***Official 2025 Minnesota Twins season thread***

[Hollywood42]

Catching prospects so rarely work out and Tait is still so far away that I'm just not putting much stock in him yet. His numbers are good but not amazing in the minors, it's clear he has some big tools and catcher is clearly an organizational need right now, but he's still just so young and so far away that I'll treat anything he may give us someday as a bonus

Sleeping on it a night, still feel like the return is appropriate and solid, and I can definitely see us looking like the winners as soon as next year if Abel is even a solid #4. But I'm still just not sure I understand the urgency when the sale is hopefully, finally, just around the corner

[oldgoldy97]

I love the grade from ESPN:


Though this mostly seems like the Twins dumping a couple of million in salary between Paddack and Dobnak -- don't ever change, Twins -- Jimenez is at least a real prospect,

[Athey49]

Originally Posted by oldgoldy97

I love the grade from ESPN:


Though this mostly seems like the Twins dumping a couple of million in salary between Paddack and Dobnak -- don't ever change, Twins -- Jimenez is at least a real prospect,

Nailed it! I'm pretty mum on the trade. I like our surrounding players and feel like we could have contended for the division next year before these trades. Unless we keep Jax I don't see us doing much next year as well.

[Hollywood42]

I don't know man, we've been saying that about this roster for 2 years now and there's just been way too much bad baseball and too many guys not living up to expectations. Especially with the ownership sale dragging on way too long and by this point impacting this coming offseason too, I don't know why we would expect anything different from this year or last if we rolled into 2026 with largely the same roster

Originally Posted by Athey49

Nailed it! I'm pretty mum on the trade. I like our surrounding players and feel like we could have contended for the division next year before these trades. Unless we keep Jax I don't see us doing much next year as well.

[Mightymango]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

. Especially with the ownership sale dragging on way too long and by this point impacting this coming offseason too,

That is the issue right there. I am frankly shocked they haven't sold more.

I really hope they are out before the CBA talks really get going (sorry off-topic)

[Hollywood42]

Holy cow. Correa is headed back to the Astros

https://x.com/JeffPassan/status/1951011181545570605

No details yet but none needed. What a sad and pathetic way for whatever remaining contending window the Pohlad regime ever had

[Mightymango]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Holy cow. Correa is headed back to the Astros

https://x.com/JeffPassan/status/1951011181545570605

No details yet but none needed. What a sad and pathetic way for whatever remaining contending window the Pohlad regime ever had

Might as well dump Joe Ryan now too. While they are at it throw in Buxton with Lewis on the side.

[Dave34]

Yikes! Younger family member is calling for Luigi to speed up the ownership change...

[Athey49]

Unless they plan on paying Ryan, I find it pretty idiotic to trade away everyone else but not him.

[Eckstein197]

Originally Posted by Athey49

Unless they plan on paying Ryan, I find it pretty idiotic to trade away everyone else but not him.

My guess is the packages weren’t what they wanted and he has plenty of control to be traded in the offseason. More suitors if you want to the offseason for a premium starter

[Eckstein197]

I’m numb after today

The Varland trade broke me

[Hollywood42]

What the hell man

[youseekyoda421]

I did not know the Twins organization was $440 million dollars in debt until a saw a Bob Nightengale tweet: https://x.com/BNightengale/status/19...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

I understand trading looming free-agents, I didn't understand the Correa "trade" (err...giveaway). The optimist in me sees all the trades as shedding payroll to reduce the debt to make a potential sale more attractive. New ownership could be better!

The pessimist in me sees the struggling mid-90's Twins returning albeit without a Puckett or Molitor (sorry Byron).

I will be quite interested to see the Friday lineup card. Tickets will be affordable for the rest of the season!

[cypher]

Another 10 year rebuild

[Hollywood42]

Well, yesterday went way farther than I ever thought it would. I'd love to go through each trade and say how I feel about it, but I don't even want to right now. This was just such a depressing day as a Twins fan. I can't keep thinking about how we go from 2023, a legitimately great team and the most playoff success we've had in decades, to the very next offseason the Pohlads pulling out the rug and slashing payroll. And we've been living with the ramifications ever since and just waiting for the sale to go through

Feel bad for the front office who was lied to about there being an ongoing increased investment in the team and now have to wear this while it impacts their careers. Feel bad for the players who are still around after this with nearly half of the active roster traded away. Feel especially bad for Buxton who just last week was a rare Minnesota sports face of the franchise who made it very clear this was home and where he wanted to be for the rest of his career. Feel bad for myself and other fans who just took a giant middle finger to the face directly from ownership

Such a frustrating, angry, depressing day that just leaves me feeling empty. The worst part is there is such a long road ahead. We are still just waiting for the team to be sold, but I think yesterday sealed the deal that new ownership will clean house when they take over. Gotta separate yourself from anyone associated with this dumpster fire. So not only are there huge unknowns about what the new owner will look like, now we have to worry about what a new front office will look like, and beyond that our roster is basically starting entirely over as well. We still have Joe Ryan for now, but I have to imagine he's traded away in the offseason too. This is just disgusting. Ugh.

[oldgoldy97]

Can Target Field be retro fitted for basketball?

[EBCollectibles]

I thought the team was laughable a week ago but now Dave Chappelle doesn't even sound funny anymore. That all belongs to the Minnesota Twins. One good move was getting rid of Correa he set that team years back. He was laughable.

[clarkzac]

So what team do I adopt as my new favorite team after yesterday? Still trying to wrap my head around the Varland trade the most. Others made sense after they started wheeling and dealing (doesn't mean I like them). But Varland isn't a FA until 2031 I believe, so that's the biggest head scratcher.

Can't fault Correa for wanting out seeing that the team was going full blown rebuild for the remainder of his guaranteed contract.

[Slette]

This team cannot get sold soon enough.

[Eckstein197]

Originally Posted by clarkzac

So what team do I adopt as my new favorite team after yesterday? Still trying to wrap my head around the Varland trade the most. Others made sense after they started wheeling and dealing (doesn't mean I like them). But Varland isn't a FA until 2031 I believe, so that's the biggest head scratcher.

Can't fault Correa for wanting out seeing that the team was going full blown rebuild for the remainder of his guaranteed contract.

I mean I know last week was rough but I mean it’s a little hyperbolic. It was rough but it’s nowhere near the level of changing your favorite team lol. Especially when you consider half the trades were rental players already

Varland was the true only big question mark in my mind, and to a smaller extent Stewart. Everything else made sense. Jax I was also confused on but he asked for a trade plus I like the return of Taj

[clarkzac]

Originally Posted by Eckstein197

I mean I know last week was rough but I mean it’s a little hyperbolic. It was rough but it’s nowhere near the level of changing your favorite team lol. Especially when you consider half the trades were rental players already

Varland was the true only big question mark in my mind, and to a smaller extent Stewart. Everything else made sense. Jax I was also confused on but he asked for a trade plus I like the return of Taj

That comment was made in jest. Of course I'm not switching my allegiance, but now I have zero desire to turn the games on when I get home after work now. Keaschall being activated today might get me to tune in.

Taj is a wildcard for me. After blowing up the team, the Jax trade makes sense, even without a request. Taj is young and has years of control left, but has shown very inconsistent results in the bigs. Sure he was a highly regarded prospect a few years ago, but he was just that, a prospect, and he has yet to prove himself at the MLB level

[Hollywood42]

Alright, I've had some time to stew on all this so time for some more in depth thoughts on the trade deadline

First and most importantly, it's just so frustrating. The moves themselves are one thing, but I just keep going back to the absolute 180 from winning our first playoff games and series in 20 years in 2023, to just a few weeks later Joe Pohlad's ridiculous "right sizing" comment. We finally had a legitimately good team, we were finally getting some investment into the team and the promise of that continuing, and then *immediately* ownership says you know what, never mind, and pulls the rug out from their own front office. And what do you know, with no room to do anything significant ever since, the clear and obvious problems with the team did not magically resolve themselves. And with this sale dragging on and on and on, the past 2 years just feel like a complete waste of everyone's time

So where we found ourselves last week isn't necessarily surprising, but just makes me so frustrated and apathetic. The extreme juxtaposition of where this team was just 2 years ago and where it could be now, to where it actually is now, is so defeating. And it all stems from ownership going back on their word. They promise increased, sustained investment in payroll, we immediately make some big moves like signing Correa, Sonny Gray, and extending Pablo. They immediately go back on their promise, and what do you know, it's extremely difficult to win when you 1-2 players that make up a third to half of your payroll. So we've just been waiting and waiting for this sale to go through, because we have had enough pieces for things to quickly turn around if we just get an owner who's not willing to be so cheap. But that obviously hasn't happened, and at this point a sale could be announced tomorrow and it still would be too late for anything sort of significant moves to happen this offseason. Just a complete waste of time

It sucks the front office has to wear this huge egg on their face. You can be darn sure they would have done a lot of things differently if they hadn't been lied to about payroll by ownership, and especially if they would have known that this sale debacle would have stretched on too long. Did they do things perfectly even considering those huge limitations, no, but that's like asking someone to run a marathon right after you hog tie their legs behind their back. Technically still possible, but you just made it way harder than it needed to be

The players are not undeserving of any blame here either. There are just simply too many guys that didn't progress like we needed them to. That's frustrating as well. So to that extent, I'm looking forward to this rebuild/retool/whatever you want to call it, because ownership situation or not, it's clear that this current group just wasn't it

At this point all we can do is sit and wait for the sale to be announced. The longer it goes on at this point, the more likely it is that we also see Ryan traded this offseason, if not Lopez and Ober as well. I don't think there's time for everything to complete and have a normal offseason even if a new owner is announced tomorrow, but maybe a new owner would at least signal to the front office that there's a chance we can turn this around sooner than later and then we hang onto the starters. But until the sale finally is announced and actually happens, it'll just be tryout mode for all the young guys to try to prove they should have a spot

I'll go through each of the trades a little later on and share some thoughts on each of them individually - and honestly, from a pure baseball perspective, I don't hate a lot of what they did. Get out from a contract that was going to hold you back, capitalize on some bullpen pieces that were getting more expensive and increasingly unlikely to, frankly, matter to a team that can't get a lead to begin with, and most importantly, finally work on shaking up this stale roster. But the reality of this is it all stems from ownership and it's just so difficult to get past that

[Hollywood42]

Opining on the specific trades a little bit - it's still very much a two truths type situation. There is absolutely no way around the symbolism at minimum and harsh reality at maximum that this trade deadline killed this team's chance at ever competing in whatever remaining time there is in the Pohlad regime. And that was still all so completely avoidable. So there is simply no reality in which myself or anyone else should be a fan of these trades or how any of this played out.

At the same time, honestly, a lot of these trades I don't hate. Excluding the pending free agents that give us no value to hang onto beyond enjoying watching Bader and Castro, we only traded bullpen arms, albeit a few very good ones. But there is no point in holding onto a great bullpen when you never have a lead to hold on to anyways, and I do think we have plenty of guys that can rebuild a competent bullpen in fairly short order. You can't really replace a guy like Duran, and a new Jax will be hard to come by as well, but again, until the rest of this team is actually halfway decent, it just doesn't really matter much. But not looking forward to watching some inevitable bullpen breakdowns over the foreseeable future

So with all that said, here's where I've wound up on the trades that happened, putting aside the larger picture frustrations and the fact that it didn't have to be this way, and just working with the reality that these things did happen

First on a large scale - I like that the team is finally being shaken up. I like that this was largely limited to the bullpen - although it is very possible, if not likely, that we were very close to trading Ryan, and perhaps would have moved Pablo and Ober if they were healthy. And maybe that happens this offseason anyways, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But, again ignoring the reasons why this came to be, it's clear this team needs a rebuild/refresh/retool, choose your own adjective. And it's probably going to take a few years at this point. So I'm at least glad that we're done sitting in this perpetual standby mode just waiting for something that isn't going to happen

As for the individual trades - my thoughts on each one, in order of which they happened:

Paddack and Dobnak for Enrique Jimenez - "Great trade, what'd we get". Honestly a little surprised we got anything more than a PTBNL for Paddack, especially with a Dobnak salary dump as well. I do feel for Dobby, he's easy to root for and he might just never be the same after his hand injury, but the fact of the matter is the dude has been bad at every level for years now and wasn't going to be a factor for us

Jhoan Duran for Eduardo Tait and Mick Abel - I was originally hoping to get Justin Crawford in this deal. Some orange flags in his profile for sure, but the hyper athletic, speedy, high on base profile is something I think would have fit so well here. But putting aside this being the most painful deal to process as Duran is in my book the nastiest reliever the Twins have ever had all time, this return is good. Two of the highest rated prospects moved at this deadline. I am by nature skeptical of any 18 year old prospect, skeptical of any catching prospect, and doubly skeptical of any 18 year old catching prospect, but he has a pedigree for a reason. Hopefully he pans out. I am more excited about Abel, who seems like he is a few adjustments away from being a really solid starter, and at minimum another guy that could be a legit piece in the bullpen if needed. I'm sure we'll give him every opportunity to stick in the rotation and looking forward to seeing him in the majors at some point this year. Overall the return for Duran felt a little light to start, I've warmed on it more since, but more or less feels fair both ways

Willi Castro for Ryan Gallagher and Sam Armstrong - Not all that exciting of a return, but I didn't think Willi was ever going to bring in a ton. He's been an absolute blast to watch and a major success story for us, but at the end of the day, he's evened out at a couple win player for us and a slightly above league average hitter. Hope he helps the Cubs make a deep run this year

Carlos Correa for Matt Mikulski - F you, Pohlads. Sorry, said I was going to put the emotions aside in this section, but that's just not possible here. What a joke

Harrison Bader for Hendry Mendez and Geremy Villoria - Getting Mendez who slots in around our 20th best organizational prospect feels like a strong return for a few months of Bader. Mendez has steadily improved each of the past few seasons as he works his way up the minors, so will be fun to see how far he can take it. Expectations are still pretty minimal, but as far as pure rental returns for non-premium players go, this feels great. I will definitely miss Bader, behind Buck and Ryan, Bader was my favorite guy to watch this year. Just wish he had some better images on the Twins cards he got

Danny Coulombe for Garrett Horn - Another one where you can't expect much of a return, so not going to fret over this. Horn does have a nearly 12.5 K/9 early on in his pro career, so that's something

Griffin Jax for Taj Bradley - I think this is going to be the deal that ends up playing the largest role in determining how this deadline looks in the long run. I am not sure if I would have gone for a Taj type if I were moving Jax, but I can definitely still see a quality #2-3 ceiling here. Some tweaks are needed, no doubt, but if it works out, this could be a less extreme mirror of the Nelson Cruz for Joe Ryan swap. But if we can't help Taj make the adjustments he needs to, this one could look pretty silly for going after a starter who is not really a prospect anymore, instead of a more traditional prospect type. I do think Taj is another guy that could be moved to the bullpen and be an impact guy there if starting doesn't work out, but he'll get plenty of opportunity in the rotation I'm sure. I see a wide range of outcomes here, anywhere from Taj being a good middle of the rotation guy for us for the next 5 years, or just an AAAA type. Fingers crossed

Brock Stewart for James Outman - This is the trade I like the least, honestly. Not that I'm mad we moved Stewart or think we could have gotten more - he's filthy when he's on the field, but he's almost thrown more major league innings this year than he has in the past 5 years combined. I am just not sure why we are bothering with Outman. I'm down to give him a shot as a change of scenery guy, he's continued to be a monster in AAA for the Dodgers while it just hasn't worked for him in the majors. And if nothing else he's cheap Buxton insurance that I feel a better about than Martin or Keirsey, despite Outman's struggles. But I just rather would have had a prospect with more upside than Outman has, even if it came along with higher risk too

Louie Varland and Ty France for Alan Roden and Kendry Rojas - I keep going back and forth on this one. I am with everyone else in not understanding the rush to move Louie who is still in pre-arb. But I also don't think you can plan on pretty much any reliever in the league being good for more than 2-3 years in the future so I don't hate cashing in on him. And while I don't think he's going back to this, we do forget that he's just a year removed from putting up an ERA over 7.00. And there's also the fan side of it that was fun to watch and root for the hometown kid alongside Wallner, and it sucks hearing that Varland was devastated being traded away. But on the other hand, from purely a baseball perspective, I do think Louie is replaceable, and I like the pieces we got for him. Roden has been getting crapped on by fans in social media, which isn't his fault, but am I crazy for thinking he has real upside? The guy has basically slashed 3/4/5 in AAA for two straight seasons. I get the argument that we have a lot of corner outfielders already, but let's be real, outside of Buxton, there isn't a single outfielder in the entire organization that we *know* is going to be a quality major leaguer for us. I certainly think we have a few, Jenkins the most obvious but also E-Rod if he can stay heathy, but at the end of the day, there just isn't really a single outfielder other than Buxton that we can count on. So I'm not really mad about bringing in another guy with good upside to see if he can help change that. Rojas is a little farther away and I don't have much of an opinion on him yet, but I actually like Roden, and if he turns out to even have a Larnach type next few years for the Twins, that's enough value that we probably win the trade. But, I definitely still feel the "but why?" aspect of this one to some extent. And if neither Roden or Rojas turn out to be anything, this one is an L on both the baseball side as well as the fandom side

So overall, there's a bit of a mixed bag here. I don't think we had any trades that feel like a no doubt home run, but I don't think there were any that we got fleeced in either. There's definitely a few I would have done differently, but as a collective whole, I don't hate it. Couldn't give us an A grade on the overall returns (again putting aside the decisions to trade all these guys in the first place), but a B feels reasonable, and if Tait, Abel, and Taj in particular perform for us, it could go up to a B+ / A-. The inverse is definitely true as well and would bring us down into the Cs, but I guess that's how trades work

Still very frustrated and upset with the ownership train wreck that led us here, and have to keep saying that. But soon once I'm able to start watching the games again, there's going to be some solace in officially having zero expectations and just watching the kids play. Keashall has continued to be just fantastic since coming back, and that alone is turning into something worth watching

[Eckstein197]

Originally Posted by clarkzac

That comment was made in jest. Of course I'm not switching my allegiance, but now I have zero desire to turn the games on when I get home after work now. Keaschall being activated today might get me to tune in.

Taj is a wildcard for me. After blowing up the team, the Jax trade makes sense, even without a request. Taj is young and has years of control left, but has shown very inconsistent results in the bigs. Sure he was a highly regarded prospect a few years ago, but he was just that, a prospect, and he has yet to prove himself at the MLB level

Taj absolutely has the stuff. Honestly looking at his home and away splits, away from that minor league park he had a 3.76 era away this year. Which if we can get that level of play, is worth it for sure

[Mightymango]

Well that is the news I don't think any of us as fans wanted

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/...still-at-helm/

So basically they couldn't find a buyer and keeping controlling interest which means nothing is going to change. Just fixing the bottom line more is how I read it.