The Top 20 Minnesota Twins Player Assets of 2025: Part 3 (6-10)

[Nick Nelson]

Our countdown of the top 20 most indispensable players in the Twins organization, majors and minors, continues today as we cover our picks for six through 10.

Image courtesy of Matt Krohn, Bruce Kluckhohn, Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

You can get a full explanation for the parameters used to develop this list in Monday's intro post, but the short version is this. We're answering the question: Which current players in the organization are most indispensable to fulfilling the vision of building a champion? To rank Twins players and prospects, I account for age, contract, controllability, upside, and more. 

Here's how the list has shaken out so far in Part 1 (16-20) and Part 2 (11-15): 

• 20. Edouard Julien, 2B
• 19. Simeon Woods Richardson, RHP
• 18. Marco Raya, RHP
• 17. José Miranda, 3B/1B
• 16. Carlos Correa, SS
• 15. Ryan Jeffers, C
• 14. Trevor Larnach, LF
• 13. Luke Keaschall, CF/2B
• 12. Zebby Matthews, RHP
• 11. Jhoan Durán, RHP

And now, my choices for No. 6 through 10 in the rankings.

10. Griffin Jax, RHP
Age: 30
Controlled through: 2027
2024 Ranking: NR

Jax elevated his game from superb to superhuman in 2024, ranking second among MLB relievers with 2.6 fWAR while deftly guiding the Twins through high-leverage spots all year long. It's very difficult for relief pitchers to crack the top 10 in these rankings, especially when making more than the league-minimum salary (in fact that's never happened since I started compiling the lists in 2018), but Jax was about as valuable as a bullpen arm could possibly be last season, and there's nothing misleading about his numbers. With hitters chasing and missing at more than 40% of his pitches outside the zone, he's an unstoppable buzzsaw, and the Twins delightfully have him for three more years.

The chatter about potentially moving Jax back into the rotation, amid a league-wide conversion trend, adds a bit of extra intrigue, but I'm placing him among the top 10 Twins assets merely based on his merits as a reliever whose impact in the role is nearly unparalleled.

9. David Festa, RHP
Age: 24
Controlled through: 2030+
2024 Ranking: 16

In his first two major-league appearances, both essentially spot starts, Festa gave up 12 earned runs in 10 innings. From that point forward, serving as a rotation regular in the second half, he posted a 3.81 ERA, 3.15 FIP and 69-to-22 K/BB ratio with just five homers allowed in 54 ⅓ innings. While his 95-MPH fastball led the way in usage, his standout secondary pitches were as advertised: a slider that held opponents to a .246 wOBA, and a changeup that induced whiffs on 40% of deliveries.

Festa's profile remains a bit volatile due to control issues, but his arsenal is legitimately on the frontline scale. He brings a level of palpable excitement and potential that few other pitchers in the organization can match. 

8. Matt Wallner, RF
Age: 27
Controlled through: 2029
2024 Ranking: 12

A poor spring training turned into a rough regular-season start for Wallner, who then spent most of the first-half dominating Triple-A. He returned in July and was the team's best hitter the rest of the way, finishing with an amazing 149 OPS+ to build on his 138 mark with the Twins in 2023. With Max Kepler moving on, Wallner is locked in as a prototypical right fielder with a cannon arm and elite power. He's also under team control for five more years.

The sky-high strikeout rate is the only major concern threatening to hold him back, but I'm not sure people fully appreciate how dominant Waller has been offensively; only 11 players have 500+ PA have a higher wOBA over the past two seasons, and they are literally all MVP-caliber names.

7. Emmanuel Rodriguez, CF
Age: 21
Controlled through: 2030+
2024 Ranking: 9

It was another season derailed by injury for Rodriguez, but during his time on the field, the outfielder did plenty to further raise his already lofty rep as a prospect, moving up into the top 30 on MLB Pipeline's overall list. He did so by slashing .280/.459/.567 in 209 plate appearances, mostly in Double-A. Renowned for his rare patience, Rodriguez continued to draw walks at an astonishing pace (24.4%) and continued to crush the ball when making contact. He may grow out of it, but right now the 21-year-old looks capable of remaining an option in center field.

Rodriguez underwent surgery after the season to address the thumb injury that plagued him in 2024, and he needs to show he can stay healthy over the full schedule. He also needs to prove that his ultra-discerning, low-contact approach can withstand the highest levels of competition. But Rodriguez's unique combination of skills and traits give him one of the highest ceilings in all of the minors, and with the Twins needing internal offensive infusions, he could enter the picture very soon.

6. Brooks Lee, SS/2B/3B
Age: 23
Controlled through: 2030
2024 Ranking: 4

Quite an up-and-down season for Minnesota's 2022 first-round draft pick. He hurt his back in spring training, missed the first two months of the season, returned to action and scorched Triple-A, got called up and opened his MLB career on a hot streak ... then slumped brutally the rest of the way, posting a .503 OPS in his final 44 games with a lengthy IL stint for his shoulder mixed in.

You don't want to overreact to rookie struggles, and Lee showed plenty of positive signs in 2024, from his dominance of the minors to his defensive aptitude and some nice highlights in the big leagues. But he also further fueled some of the questions surrounding his outlook, namely: keeping his back issues at bay and producing enough power to be a consistent threat at the plate. 

Check back tomorrow morning as we wrap the list. Feel free to voice your thoughts or disagreements with the rankings so far in the comments!

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[MinnInPa]

i still think Lee will be all star caliber player... Rodriguez..ive never seen play..But Wallner IMO just K's way too often..will never be a reliable 3,4,5 hitter.... unless he starts hitting .280 + , 30 = HR's and 100 RBI's . so sick of the K Kings coming thru the Twins system

[sweetmusicviola16]

I still have yet to see anyone on the list that is a greater organizational asset than Correa. And I'm not his greatest fan. But he is our top asset.

[TopGunn#22]

I'm nitpicking here, but even though Jax had a great season last year (and the year before that) I would switch him and Duran in the #10/#11 spots.  Duran is 3-years younger and he's the 104 mph beast that is our closer.  

I think Eddie Julien is a prime trade piece with Lee, Lewis and Keaschall all ahead of him and his value still decent.  One more poor season out of Julien and his value will crater.  With someone like Culpepper coming up behind him, Eeles and whoever we draft 1st, 2nd, 3rd in June, Julien to help us get a young catcher prospect or a LH arm for the rotation or bullpen.  I would be looking for a trade opportunity.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

I think that it is still pretty difficult to project what Festa will do long-term in the majors.  Your assessment that he has really big stuff is certainly true, but he hasn’t quite put it together yet.  Hopefully this will be the year.  If he can do that, I predict he’ll hit the top five next off season. 

I’m a giant fan of having two relievers like Duran and Jax in the bullpen.  What a great tandem and I really don’t want to see it broken up in an attempt to put Jax back in the rotation.  We have a solid rotation.  If we thought that he would definitely be another Lopez/Ryan/Ober type arm, maybe it would be worth the gamble, but I don’t think that’s the case.

As for Lee, and I know I’m in the minority in this opinion, I just don’t see him being more than an average-ish MLB player — and that’s AFTER he shows that he can actually hit in the majors, which he needs to still do.  We’ve long heard that “his floor is high” even if his ceiling isn’t huge.  At this point, we’ve yet to see that.  Defensively, he’s a very welcome addition, which makes me think that his upside is more like a Willi Castro replacement rather than the #6 player on the team.  

[arby58]

I always find it hard to comment on these lists until you see the whole 20. Thinking about the last 5, I assume it is some combination of Jenkins, Lewis, Lopez, Ryan, Ober, and Buxton - except that is 6. If one of those 6 is left off (I assume either Ober or Buxton), it's going to be hard for me to accept that, say, Julien is more valuable than either of those two as an asset.

[tony&rodney]

Payton Eeles is 15 months older than Brooks Lee. Lee will play this year as a 24 year old and Eeles at 25. Eeles has similar numbers at AAA to Lee but Payton has more speed. An argument could be made that Eeles was much better in his first go at AAA than Lee. I wonder whether Eeles will get a shot in the Twins organization. He only received a bus ticket (Lee was #1 draft choice, #8 overall for $5.675M) for a bonus so the team has nothing financial tied to him. I feel Lee is a really good prospect still and I do not question his potential, but somehow what Eeles did last year has been overlooked. Is a .419 OBP and a .919 OPS from a guy who doesn't strike out much, runs well, and seems to have a decent glove noteworthy? What is wrong with Eeles?

[Tjwalsh65]

19 minutes ago, arby58 said:

I always find it hard to comment on these lists until you see the whole 20. Thinking about the last 5, I assume it is some combination of Jenkins, Lewis, Lopez, Ryan, Ober, and Buxton - except that is 6. If one of those 6 is left off (I assume either Ober or Buxton), it's going to be hard for me to accept that, say, Julien is more valuable than either of those two as an asset.

Buxton was left off last year and will likely be left off again.   

[DocBauer]

Really liked what I saw of Festa. A little strange to me all the applause SWR has received for a quality 2024 that saves the rotation, but the even more talented Festa always seems to have a question mark attached to him. Because of his first couple of starts not going so well? If his control doesn't go bonkers, I think he surpasses SWR for the #4 spot, especially if his curveball can be at least a decent offering. Gives the batter something else to think about.

I'm not sure what Lee's ceiling is. But I know the glove is there and he does seem to have the baseball instinct gene. Do we make a big deal out of a rookie struggling while dealing with a bum shoulder? Or do we focus more on the college and MILB numbers that all show a really good hitter?

On the floor side of things, I see Lee being a consistent .270-ish hitter with a solid .340-ish OB% while being a consistent 30+ doubles and mid teens HR producer, all with a good glove. I'd take that. That's a really good ballplayer. He hits better than that, with an even better OB%, and even just a little more power, he's a borderline star player.

Agree with @tony&rodneythat Eeles is being overlooked somewhat. Not by everyone. And with only a single season on the organization, I wouldn't put him on this list either. But if he's not in ST getting a long look for 2025 and the future after what he did last season, someone is being very short-sighted.

[jmlease1]

Wallner belongs. He's pretty underrated by a lot of Twins fans because the K's aren't pretty when he's missing the ball, but at the end of the day he's put up an OPS+ of 139 in MLB to date with a ton of power, which is awfully good production for a corner OF. His arm will play nicely in RF, and I'm hoping he might improve defensively a bit with it being his only home outside of some action at DH. He can actually cover a surprising amount of ground, so with a little improvement on his route-running he can get up around average as a fielder. His stats won't show his complete defensive impact (how exactly do you show the number of baserunners that didn't go for an additional base because they feared Wallner's arm?) but he will be appreciated by his pitchers even if he doesn't have a ton of OF assists.

The aesthetics may drive some Twins fans bonkers (I get it, 3K days are not fun to watch and he's never going to look particularly graceful in the field) but the dude can absolutely play and I'm looking forward to him getting 140 games in RF. He might not be Juan Soto (who is?) or Kyle Tucker but he certainly could be a borderline all-star if he gets a full season producing like he has over his MLB career to date. Very valuable to the Twins.

[TwinsDr2021]

39 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Payton Eeles is 15 months older than Brooks Lee. Lee will play this year as a 24 year old and Eeles at 25. Eeles has similar numbers at AAA to Lee but Payton has more speed. An argument could be made that Eeles was much better in his first go at AAA than Lee. I wonder whether Eeles will get a shot in the Twins organization. He only received a bus ticket (Lee was #1 draft choice, #8 overall for $5.675M) for a bonus so the team has nothing financial tied to him. I feel Lee is a really good prospect still and I do not question his potential, but somehow what Eeles did last year has been overlooked. Is a .419 OBP and a .919 OPS from a guy who doesn't strike out much, runs well, and seems to have a decent glove noteworthy? What is wrong with Eeles?

MiLB has Eeles as the Twins 30th best prospect, so I am guessing if the Twins were to trade him they wouldn't get much in return, thus the he isn't a great asset at the time of this writing. Doesn't mean he won't turn into a MLB player.

ON a different note, Having two relief pitchers in the top 11 is kind of strange to me and if they are truly that high and with the Twins payroll issues I am trading one of them for sure because a top 10 asset in any system should return multiple pieces.

[Nick Nelson]

1 hour ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

I still have yet to see anyone on the list that is a greater organizational asset than Correa. And I'm not his greatest fan. But he is our top asset.

If you traded Correa, would you get much more than salary relief? I don't think so, which is why they are (hopefully) not seriously considering it. As others have noted, the field of teams that would even be capable of acquiring him is quite small. 

Is Correa the best player in the organization right now? Yes. Is he the most individually critical to their chances in 2025? Probably. But in this exercise I'm trying hard to weigh risk and downside as part of the equation. 

Through an asset evaluation lens: The Twins signed Correa for market value as a free agent in 2023. Since then, in the two years of the contract where he was supposed to be most valuable, he had his worst season ever and then missed half a season. Multiple major foot injuries have cast serious doubt on his durability going forward. He's suddenly now in his 30s and the ankle issue that cratered two contract agreements still looms. The same things apply to Buxton to some degree, and I say this as someone who is personally a huge fan of both players. They're just super volatile, high-risk assets at this moment.

[NYCTK]

22 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Wallner belongs. He's pretty underrated by a lot of Twins fans because the K's aren't pretty when he's missing the ball, but at the end of the day he's put up an OPS+ of 139 in MLB to date with a ton of power, which is awfully good production for a corner OF. His arm will play nicely in RF, and I'm hoping he might improve defensively a bit with it being his only home outside of some action at DH. He can actually cover a surprising amount of ground, so with a little improvement on his route-running he can get up around average as a fielder. His stats won't show his complete defensive impact (how exactly do you show the number of baserunners that didn't go for an additional base because they feared Wallner's arm?) but he will be appreciated by his pitchers even if he doesn't have a ton of OF assists.

The aesthetics may drive some Twins fans bonkers (I get it, 3K days are not fun to watch and he's never going to look particularly graceful in the field) but the dude can absolutely play and I'm looking forward to him getting 140 games in RF. He might not be Juan Soto (who is?) or Kyle Tucker but he certainly could be a borderline all-star if he gets a full season producing like he has over his MLB career to date. Very valuable to the Twins.

I keep hearing fans thinking that Wallner and Martin will improve in the OF this year based on...idk. Wallner has spent thousands of innings in the OF in his life. He's not going to suddenly become better there. He is who we think he is. 

He's going to hit about 230 with great power and poor defense while striking out in a third of his plate appearances. He will be a fine player, anywhere in the 1.5 to 3.5 WAR territory depending on how (un)lucky he is with the balls he does put in play. Maybe even a 4 WAR player with a 250 average if his BABIP numbers stay in that lofty territory he's seen. 

Truth be told, he could easily be replacement level, looking like someone like Nolan Gorman with around a 220/300/420 line at the end of the year. Even though he had a 373 BABIP in his last 102 PAs, he still only hit 242/324/396 and his K rate remained very high. 

[chpettit19]

I'd put both Rodriguez and Wallner ahead of Lee. Wallner Ks a lot, but he's still put up massive numbers and Rodriguez outhit Wallner, at a younger age, in AA while playing superior defense and being a bigger base running threat. Lee doesn't have the ceiling either of those 2 players has.

[jmlease1]

13 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

I keep hearing fans thinking that Wallner and Martin will improve in the OF this year based on...idk. Wallner has spent thousands of innings in the OF in his life. He's not going to suddenly become better there. He is who we think he is. 

He's going to hit about 230 with great power and poor defense while striking out in a third of his plate appearances. He will be a fine player, anywhere in the 1.5 to 3.5 WAR territory depending on how (un)lucky he is with the balls he does put in play. Maybe even a 4 WAR player with a 250 average if his BABIP numbers stay in that lofty territory he's seen. 

Truth be told, he could easily be replacement level, looking like someone like Nolan Gorman with around a 220/300/420 line at the end of the year. Even though he had a 373 BABIP in his last 102 PAs, he still only hit 242/324/396 and his K rate remained very high. 

It's not that unusual for players to improve defensively in the MLB career if they get settled into a position. I'm not expecting him to turn into Kepler out there, but it's not unreasonable for him to slide up a little more towards average. (Martin I really don't know about; I thought he'd be better in the OF from the jump and he has the tools for it, so his poor performance in the OF was bit surprising and very disappointing. Wallner wasn't awful, but looked tentative or unsure at times, and that's the sort of thing that can improve with reps IMHO)

Also, which is more likely: a player who has generated more than 2 bWAR in each of the past 2 seasons playing about half a season each in MLB generating 3-4 bWAR in 2025 at age 27, or sliding down to replacement level with a huge drop in power?

[tony&rodney]

48 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

MiLB has Eeles as the Twins 30th best prospect, so I am guessing if the Twins were to trade him they wouldn't get much in return, thus the he isn't a great asset at the time of this writing. Doesn't mean he won't turn into a MLB player.

The MLB prospect list was from mid summer so not up to date. I was more asking if anyone had seen him play a few dozen times. I have only seen Eeles about half a dozen times and only via milb.com, thus my knowledge of him is extremely limited. It sure feels like most evaluators have not seen him either based on the nebulous or mere references to simply stats. Gleeman also referred to stats re: Eeles on his top 40 column today. It is totally understandable that few know anything about Eeles because he is out of indy ball, but I was curious whether there was someone who had gone to a dozen Saints games and watched Eeles play last summer.

[Blyleven2011]

I see Jax had no rating last year from 2023 , but now has a rating after the 2024 season , I find that odd  because he was very good in 2023 also ...

I also would switch larnach with wallner  , larnach improved his hitting  and should continue to get better , wallner got off to a terrible start in 2024 but put together a good not great season in 2024  ...

It's a interesting essay to say the least , and if a team wanted a really good shortstop  , Correa would fetch a good return from a high revenue team  able to take the salary off our books , I've seen it before , Boston would be my guess needing a shortstop and right handed bat , we'll see  ...

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

Payton Eeles is 15 months older than Brooks Lee. Lee will play this year as a 24 year old and Eeles at 25. Eeles has similar numbers at AAA to Lee but Payton has more speed. An argument could be made that Eeles was much better in his first go at AAA than Lee. I wonder whether Eeles will get a shot in the Twins organization. He only received a bus ticket (Lee was #1 draft choice, #8 overall for $5.675M) for a bonus so the team has nothing financial tied to him. I feel Lee is a really good prospect still and I do not question his potential, but somehow what Eeles did last year has been overlooked. Is a .419 OBP and a .919 OPS from a guy who doesn't strike out much, runs well, and seems to have a decent glove noteworthy? What is wrong with Eeles?

I don't think there's anything wrong with Eeles, but he's had relatively little exposure to professional and high level competition. he did great last season, and deserves a ton of credit for grinding his way into professional baseball moving all the way up to AAA already. I don't think it's crazy for the Twins to want to see him repeat it in AAA this season, maintaining those excellent hitting skills he put on display last season, showing he can keep making good hard contact consistently and seeing where his skills defensively land him.

I'm definitely rooting for him. And he's definitely going to be pushing guys like Brooks Lee, Ed Julien, etc to play well or find him pushing for a chance. because you know he's got the motivation and drive! He jumped 4 levels in 1 season, which is remarkable. but right now Eeles is still a bit of an uncertainty, having only 1 season in MLB-sponsored professional baseball going into his age-25 season.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

ON a different note, Having two relief pitchers in the top 11 is kind of strange to me and if they are truly that high and with the Twins payroll issues I am trading one of them for sure because a top 10 asset in any system should return multiple pieces.

If the Twins can continue to manufacture these relievers, (and their strategy of drafting middling college starters, adding tons of velocity, then moving them to the pen seems to be working), they absolutely should be churning these guys out and flipping them for areas of need.

[bean5302]

45 minutes ago, Nick Nelson said:

If you traded Correa, would you get much more than salary relief? I don't think so, which is why they are (hopefully) not seriously considering it...

Correa's "net" trade value is a little greater than Luke Keaschall's on BTV, and BTV has proven to be pretty accurate.

[bean5302]

I mean, any of these guys could be in the ballpark of 6-10 depending on personal bias.

[sweetmusicviola16]

1 hour ago, Nick Nelson said:

If you traded Correa, would you get much more than salary relief? I don't think so, which is why they are (hopefully) not seriously considering it. As others have noted, the field of teams that would even be capable of acquiring him is quite small. 

Is Correa the best player in the organization right now? Yes. Is he the most individually critical to their chances in 2025? Probably. But in this exercise I'm trying hard to weigh risk and downside as part of the equation. 

Through an asset evaluation lens: The Twins signed Correa for market value as a free agent in 2023. Since then, in the two years of the contract where he was supposed to be most valuable, he had his worst season ever and then missed half a season. Multiple major foot injuries have cast serious doubt on his durability going forward. He's suddenly now in his 30s and the ankle issue that cratered two contract agreements still looms. The same things apply to Buxton to some degree, and I say this as someone who is personally a huge fan of both players. They're just super volatile, high-risk assets at this moment.

I could be very wrong Nick, I often am, but I thought this exercise wasn't about trade value. I thought I perceived that in the opening article. When it comes down to it Correa actually in a way has zero trade value since he has a NTC in his contract. Thanks for posting.

Edit: Correa was never signed to be traded. His value isn't in trading him. His value is as an All Star caliber SS. Which after him we have no other in the organization.

[tony&rodney]

3 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

right now Eeles is still a bit of an uncertainty, having only 1 season in MLB-sponsored professional baseball going into his age-25 season.

Thing is that he outplayed our top 6 guy, Brooks Lee, in a similar look at AAA. Again, he clearly needs to bust down the wall of getting a bus ticket versus actually being drafted and getting a big check. I just wanted to know or hear from someone who has seen him play in person at least 12-24 times for the Saints. 

On a different player but in a somewhat similar vein, I managed to watch about 50 plate appearances of Carson McCusker in the past year plus almost all of them with Wichita. I cannot recall a player making better adjustments in their approach and swing over a year. It sure seemed like McCusker was a better hitter every month than the previous month. I actually hope he gets a fair look as well, although his defensive skills are behind what one would wish.

[ashbury]

On 1/8/2025 at 8:42 AM, Nick Nelson said:

If you traded Correa, would you get much more than salary relief?

I'm a little surprised how heavily you weight trade value, given the one-line summary "most indispensable to fulfilling the vision of building a champion."  (I do see in your first article in the series the longer explanation, in which you mention it as one of the factors.)

Another poster mentions BTV, which basically computes a dollar value a player brings on the field and subtracts his contract.  Thus, every contract signed by the team for a player above major-league minimum is a drag on the value of the team's portfolio of assets relative to the player's on-field contributions.

Is it the position that the team should strive for a $26M payroll, give or take, and every dollar spent above that harms the vision of building a champion?

What if you had a roster of 25 good young players with championship aspirations, all making the minimum, and then you went out and as a finishing touch signed a Juan Soto for $100M a season, well above even his market value?  You wouldn't be able to trade Soto at that salary.  Did you just tank the team's chances with this acquisition, with a payroll now of $125M?

I think (admittedly fanciful) edge cases like that help sharpen the view of how money affects the building of a champion.  Unlike young regulars or prospects, even one as good as Walker Jenkins, Correa's value to building that champion does not lie in his trade value.  If they trade Correa, it means something has gone very very wrong and the window for championship contention is closed.

[chpettit19]

36 minutes ago, Nick Nelson said:

If you traded Correa, would you get much more than salary relief? I don't think so, which is why they are (hopefully) not seriously considering it. As others have noted, the field of teams that would even be capable of acquiring him is quite small. 

Is Correa the best player in the organization right now? Yes. Is he the most individually critical to their chances in 2025? Probably. But in this exercise I'm trying hard to weigh risk and downside as part of the equation. 

Through an asset evaluation lens: The Twins signed Correa for market value as a free agent in 2023. Since then, in the two years of the contract where he was supposed to be most valuable, he had his worst season ever and then missed half a season. Multiple major foot injuries have cast serious doubt on his durability going forward. He's suddenly now in his 30s and the ankle issue that cratered two contract agreements still looms. The same things apply to Buxton to some degree, and I say this as someone who is personally a huge fan of both players. They're just super volatile, high-risk assets at this moment.

Isn't the only difference really the contract? Emmanuel Rodriguez has never played 100 games in a professional season because of injuries. And has some pretty big questions about being able to make enough contact to be a real threat in the majors. I like him. I'd put him in LF for the Twins on opening day, but he's a prospect who's never played in the majors with real questions about his hit tool and his ability to stay healthy. That's super volatile and high-risk. It's just cheaper. Is him being league minimum, but possibly not an actual MLB quality player really worth 9 spots on this list?

Brooks Lee has very serious health concerns and put up some of the worst swing speed data in baseball last year. Lee's back issues are every bit as concerning as Correa's foot issues. He's only had 1 truly top notch stretch of minor league performance. That's super volatile and high-risk. It's just cheaper. Is that really worth 10 spots on this list?

I think 16 is way too low for Correa. If you're going to hold his health concerns against him you should hold Emma and Lee's against them. And add their prospect/performance concerns as well. 

[chpettit19]

28 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I see Jax had no rating last year from 2023 , but now has a rating after the 2024 season , I find that odd  because he was very good in 2023 also ...

I also would switch larnach with wallner  , larnach improved his hitting  and should continue to get better , wallner got off to a terrible start in 2024 but put together a good not great season in 2024  ...

It's a interesting essay to say the least , and if a team wanted a really good shortstop  , Correa would fetch a good return from a high revenue team  able to take the salary off our books , I've seen it before , Boston would be my guess needing a shortstop and right handed bat , we'll see  ...

Wallner had an OPS+ of 149 even with the terrible start. wRC+ of 155. Larnach was 116 OPS+. 121 wRC+. Neither is a great defender or base runner so I can't believe your separator was either of those things. Wallner pretty clearly had the far superior offensive season, albeit in significantly fewer games. He tied Correa and Gunnar Henderson for 10th best wRC+ in baseball amongst hitters with at least 200 PAs.

[NYCTK]

26 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

It's not that unusual for players to improve defensively in the MLB career if they get settled into a position. I'm not expecting him to turn into Kepler out there, but it's not unreasonable for him to slide up a little more towards average. (Martin I really don't know about; I thought he'd be better in the OF from the jump and he has the tools for it, so his poor performance in the OF was bit surprising and very disappointing. Wallner wasn't awful, but looked tentative or unsure at times, and that's the sort of thing that can improve with reps IMHO)

Also, which is more likely: a player who has generated more than 2 bWAR in each of the past 2 seasons playing about half a season each in MLB generating 3-4 bWAR in 2025 at age 27, or sliding down to replacement level with a huge drop in power?

Wallner isn't a 23 year old that just moved off 3B where this sort of thinking has some merit. He's a 27 year old career corner outfielder. I'm just saying fans should stop hoping on miracles that aren't happening and instead accept that Matt Wallner is a poor defender whose arm makes up a bit of the slack. 

And I'd say it's as likely he reproduces his output in his last 100 PAs where he was about a 1.2 WAR player as it is for him to produce a 4 WAR season.

If I were in charge I would be shopping him, but that's because I've completely punted on the 2025 team looking forward to 2026 instead. And I think Wallner's value is at it's very apex right now. 

[Nick Nelson]

31 minutes ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

The Giants and Mets were using it as a negotiation tactic to get his cost down.  When can we move on from this?  IMO, if the ankle problem has not reared its ugly head in many years, it probably won't in the future.

This seems pretty speculative. My understanding is that both teams were concerned about the long-term outlook for his ankle which scared them away from doing a 10-year deal. Referring to it as a "negotiation  tactic" seems inaccurate given that both teams already had publicly announced agreements in place that were scuttled. This kind of thing NEVER happens. But I hope you're right!

[TwinsDr2021]

18 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

On a different player but in a somewhat similar vein, I managed to watch about 50 plate appearances of Carson McCusker in the past year plus almost all of them with Wichita. I cannot recall a player making better adjustments in their approach and swing over a year. It sure seemed like McCusker was a better hitter every month than the previous month. I actually hope he gets a fair look as well, although his defensive skills are behind what one would wish.

As a 26 year old minor league player he put up numbers required to continue his quest for the a sniff in the majors and that is about all. If the Twins solution to problems is 25 year old rookies or older they are in worse shape than I thought.

With that said I hope McCusker and Eeles make the majors, help the Twins (or really any team) and make fulfill their dream of making it and making themselves some money.

[Nick Nelson]

18 minutes ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

I could be very wrong Nick, I often am, but I thought this exercise wasn't about trade value. I thought I perceived that in the opening article. When it comes down to it Correa actually in a way has zero trade value since he has a NTC in his contract. Thanks for posting.

It's not strictly about trade value but that is one lens to look through, since obviously the return a player would bring back in a theoretical trade is part of his value to the organization. But trading a player isn't always simple and straightforward, in part because of the reasons you mention. (Having an NTC does not mean he can't be traded.)