Did The Twins Miss Out on a Key Piece in Carlos Correa Trade?

[NYCTK]

15 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

You drastically underestimate Wallner...whose arm strength in RF has value.

I really need people to stop saying this. It's borderline nauseating. He's an atrocious outfielder, I truly don't care how strong his arm is. 

The Twins should give him a 1B mitt and see if he can take to that and if not, plan on him being a DH. This closed era of Twins baseball was a failure largely because leadership put no emphasis on defense, really hampering the strong pitching they brought up through the system. 

But you are right, his bat is pretty good and intriguing and I'm not giving up on it, but it will always be streaky and infuriating for long stretches due to his propensity to strikeout. 

[TwinsChupacabra]

What does it matter?  They still have Rocco.

[farmerguychris]

3 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Walker might have been an interesting piece, certainly better than the career single A player that we got in return for Correa, but it's nothing to feel any angst about. The object of that deal was to shed salary and that was achieved. Anything else is gravy. 

You're spot on.  Its crazy how often the term 'bucket of balls' is used to represent how little value a player has for the Twins.  However in this case, we actually traded a future HOF player in Correa for about that same price.

[Mike Sixel]

9 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

You're spot on.  Its crazy how often the term 'bucket of balls' is used to represent how little value a player has for the Twins.  However in this case, we actually traded a future HOF player in Correa for about that same price.

To save 70 million dollars.......what did you expect?

[USAFChief]

19 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

You're spot on.  Its crazy how often the term 'bucket of balls' is used to represent how little value a player has for the Twins.  However in this case, we actually traded a future HOF player in Correa for about that same price.

Correa's got a ways to go to be a HOFer.

[ashbury]

4 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

Twins missed out on Painter 🤣.  

Came here to make the same analogy with Jeremy Peña.  You don't miss out on what's not on offer.

[Bodie]

4 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

He gets better every year. 

               OPS

2022      .505

2023      .644

2024      .706

2025      .796 (.817 Twins)

I'm not saying he can't play anywhere else.  What I am saying is in limited run he looks really good at 1st base.  What I have seen is he has been a key player in both of our 2 wins after the trade deadline.  I will say his stats have been carried by 2 months so far May and 5 games of August.   So yes I do realize his stats may not continue.  He has 2 more months to show if he can play himself into that spot.  

 

...and I wasn't lumping Clemens in with the lumps!

I simply don't want people "auditioning" who have zero experience and somehow even less defensive production over an actual unknown. Let Clemens and (possibly) McCusker have a go and see if adding another bargain rack 1B is necessary this offseason, or do we at least have -at minimum- a competent bridge to... well, somewhere better.

Love his drive, and hope he just needs a shot.  Rooting for it.

[Nshore]

I wonder if Wallner has ever played any 1B.  He certainly fits the physical profile better.  Probably not or they'd have tried it by now.

[Road trip]

1 hour ago, NYCTK said:

I really need people to stop saying this. It's borderline nauseating. He's an atrocious outfielder, I truly don't care how strong his arm is. 

The Twins should give him a 1B mitt and see if he can take to that and if not, plan on him being a DH. This closed era of Twins baseball was a failure largely because leadership put no emphasis on defense, really hampering the strong pitching they brought up through the system. 

But you are right, his bat is pretty good and intriguing and I'm not giving up on it, but it will always be streaky and infuriating for long stretches due to his propensity to strikeout. 

Sorry, but nowhere near atrocious, even though that is a recurring theme here.  Baseball Savant/Statcast has Wallner at 48 out of 100 for fielding value.  For the year he is at -1 runs.  Last year he was -2. That's below average, not atrocious.

If you want atrocious you could take a look at our other large left handed corner outfielder who is at -6 on the year, which nearly matches Wallner's career total.

Ideally, Wallner DH's about 100 games and fills in at RF for 40 or so.  And yes, streakiness is built into his hitting style.

[sweetmusicviola16]

3 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

By the way, everyone realizes that Andrew Painter had TJ surgery in 2023, missed the 2023 and 2024 seasons, and is 3-6 with a 4.75 ERA in 19 starts in AAA this year, right? Instead we got Mick Abel, who is 7-2 with a 2.13 ERA in AAA this year in 14 starts. Who will be better going forward? Who the hell knows long term, but we do know Abel is better in the short term. Can we get of the "we should have gotten Painter for Duran" kick?    

I would have preferred DeVries myself to either philly guy.

[NYCTK]

13 minutes ago, Road trip said:

Sorry, but nowhere near atrocious, even though that is a recurring theme here.  Baseball Savant/Statcast has Wallner at 48 out of 100 for fielding value.  For the year he is at -1 runs.  Last year he was -2. That's below average, not atrocious.

If you want atrocious you could take a look at our other large left handed corner outfielder who is at -6 on the year, which nearly matches Wallner's career numbers.

Ideally, Wallner DH's about 100 games and fills in at RF for 40 or so.  And yes, streakiness is built into his hitting style.

They're both awful. Wallner significantly less range that is somewhat recouped by a strong arm. 

 

Wallner 1400 innings -7 Runs 

2025 Outfield Jump: 129/150

2024 Outfield Jump: 183/186

2023 Outfield Jump: 175/181

 

Larnach 2100 innings -8 Runs 

2025 Outfield Jump: 104/150

2024 Outfield Jump: 149/186

2023 Outfield Jump: 163/150

 

Point being, planning ahead, neither of these guys should be in the OF. I really, truly cannot begin to give a **** about how strong Wallner's arm is. 

[NYCTK]

8 minutes ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

I would have preferred DeVries myself to either philly guy.

Even if the Twins COULD have received him, many here would still be crying about the move because he's so far away from Major League ready. 

[twinstalker]

Hypothetical:  Taking on Walker for ~47 million and getting Astros to pay Correa's full salary is the best case scenario in this mess:

So the Twins would pay 47 instead of 33, which means Walker for the next two years is $14 million above the deal as it stands now.  If that math doesn't seem quite right, it's because Walker is completely worthless to the Twins in 2025.  You're paying an extra $14 million for two years when you'd be competitive.

But by that logic, since 2026 isn't going to be competitive, you're paying the extra $14 million for Walker's age 36 season two years from now in a 2027season that there's only a mild chance you'd be competitive.  Is that worth it?  You might put a better product out there while not competing, but how much better, and are you blocking someone?  And wouldn't you rather have the $14 million if you're the Twins in the first place because you need it?

 

[LA Vikes Fan]

1 hour ago, Nshore said:

I wonder if Wallner has ever played any 1B.  He certainly fits the physical profile better.  Probably not or they'd have tried it by now.

I really think that they should spend time this off-season teaching either Wallner or Larnach to play 1B.  Clemens is been a nice surprise, but he shouldn't be your only option next year for a full-time 1B. We are starting to get some more OF options so let's make one of them a potential 1B option.

[weitz41]

I've gotten comfortable with Clemens as our 1st baseman going forward. A RH platoon bat would make some sense, but they'd need to be able to play elsewhere as well. That kinda rules out Sabato and IDK who on the farm fits that description. I really don't think the Twins missed out on Walker. The Astros seem to be making a habit of killing 1b careers.

[darin617]

9 hours ago, In My La Z boy said:

The one un-stupid thing about it was the Twins effort to take back $40M in salary instead of giving the Astro's a $33M discount on Correa, meaning we would have got Walker for $7M, which was never going to happen. Ok, stupid article I guess.

The first thing is we have no idea what was the exact details involved.

[purplesoldier4u]

11 hours ago, Eris said:

The Twins missed a great opportunity in the Brock Stewart trade.  The Twins inquired about Shohei Ohtani as part of the trade and the Dodgers responded that Shohei wasn’t available for any combination of Twins players or for any other player in baseball. 

I still wish they would have tried to get Kendall George. Speed kills and he has lots of it!

[Bodie]

9 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Larnach is a decent platoon bat who can hit RHP, but is mostly helpless against LHP. That's useful but limited.

You drastically underestimate Wallner, who even in a down season is putting up an OPS+ of 119 and whose arm strength in RF has value. Notably, a 119 OPS+ would tie for 59th in MLB if Wallner had enough PA's to qualify; if he gets back to his career average of 132, it puts him at 29th. Wallner had a cold streak in June when the team needed him the most, and had an unfortunate injury this season, but he's a quality player.

Falvey?!?

[saviking]

On 8/6/2025 at 8:30 AM, bunsen82 said:

Twins missed out on Painter 🤣.  You don't miss out when the other team isn't willing to trade you that asset. 

Also the one thing we may be getting out of this final 2 months is seeing if Clemens can legitimately be our 1st baseman going into next year.  Unlike Julien or Martin with constant mental errors,  he always seems to be aware of what is going on.  Instead of "errors"  he realizes the bunt is available to get a run across.  The bat also appears to be solid and getting better. He has never been given consistent regular bats like he is receiving right now in Minnesota so basing on previous stats might not be an apples to apples comparison.  He has 50% more at bats right now than any other year of play.    If he can be a .240 average or higher with 25-30 home runs,  that is a very good 1st baseman that is close to what we got out of Santana last year.  Also go look at the stats year by year,  he has been improving his ops on average .080  every year (22-.500, 23 - .640, 24 -.706, 25-.796) That is a very good player that continues to show improvement and you are paying him minimal salary,  not Walker's salary.  

There is a strong possibility the Twins already have their answer for 1st base.  

How crazy would that be. After paying Walker the 20 million they saved from trading Correa they basically would have been paying Correa for Walker head up. 

[Otaknam]

At first glance I thought this was a stupid idea. But in some ways it does make sense that the Twins would want the 34 year old Walker and his $40 million contract while they are dismantling the team. It’s only $10 million more than they swallowed for trading Correa in a contract dump, so they would get some functioning piece back at a position of need. Walker must be relieved!

[dxpavelka]

On 8/6/2025 at 9:10 AM, thelanges5 said:

Twins aren’t taking on payroll unless they are sold and the new owners want to kick some money in. We have a couple in house options.

The aforementioned Clemens - seems to be auditioning well to keep his roster spot. 
 

We have a guy masquerading as a corner OF named Trevor Larnach. Get him a mitt this offseason and let him learn. 

They also have a guy on the other corner of the diamond who is not a great defender there and might benefit from playing a position that might put a little less stress on his body.  Not to mention that in the upcoming future they should have guys like Lee, Keaschall, Culpepper, DeBarge, Amick, Winkour, Eales, DeAndade & Leon ready to man the rest of the infield. A lot of these guys are not projected to be ready until 2027.  This has a bit of a 1980-1981 feel to it.  By this time next year I'd hope we have a clearer picture of which "kids" are the future and that we see some of them here by the end of next year.  If 2027 is 1982 (sure 102 losses would suck) and an influx of exciting new talent and a precursor to a couple titles in the ensuing decade I'd be down with that.  Move Lewis to 1B, laminate his name in the lineup card and let's see what the kids can do.