Frozen in Place: AL Central Teams Sitting Out an Active Hot Stove Season

[Nick Nelson]

The Minnesota Twins have been painfully inactive this winter, as you've probably noticed. What you might not have noticed is that the entire division has basically been at a standstill.

Image courtesy of Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Generally speaking, this has been an eventful and exciting offseason for Major League Baseball. We've seen plenty of big names sign in the first two months, including Juan Soto's historic deal with the Mets. Top free-agent starter Corbin Burnes recently inked a $210 million deal with Arizona. A huge proportion of the premier talents on the market have signed. We've also seen a number of big trades.

Through it all, the Twins have sat on the sidelines, with not one notable acquisition as we venture into the new year. The extent of their action has amounted to procedural arbitration moves, minor-league signings, a Rule 5 draft pick, and a modest trade. Whatever moves are still to come will likely be more focused on reducing payroll than adding impact talent. 

While highly irritating, this is not surprising. Twins officials have made no secret of their intent to stay the course after slashing payroll by $30 million a year ago. What is more surprising is that the rest of the clubs in the AL Central have been so complacent in taking advantage of the situation.

Coming out of 2023, it looked like the Twins might be poised to reign over the Central, with a strong core and a lack of serious competition. They breezed to a division title with 87 wins, then broke through with a postseason advancement. 

At a high point for the franchise, ownership abruptly chose to slash spending, which played a role in the tables completely turning for the AL Central in 2024. The division sent three teams to the playoffs, and none of them were the Twins. Two of those teams (Detroit and Cleveland) advanced, with the Guardians reaching the ALCS.

While aspiring to sell the team, the Pohlads reportedly remain committed to their payroll constraint. This theoretically opens the door for the rest of the division to build on its collective momentum and make a push. Instead, no one is doing much of anything, and spring training is officially closing in. It's a bit weird, but from the Twins' perspective, you sorta have to view it as a good thing.

In a recent piece at Bleacher Report, Kerry Miller named the AL Central as one of the biggest losers in this MLB offseason. "After producing multiple teams with winning records for the first time since 2020," Miller wrote, "this division might be taking a big step backward in 2025."

No kidding. The other teams have been more active in acquiring talent than the Twins, but that's not saying much. Let's take a look at each AL Central club and their offseason activity thus far. (Info courtesy of MLB's official tracker.)

Chicago White Sox
We knew the Sox weren't going to do much this offseason as they embark upon a rebuild from the wreckage of a 121-loss season. Their biggest move thus far has been trading away ace starter Garret Crochet to the Red Sox, shipping out the only remaining player on the team who was worth more than 2 fWAR last year. However, they've at least been active in adding players from a quantitative standpoint. 

Departures: 

• LHP Garrett Crochet (trade with Red Sox)
• RHP Michael Soroka (Nationals)

Additions: 

• OF Austin Slater (1-year deal) 
• OF Mike Tauchman (1-year deal) 
• RHP Bryse Wilson (1-year deal)
• 3B Josh Rojas (reported 1-year deal) 
• LHP Tyler Gilbert (trade with Phillies) 
• C Matt Thaiss (trade with Cubs)

Kansas City Royals
Following a 30-win improvement, the Royals made a pretty emphatic early statement by re-signing free agent starter Michael Wacha to a three-year contract at the start of the offseason. Shortly after, they made a trade, sending pitcher Brady Signer to Cincinnati for second baseman Jonathan India and outfielder Joey Weimel. 

Fine moves, sure. But hardly the assertive, all-in types of statements that some thought we might see from an emergent franchise angling for a new stadium and led by a young MVP runner-up. 

Departures:

• RHP Brady Singer (trade with Reds)

Additions:

• 2B Jonathan India (trade with Reds) 
• OF Joey Wiemer (trade with Reds)

Detroit Tigers
The Tigers are another team from which many were anticipating a bold and aggressive offseason. They've been big spenders in the past while in competitive windows, and at last they appeared to hoist theirs open last year with a magnificent second half that lifted them to the playoffs.

Alas, Detroit has made two notable moves through two-plus months of the offseason: signing infielder Gleyber Torres and right-hander Alex Cobb to a one-year contracts. Torres is a solid pickup with upside, though he's coming off a mediocre year in New York. Cobb made all of three starts last year and he's 37. 

The Tigers have reportedly been in on some big fish, most prominently Alex Bregman, but thus far nothing has materialized and insiders express doubt that they'll do what it takes to get him, as much as A.J. Hinch might yearn for a reunion. I'm guessing Detroit has some type of splash in store but a lot of those opportunities have come off the table already.

The Tigers didn't lose anyone significant to free agency, and they have arguably the best starter in the league in Tarik Skubal. Still, they seem to be putting a lot of faith in their torrid second-half hot streak turning into legitimate sustained success with the pieces that have. Personally I have doubts.

Departures:

• None

Notable acquisitions:

• 2B Gleyber Torres (1-year deal)
• RHP Alex Cobb (1-year deal) 

Cleveland Guardians
The defending division champs have predictably gone into right back into cost-control mode, which has been their M.O. much longer than it's been Minnesota's. Coming off a breakthrough campaign, the Guardians traded two of their top five position players in Josh Naylor and Andrés Giménez, shedding plenty of salary in the process. 

These quality players brought back some solid young talent with long-term potential, of course. But do either of these trades make Cleveland a better team in 2025? Tough argument to make. I'm not sure re-signing Shane Bieber or bringing a 39-year-old Carlos Santana is going to be enough to offset the losses of those two veteran regulars along with the regression looming for a team that outperformed expectations thanks to a historically great bullpen.

Departures:

• LHP Matthew Boyd (Cubs)
• RHP Alex Cobb (Tigers)
• 2B Andrés Giménez (trade with Blue Jays)
• RHP Nick Sandlin (trade with Blue Jays)
• RHP Eli Morgan (trade with Cubs)
• 1B Josh Naylor (trade with D-backs)

Additions

• C Austin Hedges (re-signed; 1 year-deal) 
• RHP Shane Bieber (re-signed; 1-year deal)
• 1B Carlos Santana (1-year deal) 
• RHP Luis L. Ortiz (trade with Pirates) 
• RHP Slade Cecconi (trade with D-backs)

The Twins Are Keeping Pace with the Pack
The fact that the AL Central division as a whole has been standing mostly idle this offseason does not excuse Minnesota's decision to stand still completely. If anything, it underscores the lost advantage they could be gaining if the front office were afforded the flexibility to address a couple areas of need meaningfully.

However, fears that the rest of the division would push their chips in and start distancing themselves from a stagnant Twins team have not been realized, and it's not clear they will be. Say what you will about ownership's effort level, but if we're viewing the matter strictly through the lens of payroll, Minnesota's been trying harder than the rest of the AL Central for the past seven years and it looks like that might be the case once again.

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[old nurse]

Mike Illich died in 2017 and the Tigers have not spent since

KC has never been associated with the big spenders, nor have the Indians

The White Sox are such a mess that I don’t think there is enough money to make them that competitive. 

There won’t be much for trades except for minor moves until free agency winds down a bit more  

 

[chpettit19]

The Central remains 4 teams in a jumbled mess that could all reasonably win anywhere from the low-70s to 90ish games depending on how a couple things break and then the White Sox.

I think Cleveland is less talented today than they were when the season ended.

I think KC will take a step back if they don't add more as Bobby Witt Jr is amongst the best players in baseball, but 30/30 seasons while hitting .330 are really, really hard to repeat and I don't think Lugo and Wacha can repeat quite what they did last year and their rotation will take a step back in performance.

I think Detroit is very similar to MN in that a lot of their season will come down to their youngsters taking the next step or maintaining health and performance for a full year. Greene, Carpenter, Keith, and Jung in particular. If Jackson Jobe steps in as a poor man's Skenes to pair with Skubal the rotation could be solid, but I don't think the pitching is quite there so I'd guess they take a step back as well, unless there's more added in the coming months.

I think the Twins are the most talented team in the division but we're all well aware of the massive injury concerns with the 3 most talented position players. Just like every year with this core the variance for outcomes is wide as there's just so many variables. The roster has talent, but its a maddening combination of injury prone and inconsistent. 

The White Sox aren't worth talking about.

[mikelink45]

Bieber, Torres, India - true not big on the MLB scale but in our division these three alone take the Twins out of this discussion.  Even the loss of Santana to the Indians is a negative for us.  

Looking at the USA Today farm system rankings you can give the White Sox credit for rising to number 2 overall, the surprise is that the Tigers are number 1, Cleveland is #6, and the Twins number 13.  This is also part of the offseason calculations.   Only KC at #22 fails in this area, but the Twins cannot avoid FA, make meaningless trades and let their own players walk if we want to avoid being 4th in the division.

[Whitey333]

I think part of the problem hasn't been the payroll per se. It appears a big part of it is how the dollars have been spent.  They continue to have  one of the higher if not highest payroll in the American League Central.  Yet they have missed the playoffs 3 of the past four years.  Perhaps they overpaid in some areas.  Maybe Cleveland, Detroit, and Kansas City just do a better job of utilizing their assets.

[LambchoP]

The fact that the rest of the division hasn't improved a ton makes it all the more frustrating that the Twins continue to refuse to even TRY improving this team. Minor league signing and maybe a salary dump or two. That's our off-season. But don't worry fans, we're still committed to winning it all this year, so come to the ballpark and spend your money! Sad.

[chpettit19]

27 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Bieber, Torres, India - true not big on the MLB scale but in our division these three alone take the Twins out of this discussion.  Even the loss of Santana to the Indians is a negative for us.  

Looking at the USA Today farm system rankings you can give the White Sox credit for rising to number 2 overall, the surprise is that the Tigers are number 1, Cleveland is #6, and the Twins number 13.  This is also part of the offseason calculations.   Only KC at #22 fails in this area, but the Twins cannot avoid FA, make meaningless trades and let their own players walk if we want to avoid being 4th in the division.

India came with the loss of Singer. Santana came with the loss of Naylor. It's a little misleading to only count additions and not subtractions when talking about the moves those teams made. Cleveland traded their gold glove 2B for salary relief, One could argue they had to do that to afford Bieber. Torres is the only addition that didn't come with a subtraction. 

And farm system rankings are all well and good, but if David Festa and Zebby Matthews were still eligible MN would be much higher than 13. The White Sox just set the all time single season loss record and traded their best player to land the prospects to get that ranking. I'll take the Twins situation over that any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[LewFordLives]

32 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

I think part of the problem hasn't been the payroll per se. It appears a big part of it is how the dollars have been spent.

I think this sums it up. They are not a big market team, and never will be, yet they have over a third of their payroll sunk into two guys, Buxton and Correa, who are essentially part-time players.

[Stew]

Mikelink45 said it best in saying the twins let players go. They need to start using there prospects more wisely. If I were them ( and I'm not). I would let teams choose a player of need from prospects # 12 to # 30. And trade them with the the Casto's, Vasquez, and Paddocks. Then they won't have to pay any of there salaries. That saves them 24.3 million. They could trade for slightly better prospects in positions of need. They waste too much time on broken down players. Build your prospects up to compete.                                             If I were to ask the question of any fan, will Buxton or Correa lead us to the world series? Most would say no. Will they both ever play 130 games in the same year? The answer would be no? It's too late in this upcoming off-season to do much about them now. We can free up enough  money to get a quintana or someone of that caliber. We have to trade for a first baseman. We won't get  much there. Then hope one of our stars has a great season. If they do trade them. Get what we can save the money. Then go shopping for better players in the off  season.

 

[RpR]

30 minutes ago, Stew said:

Mikelink45 said it best in saying the twins let players go. They need to start using there prospects more wisely. If I were them ( and I'm not). I would let teams choose a player of need from prospects # 12 to # 30. And trade them with the the Casto's, Vasquez, and Paddocks. Then they won't have to pay any of there salaries. That saves them 24.3 million. They could trade for slightly better prospects in positions of need. They waste too much time on broken down players. Build your prospects up to compete.                                             If I were to ask the question of any fan, will Buxton or Correa lead us to the world series? Most would say no. Will they both ever play 130 games in the same year? The answer would be no? It's too late in this upcoming off-season to do much about them now. We can free up enough  money to get a quintana or someone of that caliber. We have to trade for a first baseman. We won't get  much there. Then hope one of our stars has a great season. If they do trade them. Get what we can save the money. Then go shopping for better players in the off  season.

 

Wishful thinking, based on if, if, if and nothing more.

[tony&rodney]

LewFordLives  1,694

• Gold Caretaker Posted just now

  35 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

I think part of the problem hasn't been the payroll per se. It appears a big part of it is how the dollars have been spent.

I think this sums it up. They are not a big market team, and never will be, yet they have over a third of their payroll sunk into two guys, Buxton and Correa, who are essentially part-time players.

 

Half the teams in MLB are in the same boat or worse than what the Twins face in terms of allocating their financial resources. Pity the Angels, who I don't include in the lower half, with dead money near $76M in Rendon and Trout. That leaves them well below the Twins. It's the same old song. Forget Buxton's and Correa's salaries. that is set. I'm wondering if Falvey feels the team is set or if he plans to make a few transactions. The team has talent but any additions of a has been will just interfere with what is present. Additions will need to be for better talent via trades with teams where an exchange is a match, need for need. 

[Major League Ready]

39 minutes ago, Stew said:

Mikelink45 said it best in saying the twins let players go. They need to start using there prospects more wisely. If I were them ( and I'm not). I would let teams choose a player of need from prospects # 12 to # 30. And trade them with the the Casto's, Vasquez, and Paddocks. Then they won't have to pay any of there salaries. That saves them 24.3 million. They could trade for slightly better prospects in positions of need. They waste too much time on broken down players. Build your prospects up to compete.                                             If I were to ask the question of any fan, will Buxton or Correa lead us to the world series? Most would say no. Will they both ever play 130 games in the same year? The answer would be no? It's too late in this upcoming off-season to do much about them now. We can free up enough  money to get a quintana or someone of that caliber. We have to trade for a first baseman. We won't get  much there. Then hope one of our stars has a great season. If they do trade them. Get what we can save the money. Then go shopping for better players in the off  season.

 

Are you advocating they dump Correa and Buxton for salary relief and reinvest the money?  If they are the problem you suggest, the most straight forward solution would be to trade Correa and Buxton even if it was only for salary relief and then reinvest the money.  Most here seem to be very much against dumping Correa and/or Buxton and I agree.  Their presence is not causing the Twins to get rid of anyone in order to keep them. 

[jmlease1]

15 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Are you advocating they dump Correa and Buxton for salary relief and reinvest the money?  If they are the problem you suggest, the most straight forward solution would be to trade Correa and Buxton even if it was only for salary relief and then reinvest the money.  Most here seem to be very much against dumping Correa and/or Buxton and I agree.  Their presence is not causing the Twins to get rid of anyone in order to keep them. 

Part of the problem with that is definitely the feeling that ownership would not reinvest the money, but would simply pocket the savings on their way out the door. I don't think it's a wise move to deal either Buxton (whose contract isn't really that burdensome) or Correa (who plays at an elite level at a position the Twins have had a lot of trouble filling), but it's not an unreasonable idea as a way to restructure the club and potentially avoid a late-season collapse. But I have zero faith that we'd get to reinvest anywhere near  the salary savings that might be realized from a trade of their highest salaried players.

It's good news for the Twins that the ownership in other AL Central cities seem to be adverse to investment in their clubs as well. I'm sure the losses in TV money are impacting those teams as well, and CWS needing a total rebuild is fortunate timing. Still doesn't let our ownership off the hook for choosing more operating profit over winning. I'm sick of this ownership group and can't wait for them to be gone. (Justin Ishbia might end up being a meddling shmuck, but at least he loves baseball, and he and his family are rich enough they don't need operating profits every year to maintain their lifestyle...or other businesses)

[Lartwinfan]

Love Buxton and Correa, but last year Carlos Santana was there almost every day and great fun to watch his magic at 1st base. 
after watching and listening mostly in the old days to Halsey Hall and R   Scott late at night in bed when they were on the west coast, I’m just sad to see the Pohlads take this course. Seemed like with a few additions they had shot, but it’s not my money, so it’s not my call on what they do. 
I think the real culprit is no salary cap

[Doctor Gast]

Besides a handful of teams of wanting to buy a WS- LAD, NYM & NYY & contending wannabes BOS & AZ there hasn't been a lot of noise in FA. PHI's big splash is Kepler who was paid the same that the Twins paid last year. ATL some split contracts. There has been some significant trades that moved the needle but very few teams are doing very much.

The AL Central has done little except trade away talent. CLE made a creative TOR/CLE/PIT maneuver to get the piece they wanted. Besides the Beiber show me extension and FA Santana, they are a worse team. KC has done nothing. There has been a lot talk about DET but so far nothing. Like last offseason, we are in a good position to compete. 1st we need to find our real needs & make the reasonable trades needed to fill those needs. Last year, at least a mid-rotation SP & later a high-leverage LHRP via minor trade, that's all, we didn't. But pick up a bunch of fringe RPs that didn't pan out, a broken down 5th SP, Margot & Santana all who we really didn't need. 2nd not be "creative" & compromise the core.

This offseason, we still need a high-leverage LHRP (Nardi), a promising young MLB-ready defensive catcher to help out our ailing catching core & a RH platoon player (Romy Gonzalez) to sub at 1B or anywhere else. & not a bunch of fringe MLB, AAA players to see if any stick. This is the difference of being AL Central champs  from another 4th place finish.

[GNXman]

Gosh its hard to be a Twins fan these days.... Hot Stove League days used to be fun to speculate on how the team will look in spring training, but now its just Ho hummm. We know it will be a middling season unless current players suddenly play out of their mind. Not likely...

[RpR]

3 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Besides a handful of teams of wanting to buy a WS- LAD, NYM & NYY & contending wannabes BOS & AZ there hasn't been a lot of noise in FA. PHI's big splash is Kepler who was paid the same that the Twins paid last year. ATL some split contracts. There has been some significant trades that moved the needle but very few teams are doing very much.

The AL Central has done little except trade away talent. CLE made a creative TOR/CLE/PIT maneuver to get the piece they wanted. Besides the Beiber show me extension and FA Santana, they are a worse team. KC has done nothing. There has been a lot talk about DET but so far nothing. Like last offseason, we are in a good position to compete. 1st we need to find our real needs & make the reasonable trades needed to fill those needs. Last year, at least a mid-rotation SP & later a high-leverage LHRP via minor trade, that's all, we didn't. But pick up a bunch of fringe RPs that didn't pan out, a broken down 5th SP, Margot & Santana all who we really didn't need. 2nd not be "creative" & compromise the core.

This offseason, we still need a high-leverage LHRP (Nardi), a promising young MLB-ready defensive catcher to help out our ailing catching core & a RH platoon player (Romy Gonzalez) to sub at 1B or anywhere else. & not a bunch of fringe MLB, AAA players to see if any stick. This the difference from being AL Central champs  to another 4th place finish.

They need veterans to assist/replace barely mediocre rookies.

This is Wallner's season to show his is not another Jake Cave, and Lewis' season to show his earlier performance was simply Major League pitchers not adjusting to him as they did in the end of last season.

Probably same for Miranda and Larnach.

[RpR]

1 minute ago, GNXman said:

Gosh its hard to be a Twins fan these days.... Hot Stove League days used to be fun to speculate on how the team will look in spring training, but now its just Ho hummm. We know it will be a middling season unless current players suddenly play out of their mind. Not likely...

We, all here, have no idea what the Twins Org. actually will or will not do, pessimism rules right now.

[Blyleven2011]

The only good thing in the central is the white Sox will keep the twins from finishing last in the division  ...

The twins have holes to fill year after year and never seem to acquire the right player for those holes ...

Pitching has been strong the past few seasons , defense and offense has struggled with inconsistency  ...

What's more frozen in Minnesota than the weather is the pathetic pitiful twins franchise ...

Rocco is also a frozen stubborn manager ...

[Bob Twins Fan Since 61]

29 minutes ago, Lartwinfan said:

Love Buxton and Correa, but last year Carlos Santana was there almost every day and great fun to watch his magic at 1st base. 
after watching and listening mostly in the old days to Halsey Hall and R   Scott late at night in bed when they were on the west coast, I’m just sad to see the Pohlads take this course. Seemed like with a few additions they had shot, but it’s not my money, so it’s not my call on what they do. 
I think the real culprit is no salary cap

No salary cap or revenue sharing I believe is the culprit.  The player's union has always taken the position that hill they will die on is "no salary cap" period in contract negotiations.  Can't blame them, player salaries have only continued to increase every year.  The big market teams refuse to relinquish their big competitive in local TV revenues.  League by-laws require a super majority (75% or better) to change league rules.  Enough big market teams to vote down any changes that impact their advantages.  Only the draft and caps on spending for foreign players give smaller markets a chance to compete by the league rules.  It sucks being a fan of small market team.  Only silver lining its very sweet when my team beats a big market team.  Still waiting though for the Twins to take down damn Yankees.  

[RpR]

21 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

The only good thing in the central is the white Sox will keep the twins from finishing last in the division  ...

The twins have holes to fill year after year and never seem to acquire the right player for those holes ...

 

They often do, but they seem to be, here today, gone tomorrow.

[T.O.]

Great article. I'd like to see more articles reporting important info than wishes and opinions (not that those aren't fun too). I don't spend enough time sifting through news and trades of other teams and it's good to see what the division is doing.

[T.O.]

16 minutes ago, Bob Twins Fan Since 61 said:

  Still waiting though for the Twins to take down damn Yankees.  

"You've gotta have heart
All you really need is heart
When the odds are sayin' you'll never win
That's when the grin should start"

Funny thing is that in the musical Damn Yankees the team in question was the Washington Senators.

 

[Hubie29]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

The team has talent

I see this quote over and over. Where is all this talent?? 

[T.O.]

1 hour ago, Lartwinfan said:

after watching and listening mostly in the old days to Halsey Hall and R   Scott late at night in bed when they were on the west coast,

My childhood. My favorite memory like that is being in a tent, at night, in the middle of the mountains of Colorado, and being able hear the game on my hometown station WHO hundreds of miles away.

[tony&rodney]

12 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

I see this quote over and over. Where is all this talent?? 

Guys like Lewis, Lee, Keaschall, Castro, Larnach, Wallner, Rodriguez are pretty good. Obviously Buxton and Correa. Miranda can hit. The Twins have players. They just seem to be a mishmash to me without clearly defined roles. Maybe that shifts this year. Oh, the pitching staff looks pretty good right now. It is easily a .500 team and with a few tweaks, maybe 90. That is a fair team.

[mnfireman]

31 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

I see this quote over and over. Where is all this talent?? 

Potential would probably be a better word, as AAA talent doesn't always equal MLB talent. But that is true for more than just Twins players.

[Nick Nelson]

3 hours ago, LewFordLives said:

I think this sums it up. They are not a big market team, and never will be, yet they have over a third of their payroll sunk into two guys, Buxton and Correa, who are essentially part-time players.

Their highest-paid players (Correa, Buxton, Lopez) are their best players. That's what you want, isn't it? Yes there are going to be availability questions with Correa and Buck but I'll take that over paying $25M to Javier Baez who you'd prefer not to have playing when healthy.

[Jocko87]

Gee, when you lay it out like that I don't mind doing very little even less.

The rest of the division is actively getting worse while the Twins are figuring out how to extract their talent. 

Advantage-push.  At worst.

The sky isn't actually falling.

[Nick Nelson]

1 hour ago, RpR said:

We, all here, have no idea what the Twins Org. actually will or will not do, pessimism rules right now.

In fairness the Twins have essentially created this pessimism through their words and actions.