Cory Engelhardt’s 2025 Trade Deadline Blueprint: Cory's Trade Deadline Blueprint

[Cory Engelhardt]

Here is what I would do for the deadline, as of today. If they truly go on a winning streak maybe they both buy and sell, but for now I think they'll focus on selling at the end of July. That said, I think they'll only truly trade their free agents to be and one of Duran and Jax, along with possibly Larnach. I don't see any enormous moves (like Joe Ryan) and I also don't see us truly buying unless they like a catcher or 1B that is undervalued elsewhere.

Here are the moves I'd make...

1) Trade Chris Paddack to the Padres for a couple of low level arms. Paddack can give the Padres innings, and he would also be making a homecoming of sorts. 

2) Combine Willi Castro and Danny Coulombe in a deal to the Yankees for a couple of prospects in the 10-20 range. Maybe one of them in their 10-15 range, and another closer to 20. Both of them would help the Yankees and be free agents by the end of the year.

3) Trade Trevor Larnach to Houston. Larnach I THINK has hit his ceiling here, and he is having a decent season against righties. I'd be aggressive here in giving a shot (frankly) to ERod (if he is healthy for more than 3 games at a time) or even taking the leap with Jenkins if he is ready in August. Or, truly, they could just play Bader a lot of the time. All of this depends on health and player development, of course.

5) Trade Duran to either Toronto or Philadelphia, whoever gives you the best return. I'd want a package built around Trey Yesavage from Toronto or Eduardo Tait from Philadelphia. I'd also just move Varland to the "closer" role as I think he has the mentality to be fine there.

Keaschall and Zebby and Pablo should all be back in the next month. They can do a quasi-sell off and still actually make some noise IF their pitching stays relatively AND Lewis/Correa/Wallner start to hit like their baseline should be.

What do you think?

• C: Ryan Jeffers ($4.70M)
• 1B: Ty France ($1.00M)
• 2B: Brooks Lee ($0.80M)
• 3B: Royce Lewis ($2.30M)
• SS: Carlos Correa ($36.00M)
• LF: Trevor Larnach ($2.10M)
• CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M)
• RF: Matt Wallner ($0.80M)
• DH: Luke Keaschall ($0.80M)
• 4th OF: Dashawn Keirsey Jr ($0.80M)
• Utility: Harrison Bader ($6.25M)
• Utility: Kody Clemens ($0.80M)
• Backup C: Christian Vazquez ($10.00M)
• NA: Dead Money Here ($0.00M)
• SP1: Pablo Lopez ($0.80M)
• SP2: Joe Ryan ($3.80M)
• SP3: Bailey Ober ($4.30M)
• SP4: Zebby Matthews ($0.80M)
• SP5: Simeon Woods Richardson ($0.80M)
• RP: David Festa ($0.80M)
• RP: Brock Stewart ($0.80M)
• RP: Griffin Jax ($2.60M)
• RP: Danny Coulombe ($3.00M)
• RP: Cole Sands ($0.80M)
• RP: Justin Topa ($1.30M)
• RP: Louie Varland ($0.80M)
• RP: Joey Wentz ($0.80M)
• NA: Dead Money Here ($0.00M)

Payroll is 29.14% under budget

[Cory Engelhardt]

2 minutes ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

Here is what I would do for the deadline, as of today. If they truly go on a winning streak maybe they both buy and sell, but for now I think they'll focus on selling at the end of July. That said, I think they'll only truly trade their free agents to be and one of Duran and Jax, along with possibly Larnach. I don't see any enormous moves (like Joe Ryan) and I also don't see us truly buying unless they like a catcher or 1B that is undervalued elsewhere.

Here are the moves I'd make...

1) Trade Chris Paddack to the Padres for a couple of low level arms. Paddack can give the Padres innings, and he would also be making a homecoming of sorts. 

2) Combine Willi Castro and Danny Coulombe in a deal to the Yankees for a couple of prospects in the 10-20 range. Maybe one of them in their 10-15 range, and another closer to 20. Both of them would help the Yankees and be free agents by the end of the year.

3) Trade Trevor Larnach to Houston. Larnach I THINK has hit his ceiling here, and he is having a decent season against righties. I'd be aggressive here in giving a shot (frankly) to ERod (if he is healthy for more than 3 games at a time) or even taking the leap with Jenkins if he is ready in August. Or, truly, they could just play Bader a lot of the time. All of this depends on health and player development, of course.

5) Trade Duran to either Toronto or Philadelphia, whoever gives you the best return. I'd want a package built around Trey Yesavage from Toronto or Eduardo Tait from Philadelphia. I'd also just move Varland to the "closer" role as I think he has the mentality to be fine there.

Keaschall and Zebby and Pablo should all be back in the next month. They can do a quasi-sell off and still actually make some noise IF their pitching stays relatively AND Lewis/Correa/Wallner start to hit like their baseline should be.

What do you think?

• C: Ryan Jeffers ($4.70M)
• 1B: Ty France ($1.00M)
• 2B: Brooks Lee ($0.80M)
• 3B: Royce Lewis ($2.30M)
• SS: Carlos Correa ($36.00M)
• LF: Trevor Larnach ($2.10M)
• CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M)
• RF: Matt Wallner ($0.80M)
• DH: Luke Keaschall ($0.80M)
• 4th OF: Dashawn Keirsey Jr ($0.80M)
• Utility: Harrison Bader ($6.25M)
• Utility: Kody Clemens ($0.80M)
• Backup C: Christian Vazquez ($10.00M)
• NA: Dead Money Here ($0.00M)
• SP1: Pablo Lopez ($0.80M)
• SP2: Joe Ryan ($3.80M)
• SP3: Bailey Ober ($4.30M)
• SP4: Zebby Matthews ($0.80M)
• SP5: Simeon Woods Richardson ($0.80M)
• RP: David Festa ($0.80M)
• RP: Brock Stewart ($0.80M)
• RP: Griffin Jax ($2.60M)
• RP: Danny Coulombe ($3.00M)
• RP: Cole Sands ($0.80M)
• RP: Justin Topa ($1.30M)
• RP: Louie Varland ($0.80M)
• RP: Joey Wentz ($0.80M)
• NA: Dead Money Here ($0.00M)

Payroll is 29.14% under budget

I now even see I missed Danny Coulombe and removing him from the list. Dumb. 

 

Also, I did list Pablo as minimum because he was listed ALSO on there as dead money. I didn't think that would pull over this way? When I hit submit it said I was 11% under budget, but after I hit save it was I was 29.14% under budget. 

[Major League Ready]

27 minutes ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

I now even see I missed Danny Coulombe and removing him from the list. Dumb. 

 

Also, I did list Pablo as minimum because he was listed ALSO on there as dead money. I didn't think that would pull over this way? When I hit submit it said I was 11% under budget, but after I hit save it was I was 29.14% under budget. 

You have Pablo in dead money but the amount listed is 800K which should be $21.75M

[Cory Engelhardt]

8 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

You have Pablo in dead money but the amount listed is 800K which should be $21.75M

I agree with you, and HOW the table is laid out in the link before you hit submit, it does list Pablo in the dead money area and counts towards the total. You can't edit that portion, or at least I couldn't figure out how to edit that portion. So the numbers looked different before and after I hit submit. 

It very likely could be user error. But I intentionally listed Pablo at 0.80 in what looks like the spreadsheet because his 21.8 number was listed elsewhere in the link already. THAT felt like doubling up to me.

[Major League Ready]

27 minutes ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

I agree with you, and HOW the table is laid out in the link before you hit submit, it does list Pablo in the dead money area and counts towards the total. You can't edit that portion, or at least I couldn't figure out how to edit that portion. So the numbers looked different before and after I hit submit. 

It very likely could be user error. But I intentionally listed Pablo at 0.80 in what looks like the spreadsheet because his 21.8 number was listed elsewhere in the link already. THAT felt like doubling up to me.

I get it now.  The plan looks good conceptually.  Obviously, you can't get specific with something like this given all the variables.   It's time to shake things up and I like that you have made room on the roster in order to invest playing time in potential solutions. 

Trading Duran is the only move here that is a step back so naturally people are going to flinch, including me.  However, I have floated this too because RPs (even great RPs) are highly volatile.  They have also brought back considerable talent when similar talent has been traded and we have to inject some impact players.

[lecroy24fan]

4 hours ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

I now even see I missed Danny Coulombe and removing him from the list. Dumb. 

Not to pile on but you also have Larnach still on the team.

[Cory Engelhardt]

2 hours ago, lecroy24fan said:

Not to pile on but you also have Larnach still on the team.

Ugh. Dumb :)

[tony&rodney]

Cory, I applaud you for putting out ideas and including some change. Good job.

The November blueprint did not get much run and neither did this deadline attempt. I didn't participate myself, mostly because I would make a pile of trades which would not be well received. Deadline deals are usually limited to just one or two transactions. The Twins could use an infusion of a half dozen plus moves, which will not happen even in the winter.  There are opportunities though and I do think some gambles by teams are worthy moves.

[TheLeviathan]

I really don't want to target guys in A ball like Tait.  If it's Philly....we need to be talking Painter, Abel, or Crawford as the main piece.  I'm not looking to re-stock A-ball.  The Twins have some promising guys advancing in AA and AAA now.

That's who they should be supplementing at the deadline IMO.