MINNEAPOLIS -- Trevor May was so excited to have a seven-figure salary this season after he and the Twins settled at $2.205 million in his final year of arbitration eligibility. Then, the pandemic hit, prorating salaries around the league and leaving May in the six figures for yet another season.

"Still yet to get to the seven digits," May said on a video call on Friday. "Still haven't gotten there. I was so excited. I was really excited to say that. I call it the 'Dos Commas Club,' and I'm still not in it."

Either way, if May has another season at the caliber of his 2019, he should be in good position to finally break that barrier when he enters free agency at the end of the '20 season. Well, he would have been in a normal year, anyway. There's no way to know if and how that might change due to the shortened season, and that's part of the uncertainty that the Twins' impending free agents will face as they navigate the uncertainties of a shortened walk year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Whether players are entering free agency for the first time like May, veterans with expiring short-term contracts like Marwin Gonzalez, or even on a one-year qualifying offer deal like Jake Odorizzi, there's consensus that this topic is weighing on minds around the clubhouse as the season approaches. But like everything else about this pandemic and the associated consequences, players in this position know that much of it is out of their hands.

"It's hard not to think about that when this is a thing that you love and what you're going to be doing, hopefully, for the next few years," González said. "It's nothing you can control. Obviously, it's going to be hard. Something new for everybody. It's not just for the free agent guys. Just 60 games to perform, and going into free agency is going to be hard."

May feels that the lack of any precedent, or personal control, in a situation like this could actually help clear his mind and worry less in the moment about contractual matters. The 30-year-old added 1.5 mph to his fastball last season and lowered his ERA to a career-best 2.94 in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery.

"That actually is a little bit liberating," May said. "It allows you to go out and just play. ... Just going to take it one day at a time like usual and try to stay healthy and be on the field, because no one is going to pay you if you don't play."

This was shaping up to be quite an important year for Odorizzi, who accepted a one-year, $17.8 million qualifying offer during the offseason to return to Minnesota instead of testing the market for a multi-year deal. Another season at or near the level of his 2019, when he posted a 3.51 ERA and a career-high 178 strikeouts, could have put him among the top tier of free-agent starting pitchers this coming winter.

Odorizzi said he still doesn't regret taking the qualifying offer and feels that his results, at least viewed through a more traditional lens, might actually be less important to his free agency considering the shortened season.

"I’ve just got to go pitch and whoever wants to take a chance, an opportunity, you’ve kind of proven over the years what you are, so 60 games in my mind doesn’t really change that," Odorizzi said. "You can have a good 60 games, you can have an average one, but I think a lot of the season is going to be data-driven as opposed to results-driven."

By "data-driven," Odorizzi means that he expects decisions this offseason to be based more on underlying stats and physical metrics than they have in the past, which will likely be a necessity due to the limited (and higher-variance) on-field results. As long as those metrics are in line with -- or better than -- those from other recent seasons, he figures he should be in good position.

"We don’t know what the market may or may not be," Odorizzi said. "Teams may spend, and there’s going to be teams that are in OK positions. Ultimately, if a team wants to win, my services are available, so I think it boils down to wanting to win. If you want to win, you’re still going to spend. I think that is what all free agents need to have in their head going into this offseason."

That offseason, though, is still three months away, on the other side of a season in which the Twins firmly believe they can contend for a World Series championship. All this worrying can happen then. For now, the promise of this season -- and living up to the potential of this roster -- is front and center on everyone's minds.

"I want to take advantage of the time and this team we have now, because it’s an incredible group of guys," May said. "I might only have the chance to play with these guys again once, and we have as good a team as anybody in the league to go on a two-month run. Last year, we were a team that got hot and stayed hot for a long time. And we’ve got those same guys. There’s no reason we can’t do it again.

"It might be a perfect storm to go out there, abbreviated season or not, and win a championship and be part of that. And contacts don’t really matter at that point."