Ranking Twins Trade Candidates If They Sell At MLB Trade Deadline

[tony&rodney]

It is June 18, which means front offices are reaching out and having conversations. It isn't too early for clubs to be looking for what they can do at the trade deadline to improve their organizations.

It is too early for the articles. Why? We don't know how the prospects will be doing in mid July or if a few of them are going to be ready to be good MLB baseball players. We have no idea, for the most part, what teams are going to be looking for what specific help. By late July we will know where teams have holes due to injuries and non performance and have needs due to their expectations to make a run in the postseason. As of right now the Twins are not in a clear sell mode.

Ryan Jeffers is likely to be traded, if a return is reasonable. The return for most of Bell, Caratini, Rogers, Banda, Larnach, and Wallner doesn't look like it would be much. Gomez and Clemens are worth more in Minnesota than any expected return. Lewis should have been traded in November of 2023 but unless some team gets stupid, it is probably best to hold him now. Joe Ryan can be traded but it would be nonsense to trade him for a package of 50 grade prospects. If Ryan cannot return a top 10-20 type prospect, hold him and have further wider discussions in November.

I will think about the possibilities in late July but as of right now I'm only thinking about moving Ryan Jeffers. There are more than six weeks before the trade deadline. No reason to push away anyone yet. There are 37 more games to assess players and look through other organizations for talent. When the time comes I want to read names of players that people desire in transactions and think about if both teams would be on board.

[karcherd]

42 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Another category would be DOES ANYONE WANT THEM.  On that list would be Ober, Lawrence, Orze, Gray, Martin.

Include Bell, Gomez and possibly Clemens on that list.

[weitz41]

Buck, Clemens, Gomez and Lewis are from only if he wants it, too highly unlikely. The rest aren't going to bring any top 100-150 prospects.

The elephant in the room is to or not to trade Joe Ryan. I think the package will need to be substantial. Something in the range of a top 25 prospect and another top 100 plus 1 or 2 of a team's top 30. I don't see many teams taking that kind of hit to their prospects. If I had to guess who might, it would be the Dodgers. Trade, extend for 350 mil and march on to another title. Otherwise, I think the price will be too high.

[Western SD Fan]

2 hours ago, Andy MacPhail said:

IMO, Twins should sell & buy. To protect themselves, yet be competitive.

This is what many of the other smart teams have done in similar situations.  The Rays once sold off in a similar situation to us in the standings.  There have been Cleveland and Milwaukee teams where they have sold off expiring pieces and picked up some decent prospects and didn't miss a beat on their march to the playoffs.  This is not the Twins year to go all in so every move needs to be made for the future.  Sometimes that means holding onto a person if you don't get the haul you want.  I don't think we will get the value for players like Larnach or Clemens that they mean to this team while we are waiting for other players to come up.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

I would trade Caratini in a market that is desperate for catchers and piece something together without minor leaguers and Jackson.  Caratini is not the future of the team.  

They would probably have to eat salary to move Caratini.

[weitz41]

Wanted to add. (This is to you Mr. Pohlad and the go big or go home talk)

Because of the talk of trading Buxton. This is just my 2 cents. I would EXTEND Buxton. Redo his current contract and add 2 more years. After this season change the base from 15 mil to 25 mil give him the same escalators and no trade through the end of the contract. So, 100 mil for 4 years starting in the 2027 season. He can start it as the starting CF and end it as a corner OF or as a DH. Buries the trade talk and maybe send a little message.

My vote would be for his statue at Target field of him diving for a catch.

 

[weitz41]

Hmm double post.

[GNess]

Hypothetically what if the Twins close the gap behind the ChiSox and Guards and in so doing take the lead for one fo the Wild Card spots by the deadline? Do you still trade off current assets because you can possibly get future value from the return on players like Ryan and Jeffers?

It is understood earning a playoff berth or being in real contention for one. doesn't make a team a true contender, but it has to have some value to the organization and fanbase.

[Brandon]

I don't think we are sellers.  I think they will try to add a pitcher or two at the deadline to bolster the pen.  Either promote hitters like ERod or Culpepper and or trade for a different DH if they can find a taker for Bell if he doesn't step up soon.  

[DocBauer]

Before I go any further, I just need to first say that I really don't like having really good players that we've developed, or had a hand in raising their bar, and then not keeping them.

Guys get hurt, some don't turn out, and not everyone will necessarily succeed on the same time line. But I just LOVE a 2027 rotation that includes the following: Ryan, Lopez, Bradley, Abel, Prielipp and Matthews. And while he's no longer a #3, Ober might just continue to pitch "old school" and be relatively successful as a #4 or #5. 

I really like a potential INF in 2027 of Lee, K-Pepper, Keaschall, and Lewis. Clemens figures in to the INF AND the OF. Just need to figure out the best UTILITY option between Kreidler...who has looked SO improved as a hitter...Gray, and maybe Ben Ross in St Paul at some point.

The 2027 OF is a bit of a projectable mess right now due to injuries, BUT, Buxton is a constant. Martin seems to have proven he should face LHP and only occasionally RHP. But he has value. (There's a SLIGHT chance Fedko gets a real opportunity to show what he can do and supplants Martin, or joins him as a RH option). But here we go: Roden, Rodriguez...out of options...Jenkins, Mendez, and Gonzalez. 2 of those guys are TOP 100 players, 2 are probably TOP 150 players...or Gonzalez was after his 2025 season...and the 5th SHOULD have broken camp with the Twins instead of Outman after a great ST, and continued to prove that mistake after a great start to the season in St Paul.

The bullpen still needs some work, but it's STARTING to round in to at least a better unit. A couple more internal transitions, maybe a couple adds through FA or trades, we might have a pretty solid unit.

While a WC chance and a hopeful season of .500 or slightly better is fun, I'm more concerned about 2027. And I see all the names I've listed, and I keep wondering, why are we so focused on trading away vs keeping good ballplayers rather than keeping them? I really like the potential I see for 2027, even if everything doesn't "click" all at once.

My apologies for a bit of a rant, but it's a rant that comes from my heart AND my head.

As to the trade options....

JEFFERS: The time to resign him is probably come and gone. As a rule, Boras simply won't allow a player to NOT test the FA market. BUT, his recent track record has slipped some in recent seasons. And Jeffers is a highly intelligent GROWN MAN who has the right to make his own decisions. He's only recently turned 29yo. Considering how big and strong he is, I'd bet he's got a solid 3-4yrs still left in him as a solid catcher. The Twins absolutely should make him a decent offer to see if he's interested in remaining a Twin. Possibly front loaded a bit to allow for ageing purposes. Maybe he really wants that? But if not, a trade to the Yankees, as rumored, does make sense. He's NOT a rental for them. They can EASILY offer him a nice deal to stay with the team.

RYAN: He never stated he wanted to be traded last deadline. He only said it was interesting and kind of exciting to hear about the rumors. That's it! He's been just as good of a pitcher and teammate as he's always been. Like Jeffers, the Twins should ABSOLUTELY talk to him about an extension. Considering the current low payroll, maybe he also can be front loaded a bit on a 4yr deal of, IDK, maybe $125M? Just spitballing a bit here. If we are anywhere close, keep negotiating. If we're way out of the ballpark...no pun intended...then YES...you probably need to move him for what should be a really good haul, provided Zole can make a really good deal.

After that, it's a mixed bag.

BELL: Teams are always looking for a big BAT to help down the stretch and in the playoffs. If Bell keeps up his career MO and continues to rake in June and July, I can easily see a team moving an interesting AA arm with potential for him.

LARNACH: He's actually really improved his defense this year. And he's got a good enough arm for RF as well. So he's not exclusively a DH. And a lot of playoff bound teams are looking for a solid LH BAT to add to their roster. I don't think he brings a lot back though considering his power decline. But he's shown better contact and OB skills this season. And he isn't expensive. Moving him opens up a spot for Roden, Jenkins, Rodriguez, etc. So while the return might be an A level prospect with some upside, moving him might be addition via subtraction to simply make room for Roden first, Jenkins second, Rodriguez third, all based on injury recovery timeliness. 

ROGERS: He came to the Twins pretty cheap because he wanted to come "home" for what MIGHT be his final season. He's actually been pretty solid in the "Coulombe" role this year. I think he only brings back an A player with some potential. Is that enough to move him? Maybe. He can always be resigned for 2027 on a cheap deal. And maybe moving him to a playoff team is a reward for his Twins career. But he's just not going to bring much back.

BANDA: He's still under control. But the Twins might be too cheap to keep him through arbitration. He started OK, really stunk, and has since has rebounded strong. I'm interested in keeping him for 2027 as a replacement for the Rogers/Coulombe role in middle innings. My gut tells me Rojas is about ready to be a dominate late inning LH option. But like Rogers, there might be a market, but is the return worth moving him?

CLEMENS and GOMEZ: So Gomez has bounced around like a pinball in his career. But the Twins have unlocked something in him to FINALLY unlock some potential. He's only 26yo, cheap, and controlled for the next few seasons. Isn't that they've been looking for? He's PROBABLY best as a number 2-3-4 in a REALLY GOOD bullpen. And his future is in doubt. It's always the same for an arm that SUDDENLY figured it out. Questions remain. But it would be RIDICULOUS for the Twins to unlock the potential of a 26yo BP arm and move him. He STAYS IMO.

Regarding Clemens, I will state what I've said before, Isn't it interesting that his best ML seasons have been with the Twins the best 1 1/3 seasons? Personal development and right time, right place, right opportunity? We've seen it before across MLB over the years. Is this just a career year for him that will never be repeated again? Or, again, right time and place and opportunity? Even with a dip in production going forward, and even with the multiple young LH bats ready or near ready, I believe Clemens brings more value keeping him than trying to move him for an A level prospect. His glove is solid wherever he plays, and he's got power. IDK how long his roster spot is secure with the young talent coming up, but right now, he's a pretty nice player to have on your bench. So I see ZERO reason to move him unless someone offers a crazy deal.

Our ownership and FO is a mess right now, unless they prove otherwise. I'd much rather they target Jeffers and Ryan for extensions vs making trades of them. TP talks about going BIG or going home. But does TP ACTUALLY LOOK at what's on hand, and what's sitting at AAA and give a damn? I have my doubts. If he was SERIOUS, he'd understand what the Twins HAVE, and he'd be looking to keep as much as is possible. 

[Bracky]

35 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

 

While a WC chance and a hopeful season of .500 or slightly better is fun, I'm more concerned about 2027. And I see all the names I've listed, and I keep wondering, why are we so focused on trading away vs keeping good ballplayers rather than keeping them? I really like the potential I see for 2027, even if everything doesn't "click" all at once.

 

Really liked your whole post a lot DocBauer. I was actually reading this whole thread trying to sum up what I wanted to say or how to say it then read this take and realized it was all exactly what I wanted to say too.

Great take on all this.

[SteveLV]

Doc, I agree with 100% of what you wrote.

But there has been zero reporting--at least that I have seen--suggesting the Twins FO has approached Jeffers or Ryan with extensions.  So, based on that, it suggests they are not going to extend either player.

In that case, trade Jeffers and listen on Ryan.  Obviously you don't need to trade Joe Ryan, but if someone blows you away, you probably need to pull that trigger too if you are not going to extend him.

[Western SD Fan]

Great post @DocBauer!  I want to flesh out a little more on a couple of your points. 

Banda would be an arm I could see the Twins try to keep around.  The Twins have shown a willingness to keep bullpen arms they consider cheap, see Topa last offseason.  Finding any kind of effective LH RP seems to be hard to find.  Even if you believe that Rojas will come back, I think you should have two good lefties in the bullpen.  Rojas may need some work in St Paul though has his first rehab appearance didn't go well last night.  Hopefully, one of Rojas or Funderburk will step up so we shouldn't have to resign Rogers.  He has been a good teammate, but he just seems to be done.  

Gomez is an interesting thought exercise.  You want to keep him since he has been the only consistent reliever we have had in our bullpen this season.  His overall body of work suggests that you may need to trade him while you can still get something for him.  If he keeps it up, someone will overpay for him.  Heck, we traded for Trevor Richards before so anything is possible.  I don't see a huge payday for him, but if you can get a high A or AA flyer, that would be a decent return for someone you claimed off the waiver wire.  

I agree with you about Clemens.  I think he is one of those players you keep.  IMO, he is a better version of Kyle Farmer.  Speaking of Farmer, the Twins brought him back for $6.3M.  Clemens won't bring nearly that much in arbitration.  He should be worth the price for a solid player that can plug and play nearly anywhere.  Clemens has taken the Willi Castro role and forced himself into the lineup every day and I'm not sure he brings back anything of real value in a trade.  Hopefully, he can keep the young guys motivated as they know that Clemens is behind them ready to take their job if they falter.  I think you can have two utility bench players if you pair him with Kreidler, who can play SS and CF as we will always need a CF option to play when Buxton gets a day off from the field.

 

[chpettit19]

The Twins should be making every effort to move Ryan and Jeffers. It's like nobody remembers why Pablo Lopez isn't currently pitching for the MN Twins and that he's the exact reason you trade Ryan. Oh, and Ryan's 100% success rate of fading in the 2nd half of seasons. Assuming he makes it to the deadline healthy, he will never have more value and the risk of injury to MLB starting pitchers is incredibly high. You can't just assume you'll be able to trade him later. Same thing many of us said about both him and Lopez this offseason. There is risk in holding pitchers. You risk getting nothing for them.

The Twins did a partial extension with Ryan this offseason. He has a 2027 contract with them. It's a mutual option for 13 mil with a 100k buyout. The Twins can certainly be incredibly incompetent, but I'd have to imagine the idea of a longer extension was brought up during those talks. If he wanted to be here longer, I'd guess he'd have told them that and tried to work out a deal beyond his team control years. 

Trade Joe Ryan for 2 top 100 prospects plus.

Ryan Jeffers isn't going to sign an extension this close to free agency. Trade him. If you want him back, offer him a deal in the offseason. Only way the Twins or anyone else gets him to sign now is by throwing major dollars at him. His value is going to be lower than it would've been because of the injury (and just coming back to play after a hamate injury doesn't mean he's going to be the same, and every team knows that hamate injuries notoriously diminish power well after the player returns), but he should still be able to bring back a couple of legitimate prospects. I forget who brought Cruz up in the other thread, but a Cruz type return is the kind of deal they should be looking for.

Nobody else on the Twins is worth anything anyone around here would be impressed by or happy with. They have 2 trade chips. Move them both. The most important thing a front office, or owner, can do is be realistic about the state of their team. This team isn't good enough. Finish what you started last year and give yourself the best chance to be good enough in the future. Trade Ryan and Jeffers.

[bean5302]

4 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

The Twins should be making every effort to move Ryan and Jeffers. It's like nobody remembers why Pablo Lopez isn't currently pitching for the MN Twins and that he's the exact reason you trade Ryan. Oh, and Ryan's 100% success rate of fading in the 2nd half of seasons. Assuming he makes it to the deadline healthy, he will never have more value and the risk of injury to MLB starting pitchers is incredibly high. You can't just assume you'll be able to trade him later. Same thing many of us said about both him and Lopez this offseason. There is risk in holding pitchers. You risk getting nothing for them.

The Twins did a partial extension with Ryan this offseason. He has a 2027 contract with them. It's a mutual option for 13 mil with a 100k buyout. The Twins can certainly be incredibly incompetent, but I'd have to imagine the idea of a longer extension was brought up during those talks. If he wanted to be here longer, I'd guess he'd have told them that and tried to work out a deal beyond his team control years. 

Trade Joe Ryan for 2 top 100 prospects plus.

Ryan Jeffers isn't going to sign an extension this close to free agency. Trade him. If you want him back, offer him a deal in the offseason. Only way the Twins or anyone else gets him to sign now is by throwing major dollars at him. His value is going to be lower than it would've been because of the injury (and just coming back to play after a hamate injury doesn't mean he's going to be the same, and every team knows that hamate injuries notoriously diminish power well after the player returns), but he should still be able to bring back a couple of legitimate prospects. I forget who brought Cruz up in the other thread, but a Cruz type return is the kind of deal they should be looking for.

Nobody else on the Twins is worth anything anyone around here would be impressed by or happy with. They have 2 trade chips. Move them both. The most important thing a front office, or owner, can do is be realistic about the state of their team. This team isn't good enough. Finish what you started last year and give yourself the best chance to be good enough in the future. Trade Ryan and Jeffers.

Ryan was under team control for 2027 already (he's Arb 2 this year). It wasn't an extension, it was essentially an agreement to avoid arbitration. Not sure exactly what the two sides were thinking except to agree upon an amount which would be easy to accept without negotiation or a hearing for next time. Neat idea, mutual options virtually never work out in practice though.

100% agree on trading Joe Ryan if the Twins are out of it. His once sky high value is dropping with his team control period, and if he gets injured all of his value completely evaporates. Might as well try to sell other GMs on the idea the competitive balance pick might be around in 2027 still, as well. There's so much risk from a potential lock out, etc.

[chpettit19]

53 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Ryan was under team control for 2027 already (he's Arb 2 this year). It wasn't an extension, it was essentially an agreement to avoid arbitration. Not sure exactly what the two sides were thinking except to agree upon an amount which would be easy to accept without negotiation or a hearing for next time. Neat idea, mutual options virtually never work out in practice though.

100% agree on trading Joe Ryan if the Twins are out of it. His once sky high value is dropping with his team control period, and if he gets injured all of his value completely evaporates. Might as well try to sell other GMs on the idea the competitive balance pick might be around in 2027 still, as well. There's so much risk from a potential lock out, etc.

Yeah, I should've worded that differently. The point was that they agreed to a contract amount beyond this season. Which took discussion about Ryan's future with the team. And they didn't go beyond the team control.

[mickster]

On 6/18/2026 at 8:28 PM, Brandon said:

I don't think we are sellers.  I think they will try to add a pitcher or two at the deadline to bolster the pen.  Either promote hitters like ERod or Culpepper and or trade for a different DH if they can find a taker for Bell if he doesn't step up soon.  

stay in the race and trade ERod for BP stability

[DJL44]

On 6/18/2026 at 6:24 PM, weitz41 said:

Wanted to add. (This is to you Mr. Pohlad and the go big or go home talk)

Because of the talk of trading Buxton. This is just my 2 cents. I would EXTEND Buxton. Redo his current contract and add 2 more years. After this season change the base from 15 mil to 25 mil give him the same escalators and no trade through the end of the contract. So, 100 mil for 4 years starting in the 2027 season. He can start it as the starting CF and end it as a corner OF or as a DH. Buries the trade talk and maybe send a little message.

My vote would be for his statue at Target field of him diving for a catch.

 

Buxton is signed for two more seasons beyond this one, until age 34. They can wait another season before they talk about extending him for ages 35-36. The new CBA is going to put a hold on extension talk for everyone anyway.

[Rigby]

On 6/18/2026 at 2:29 PM, DJL44 said:

Where’s Bailey Ober?

The hot tub....