Bargain Shopping: Twins Should Pursue a Former AL Central Foil

[Brandon Glick]

The Twins have been inactive this offseason. They need reinforcements. Time to go bargain bin shopping.

Image courtesy of © Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Let’s begin up top with a quick disclaimer: the offseason is young, and there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding this team. Will fans be able to watch the team’s games next season? Will the Ishbia brothers buy the team from the Pohlads, possibly rescuing the franchise from its own self-imposed financial limitations? It’s hard to operate a team under circumstances in which the answer to those questions is a giant “maybe”.

Still, the only thing the Twins have done this offseason to reshape their major-league roster is selecting Eiberson Castellano in the Rule 5 Draft. Seriously, that’s it. As a team that completely collapsed down the stretch in 2024 and is playing in one of baseball’s most loaded divisions (so long as you ignore the White Sox), Minnesota has to do something if it even wants to pretend like it’s going to compete with the upstarts in Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland. Having lost Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff, and Carlos Santana (among others) already, there’s work to be done.

Barring a sale to the Ishbias that gets processed in record time, the Twins aren’t going to be shopping in the upper echelon of free agency this winter. Most truly elite players are already off the board, and players like Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman figure to have suitors with much larger piggy banks vying for their services. Thus, this team will have to do some thrift shopping, though that doesn’t mean they have to resort to dumpster diving.

Let’s hone our sights on a former top prospect who never quite panned out on the South Side of Chicago. Eloy Jiménez was with the White Sox for five-and-a-half seasons before getting dumped at the 2024 trade deadline in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles. He had a strong first month in his new home (.724 OPS in August), though he went 1-for-24 in 10 games in September and was optioned to Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate at the end of the season. He didn’t make their Wild Card round roster, and the Orioles naturally declined his $16.5-million team option ahead of free agency.

At this point in his career, Jiménez is a designated hitter. He’s been worth a comically bad -18 Outs Above Average (OAA) in his career, earning distinctly negative marks for both his arm and range in the outfield. He played all of eight innings in the field in 2024, and none after being traded to the Orioles. Luckily, the Twins need a full-time DH after giving 10 different players a start at the position in 2024. That rotating cast of characters contributed to a middling 18th-place finish in fWAR at the position. While WAR doesn’t tell the full story, it does a pretty good job of adjudicating how productive designated hitters are, since the position is generally void of speed (unless you’re Shohei Ohtani) and defensive contributions are literally nonexistent.

Of course, being a full-time DH means that you better be productive at the plate, and that’s where Jiménez’s profile presents some intriguing upside. This was a down year all around for the 28-year-old—career-worst totals in wRC+ (78), ISO (.099), and BABIP (.285)—though he maintained a 90th-percentile exit velocity and hard-hit rate. His bat speed remains well above average, and that figures to remain true for the foreseeable future as he plays out the rest of his athletic prime. Before last season, Jiménez had always produced above-average offensive numbers by wRC+ (the same being true for OPS+, excluding the 2021 season when he finished one percent below the average hitter).

The biggest question surrounding the Dominican slugger is his durability. He’s only played in 100 games in a season twice in his career, and has yet to exceed the 122 games he starred in as a rookie back in 2019. His injury history is a never-ending laundry list of lower body maladies. If a team fully dedicates itself to keeping him at DH permanently, he should prove to be sturdier than he’s shown in the past, but that’s a dangerous bet to make on a guy who might as well be the poster child for the “injury-prone” label.

Those factors—coming off a career-worst season and a lengthy injury history—have pushed Jiménez to the discount bin of free agency. Make no mistake, though: this guy can still hit. He’s never fluctuated much from his solid career strikeout (22.7%) and walk rates (6.5%). His batted-ball data also portends a positive future, as his 2024 ground-ball rate (48.6%), fly-ball rate (20.8%), and line-drive rate (25.0%) were all better than his career norms. Likewise, he began to use the whole field better than ever in 2024, posting a career-best opposite-field hit rate (23.6%). A team could encourage him to expand on that all-fields approach, or they could retool his swing to focus more on pulling the ball to help him generate more power again (before last year, he hit home runs in 5.4% of his at-bats). And, for what it’s worth, he’s also got a .262 batting average with 13 home runs in just 59 games against the Twins, with much of that production coming at Target Field.

He’s far from the sexiest option on the market—Alex Bregman isn’t coming to Minnesota, unless Carlos Correa has some blackmail on his former teammate—but in an offseason where the Twins are going to have to get a lot of bang for their buck, Jiménez presents an intriguing option with potential for production beyond just 2025.

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[CRF]

Nah.

[tony&rodney]

Minor league signing?

[old nurse]

The question should be is he a head case?  

Upside at 28 is hardly an endorsement for a free agent. 2 very good years out of 6 is not a sign that he will really help the franchise other than to take a spot on the roster.

Is the paper on the very used spitball ever going to disintegrate? 

[DocBauer]

His OPS the last 3 seasons were .626-.642-.586. And he can't play the field worth a darn, is injury prone, and we'd want him for our primary DH? His only saving grace is that he's been better against RHP in his career.

What kind of a contract are we even talking about here? If Grichuk were available for $4M I'd much rather have him as someone who can still play a little OF, hit RHP, and beat up on LHP. Even Ramon Laureano would be a better option for the same reasons.

I'm starting to sound so much like a broken record I'm actually getting tired of listening to myself, but Josh Bell at 1B/DH for around $7M is a better hitter, a switch hitter with generally neutral splits, and can help backup Miranda at 1B, even though he's doesn't offer much defensively. 

I don't see a fit here at all.

[sweetmusicviola16]

Max Kepler just signed with Philly. We could have used him.     1/10

[DJL44]

Get someone who can catch the ball and move one of their below average fielders to DH.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

No.  He’s better than who in the lineup?

[Rod Carews Birthday]

34 minutes ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Max Kepler just signed with Philly. We could have used him.     1/10

Good for him.  Glad he signed. At least that prevents the Twins from bringing him back.  

[terrydactyls]

What the heck? Let's just wait to see what happens before writing such silly articles.

[Doctor Gast]

No moves are better than bad ones. We are supposedly $12M over budget. I have 0 faith in Falvey on moving fat that we can easily replace with equal & cheaper players as to limit the damage. Falvey should have easily moved Paddack at the Winter Meetings. So that means Falvey moving valuable players at discount that won't be properly regained. As intelligent damage control we have to stay out of FA, every dollar wasted on FA will affect the loss of needed in-house core talent sacrificed. For many reasons no.

Phillies signed Kepler for the same price as his last season's salary. Many teams including the Phillies needed Kepler. I was not in favor of giving Kepler away. But don't you think that Falvey could have given him away for a lotto ticket if he was crying so much that his hands were tied (because of the budget) to swing a significant deal?

[Linus]

Hard pass. No more mediocre vets. Either run it back or trade for an actual good player. 

[Trov]

Bring him on a minor league deal and let him prove himself that is all I would offer.  Normally age 27 is one of best years for a player, now when they start to go down.  He never broke out like Sox had hoped, and most likely injuries played a large roll in that. However, I am not giving even a 40 man roster spot on a guy that may bounce back to be slightly above average for a career. 

[Otaknam]

Not interested in Jiminez. Lewis and Correa will be everyday infield  starters, with Miranda, Lee, Julien, and maybe at some point Keachall needing at bats too. As the rooster current stands, Miranda, Lee and Julien will mix and match at third, second and DH, leaving no at bats for Jimenez. And the team may dumpster dive for an actual low cost fading veteran first baseman and move on from Miranda or Julien. In that case they should just resign Santana, IMO.

[LambchoP]

Maybe if we can get him on a minor league deal. As much as Rocco likes to platoon and pinch hit, I don't see the Twins signing a full time DH.  They need a good first baseman more than anything. I'd love it if they could find the money for Walker, Goldschmidt or even Santana, but I doubt it. Holding out hope for a trade with PHI or TB for Bohm or Diaz. I think first base is the biggest hole on our roster and we need a big offensive boost there. I like Miranda but don't think he has the consistency or hr power to be the everyday first baseman.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

Too limited defensively.  Not a substantial upgrade offensively.

Nope.

[gman]

I think I might rotate Severino, Eeles & McCusker from St Paul first.

[arby58]

1 hour ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Too limited defensively.  Not a substantial upgrade offensively.

Nope.

AND injury prone. What's not to like? 😉

[sweetmusicviola16]

On a milb deal? Sure. If he surprises in the spring you can upgrade him to league minimum. Maybe we should see what's left on the carcass of Jose Abreu too while we are at it.

[bean5302]

17 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Max Kepler just signed with Philly. We could have used him.     1/10

Seems like he beat estimates by a tick. Should be interesting to see how he does in Philadelphia. If Kep can find a way to regain a step, he should be pretty good for them, and maybe secure himself a decent 2-3 year contract to end things out.

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, gman said:

I think I might rotate Severino, Eeles & McCusker from St Paul first.

I think I'd play Severino wherever there's an injury replacement need. He's MiLB roster filler. Eeles and McCusker are pretty interesting guys since they've more than held their own out of Indy ball.

[bean5302]

When it comes to Eloy Jimenez, I didn't see the improved batted ball metrics on Fangraphs, anyway.
15.3% Line Drive (lowest/worst of his career)
56.1% Ground Ball (highest/worst of his career)
28.6% Fly Ball (lowest/worst of his career)
13.7% Pop Up (2nd highest/worst of his career)
7.8% Barrel (worst of his career)

Jimenez is a ground ball machine... which would be a real asset if he were a pitcher. He needs to rework his swing pretty badly to get the ball up a little more to generate line drives and fly balls with his 60 grade power. He's looking too much like Tim Anderson's decline at the plate for me to sign him to an MLB contract, but I agree with other people that I'd take Jimenez on a MiLB contract as I think he's better insurance than Yunior Severino, anyway.

[High heat]

I actually don’t think this is a bad idea for a million or 2 if there is some adjustments you saw and can see.  Our hitting coach was I’m Baltimore with him if they were previously working on something. ButI’m guessing he is going to get a bigger deal elsewhere based on the current market we’re seeing.
 

Sadly these are the guys we are going to be shopping for in the scratch and dent pile.  When guys like Kepler are getting 10 million and we have next to nothing to spend.  
 

Jimenez signing would also give you flexibility to move guys like Miranda or Larnach in trades for valuable pieces.  

[kroll]

Love being a Twins fan, but that doesn't make me obligated to pledge my allegiance to an ownership that only cares about profit when seeking  bids on the sale of the team.

Can't remember being less excited about an upcoming season.

Like ownership just sucked the life out of me.

Sad.