Falvey: Twins plan to build around current team in offseason approach

The annual General Managers Meetings, this year taking place in Las Vegas, tend to mark an unofficial kickoff to the Hot Stove season. It’s not so much that deals get done, but the GM Meetings are where clubs begin laying the groundwork for the moves that will come later in the winter.

For the Twins, some of those moves may come a little more slowly, for a couple of reasons -- filling out a coaching staff, and uncertainty regarding payroll -- but there’s still plenty going on. Derek Falvey, the club’s president of baseball and business operations, addressed reporters on Wednesday afternoon from the meetings.

Here are some takeaways from that session.

Payroll is not set, but Falvey maintains he’s looking to add rather than subtract

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: At no point is Falvey, or general manager Jeremy Zoll, or executive chair Joe Pohlad, likely to come out and flatly say, “This is our projected payroll for 2026.” That’s not how this works, for a lot of reasons.

Instead, the team’s actions will indicate whether the total player payroll for 2026 is likely to be closer to $90-100 million, or closer to $120-130 million. The Twins have needs at first base, backup catcher and in the bullpen, so the question is whether they can add talent without trading veteran players away.

For the second time in a little over a week, Falvey expressed optimism that he will be able to do that.

“I hope that we can add around the group that we have,” he said. “We know we're going to be young. We know we're going to look different than we were a couple of years ago. And to me, that can be exciting, right? You can see a lot of young players that are growing and developing, and we saw some of that at the end of this year. ...

“So I think at this point, you're focused on the forward, as to how you grow a young team, how you add around it, and ultimately, hopefully, over time, we're in a position to really invest more in the future.”

The Athletic reported Wednesday that Byron Buxton, who has a complete no-trade clause, would entertain the idea of waiving that protection if the club were to trade more core players. Falvey sounds as though, at least for now, he is not expecting to have to do that.

Sizemore will be on the coaching staff

New manager Derek Shelton’s staff continues to take shape, with the latest name being a pretty big one. While no formal announcement has been made yet, Falvey acknowledged that three-time All-Star Grady Sizemore will join the staff, with a focus on outfield defense and baserunning. Shelton was Sizemore’s hitting coach for much of his career.

“Grady was always an excellent teammate,” said Falvey, who knew Sizemore when both were with the Cleveland organization. “He was always the kind of guy that went about investing in the group and being the guy that was there to support others. ... I think he's a learner. Think he's someone that can really help kind of build the group out. And obviously, he's had a ton of playing experience. I think he's experienced at the big league level, something we did seek to process in this cycle.”

Larnach’s status is uncertain

One player who might well be traded is Trevor Larnach. The lefty-swinging outfielder/DH made $2.1 million last year and is eligible for arbitration again. As a league-average hitter who does not contribute much in the field, his fit on the roster is not obvious.

That’s especially magnified as the Twins seem to be moving toward a more speed- and defense-oriented style of play. With the 40-man roster and non-tender deadlines approaching, Minnesota has a decision to make.

“I still think really highly of Trevor and his abilities,” Falvey said. “And we're kind of at that stage now where we will acknowledge that we have a number of outfielders, a number of left-handed-hitting outfielders. So we're trying to balance, how do they all fit? What does it look like? Maybe that's an area of depth, so to speak, that we could move on, move from to maybe get another area of need, but we have to assess that whole group in aggregate, and some of that is trying to understand how the market sees all of those players in the event that any of them fit into conversations with other calls.”