Twins Acquire Lefty Reliever A.J. Minter from Mets for 2 Prospects

[Patzky]

6 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Great trade! The two prospects are buried depth with warts and health issues.  The team can afford 4.5M for a 80 day rental. Maybe Minter resigns with us after the lockout and theWS Championship PARADE!

Mets game saw AGBAYANi and they are all enamored as well. Could it be a win-win..

[Brandon]

A benefit for the Mets,  while Minnesota is taking on the almost 4 million in remaining salary, the Mets save 8 million after factoring payroll penalties of 110%.

I still really like this trade. 1 or 2 more of these and we have a pen.

[LewFordLives]

This is the kind of trade I expected they would make. I'm not sure this team is good enough to go deep in the playoffs, but let's add at the margins for cheap and see where this goes. 

I expect they will try to add at least one more pitcher and I wouldn't mind seeing them add a bat. Yesterday's late inning heroics aside, this lineup is punchless without Buxton.

[CRF]

Solid move. I like it. Any more coming? 

[DJL44]

I am encouraged by this trade. This is exactly what they need to do. Spend cash, not prospects.

Someone else mentioned Hoffman, I think that would fit this strategy. Grab Gausman too. That would increase the payroll by another $12M.

[TNtwins85]

6 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, that's where I am. **If they felt they had to get a bullpen arm, I presumed it would be a strikeout artist for late game scenarios. This is fine, and I'm definitely not in any way mad about it, but it's not what I thought was needed.

Don't care about the prospects, but I don't need more bullpen moves after this, because I do care about the roster spots and getting innings to the young relievers who still need to continue adjusting to relief work. That's who this team has to count on next year and the foreseeable future.

Possible bonus though, as he's a lefty, perhaps the Twins would then swap out Matthews for Rojas in the rotation. That's where both should be in 2027.

What young relievers need work? Travis Adam’s?

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Amick, showed he can be a contact hitter but gave up much of his power. This version of Amick this year has plenty of power but the hit tool isn’t good enough. Agbayani seems like just a solid player for his age. Will take time and may become something similar to his dad. A tad expensive but overall nothing I’m concerned about.  

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Kudos to the Twins. Minter has pitched in a lot of big games over the years. No offense to Fundy and Rogers, but this is the kind of lefty you want coming out of the bullpen.

[TNtwins85]

47 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

This is the kind of trade I expected they would make. I'm not sure this team is good enough to go deep in the playoffs, but let's add at the margins for cheap and see where this goes. 

I expect they will try to add at least one more pitcher and I wouldn't mind seeing them add a bat. Yesterday's late inning heroics aside, this lineup is punchless without Buxton.

Yes, the lineup has looked rough the last week or so. I really think they need a bat but who goes and what do they bring in. I’m afraid they’ll have to trade someone off the mlb roster and shuffle the lineup again. Especially if Buxton is gonna be dealing with a hip issue the rest of the year. 

[LewFordLives]

16 minutes ago, TNtwins85 said:

Yes, the lineup has looked rough the last week or so. I really think they need a bat but who goes and what do they bring in. I’m afraid they’ll have to trade someone off the mlb roster and shuffle the lineup again. Especially if Buxton is gonna be dealing with a hip issue the rest of the year. 

Yeah, I wonder how all this will affect what they do with Jeffers. I can see where it makes sense to trade him, but at this point they can't afford to lose his bat. Is Don Baylor available?

[90stwinskid]

Solid move, and happy to see the FO start to follow through on what they say publicly.

 

[Whitey333]

Nice move for Twins.  Hope they add a little more before deadline.  Go twins.

[mark allen]

I think he will pitch same innings Banda was when he was hurt ,great move.

[Mike Sixel]

It's fine. I doubt this changes much, but why not?

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, TNtwins85 said:

What young relievers need work? Travis Adam’s?

Raya, Culpepper, Klein (Matthews). I'm good giving Anderson a longer look too.

[jorgenswest]

The Twins need to be opportunists this deadline. Getting Minter for two players Fangraphs has at FV35+ is a good deal. Minter will improve the bullpen.

It also sends the message they are serious about competing. Any offer for Ryan or Jeffer or Larnach better blow us away. If that happens they need to take that opportunity also.

[dberthia]

I'm OK with almost any move where we trade away guys I've never heard of before, and this one fits the bill.

[Dman]

I had both Amick and Agbayani on my OK to trade list.  Still I think those are solid pickups for the Mets.  While Amick does struggle to make contact he does barrel the ball when he does hit it.  It's a gamble as MLB pitching is good in and out of the zone.  I think Agbayani is the true headliner though.  His hit tool looks for real.  He is young and while currently not ranked that high I think he has the tools to be a solid player.  Hard to say if he can make it all the way as it is so hard and we just haven't seen that much from him, but a good get for the Mets IMO regardless of the current rankings.

That being said these are players the Twins could afford to lose,  Amick is a 1st baseman DH type if he even makes it and the swing and miss make him quite a long shot to make it.  Agbayani isn't an up the middle prospect and those are generally easier to find.

I think this is good deal for the Twins especially for a deadline deal.  I'm guessing the Mets weren't getting a ton of interest in Minter and felt fine pulling the trigger.  As noted Minter isn't a top of line K type reliever so not sure how many playoff bound teams would have been interested.  Still given the state of the Twins pen this is a good get for them.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Really good solid trade which sends a positive message to the players and staff. A real confidence boost for all of them and for all of us lowly peons. 

[AZTwin]

Both those guys are replaceable.  Good pick up. Not a bad haul for Mets either for a bullpen rental arm that removes some luxury tax.  Both guys have potential to be big leaguers. 

[Vanimal46]

AJ Minter was one of my hopeful trade targets. Happy about this! Now grab another reliever and a starter before Monday.

[terrydactyls]

6 hours ago, UK Twin said:

Solid move. Didn't give up anyone of note and we get a decent left handed reliever. Good to see us making moves early - definitely suggests we're going to be aggressive over the next few days.

Or he could be part of another trade.  Jeffers, Minton, and 10-20 prospect for a close-to-MLB starter with several years oc control.

[jmlease1]

It's a good trade. I liked Amick, but he's got real contact problems and might end up as a 1B/DH assuming he can hit enough. Which is questionable with his contact rates. It's not a particularly high price and this gives us what should be a reliable, high quality LH option for the late innings who doesn't get murdered by RH hitters historically (he's gotten tee'd off on a bit this year, but it's a small sample).

A good move, IMHO, and a good start. Get us in a similar quality RHP for late-inning relief for a similar price and I'll feel even better. Good use of depth assets.

[Riverbrian]

8 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, that's where I am. **If they felt they had to get a bullpen arm, I presumed it would be a strikeout artist for late game scenarios. This is fine, and I'm definitely not in any way mad about it, but it's not what I thought was needed.

Don't care about the prospects, but I don't need more bullpen moves after this, because I do care about the roster spots and getting innings to the young relievers who still need to continue adjusting to relief work. That's who this team has to count on next year and the foreseeable future.

Possible bonus though, as he's a lefty, perhaps the Twins would then swap out Matthews for Rojas in the rotation. That's where both should be in 2027.

I think it's possible that I have bullpen ranked higher in terms of need than you do and that's alright. 

I like what I'm seeing out of Gomez and Morris.

Morris through consistent opportunity has gone through a pretty nice stretch. His WHIP is sitting at 0.77 the past 30 days reducing his base traffic from lofty to 1.25 for the season. 

Gomez has a 1.05 WHIP for the year. 

Funderburk has a 5.87 per 9 walk rate but over the past 30 days it has been 2.61 and his WHIP and ERA reflects this so I've been encouraged lately. 

On the other side of things: 

Rogers has been a little better of late but he still has me concerned with his overall stuff and his 2026 1.60 WHIP. I realize that he is probably going to be a part of this bullpen for the rest of the season if he remains healthy but I'd like to see him pushed down the leverage ladder. 

Nance and Anderson are still question marks. 

I'm just not sure what we have in Adams yet. He looks great... he looks struggly. He has options he can bounce back and forth when needed.  

Rojas is long relief and I do believe he's got talent and we will need him to slot into the rotation at some point this year. 

I have 4 question marks on a staff that requires 8. Minter will remove one of those question marks unless he becomes a question mark by stinking up the joint. 

And then there are injuries that we will have to get through so acquisitions that push relievers down the spectrum will be brought right back up. 

I like this deal... let's see if it works and I'd like to see a couple more. 

[Heiny]

I like this move.  Traded two guys that probalbly don't make it to the big league club and possibly not to MLB at all.  Now a trade for Emerson Hancock and I'd be really happy.  I still think that they could trade Jeffers and be satisfied with Caratini and Jackson, but another reliever in the same vein as Minter would be solid also.  Time to see Culpepper and Jenkins called up.  Kudos to Clemens who may be the Twins MVP for the year.

[nicksaviking]

13 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I think it's possible that I have bullpen ranked higher in terms of need than you do and that's alright. 

 

Well, that's likely because our priorities are slightly different; like a year off. Which is also OK. I'm really happy the team is playing competent ball this year, and I don't want to take that excitement away from anyone. It's just that my belief is if they play their cards right, next year could be the real deal; and maybe for a good long stretch.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

46 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

AJ Minter was one of my hopeful trade targets. Happy about this! Now grab another reliever and a starter before Monday.

Yeah, starting pitcher hasn't been mentioned much but Prielipp, IIRC, is on an innings limit and he's quickly approaching it. Couple that with Zebby being up and down and Joe struggling at times, and they'd do well to grab a 4th or 5th starter to slot behind Joe, Bradley, and Ober.

[Exiled in Illinois]

Like most everyone else, I like the deal and looking forward to a couple more!  My stab at how the roster shakes out (probably already wrong but who cares!),   Rojas replaces Preillip in rotation, Preillip moves to BP, Rogers gets moved to coaching staff, unless he wants to have a few more weeks in the sun somewhere else before calling it a wonderful career. 

Feeling a little giddy after last nights win :) 

[Ricky Vaughn]

Get Robbie Ray from the Giants, he's available and they are willing to pick up some his salary. 

[saviking]

I held my breath before seeing who we gave up. After, I said HELL YEAH! GREAT TRADE!