Despite a lackluster 82-80 record in 2024 fueled by a September collapse that saw the club go just 9-18 during the season’s final month, the Twins are nonetheless poised to enter the coming offseason with one of the deepest groups of position players in the majors. Veteran first baseman Carlos Santana, utility man Kyle Farmer, and outfielders Max Kepler and Manuel Margot all appear ticketed for free agency, but even after those departures Minnesota figures to have more potentially starting-caliber position players than it can fit in the lineup.
Of course, an excess of talent is never a bad thing. That’s particularly true for a Twins club that relies on Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa, and Royce Lewis as key players despite their substantial injury histories. With that being said, strong showings from players like Jose Miranda, Trevor Larnach, and Matt Wallner in 2024 figure to open the door to more regular playing time while the likes of Edouard Julien, Alex Kirilloff, and Austin Martin remain bench options.
In addition, 2022 first-round pick Brooks Lee has nothing left to prove at Triple-A even after struggling through his first taste of big league action, while top outfield prospects Emmanuel Rodriguez and Walker Jenkins both reached the upper levels of the minors with late-season call-ups to Triple-A and Double-A respectively. While it’s unlikely that Jenkins cracks the big league roster in 2025, Lee should be expected to be part of the major league positional group after appearing in 50 games this year and it’s not hard to imagine Rodriguez finding himself in the majors sometime next year either.
While the club’s positional group certainly has its flaws, they nonetheless came together to post a 107 wRC+ that ranked ninth in the majors and placed them right in line with other playoff-caliber offenses like those in Philadelphia (108 wRC+) and Queens (109 wRC+). That could suggest the Twins would be best served leaving their hitting corps largely in tact this winter, but doing so would pose a major problem; the club is expected to have virtually no money to spend this winter, and the pitching staff is in desperate need of improvements.
RosterResource projects the club for a $139MM payroll as things stand headed into next year, and while The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman notes that club officials have suggested payroll won’t be cut in 2025 relative to the already-diminished levels it landed at in 2024, this past season’s payroll stood at just $130MM. That means the Twins likely need to trim payroll by nearly $10MM even before factoring in the needs of the club’s pitching staff. While Gleeman floats trades of relatively pricey veterans such as right-hander Chris Paddack and catcher Christian Vazquez, who are due a combined $17.5MM in 2025, but Gleeman suggests that convincing a team to take on either of those salaries in full could require the club to attach some amount of prospect capital in order to get a deal done.
Given those considerable restrictions, the Twins may need to get creative to make significant additions to their pitching staff. Perhaps that could mean parting ways with versatile utility man Willi Castro, who has impressed with 5.6 fWAR and a 108 wRC+ during his two years with Minnesota while playing every position on the diamond except catcher and first base. Valuable as Castro has been for the club, he’s set to become a free agent following the 2025 season and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Schwartz to make $6.2MM in his final trip through arbitration this winter. That price tag combined with a lack of long-term club control could make Castro expendable for the Twins, and his better-than-average bat in conjunction with the ability to play capable defense all over the diamond (including shortstop and center field) should make him an attractive piece to virtually any club looking to add to its positional corps.
Of course, another option would be to deal a controllable player who offers less in salary relief but could either bring back a larger return or be parted with fairly painlessly. Dealing away Kirilloff would undoubtedly be selling low on a former first-round pick, but would save the club his projected $1.8MM salary and could theoretically bring back an arm to deepen a lackluster bullpen that ranked just 19th in the majors by ERA despite solid work from the club’s back-end duo of Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax.
Alternatively, it’s possible to imagine the club parting ways with an aforementioned breakout piece such as Larnach or Miranda if they believe this winter to be an opportunity to sell high on a player who has been inconsistent to this point in their major league career, with such a move being particularly palatable if the club believes a rebound season is coming for a hitter who struggled in 2024 like Kirilloff or Julien. It’s possible that parting ways with one of the club’s more promising young players could allow them to bring in a capable rotation piece, bolstering a starting staff that ranked just 22nd in the majors last year despite respectable rookie performances from youngsters like Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa.
Yes
What positional depth? All I see are average to below average players and a few overhyped stars that are constantly injured or underperforming. Who wants that?
“Constantly injured” You have Brian Cashman’s attention.
Congratulations Joe on your first World Series in 15 years. My team hasn’t even gotten to one yet.
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I greatly apologize for my embarrassing prediction that the M’s would be in the WS this year. What a massive failure that prediction was and I lost all my life savings thanks to that bet. Now I’ll have to go work at 7-Eleven or Walmart.
@Old York if you see a job opening let me know
Don’t feel bad ISOB. Was past the half century mark before got to enjoy Boston winning a WS, rather than losing in 7g 3 times previously.. It’ll happen and hopefully before David Simms gets to old to call anymore M’s games.. What a sad day that will be.
@John Good old Dave is starting to show his age a little bit, but he’s such an affable, friendly guy it’s impossible not to like him, even when he thinks the ball is going out of the park when it’s just a regular fly to the warning track.
@Joe says…
If the Yankees apparently only have constantly injured players, then I guess Cashman did a good job of getting the right guys who are constantly injured to make it to the WS.
Hoping for a Mets vs. Yankees World Series! Maybe we can have a similar moment to the Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza moment lol
@Acoss1331
We’d need more roided up players for that.
Ahh… Those we’re the good ol’ days of WWE-MLB.
Old York,
It was certainly entertaining lol
Roger was always a competitive player, but the juices were definitely flowing during that series!
I don’t see as much “positional depth” as the article suggests but as of right now with those players the Twins would look like:
C Ryan Jeffers
1B Jose Miranda
2B Edouard Julien
3B Royce Lewis
SS Carlos Correa
LF Trevor Larnach
CF Byron Buxton
RF Matt Wallner
DH Alex Kirilloff
Vazquez/Castro/Lee/Martin as the bench.
Not sure how many upgrades can be made trading from that group, especially cheap upgrades if thats what they are looking for
Jose Miranda for Emerson Hancock
lol. Not a chance.
Counter-offer?
W.Castro for Brian Woo
There’s considerably less depth than what you are describing when you take injuries into effect. Fact is this club can never stay healthy so they require being 2 deep in many positions. I think they would be playing a dangerous game by dealing top position players while counting on others to be healthy all season. This team could easily REGRESS next season if they do what you are suggesting.
We’ve got plenty of young starting pitchers at AAA that are ready for their debuts, but it’s hard to mostly rely on rookies as we saw last year. Twins could use a veteran starter, a couple lefties for the pen and a first baseman. How they fill all these holes with no money should be interesting to watch. I’m guessing they try to find a trade partner for Paddack, Vasquez and Castro.
Maybe package Paddack and Castro for a bounce back reliever and a lottery ticket or two?
Trade Buxton while he’s still got some value.
He does ? This 2018 Marty Mcfly ?
He has passed 100 games played in a season twice in ten years and one of those was his 102 in 2024. The Twins would have to eat 70% of his salary and take next-to-nothing in return.
Twins need that depth, their superstar players get injured too often to be trading away their depth pieces.
Them and everybody else lol. Got write and release something thou I guess
I’m trying to think of a possible scenario where they could move Correa, but I don’t see an obvious fit. There are several teams with a need at 3B and not many options on the free agent market. But that salary is steep in a market that is again going to be depressed by TV uncertainty.
Correa is expensive and has been injury-plagued these past two seasons.
Not as immovable as Javy Baez, but pretty close. Were it not for his ongoing injury problems he could be moved easily to a number of clubs even with his salary. For better or worse, MIN is stuck with him.
Other teams can’t wait to trade for the twins depth hitters because all they have to give up is a pitcher they would’ve DFA’d by June.
I would like to see the Twins work something out with the Cardinals for a catcher or perhaps even 2 catchers. The Twins have no long term catchers at all and the Cardinals have way too many. Keaschall for Herrera is probably about right. Cardinals could take Vazquez with the Twins paying most of the salary.
C-vaz is a shadow of his former self. he once closed down the running game by both having like 1.8 POP times and a rifle arm, both of those are more Jorge Posada like now and the bat is like him.. Old and slow. Shame, cause it bothered me when he was traded, then signed with the Twins.
He’s got value now as a backup, cheerleader and all around great clubhouse guy, but for making, believe it’s 10m in ’25? No thx.
Of course it’s a bad contract he would be a placeholder until mid season when Crooks is ready.
Same lame organization that traded Rod Carew
He was an “old” 33. smh
Minny’s top two position bWARs.
I want a new car, but I have nothing in my bank account, I don’t want to buy on credit, but I have a house full of very average furniture I can give you in trade.
I think they’re going to trade Lewis.
His value is really hard to figure. I believe the Twins really pissed him off with the 2B thing
No good can come in trading any of them at this point as they’re all as valuable as gently used ALF POGS. But unlike ALF or POGS, they also have a history and/or pedigree suggesting a decent possiblity of a rebound next year (queuing up sellers remorse).
There are 2 minor issues that were not addressed in the article that might have some bearing on what the Twins FO does or doesn’t do with players on their roster this offseason:
1. The owners have made it known that they’re exploring a sale of the franchise.
2. The ML team (players, manager, coaches) absolutely chocked during the stretch run. They should have made the playoffs easily.
A 3rd might be that the GM resigned. He hinted that he didn’t do much (I’d try to distance myself from that disaster if I was involved in any way.). It’s rats deserting ship time.
Get better at writing, Deeds. Intact is one word, not two. And “valuable as Castro was” is NOT proper English. “As” at the beginning of that sentence is not optional. You’re being paid to write; use proper grammar. My goodness.