributions. Would have gone ops+ wrc but alright.
Rojas .255/.337/.390
Raley .235/.294/.425 defense -4.8
Kepler .
261/.322/.405 righties
.281/.312/.386 lefties
defense 0.1
You don’t really need to platoon Kepler who’s handled lefties fine this year plus offers better defense.
The Twins are mired in an extended Pohlad.
Twins should be buying, not listening to offers on Duran
Duran makes no sense. If anything they should be looking to improve the bullpen. just look at Monday’s game… all five relievers let runs get across the plate (3 gave up runners they inherited. No one in the pen has closer stuff like Duran.
I do think moving paddack to the pen would be the best move. He did well in that role last year. They might just let his rehab go long and stash him with the saints.
they have no money and won’t spend. Can’t add unless someone takes expensive players off their hands. that aint happening.
Duran is making less than $1 mil. He is dirt cheap for a guy throwing a 104 heater with all his other pitches not far behind. He’s also controllable for a long time.
Moving him wouldn’t make sense unless they got a haul with another team footing the bill.
Damn how depressing. Twins should be buying buying buying but ownership can’t afford it. Sell the damn team then. Really depressing and bad for baseball all around. Other MLB owners should not want owners like this in their little monopoly they have going (or maybe they do, because the Twins owners aren’t the only culprits.)
Sell the team
Get that kid with the same mom as Pete Crow Armstrong. He did a hell of a job in 94.
This is getting ugly. Starting to hope they do nothing
I wonder if the Twins and Pirates might have a deal on the backburner for deadline day?
Kepler for Martin Perez or Marco Gonzales would be a convenient swap for two cash strapped clubs.
It’s not ownership it’s the TV deal or lack of one that’s messing everything up. Media deals can be the difference between a profitable team and one losing money. That money is a sizeable piece of the overall viability of a team. Why do you think the yankees, dodgers, red sox and cubs have such deep pockets?! It’s not the ticket sales I’ll tell you that much.
If the Twins won’t spend, this makes sense. The RSN uncertainty does hamper it but it will be sorted out, so ownership can bite the bullet for a year or two to compete.
With the analytic age, closers don’t mean the same to a number of teams. You can win without an elite closer. The Phillies and Dodgers don’t have an “elite” closer and teams like the Guardians & Yankees got their current closers for cheap and molded them.
The Twins have some glaring holes and while they have the Lopez/Ryan/Ober core on cheap deals, if a team sees Duran throwing 103 and think that will make their team stronger and they part with 2-3 pieces that can help the big league club in the next 2 years. It would be smart to consider it.
Especially since Cleveland looks strong for the future, the Royals look to be ahead of their timeline, and the White Sox are finally rebuilding. It doesn’t look like the Twins can just roll out of bed and guarantee the finish top 1-2 in the division now.
I’m think the future is bright. Correa, Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, buxton, Miranda, Wallner. AL is wide open really. Their holes aren’t really any larger than other teams if we stay healthy.
We have a good lineup, it’s pitching we need. Not just this year but next year and beyond. This bullpen of ours which was thought of as one of the best at the beginning of the year, needs immediate replacements. Especially lefties. We have three lefties on the roster, one is injured and the other two have been bad. DFA candidates on any other playoff hopeful team.
Teams that cried “poor” with RSN issues this year, including the Twins, will receive up to $15M each from the MLB luxury tax pool to help offset the financial hit. It remains to be seen whether Jim Griffith, I mean Pohlad, will use any of the windfall to add talent to the team, or stuff it all into his $4B pockets.