Could 2025 Twins Execute a 2018-Style MLB Trade Deadline Re-Tool?

[DJL44]

43 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Dealing Castro, France, Bader, Paddack, Columbe, Vazquez, and floating Correa gives them money in their pockets.  Perhaps that is motivation enough to do more than the usual.

Dealing Correa gives them some room financially, but the rest only save about $15M the rest of the season. Most of that is Vazquez and they'll have to eat his contract if they want to trade him.

[Wedman13]

15 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Not even close. 

When Wallner goes back to back 40 HR seasons at the age of 23/24 (or any age) you let me know.  

Wallner is not a starting player on a decent team and if he is truly as you say 'good to great' (was that sarcasm?).....trade him like right now.

[chpettit19]

48 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Rationally speaking I think this is the correct answer.  However.....

What's one thing we can guarantee on the same level as the sun rising, death, and taxes?  Cheap ass Pohlads.  Saving money is paramount to them.  It's the one thing giving me hope that we might sell.

Dealing Castro, France, Bader, Paddack, Columbe, Vazquez, and floating Correa gives them money in their pockets.  Perhaps that is motivation enough to do more than the usual.

Trading any of them not named Correa doesn't save much money, but if they think going young may actually put butts in seats they may like that idea.

Hayes' article is not a Twins announcement of a Rocco extension. Hayes got some sources to confirm they picked up his option for next year, but Falvey wouldn't even confirm it on the record. The Twins didn't announce anything. It was reported. That's neither here nor there, just a little technicality talk. I bring it up because I think one could argue it shows the Pohlads trust in Falvey. They aren't going to dictate any moves to him. I mean, they've handed their entire franchise over to him at this point. 

Could I see the Pohlads telling him to explore a Correa trade to get out from that longer term money? For sure. But he has some say in that (no trade clauses are waived all the time so it's not an impossible hurdle). I don't know that I buy them being too hands on about trying to clear out the relatively low amount those other guys will have left on their deals come deadline time. Not huge savings there in terms of billionaire's pockets. But I never put anything past the Pohlads.

[Wedman13]

3 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Gagne was up for 10 games at 21, 2, at 22 and basically full time at age 23. Kirby was up and fulltime at age 24. Hrbek up for 24 games at 21, 2nd ROY at 22. Gaeti up for 26 at 22 fulltime at 23. Bruno up for 11 games at age 20, 5.6 WAR at age 21. 

 

 

 

Thanks for that research!  

[Major League Ready]

18 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

I would make one a first baseman likely Keaschell or Lewis, put Culpepper at 3rd, and Lee at 2nd. Lewis can be DH, and spell Culpepper and Keaschell. 

Or you make Lee the backup player for all three at 3B, SS and 2B, putting Culpepper at 3rd, Keashall at 2B, and Lewis at 1B. 

I would have Culpepper up in July before Keaschell and Lewis are back to get his feet wet, if he starts off like Holiday looking completely over matched send him back down and see how he responds. I don't have much faith in Lewis staying healthy. 

 

Culpepper has played 2 games at AA.  He is not getting promoted to the ML level in 3 weeks even if he crushes AA.  

[LambchoP]

I think we should get what we can for the impending free agents like Paddack, Castro, Bader, France and Vasquez. There should be some value there. Then, if we can get a good enough return, maybe move Duran. He's going to be getting expensive and Jax is a more than capable replacement. Ober would have had value earlier in the year, but I think that ship has sailed. They should try to load up on AA and or AAA pitching because our SP in St Paul this year look nowhere near ready....

[TwinsDr2021]

19 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Culpepper has played 2 games at AA.  He is not getting promoted to the ML level in 3 weeks even if he crushes AA.  

Oh, I know he isn't because this is how this FO works. I said what I would do. The odds are he spends the rest of the year in AA, probably starts there again next year, moves up to AAA, may or may not get a cup of coffee in 26 and be the next mid 20's guy that hasn't proved enough to be given a position and the cycle begins on him on what he is and what should be done with him. Like the prospects before him, Yay that is so exciting as a fan. I mean it wouldn't be bad if this team was really winning, but one series win in the time this FO has been here isn't what I call winning, I mean they were terrible in 21, 22, good in 23, and total free for all since. 

[Mike Elias]

Here's the solution:

Sell the Team! New Regime! 

I should make shirts that say that. I'll copyright it.

[RpR]

3 hours ago, mluebker said:

Why not?

Clear the decks and get ready for the future. Give the prospects a chance to face major league competition and find out who’s really able to play at that level every day. At the very least, they’d play like they have something to prove.

And meanwhile, get something tangible for the future in return for guys who are playing well and have some value now. Things change fast for players. If the Twins wait too long, their value is more likely to decline than rise.

 A naive act on its best day,. Give me real proof that would improve anything, 

Another way to pee on the fans that buy tickets.

Sell tangible men for more rookies not fit for the Bigs, LOL.

Changing a team that falls short for a team that truly stinks, brilliant, as I have said repeatedly, change for the sake of change , is a fools folly and an act of naive incompetence the rest of the time.

The owners are apathetic, they are not penny wise, pound foolish.

 

[RpR]

1 hour ago, LambchoP said:

I think we should get what we can for the impending free agents like Paddack, Castro, Bader, France and Vasquez. There should be some value there. Then, if we can get a good enough return, maybe move Duran. He's going to be getting expensive and Jax is a more than capable replacement. Ober would have had value earlier in the year, but I think that ship has sailed. They should try to load up on AA and or AAA pitching because our SP in St Paul this year look nowhere near ready....

Move them for WHOM?  All the sell blabber is silly. 

Some here must have a MAGIC 8 BALL  tell them what supposedly better players they will get with out becoming a 100 loss team that the White Sox would laugh at.

[NYCTK]

15 minutes ago, RpR said:

Move them for WHOM?

You needn't specify exact prospect targets to express that trading someone like Duran might be wise. I too think they should trade him, if not before the deadline in the offseason. 

Look at what Miami received for Tanner Scott last year. That was a great trade for Miami, and he had an expiring contract. 

And why is watching a 77 win team preferable to watching a 62 win team? I'd rather a team be a 62 win team with an actual plan than woefully mediocre in perpetuity which is the Twins MO at the present time. 

[Danchat]

3 hours ago, RpR said:

Move them for WHOM?  All the sell blabber is silly. 

Some here must have a MAGIC 8 BALL  tell them what supposedly better players they will get with out becoming a 100 loss team that the White Sox would laugh at.

We got Duran in a trade that some here criticized because Eduardo Escobar was a fan favorite and could have been re-signed for cheap. There's no reason to hold onto the guys with expiring contracts if they aren't going to be re-signed.

[beckmt]

21 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Sabato and Holland are still down in the pecking order. This is who I see getting the playing time if they move players:

Bader -> Martin

Castro -> Keaschall

France -> Gasper

Coulombe-> Funderburk

Vazquez -> Camargo

Paddack -> Matthews

That doesn't even figure in a possible return of Julien or Miranda.

There's also the players they receive from the trades to consider. I doubt they will prioritize getting A-ball prospects in return.

I don't think we need to see any more of Funderburk, though trading Coulombe should happen.  We may want to see Sabato up here and see what he has, also might well want to let Raya start figuring it out at a major league level if we are throwing this year away.  We need to get Major League experience to the higher level prospects, even if you send them back down, they may surprise you and it will show them what they need to work on.   

I also feel we need to change hitting philosophy here as  I loved what the Brewers did,  That means you should also consider moving either Wallner or Laurnach or both to open up spots for that type of player. Twins have some of those in AA at this point, so maybe some of them are here next year.

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Trading any of them not named Correa doesn't save much money, but if they think going young may actually put butts in seats they may like that idea.

Hayes' article is not a Twins announcement of a Rocco extension. Hayes got some sources to confirm they picked up his option for next year, but Falvey wouldn't even confirm it on the record. The Twins didn't announce anything. It was reported. That's neither here nor there, just a little technicality talk. I bring it up because I think one could argue it shows the Pohlads trust in Falvey. They aren't going to dictate any moves to him. I mean, they've handed their entire franchise over to him at this point. 

Could I see the Pohlads telling him to explore a Correa trade to get out from that longer term money? For sure. But he has some say in that (no trade clauses are waived all the time so it's not an impossible hurdle). I don't know that I buy them being too hands on about trying to clear out the relatively low amount those other guys will have left on their deals come deadline time. Not huge savings there in terms of billionaire's pockets. But I never put anything past the Pohlads.

For penny pinchers, totaling even 20M probably feels like Christmas.  :)

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Oh, I know he isn't because this is how this FO works. I said what I would do. The odds are he spends the rest of the year in AA, probably starts there again next year, moves up to AAA, may or may not get a cup of coffee in 26 and be the next mid 20's guy that hasn't proved enough to be given a position and the cycle begins on him on what he is and what should be done with him. Like the prospects before him, Yay that is so exciting as a fan. I mean it wouldn't be bad if this team was really winning, but one series win in the time this FO has been here isn't what I call winning, I mean they were terrible in 21, 22, good in 23, and total free for all since. 

That's not what they did with Lee and Keaschall.

[DJL44]

9 minutes ago, beckmt said:

I don't think we need to see any more of Funderburk,

might well want to let Raya start figuring it out at a major league level

Player AAA ERA K/BB

Funderburk 1.40 3.29

Raya 7.59 2.00

If you think Joey Wentz looks bad, just wait until you see Marco Raya coming out of the bullpen.

[RpR]

47 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

You needn't specify exact prospect targets to express that trading someone like Duran might be wise. I too think they should trade him, if not before the deadline in the offseason. 

Look at what Miami received for Tanner Scott last year. That was a great trade for Miami, and he had an expiring contract. 

And why is watching a 77 win team preferable to watching a 62 win team? I'd rather a team be a 62 win team with an actual plan than woefully mediocre in perpetuity which is the Twins MO at the present time. 

Reminds me of when I was landscaping, and the dude we were working for comes out and starts telling us about our job starting with : GEE, ALL YA GOTTA DO....

It was hard to resist giving loud mouth a shovel and saying: SHOW ME!

[USAFChief]

19 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Wallner has been forty percent better than league average over his career. He's a very good to great hitter. 

Can you stop saying this? Its not accurate.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wallnma01.shtml

[jorgenswest]

Through July 23, Wallner has a wRC+ of 136 for his career. It was 140 earlier this year.

For his career he has a 156 wRC+ against right handed pitching and 53 against left handed pitching. This year left handed pitchers make up 22% of his at bats. Prior to this year it was 18% so his overall number of 136 has some skew in it. Elite left handed batters that are targeted with left handed relievers and never come out of the game like Ohtani and Devers see left handed pitchers in 35% or more of their plate appearances.

[Mike Sixel]

27 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Through July 23, Wallner has a wRC+ of 136 for his career. It was 140 earlier this year.

For his career he has a 156 wRC+ against right handed pitching and 53 against left handed pitching. This year left handed pitchers make up 22% of his at bats. Prior to this year it was 18% so his overall number of 136 has some skew in it. Elite left handed batters that are targeted with left handed relievers and never come out of the game like Ohtani and Devers see left handed pitchers in 35% or more of their plate appearances.

And people think he's bad? It is truly unreal. 

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, RpR said:

Reminds me of when I was landscaping, and the dude we were working for comes out and starts telling us about our job starting with : GEE, ALL YA GOTTA DO....

It was hard to resist giving loud mouth a shovel and saying: SHOW ME!

I'm sorry that I haven't scoured the top ten prospect lists of every single team that would be in the market for adding a top of the bullpen arm in 6 weeks time and put together an exact prospect package to your liking. 

I am concretely saying that they should trade Duran at the deadline, particularly in the hopes of receiving a BETTER package than the Marlins received for Tanner Scott. They are on about equal footing as players, and unless I'm mistaken Duran still has two years of control remaining.

I am all in favor of a rebuild, not a half assed retooling. Which means 2026 should be considered a bit of a lost season and you hope on 2027. And frankly, closers are super finicky and Duran could be absolute junk come 2027 on top of being pretty useless in 2026 on another bad team. 

The argument some are giving against this sort of move, that Falvey should not be trusted to make any significant trades, is something that I cannot take seriously, because that's just an argument for the entire organization to just sit in the A/C until a sale to new ownership is complete. 

What's the risk? That the bad team becomes worse and fan interest, at a 25 year low, falls lower? 

[NYCTK]

28 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

And people think he's bad? It is truly unreal. 

He's a fine hitter. But he's a DH. Do you wish to build a team around a DH? Now, it's possible he's not worth much on the trade market and he's better than a AA non-prospect, so it wouldn't make sense to dump him for the sake of dumping him. 

[DJL44]

49 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

And people think he's bad? It is truly unreal. 

He's also cheap and under team control for another 5 seasons. He's exactly the kind of player the Twins should be looking to add.

Some people can't handle the aesthetics of HR/K players. They'd much rather see singles and grounders to short.

[NYCTK]

2 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

He's exactly the kind of player the Twins should be looking to add.

No no no. Bat only players are NOT the exact type of player they should be looking to add. 

[USAFChief]

6 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

He's also cheap and under team control for another 5 seasons. 

 

4, actually. 2026, 27, 28, and 29.

He'll be eligible for free agency in 2030, provided he stays in the big leagues till then and doesn't sign any kind of multi-year contract, of course. 

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wallnma01.shtml

 

The point being refuted is the erroneous "40 percent better than average" one. He's not, by any measure. Its just BS repeated over and over by one poster. 

And THIS season he's slightly below league average BTW.

[OvertheHill]

5 hours ago, NYCTK said:

Completely unfair to Gallo. He was a decent center fielder in his prime. Wallner is one of the worst outfielders in all of baseball in his. 

Fair point. I was only picturing the end of career Gallo and his home run or nothing production for the Twins. 

[NYCTK]

1 minute ago, OvertheHill said:

Fair point. I was only picturing the end of career Gallo and his home run or nothing production for the Twins. 

Twins fans maligning of Gallo is both understandable, and unwarranted.

At the end of their respective careers, he's quite possibly been a better player than all of; Larnach, Wallner, Lee, and heck, even Royce Lewis. 

I for one am cheering him on in his attempt to reinvent himself as a pitcher. The reverse Ankiel. Unlikely but would be really damn cool. 

[OvertheHill]

5 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

Twins fans maligning of Gallo is both understandable, and unwarranted.

At the end of their respective careers, he's quite possibly been a better player than all of; Larnach, Wallner, Lee, and heck, even Royce Lewis. 

I for one am cheering him on in his attempt to reinvent himself as a pitcher. The reverse Ankiel. Unlikely but would be really damn cool. 

Yeah that would be awesome. I was/am actually a Gallo guy; he comes across like a  pretty regular guy and imagine he’s a pretty decent teammate. He was at times very productive for the Twins, but I think many fans were itching to see what our up and comers were going to be. So far, meh. 

[mluebker]

20 hours ago, RpR said:

Give me real proof that would improve anything, 

LOL! Like any of us have “real proof” when we start tossing around our opinions! We both know my scenario is never going to happen—it’s the frustration speaking from a lifetime of being a Twins fan. 

Until and unless they get an owner or owners who actually want to win championships, we’ll continue to be cheering teams that specialize in building a roster from cast-off journeymen, triple-A wannabes, and a couple of stars who too often are sitting on the IL.

(And to save you any further consternation, my post about having ChatGPT and an iPad run the team wasn’t serious either. It’s called using overstatement for to make a point.)

[rdehring]

On 6/23/2025 at 12:21 PM, jmlease1 said:

It's hilarious that you've included Cincinnati in this list. Talked to many Cincy fans over the last few seasons? They've been begging ownership to sell the team, and have struggled mightily for a decade. After 4 years in a row where they were dead last in their division, they've followed it up with exactly 1 playoff appearance, threw in another 100 loss season, and haven't won 90 games since 2013. They're barely above .500 this season. They're not even particularly young as a team outside of De La Cruz and Greene, and my god they have Pagan as their closer (which is working out so far this season, but would you feel good about it?)

I've been getting the texts from a Reds fan for a decade about how much they suck, how hopeless the franchise is, how stupid the management is, and even this season it's been a deluge of "Elly is amazing! Greene is elite!! why doesn't anyone else on this team give a damn?!?"

The grass is not always greener.

I'm fairly uninterested in an attempt to retool midseason until the team is sold. Because it's fairly likely that the new ownership will bring in their own people, even if someone like Falvey might end up staying for at least a season or two. (Rocco seems like the most likely candidate for a new ownership "splash" move where they signal that things are "going to be different" by firing the manager) New ownership is probably going to retool as well and retooling after retooling almost guarantees that one of them will go badly.

Get new ownership in. The fish rots from the head. 

I know little about the Reds, jm, other than what I saw during the three games last week.  Am a huge fan of their manager and loved how they played the game.  The only other knowledge I have is related to the two trades with the Reds.  The Sonny Gray trade worked out pretty good.  The Mahle trade was a disaster.