Meet the Top Five Prospects from the Twins’ Deadline Fire Sale

[Doctor Wu]

15 hours ago, LyleCole said:

I am repeating myself, but if they want Danny Coulombe back again in 2026 they just have to resign him in the offseason. Same situation for several of the players they traded including Willi Castro.

We may need a new ownership group before any more major/helpful signings happen. I'm a bit pessimistic that will happen before the start of next season, but I hope to be surprised. 

[Doctor Wu]

Very helpful roundup, Cody. Many thanks for that. I'm still trying to get me head around all these trades and trying to figure out where some of the new players even play on the field. Is anyone else dizzy? But after reading these reports I feel much more optimistic about some of these new players than I did last week. Hopefully, we can get pitchers like Abel and Bradley called up soon for a better look. 

[Otaknam]

23 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Sure. Hope is all the team has. Perhaps the Twins roll out Matthews, Festa, Woods Richardson, Morris, and Raya as their starting five next year and they excel across the board. I hope they do. Abel had a good start yesterday for St. Paul, Bradley has had some good starts in his career for Tampa Bay, and Rojas is on par with Andrew Morris. I hope all these guys do well as Twins. I'll continue to hope the Twins find some gems.

“Perhaps the Twins roll out Matthews, Festa, Woods Richardson, Morris, and Raya as their starting five next year.” I hope not! That would mean that Ryan, Lopez, and Ober have been traded or are injured, neither of which is a good sign for 2026. I’m hoping that Abel and Bradley have more upside and success than SWR, who clearly is a back of the rotation guy. That said, it wouldn’t surprise me if Lopez gets traded at some point because of his contract. He would bring in a haul, but it would indicate the white flag is being waved on 2026. 

[Otaknam]

21 hours ago, shimrod said:

We didn't want guys who are no better than the underperformers we want to replace. So far to me Roden looks indistinguishable from Larnach. 

Nobody needs two Larnachs. 

 

We already have two Larnach’s. Wallner and Larnach are almost the same player, with Wallner having the better arm. Neither has much range in the outfield,  both sell out for power, have low BA, and don’t hit much in the clutch. 

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Pitching pipeline...

Lol. 

Enough already.

[Fred]

On 8/4/2025 at 6:03 PM, NYCTK said:

I've said as much that he doesn't really excite me. But I am still significantly higher on him than Austin Martin, and that is likely not an opinion that is shared by many people on this website. 

One thing about Larnach is they don't have to look too hard to find a spot they can improve on

[JD-TWINS]

On 8/4/2025 at 12:08 PM, tony&rodney said:

Abel and Rojas are the most likely to crack the MLB team as back end starters hopefully or bullpen arms. Without a fair amount of improvement with the glove, Tait and Mendez slot in at the DH position. The Twins could use a really good DH, so hopefully one of these guys takes the spot. The Twins do have Wallner, Larnach, Jeffers, and Roden lined up ahead of them at the moment, but things change as we know. 

Tait is 18 …… absolute minimum of 2 years left in MiLB ranks, probably 3-4 years.

Taj Bradley will displace our 5th starter next year OR he will be the 8th inning, Griffin Jax replacement. 3 decent pitches with ability to throw 98 in short burts/max effort role. Could be a star!

Just looking at stats - Mendez looks like he can give Emma a run for his money in ‘26 - especially if Emma gets hurt his usual 2-3 times per season. Abel is too talented not to pitch regularly - w/o a couple starters getting traded, he is the new Louie Varland in the 7th. 

[JD-TWINS]

On 8/4/2025 at 4:10 PM, Fred said:

Coulombe is nearly 36 years old. The question is "when does the breakdown come?".

Ask the Cubs how Caleb Thielbar’s breakdown is going.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Tait is 18 …… absolute minimum of 2 years left in MiLB ranks, probably 3-4 years.

Taj Bradley will displace our 5th starter next year OR he will be the 8th inning, Griffin Jax replacement. 3 decent pitches with ability to throw 98 in short burts/max effort role. Could be a star!

Just looking at stats - Mendez looks like he can give Emma a run for his money in ‘26 - especially if Emma gets hurt his usual 2-3 times per season. Abel is too talented not to pitch regularly - w/o a couple starters getting traded, he is the new Louie Varland in the 7th. 

Mendez can barely play OF defense. EROD could be an elite defender......

[tony&rodney]

The bottom line is winning and unless you are the #1 run scoring team by a pile there needs to be players in the field who can turn batted balls into outs. A team can sometimes get away with playing one (or even two at times) weak defender(s). The Twins have often put more than two guys out in the field who struggle. If Emmanuel can stay healthy and Jenkins can make the jump, they can play on either side of Buxton. This would be a decent outfield. 

Earlier this summer I was wondering how many fly balls fell in right field that were outs with Max out there. It has been a ton. I'm not pining for Kepler at all, but I do want good defenders in the outfield. I would say that Bader did a good job in the outfield. Now we need our next wave of young pups to play the same type of defense.