Four Popular Twins Trade Targets, According To Fans

[Brock Beauchamp]

Image courtesy of IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

We recently asked our forum community about which trade targets they'd like the Twins to pursue at the deadline (we're assuming they will, in fact, buy before August 3). After many users chimed in with their opinions, here are the players who received the most mentions.

Reid Detmers, RHP - Los Angeles Angels

After a one-season sojourn to the bullpen, Detmers is back in the starting rotation and better than ever. He’s become one of the game’s elite speed-changers, with a fastball at 94 MPH, a changeup at 84, and a curveball at 73, with a sinker and slider mixed in for good measure. The change and curve are particularly effective; he’s just taking the sting out of hitters’ bats by making them cover a huge range of speeds and shapes. With two years of team control left after this year, he’s the kind of arm you could try to build a rotation around, and there’s a chance that the Angels will hold onto him. It’s hard to say whether that chance rose or fell when the team fired GM Perry Minasian. But these are the Angels, and if they keep Detmers beyond this year, he’ll start to get expensive. He’s never likely to have more trade value than he does this summer. You do the math.

Luis Arraez, 1B/2B - San Francisco Giants

When you’re the best contact hitter in the sport, a little change can go a long way. Arraez, who can manipulate the bat and the ball better than any hitter this side of Ichiro (or maybe even Tony Gwynn), is back on top of his game this year after a tepid 2025. Making a plan to catch the ball slightly farther out in front has led to a few more of his signature humpbacked liners and a few more ringing doubles. He’s also showed teams what they seemed to believe he didn’t have within him this winter, by stealing a few bases and playing solid defense at the keystone. Because he can play either position on the right side and seems to have figured things out well enough to be a worthy DH even for most contenders, he has substantial value, even if you need him to be the fourth-best hitter in your lineup, not one of the three best.

Zach Neto, SS - Los Angeles Angels

A young and dynamic bat is valuable anywhere, but Neto is a present shortstop who also has a chance to provide a lot of defensive value. That probably won’t be at shortstop itself, where his range is shaky, but he has enough arm strength to profile well at third base, and he could slide equally easily across the keystone to second base. At either spot, he could still be an above-average hitter, because his exceptionally steep swing produces a lot of pull power. The Angels have the worst reputation in the league when it comes to player development and instruction; Neto seems like someone who would obviously and immediately benefit from getting out of their halo. He’s under team control via arbitration for three more years after this, too, though if he keeps performing as hoped, he’ll get very expensive in the final two of those seasons. Anaheim’s willingness to move him is probably contingent on acquiring a new shortstop of the future, be that directly or in a separate deal involving one of their high-profile starters.

Jose Soriano, RHP - Los Angeles Angels

Man, you guys love the Angels roster. One of the hardest-throwing starters in the game, Soriano also gets tons of ground balls, because that triple-digit heater (the main one, anyway) is a very heavy sinker. He occasionally shows command of a plus splitter and a plus knuckle-curve, which allows him to strike out hitters at a healthy clip, in addition to the grounders and the sheer power of his profile. That’s the good news. The bad news is, he’s going to walk people, and you can’t be sure how well he’ll hold up to his current workload. He threw 169 innings last season, but that more than doubled his career total, and he’s on pace for over 180 in 2026. He started the season like gangbusters but has struggled of late. The list of guys with a higher ceiling who might be dealt this summer is very short. The list of guys with a better chance of being useful for a pennant contender is longer.

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[Brandon]

Zach Neto is not a trade target with Culpepper and Houston on the way.  But a reliever from the Pads could be.... Mason Miller...or any number of relievers or Gausman.  Soriano and Detners are good calls.

[mickster]

7 minutes ago, Brandon said:

Zach Neto is not a trade target with Culpepper and Houston on the way.  But a reliever from the Pads could be.... Mason Miller...or any number of relievers or Gausman.  Soriano and Detners are good calls.

Use Culpepper as the centerpiece to being in Neto and Detmers.

[arby58]

For all of Arraez’s skill with the bat, he’s mostly a singles hitter who doesn’t score many runs. He’s second in BA and tied for 76th in runs scored - the same number as ‘fleet of foot’ Josh Bell. It’s interesting that such a high BA player is on his 4th team in 5 years.

[USAFChief]

Because I like to nitpic: Detmers throws with his left hand.

And he'd be a very nice add. 

I just don't know why the Angels are trading him.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by USAFChief

[LA Vikes Fan]

30 minutes ago, mickster said:

Use Culpepper as the centerpiece to being in Neto and Detmers.

Interesting idea. What else would you have to include? Probably at least one or two of the three potentially available premium outfield prospects, either Emma, GG, or Mendez. I’m assuming Jenkins is untouchable in trade. I went on BBTV and a package of Gonzales, Matthews, Emma, and Culpepper for Detmers and Neto is a “moderate overpay” by the Angels. I had to add Riley Quick to get to a fair trade. I removed Quick and added in Austin Martin to get to a minor overpay by the Angels. You stay at fair trade if you subtract Detmers  and put in Soriano for the five twins. I didn’t like that soI went with a minor overpay by the Angels and here’s the deal: 

Twins get- Reid Detmers or Jose Soriano and Zach Neto. 
 

Angels get- Culpepper, Emma, GG, Zebby Matthews, plus Martin and Yasser Mercedes if we get Detmers, without Martin if we get Soriano.

I don’t know about this one. It would be hard to pull the trigger on this.

[Road trip]

22 minutes ago, arby58 said:

For all of Arraez’s skill with the bat, he’s mostly a singles hitter who doesn’t score many runs. He’s second in BA and tied for 76th in runs scored - the same number as ‘fleet of foot’ Josh Bell. It’s interesting that such a high BA player is on his 4th team in 5 years.

To a fairly large extent runs scored require contributions from your teammates, much like RBI's, right?  San Francisco's offense is terrible.  Gotta think Arraez would score a few more runs hitting near the top of the Twins lineup.

Having said that, I don't know that I see a great fit this year.  Arraez may be my favorite Twin player of the past decade, but Clemens has performed surprisingly well at 2B and I'd prefer the Twins spend any prospect capital on pitching.

[arby58]

3 minutes ago, Road trip said:

To a fairly large extent runs scored require contributions from your teammates, much like RBI's, right?  San Francisco's offense is terrible.  Gotta think Arraez would score a few more runs hitting near the top of the Twins lineup.

Having said that, I don't know that I see a great fit this year.  Arraez may be my favorite Twin player of the past decade, but Clemens has performed surprisingly well at 2B and I'd prefer the Twins spend any prospect capital on pitching.

It’s a lot easier to score runs when you have a high slugging percentage and/or can run fast. Neither of these are Arraez. In the three years he won batting titles, he finished 39th, 88th, and 29th in runs scored. Is that all the fault of the players around him? One of those years, he hit .354 and had a WAR of 1.1(!)

[mickster]

15 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

Interesting idea. What else would you have to include? Probably at least one or two of the three potentially available premium outfield prospects, either Emma, GG, or Mendez. I’m assuming Jenkins is untouchable in trade. I went on BBTV and a package of Gonzales, Matthews, Emma, and Culpepper for Detmers and Neto is a “moderate overpay” by the Angels. I had to add Riley Quick to get to a fair trade. I removed Quick and added in Austin Martin to get to a minor overpay by the Angels. You stay at fair trade if you subtract Detmers  and put in Soriano for the five twins. I didn’t like that soI went with a minor overpay by the Angels and here’s the deal: 

Twins get- Reid Detmers or Jose Soriano and Zach Neto. 
 

Angels get- Culpepper, Emma, GG, Zebby Matthews, plus Martin and Yasser Mercedes if we get Detmers, without Martin if we get Soriano.

I don’t know about this one. It would be hard to pull the trigger on this.

I appreciate the effort.   That just sounds like too much too give.   I thought Culpepper was a good start as we can wait for Houston if have Neto.   I am good with adding Emma and Martin and even GG or Zebby.  But not both plus Mercedes.   However, I think it has to be debated.

[Mike Sixel]

20 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

Interesting idea. What else would you have to include? Probably at least one or two of the three potentially available premium outfield prospects, either Emma, GG, or Mendez. I’m assuming Jenkins is untouchable in trade. I went on BBTV and a package of Gonzales, Matthews, Emma, and Culpepper for Detmers and Neto is a “moderate overpay” by the Angels. I had to add Riley Quick to get to a fair trade. I removed Quick and added in Austin Martin to get to a minor overpay by the Angels. You stay at fair trade if you subtract Detmers  and put in Soriano for the five twins. I didn’t like that soI went with a minor overpay by the Angels and here’s the deal: 

Twins get- Reid Detmers or Jose Soriano and Zach Neto. 
 

Angels get- Culpepper, Emma, GG, Zebby Matthews, plus Martin and Yasser Mercedes if we get Detmers, without Martin if we get Soriano.

I don’t know about this one. It would be hard to pull the trigger on this.

Why am I trading five years of Matthews for 1.5 of Detmers? Matthews has more quality starts than bad ones this year. 

[Mike Sixel]

5 minutes ago, arby58 said:

It’s a lot easier to score runs when you have a high slugging percentage and/or can run fast. Neither of these are Arraez. In the three years he won batting titles, he finished 39th, 88th, and 29th in runs scored. Is that all the fault of the players around him? One of those years, he hit .354 and had a WAR of 1.1(!)

I'd love a guy that scored in the top forty 2/3 of the years. His war was awful because he couldn't play defense. 

[arby58]

47 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'd love a guy that scored in the top forty 2/3 of the years. His war was awful because he couldn't play defense. 

76th this year, and he won’t make the top 40. Fans love him, but four teams in five years? Even after a comeback year this year, the Giants show little interest in extending him. it’s hard to continually score a runner from first base, especially when they lack speed on the bases.

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, arby58 said:

Fans love him, but four teams in five years? Even after a comeback year this year, the Giants show little interest in extending him. it’s hard to continually score a runner from first base, especially when they lack speed on the bases.

I agree with that! It is why teams prioritize HRs over batting average.......Who is a realistic buy target to fix this offense, with Buxton out for at least 10 days? 

[gmwannabe]

I think the Angels would seriously consider Lewis, Culpepper, Tate, Hill, and Emma to give up Neto and Detmers. The only way this is an overpay is if you believe Lewis is going to get better, I don't. 

[arby58]

1 minute ago, Mike Sixel said:

I agree with that! It is why teams prioritize HRs over batting average.......Who is a realistic buy target to fix this offense, with Buxton out for at least 10 days? 

The fact they’re not trading Jeffers? I know the offense has scored 3 or fewer runs in 4 of their last 5 games, but they’d scored at least five runs in their previous six. They still have scored the most runs of any team in the AL. I’d say pitching is the need.

[tony&rodney]

No to any of those four players. 

My target is Mason Miller. He is likely unavailable. The offer is Tait, Hill, Soto, and Rodriguez. i might add Bohorquez and an A ball player (Young)?. I think the Padres want Jenkins and that is a firm no.

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, mickster said:

Use Culpepper as the centerpiece to being in Neto and Detmers.

Neto and Detners start getting expensive now.  I can see us trading different prospects for Detmers but with two top SS prospects, I don't see how we trade for one.