After entering the offseason as expected sellers, the Twins have seemingly reversed course. They’re now inclined to hold Byron Buxton, Joe Ryan and Pablo López while making a few depth additions. Speaking at the Winter Meetings, general manager Jeremy Zoll highlighted revamping the bullpen and adding a power hitter as two offseason goals.
Minnesota has never spent much on the bullpen under president of baseball operations Derek Falvey. That’s likely to continue this offseason, as they’ll presumably take a volume approach and bring in a few arms on one-year deals. They could aim a bit higher in their pursuit of a power hitter. That’s likeliest to come at first base.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that Minnesota has checked in with each of Ryan O’Hearn, Rhys Hoskins and Josh Bell. Hayes writes that the front office has around $20MM to spend this offseason. That opens the ability to play in the third or fourth tier of free agent bats. The Twins should be able to find an upgrade over utility player Kody Clemens, who’s probably the top in-house option at first base.
O’Hearn, a lefty bat, would be the most expensive of that trio. The 32-year-old is coming off a .281/.366/.437 showing with 17 homers across 544 plate appearances between the Orioles and Padres. He has been an above-average hitter in three consecutive seasons. O’Hearn has improved his approach while hitting between 14 and 17 longballs in each of the past three years.
That should be enough to secure a multi-year contract. MLBTR predicted a two-year, $26MM deal in ranking O’Hearn the #30 free agent in the class. A $13MM average annual value would evidently be within Minnesota’s overall budget, but that’d leave very little room for the bullpen or a utility infielder. It seems likely the Twins would aim lower if O’Hearn’s market pushes into an eight-figure annual salary.
Hoskins and Bell are more straightforward one-year deal candidates. The former is coming off a .237/.332/.416 showing with 12 homers in 90 games for the Brewers. He got out to a hot start but had a terrible June before suffering a left thumb sprain. That cost him six weeks and opened playing time for Andrew Vaughn, who surprisingly thrived in Milwaukee. Hoskins was relegated to a bench bat role when he returned in September. He’s only a season removed from hitting 26 homers, albeit with a middling .214/.303/.419 overall slash line.
Bell has signed a series of one-year deals over the past few seasons. He played on a $6MM contract with the Nationals in 2025, batting .237/.325/.417 with 22 longballs across 533 plate appearances. Bell is exceptionally streaky within seasons but pretty consistently ends up as a slightly above-average overall hitter at the end of the year. (He has some parallels to former Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario in that regard.) That was again the case this past season. Bell took a .219/.307/.372 line into the All-Star Break before rebounding with a .267/.353/.489 performance in the second half.
Hoskins is a right-handed batter. Bell is a switch-hitter who has generally been better from the left side of the plate. A righty bat might make more sense given the presence of lefty-swinging first base/DH options like Clemens, Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach and Edouard Julien. Lefty-hitting Nathaniel Lowe and right-handed Paul Goldschmidt should also be available on one-year deals.
Is Arraez not a mid tier 1B?
He’s going to Colorado
:cross fingers:
I’m honestly REALLY hoping he does. It’s a great fit for him, it helps make them competitive, and maybe he becomes a trade chip. At least that’s what happened in my OOTP Rockies rebuild lol.
Should be low tier, but someone’s gonna make a mistake and pay him.
Well I hope it’s the twins. Rather have him than bell or Hoskins for sure. Maybe it’s just me being a homer but I like guys who get hits
He’s been an objectively below average hitter for multiple seasons in a row now.
Teams used to undervalue OBP. I believe BA is undervalued in today’s game. Most runs are scored from a hit by runners who got on base by a hit. Hits are important
Wilson Contreras is available if he would wave his no trade clause. Twins are more of a contender in 26 than the Cardinals will be.
I would say he’s mid tier
Typo: “low level”
Twins need Goldschmidt. Would crush on the lefty pitchers.
And the other 2/3 of PA’s?
Oh God this is the Red Sox real plan isn’t it
I’d like O’Hearn.
He’s a really good guy and great in the clubhouse it seemed from the last couple years in Baltimore.
Loved having him in Baltimore and hated to see him go because I think he still has plenty left in the tank. I think whoever signs him will be pretty happy, so good luck in signing him.
Casty can play some 1B…
Kyler Fedko has been slow to reach AAA but could be an affordable in-house RH option if the Twins can continue to give him defensive reps at 1B.
ST success at 1B with Fedko’s seemingly decent corner OF play and a little speed would make him better than the end-of-career, 1B-only RH veterans Minnesota could likely get on the shoestring budget referenced above.
Why does mlbtr believe Wallner and larnach are 1B options? I’ve seen it at least twice now here and nowhere else
Ryan Mountcastle, welcome to the twin cities!
I was going to say the same thing.
Mountcastle would be a good fit as well. He would be on a 1-year deal as well since he is on his last year of arbitration. Probably would cost all that much to acquire.
Twins could extend him with a 2 year deal if they think he’ll bounce back. Really good fielder at 1B, can hit about.260 with 15-25 HRs, if reasonably healthy. A decent reliever is probably all it would take to get him but the Twins traded most of them away last summer.But O’Hearn would hit for higher average and strike out less and can play outfield if needed. He doesn’t have quite the power or glove and is a lefty but he stays healthy
Umm…hello? Okamoto?
Okamoto would be good, but probably going to command a longer term deal at $16-18M AAV. Would love to see the Twins take a risk on Okamoto.
Personally, I really like the Nathaniel Lowe fit. Good career numbers with splits that show he doesn’t have to be platooned. Won a silver slugger in 2022, gold glove in 2023, and was a gold glove finalist in 2024.
Thinking he signs somewhere who’s going let him to play third base
Kinda hope the reds are in on o’hearn
Winter meetings were at one time exciting, now please wake me when it’s over.
Orioles would be happy to trade Mayo and Beavers for Lopez or Ryan.
I doubt that very much.
One sure, but not both.
I want Twins and Rockies to get someone on the FA market because Twins fire sale and Rockies need roster moves 100%
Michael Toglia maybe
No shortage of those out there in FA. No need to trade away anyone for someone.
No more lefty hitting of-1b type please. Doesn’t anyone want them?
the front office has around $20MM to spend
So a first baseman and a couple of relievers is the goal?. They have picked up like 14 catchers since the trade deadline so should be good there.
Why did the Twins reverse course on spending? Are they afraid of a grievance from the players union?
I’d assume because the new minority partners are officially approved (not publicly announced yet) or about to be approved. Rumors seem to be that they will be announced in the next 7-10 days.
Can I interest you in a Christian Walker, dear sirs?
Wilmer Flores. Nice stats of 16-HR 71-RBI and clutch as hell. His stats don’t reflect that he only had 419 INNINGS. Also a great clubouse guy and a real good leader. Very soft talker. Wish we could get him back.
He is, just not a starting caliber player.
Goldschmidt?
lol. Twin looking for options that are cheap but give the fans illusion of them trying… that’s what the article should say. Twins need to sell off completely and rebuild and sell the team
Twins are in the same boat as about half the league. They could spend another $150mil+ annually on players trying to compete with LAD, NYY, PHI, etc or they can sit tight and make margin moves hoping to sneak into the playoffs.
This is giving me flashbacks to other building years, like “Let’s throw a little money at Butch Huskey and see what happens”.