All Things 2025-26 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread

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Buxton reconsidering his no trade clause. Can’t say I blame him
 

TRF Guy said:
Buxton reconsidering his no trade clause. Can’t say I blame him
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I wonder if the hometown Braves would consider an overpay for Byron. I'm sure that would be his preferred destination.

I wouldn't blame any player for wanting to leave this dumpster fire of an organization.
 










Gopher_In_NYC said:
The Joe Ryan Experience has left the building🤷‍♂️
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If they're only trading one, I'd bet on the guy that's owed 43 million over the guy that still has to go to arbitration. Although Ryan is much, much more likely to be a malcontent if he stays.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
If they're only trading one, I'd bet on the guy that's owed 43 million over the guy that still has to go to arbitration. Although Ryan is much, much more likely to be a malcontent if he stays.
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I’m betting on the latter portion on your comment, in addition to the reasoning below.

Additionally, Pablo was excellent when he came back from injury in his starts at the end of the season, however, he’s had two significant injuries in back to back seasons and has much more tread on the tires 1396 IP vs. Joe’s 1091 (including all levels & college).

Joe is more dominant/better stuff as shown by his 4.5 WAR last season, vs. Pablo’s career high of 3.5 in 2023. All stats via Baseball Reference.

The aforementioned team control also is another notch in Joe being more attractive to suitors- he’ll simply fetch a much higher return in a trade.
 








Update on 40 man roster and a trade for a Rays reliever (arbitration decisions tomorrow) -

Rule 5 adds fill 40-man roster​

There were no surprises among the six prospects the Twins added to the 40-man roster Tuesday to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.

Last week, I ranked the top Twins prospects eligible for the Rule 5 draft, and they added the first five names on my list — Connor Prielipp, Kendry Rojas, Gabriel Gonzalez, Andrew Morris and Hendry Mendez — plus eighth-rated John Klein, whose stock jumped during a breakthrough 2025 season.

Everyone except Mendez finished this past season at Triple-A St. Paul, and Mendez looks ready to join the Saints’ lineup after arriving in the Harrison Bader trade and hitting .324/.461/.450 at Double-A Wichita. It’s reasonable to expect all six players to see big-league time for the Twins in 2026.

Double-A corner outfielder Kala’i Rosario and Double-A right-hander C.J. Culpepper are the most prominent Twins prospects left unprotected. And though 26-year-old outfielder Kyler Fedko lacks their long-term upside, it’s not hard to envision another team poaching him as a backup outfielder.

After adding six prospects and trading for Tampa Bay Rays reliever Eric Orze, the Twins have a full 40-man roster. That means any acquisition this offseason — including a possible Rule 5 pick of their own next month at the Winter Meetings — would require dropping someone to make room.

At this stage of past offseasons, the Twins have typically left multiple spots open. However, there are still a handful of players on the 40-man roster who could be dropped without much pain whenever necessary. It was somewhat surprising their initial round of roster housecleaning didn’t have more cuts.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Update on 40 man roster and a trade for a Rays reliever (arbitration decisions tomorrow) -

Rule 5 adds fill 40-man roster​

There were no surprises among the six prospects the Twins added to the 40-man roster Tuesday to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.

Last week, I ranked the top Twins prospects eligible for the Rule 5 draft, and they added the first five names on my list — Connor Prielipp, Kendry Rojas, Gabriel Gonzalez, Andrew Morris and Hendry Mendez — plus eighth-rated John Klein, whose stock jumped during a breakthrough 2025 season.

Everyone except Mendez finished this past season at Triple-A St. Paul, and Mendez looks ready to join the Saints’ lineup after arriving in the Harrison Bader trade and hitting .324/.461/.450 at Double-A Wichita. It’s reasonable to expect all six players to see big-league time for the Twins in 2026.

Double-A corner outfielder Kala’i Rosario and Double-A right-hander C.J. Culpepper are the most prominent Twins prospects left unprotected. And though 26-year-old outfielder Kyler Fedko lacks their long-term upside, it’s not hard to envision another team poaching him as a backup outfielder.

After adding six prospects and trading for Tampa Bay Rays reliever Eric Orze, the Twins have a full 40-man roster. That means any acquisition this offseason — including a possible Rule 5 pick of their own next month at the Winter Meetings — would require dropping someone to make room.

At this stage of past offseasons, the Twins have typically left multiple spots open. However, there are still a handful of players on the 40-man roster who could be dropped without much pain whenever necessary. It was somewhat surprising their initial round of roster housecleaning didn’t have more cuts.
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Last year was Orze’z first season in the Bigs with extended action, after a cup of coffee last year.

3.03 ERA in 33 games; over 4 W per 9, so need improvement there.

Here’s a nice little write up on the trade via the AP -

apnews.com

Twins acquire reliever Eric Orze in trade with Rays for minor leaguer to begin bullpen rebuild

The Minnesota Twins have taken a small step toward rebuilding their bullpen by acquiring right-handed reliever Eric Orze in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for minor league pitcher Jacob Kisting.
apnews.com apnews.com

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins took a small step toward rebuilding their bullpen Tuesday by acquiring reliever Eric Orze in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for minor league pitcher Jacob Kisting.

Orze had a 3.02 ERA and three saves in 33 relief appearances last season for the Rays, with 19 walks, 40 strikeouts and a .244 opponents’ batting average in 41 2/3 innings. The 28-year-old right-hander also made 24 appearances at Triple-A Durham, posting a 2.20 ERA with 37 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings.

A cancer survivor, Orze was a fifth-round draft pick in 2020 by the New York Mets and made his major league debut for them on July 8, 2024.

During the week leading up to the MLB trade deadline on July 31, the Twins dealt away their top four relievers: Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Brock Stewart.

Kisting, 22, was a 14th-round draft pick by the Twins in 2024. The right-hander had a 3.79 ERA with 23 walks and 77 strikeouts in 73 2/3 innings over 30 appearances this year between Low-A Fort Myers and High-A Cedar Rapids.
 

Today is the deadline to offer contracts to the arbitration eligible players. Here are their projected salaries and Gleeman’s thoughts on them -

Arbitration projections
Ryan Jeffers$6.6M
Joe Ryan$5.8M
Trevor Larnach$4.7M
Bailey Ober$4.6M
Royce Lewis$3.0M
Justin Topa$1.7M
Cole Sands$1.3M
Ryan Jeffers, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Royce Lewis and Cole Sands are all but certain to be retained at those projected salaries, but the statuses of Trevor Larnach and Justin Topa are up in the air as the deadline nears.

Larnach’s development has seemingly stalled at age 28. Once viewed as a potential middle-of-the-order slugger, he has hit .241/.323/.403 in five seasons and 442 games with the Twins, producing a 101 OPS+ that’s below average for a corner outfielder with limited defensive value.

He’s coming off his healthiest season, leading the Twins in games (142) and plate appearances (567), but Larnach hit just .250/.323/.404 with 17 homers and a 99 OPS+ while seeing most of his action at designated hitter. Players such as Larnach need to hit, and he simply hasn’t done so consistently.

Larnach is best suited to fill a platoon role as a left-handed batter shielded from most left-handed pitchers, against whom he’s hit just .216 with a .585 OPS for his career. But the problem is that he has also hit .247 with a .759 OPS against righties, which is nothing special from a bat-first platoon player.

Self-imposed spending restraintsand a stockpile of younger, cheaper left-handed-hitting corner outfielders in the majors (Matt Wallner, Alan Roden) and minors (Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Hendry Mendez) might convince the Twins to move on from Larnach via trade or non-tender.

It’s a different situation with Topa because his projected $1.7 million salary is barely more than the $780,000 league minimum, and the Twins are in dire need of bullpen help after trading their top five relievers in the deadline fire sale. Topa sits no lower than No. 3 on their bullpen depth chart.

Topa is 34 and has a lengthy injury history that includes missing nearly all of 2024 and ending 2025 on the shelf. But he logged 60 innings for the Twins last season with a solid 3.90 ERA, making up for a poor strikeout rate by inducing lots of grounders and allowing just three homers.

Topa is ill-suited for a high-leverage role, but he’s a competent major-league reliever with a low price tag. If the Twins were to non-tender him, it would stem from their lack of faith in his durability, because freeing up an extra $1 million wouldn’t buy much on the free-agent reliever market anyway.
 

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www.mlb.com

Twins adding catching depth by acquiring Jackson from Orioles

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins began what could be a busy day Friday by addressing a significant need. Minnesota acquired veteran catcher Alex Jackson from the Orioles in exchange for Minor League infielder Payton Eeles. Jackson presumably becomes part of the mix for the club’s backup catcher role, an...
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com
 





𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥: 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗
𝐉𝐨𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐮𝐞𝐫 of the Minnesota Twins is named 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐌𝐕𝐏, obtaining 27 of 28 first-place votes. Mauer hit .365 to win his third batting title while belting a career-high 28 homers.

IMG_2695.jpeg
 

Interesting projection mentioned in The Athletic’s column today regarding the Twins’ roster -

Hayes: Since we’re discussing potential, I found it interesting the other day when FanGraphs’ early projections have the Twins finishing 82-80. I have to imagine most of our readers are shocked by that projection. The starting pitching is why the Twins are projected to be solid.
www.nytimes.com

Twins roster projection 1.0: Where things stand, biggest holes to fill as offseason begins

With a roster long on left-handed-hitting outfielders and short on quality relievers, the Twins have a lot of work to do this offseason.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 


Ope3 said:
Former Twin Sonny Gray is being traded from the Cards to the Red Sox.


www.espn.com

Sources: Cardinals trade durable Gray to Red Sox

The Red Sox are acquiring veteran right-hander Sonny Gray in a trade with the Cardinals, sources confirmed to ESPN. He was 14-8 with a 4.28 ERA last season.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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An article I read said they really coveted Joe, but weren’t going to meet the Twins’ prospect demand.
 

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