4 moves the Twins could make this offseason

December 5th, 2022

This story was excerpted from Do-Hyoung Park's Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

1. A Correa reunion

On a macro scale, it seems that the course of this Twins offseason will come down to the question of whether they’ll be able to bring back Carlos Correa and keep the star shortstop in a Twins uniform for the foreseeable future.

Even with Kyle Farmer in the mix following a trade with the Reds, the Twins have money to spend, a pre-existing relationship with Correa and a need for difference-making talent. By all accounts, from Correa himself to his teammates, the shortstop really did enjoy his time in Minnesota -- but selling a star-level player on the Twins is never a given.

If the Twins are going to commit long-term to a player in a manner that this front office hasn’t before, Correa would fit the bill perfectly as a player who is still only 28, is a key clubhouse leader and, again, really enjoyed Minnesota.

“I talk to him just about every week,” Byron Buxton said. “Me and him have a great relationship. I know what he wants to do. He knows what he wants to do. It's up to [the Twins] to go back and get him. So it's the bottom line. He wants to be here. It's up to us to go get him.”

2. A timeshare catcher

With Gary Sánchez, Sandy León and Caleb Hamilton all gone, the Twins have only Ryan Jeffers on their 40-man roster to cover catching duties. Their strong preference under manager Rocco Baldelli has been to split time behind the plate between two players, and president of baseball operations Derek Falvey has indicated that will, once again, be Minnesota's goal.

The Twins don’t have internal options either, meaning that they’ll either have to dive into a free-agent class headlined by Willson Contreras (with Mike Zunino or Omar Narváez behind him) or swing a trade, perhaps with the catching-heavy Blue Jays (though Minnesota's farm system is already rather depleted by its flurry of trades).

3. A right-handed bat (perhaps in the outfield)

The Twins’ corner outfield options skew quite heavily left-handed, and that grows even more imbalanced when Buxton has been sidelined by injury. Kyle Garlick and Gilberto Celestino are the other right-handed outfielders, meaning that a productive right-handed hitter with some pop who is capable of playing outfield (and DHing) could do a lot to round out this roster construction. Mitch Haniger could be an interesting name to watch.

4. A top-tier starter

With Justin Verlander and Jacob deGrom both landing elsewhere, the remaining arm at the highest end of the pitching market is now Carlos Rodón, who comes with his own risks and competition. But especially if the Twins miss on Correa and the other big shortstops, there’s an argument that now is a better time than any for Minnesota to make a riskier pitching acquisition.

The club already has a full starting five -- Sonny Gray, Tyler Mahle, Kenta Maeda, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober -- with depth behind them in Josh Winder, Louie Varland and Simeon Woods Richardson. There’s no need to raise the floor. The way to make a difference would be to invest in a pitcher who would raise the ceiling -- and all that depth (including the full starting five on paper) could help mitigate the downside of injury risk.