The Twins embarked on the biggest deadline sell-off. It was obvious that they'd trade rentals Willi Castro, Harrison Bader, Chris Paddack and Danny Coulombe. There was enough smoke to believe they'd move one of their top two controllable relievers, Jhoan Duran or Griffin Jax. Given the injury history with Brock Stewart, he seemed a good bet to go as well.
Their week was nevertheless staggering. Minnesota traded both Duran and Jax. They dumped more than $70MM of Carlos Correa's contract for no return. The player they received, Matt Mikulski, was once a notable draft prospect but is a 26-year-old reliever in High-A who'd signed a minor league deal with Houston two months ago. They even went as far as to trade Louis Varland, a Twin Cities native who would've been their best remaining reliever. Varland is controllable for five additional seasons and won't qualify for arbitration until the 2026-27 offseason. Aside from the few hundred thousand dollars they saved by attaching Ty France in that deal, that didn't even cut costs. Minnesota evidently decided that the volatility associated with any relief pitcher was enough to put Varland on the table as well.
Given how aggressively the Twins ripped down the roster, it was almost surprising they didn't go further in the end. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported shortly before the 5:00 pm Central deadline that the Red Sox were making another run at Joe Ryan. It doesn't seem they came close to getting a deal done when Boston balked at trading an MLB outfielder. Still, one imagines the Sox and many others will be eager to reopen those talks once the offseason begins.
The Twins will play out the string with a bullpen comprising journeymen and waiver pickups. To the extent there's any intrigue left this season, it's in getting looks at young players like Luke Keaschall, Alan Roden (acquired from Toronto in the Varland deal) and Zebby Matthews. They acquired 24-year-old righty Taj Bradley in a one-for-one swap for Jax and added 23-year-old righty Mick Abel as part of their return for Duran. Both are starting their organizational tenure in Triple-A but could get a look later in the season.
While the next couple months won't be particularly interesting, the Twins are facing a massive offseason. What could be in store?
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
- Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
- Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
- Remove ads and support our writers.
- Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker
Somewhere down in the basement
The Twins have a ton of talent. They still have good players on the big league team and they are loaded with good prospects many of which are ready for the bigs.
They will be fine next year especially in that division. They have an ace in Ryan and a star in Burton. I pick them for second place next year.
For me, the most fascinating thing is what caused them to build up so much debt? Are we to believe that the Twins were operating in the red for the last several years in spite of their relatively low payrolls?
Bullpens can be rebuilt overnight and Correa wasn’t doing anything that’s going to make him impossible to replace. But if the franchise has serious revenue issues, that could have some major implications.
I agree the debt is particularly interesting, and while this is pure speculation, I would not be surprised to find out the owners borrowed against the Twins knowing that they could sell the team at a considerable profit and pay off their debt, to fund other businesses. Also I think a lot of older owners are getting out because they don’t want to deal with the headache of the transition from the RSN model to streaming or some other model that will be the future of how we watch sports. Its silly and baseball is already making progress on that transition, but to some it definitely seemed easier to just make a multi-million dollar contract with a RSN and roll in the money.
This is the prevailing opinion, borrowing money against the Twins to fund other business ventures. No idea whether it’s correct, but in general the Twins have been profitable.
We have seen a decline in revenue in the past two years, but that is mainly due to media contracts (lack thereof) and the fan base being alienated by ownership cutting payroll after winning a playoff series.
To add on, whoever the new owners of the Twins will be, they will be welcomed with open arms. They will probably be the most popular people in the region.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around how they built a nice domed stadium for the football team and built a really nice open air stadium for the baseball team! I couldn’t believe they didn’t at least do a Milwaukee thing and put a retractable roof on it.
I don’t remember all the details behind Target field, but the majority of the costs to build Target field was funded publicly by imposing a 0.15% tax in Hennepin county. The lease goes through 2039 and current legislation is proposing to extend the lease by another 20 years with an annual amount allotted for maintenance and renovations. I think most were opposed to a retractable roof due to the extra cost.
The Vikings are the #1 team in town and it’s not even close. The vast majority of US Bank stadium was funded by the MN Vikings owners. Hope that clears some things up.
Not really. Like my old man always said if you’re not going to do it right then don’t do it at all. The cost of the roof could have been offset by the hosting of other events when the baseball team wasn’t there. Like Rodeo’s, maybe wrestling or other stuff I’m not smart enough to figure out that somebody should have. Just my opinion but hey if you’re happy it’s cool by me! LOL Since baseball insists on starting in mid March now and goes to November I hope you have good coats and enjoy watching baseball with players wearing parkas!
Over the last several seasons, the Twins have had record-high payrolls for their club.. despite the spending, poor on-field performance.. a nosedive in attendance.. and lost their TV deal.
The paywalls are annoying and has me considering abandoning this site.
Oh God, the horror of having to pay 4 dollars a month for content!
I agree that paywalls are annoying, but as someone who has been reading MLB trade rumors since it started, I have noticed a massive up tick in chats and these kinds of opinion articles ever since they rolled out the front office subscription. So really what you paying for is extra stuff they did not produce before, it’s not like ESPN where 95% of their articles are locked behind paywalls now, or the Athletic where it’s subscription only. You can still use the site for everything you got from it in the past without paying, you just won’t get the extras. Also as far as subscription prices go they are pretty cheap.
Hear, hear! IMHO they are easily worth twice the price.
agree though I won’t stop reading. I am still able to read most of what I want…don’t need to pay for anything else.
Regarding the one poking fun because it is four bucks…sometimes it’s the principle, but honestly I have never paid for an internet site and never will.
The principal Oh, FFS.
Somebody is producing content for your consumption. You need a reality check and probably a paycheck.
The 10 cents a day is nothing. N O T H I N G.
Sideline yourself. It’s a sad act.
You’re entitled to your opinion, obviously, but like 95% of the content on this site is still free. All news stories and transactional information articles are still free. For me, the low cost and the reality that MLBTR needs to do this to keep the lights on makes it worth it for me. They’re not forcing anyone to pay to access almost all of the articles here, like some news websites have done.
10 cents a day. Busted. Don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out.
“Gee Bobby. Bye. Are you gonna call me?”
First thing’s first, they need new ownership. The quicker that happens, the better the team can do to do a proper rebuild. Until then, it’s going to be status quo since the current ownership has debt issues.
The Twins match-up against the Yankees next week and should expose exactly how far the Yankees have fallen. Boone will get out managed again and the bullpen will be over exposed and cooked. All this from a team, Mr. Franco clearly points out, has several holes to fill and is now clearly rebuilding.
Astros are coming into Yankee Stadium this weekend and that’s going to be a show in fron of their fans. Jomboy is going to have an aneurysm watching Boone manage that series.
They looked better than the Detroit Tigers !
They’ll be OK.
Yeah they will be fine. Saving money now, added a bunch of prospects and having money to spend in the offseason.
We’ve heard that one before though, most recently with Baltimore last year, who managed to lose their best pitcher and made Tyler O’Neill their big spending spree.
As an impartial observer, Isn’t the answer to the question,” It totally depends on who buys the team”? Just sayin
It always is.
The Twins have always had a history of being run well and building it back up quickly. Hopefully they keep that up for their fans.
Minnesota hasn’t spent limited funds wisely in recent years. The $400 million in debt is going to serve as further disincentive to spend in free agency. A quick reload can be safely ruled out.
If I’m Derek Falvey, the only solution is a ruthless selloff of the remaining veteran core this off-season, save for a few youngsters like Raley, Lewis , Wallner and Keaschall.
The farm system is already packed with talented hitters. They may as well restock to the maximum extent possible and try to build a pitching pipeline. At that point, the next step is a series of low dollar, high impact investments in analytics, scouting, coaches and trainers.
Any sale of the team is clearly a ways off. Fixing the foundations of the team will ultimately produce a better product for fans and owners. If they act quickly and decisively a turnaround could come faster than expected.
Still, what a mess. The front office needs to accept the reality of the limited payroll and wisen up.
Hoyer already gifted you a couple of good Pitchers in Gallagher and Armstrong. But 2 stud arms is way to big a price to pay for a utility rental guy no matter how much they needed him. It’s the same as what Hoyer paid for Tucker and Busch. Busch has turned out to be nice player but he was going to be traded or left as rule 5 fodder so he didn’t really command 2 top 100 prospects. But Hoyer is the worst trader in the history of the sport. He overpays for everything shiny he wants. Like Gollum, ” Must have the precious”!
I’m not a twins fan, my username ends in ‘yank.’. Anyhoo, I don’t think the Castro trade was a particularly egregious overpay relative to other deadline trades, just that a veteran centric strategy of team building is outdated for today’s game.
The basic criticism I would level at Hoyer, Cashman, Dipoto, Preller and Dombrowski (possible exception there), is that they’re seemingly always upgrading the 26 man roster and impoverishing the broader organization of talent. Eventually the bill comes due.
The fact that the front office got extended after tearing down the team that they built is absolutely disgusting. The only hoped Twins fans have is that we will have new owners before the offseason really kicks off. Despite dealing almost 40% of the roster, this team showed in this Detroit series that they’re not that far away from being a fringe playoff contender once again. Just need to rebuild the bullpen and find a couple solid hitters
They actually still have a good rotation. Other than that I’m not sure where they go.
As you mention, our rotation wasn’t touched and got even deeper last week with the addition of Abel and Bradley. When healthy, the rotation is Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Matthews, Festa, SWR…Now we also have Abel, Taj Bradley, and about 3 pitchers at AAA that are ready to make that jump.
Two questions about the rotation:
1. Will we retain Lopez/Ryan/Ober during the offseason. My bet is one of the 3 will be traded and my guess is Joe Ryan.
2. Which of all those SP that I mentioned should convert to bullpen arms. The prevailing opinion amongst most fans is that David Festa and Marco Raya (AAA) should make the move and maybe SWR.
Position players: Yes we lost 3 guys on expiring contracts (Bader, Castro, France) and Correa. Correa wasn’t living up to his contract and this was probably the best move we made. Bader and Castro were tougher to lose. However, we still have a good young core in Lewis, Keaschall, Lee, Wallner, and Jeffers; with a lot of talent at AA and AAA that we will see this year and next..
The obvious question is the bullpen. Can 2 or 3 of those starters I mentioned step into high leverage bullpen situations or will we go out and sign some lower tier bullpen arms. If we convert 2 of those fringe starters that are competing for the #5 spot (eg Raya and Festa), we could have a decent bullpen next year. That is all hypothetical though and really don’t know which direction we will go.
To fight the white Sox for last place
Twins received some very good players in return for the veterans @ the Trade Deadline.
They have a lot of young, hungry players fighting to establish themselves as major leaguers as they showed in the recent series with the Tigers.
Very likely that Ownership is trying to “clean up the books” to make the Twins more saleable.
They did the right thing and could surprise people by becoming much more competitive, much sooner than a lot of people think.