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As the offseason action swirls with big and small names alike coming off the board, the Twins have yet to step into the fray -- and with the first Spring Training games due in just about two months, there’s still no real clarity on the course of their offseason, which should be largely dictated by this pressing question to sort out before heading to Fort Myers, Fla.:
How aggressively will they swing in the trade market?
As president of baseball operations Derek Falvey outlined at the Winter Meetings, the Twins have about as much pitching depth at this point in an offseason as they’ve ever had, with Pablo López, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober helming the rotation, four more pitchers behind them with Major League experience and a bullpen that very well may be full on paper.
They’ve also got Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis all returning to be the core of an offense that -- despite struggles and health issues from all three over the last several years -- will continue to revolve around those stars.
But how dramatically will Minnesota supplement that roster?
“There's never a perfect roster -- you always want to try and get it better and augment it and make it better,” Falvey said at the Winter Meetings. “There's a good foundation and a good core here that we think can go compete, and we've got to figure out ways to be creative to try and add around it.”
Based on all that, there’s perhaps a version of this offseason where the Twins could still just largely sit pat. That version is where they might swing trades with one or more of their veterans on expiring deals to free up some salary -- that’s Christian Vázquez, Chris Paddack and/or Willi Castro -- and perhaps give themselves a little more financial leeway in free agency, with none of those deals likely to provide significant value if they do use them for salary relief.
But when faced with this kind of roster question in the past, Falvey and company haven’t shied away from bigger moves, toying with the push and pull of a big league roster to make bigger impacts.
Remember when they traded Luis Arraez before the ink had even dried on his batting title to bring López into the fray? How about when they moved Mitch Garver two years removed from a Silver Slugger Award? Or, before that, when they parted ways with a young Brusdar Graterol -- at the time, their top pitching prospect -- to bring in Kenta Maeda?
And it was only last offseason that they traded away franchise stalwart Jorge Polanco in a move that brought back, as part of the full package, two big league pieces (though Anthony DeSclafani never pitched for Minnesota, and Justin Topa has only barely done so to this point).
The Twins are clearly very deep in pitching, and they have young hitters all over a very flexible roster that can both positionally and depth-wise hold up to a few pieces being switched around. To what extent might they make some difficult decisions and tinker with core elements of this roster, much in the way they remade parts of their coaching staff?
The top of the free agent starting pitching market has mostly settled (with the noted exception of Corbin Burnes). Could Ryan or Ober fit a pitching-needy team who missed out and wants a solid, controllable pitcher without breaking the bank? Could Griffin Jax or Jhoan Duran fit a team that doesn’t want to pay top dollar for a back-end reliever?
Among the Twins’ current needs are a right-handed bat in the infield and outfield (position isn’t hugely important at this point), maybe a first baseman, and perhaps a left-handed reliever for a group that currently only has an inconsistent Kody Funderburk and swingman Brent Headrick as options from the left side.
But the exact nature of those needs could likely also come down to being reactive and opportunistic by seeing where potential trade partners have needs and areas of excess -- and, in that regard, Falvey did describe the Twins as being in “wait-and-see mode” as they exited the Winter Meetings a week and a half ago.
If they can find a match, they haven’t been hesitant to take advantage of trades -- and this is a roster that can accommodate any manner of fits.