Looking Ahead: Who's in Place and Who gets Traded

[cmoss84]

C: Jeffers/Olivar/Diaw (we need Jeffers another 1-2 years...give him 2/20)

DH: Bell/Wallner/Sabato (1 more year)

1B: Lewis/Clemens 

2B: Clemens/Keaschall

SS: Culpepper/Houston

3B: Lee/Houston

LF: E-Rod

CF: Jenkins/Keaschall

RF: Buxton

AAA OF DEPTH: Mendez/Gonzalez/Ross

Utilities: Keaschall/Houston/Clemens

NO MAS: Larnach (not worth the $) Caratini (trade him if possible) Kreidler (best wishes) Martin/Roden (best wishes)

ROTATION:

(1) Taj

(2) Bubic (3/45)

(3) Mize (3/45)

(4) Prielipp

(5) Kremer (2/15)

(6) Zebby

In the wings: Abel/Rojas/Quick

NO MAS: Lopez and Ryan (traded. pitching and power bat prospects) Ober (best wishes)

BULLPEN:

Gomez

Abreu (2/25)

Phillips (2/15)

Morris

Funderburk

Rojas

NO MAS: Hoffman/Minter/Rogers

(although I wouldn't mind signing Minter instead of Phillips)

[Linus]

My suggestion would be to enjoy the rest of this season at least as long as they are in it. We have all winter to argue about roster construction 

[cmoss84]

Barrel full of monkeys are we?

I’m very much enjoying this season. I even went to a Saints game when I was back in MN recently. Saw my boy Culpepper right before his promotion.

quite sorry for insulting everyone by looking forward 4 months. Y’all take care.

[Linus]

Sorry. My response was saltier than needed. I do think the last 6 weeks will be critical information for making decisions this off season 

[strumdatjag]

Keep Pablo Lopez, along with other returning injured pitchers Festa and Abel.   The Twins will probably trade Joe Ryan, but there will be enough here for a big competition for the starting rotation.   Some will ultimately get converted to being relievers.  
Signing the likes of Casey Mize (even if they could) provides little benefit.  2027 is likely a CBA marred transition year once the season starts.  The Twins drafted a bunch of arms.  Let’s see what develops for 2028 and beyond.  

[nicksaviking]

Swap back in Ryan and Lopez over Bubic and Mize and use the prospects and payroll to make another Lopez/Gray/Maeda/Odorizzi trade and you’ve got one of the best rotations in the league. 

Im going to be disappointed if this team gets rid of the top two arms and replaces them with more mid to back end starters. 

 

[Mike Sixel]

If there is a floor, they should sign the best SP. 

[nicksaviking]

On 8/22/2026 at 4:29 PM, Mike Sixel said:

If there is a floor, they should sign the best SP. 

That would be great to sign Skubal. But if there's a floor for the Twins, there will also be a floor for teams like the Brewers and Rays (and barf White Sox), who will have just as much, or even more money to spend AND have the optics of being a legit contender.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

That would be great to sign Skubal. But if there's a floor for the Twins, there will also be a floor for teams like the Brewers and Rays (and barf White Sox), who will have just as much, or even more money to spend AND have the optics of being a legit contender.

Then the second or third best. And I understand everyone will have to spend. No one should want to go to Tampa.....

[The Great Hambino]

13 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Then the second or third best. And I understand everyone will have to spend. No one should want to go to Tampa.....

If a floor really does come into effect for next year (which I seriously doubt if there's a lockout that it would be in effect immediately given there will be basically no offseason, but I digress), then I would think a cap would also be getting put in place.  In that case, some teams over the cap will be forced to rapidly shed salary.  There might be some opportunities to leverage those teams looking to shed salary into some pretty favorable trades for the Twins.  Not saying they shouldn't be aggressive on free agents as well, just that the trade market might yield some better value

Agreed that no one should want to go to Tampa.  For baseball or any other purpose

[Whammy]

I promise you that whatever cap system gets put in place, it will NOT force teams to rapidly shed salary.

If the MLBPA does eventually, kicking and screaming, agree to a cap, they will insist on a multiple year grace period to get teams cap compliant. 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Then the second or third best. And I understand everyone will have to spend. No one should want to go to Tampa.....

Second best is probably Sonny Gray (37) or Shota Imanaga (33). Maybe Casey Mize or Michael King? But I don't know that I trust Mize's track record and I definitely don't like King's alarming drop in strikeouts. Then guys like Gausman, Ray, Peralta? I'm not sure I'd rather have many of these guys as opposed to the internal options. Which is why I might be more inclined to see if they can do another trade instead.

I had been thinking Corbin Burnes would be in this free agent class, but the guy still hasn't thrown this year so I have a hard time seeing him not taking his 36M player option.

[Mike Sixel]

5 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Second best is probably Sonny Gray (37) or Shota Imanaga (33). Maybe Casey Mize or Michael King? But I don't know that I trust Mize's track record and I definitely don't like King's alarming drop in strikeouts. Then guys like Gausman, Ray, Peralta? I'm not sure I'd rather have many of these guys as opposed to the internal options. Which is why I might be more inclined to see if they can do another trade instead.

I had been thinking Corbin Burnes would be in this free agent class, but the guy still hasn't thrown this year so I have a hard time seeing him not taking his 36M player option.

Trade works. 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Jeffers at 2 for $20 million?   Haha,  yeah thats not happening.   3 for $60 million will be the base rate.   

[Whammy]

I assume he meant 2 @ 20 per year

[Cory Engelhardt]

I keep Lopez and extend him. I'm even fine keeping Ryan, but I'd be more open to trading him than I would Lopez depending on return. But yeah, Bradley and Kremer will both be in the rotation too, and I think Prielipp will too. Probably need to play for at least 9 starters again, and with any luck Abel can get back to form eventually. Rojas and Zebby should have room to grow a bit and show they can be a starter potentially. I'm also excited to see Riley Quick mature a bit more and debut in 2027. Good to have options. IF they trade Ryan, guaranteed at least one player coming back will be ready for the rotation in 2027.

I have a hard time seeing Buxton not here unless he chooses to retire. I hope the hip doesn't force that issue.

Houston isn't a 3B. He's a SS. I don't know he will be ready opening day though. I daydream of an up the middle with he and Culpepper at 2B. That would be a better defense than we currently have.

Aside from bullpen, I'd LOVE for the free agent fit to be a power hitting 3b/1B type. If Houston would be open to moving Isaac Paredes here I'd love that. I'd even move on from Josh Bell and have Paredes be the primary dh unless Buxton needs more time there. But Paredes could spell Lee when facing lefties and be capable at 1B too.

I hope they can retain Jeffers, but if not I have to think they trade for a different starting level catcher to pair with Caratini. Even if it is starting level defensively. Hopefully Lackey will be able to debut late 2027 or by 2028.

Mostly I hope there will be a season. I guess we'll see.

Fun to start thinking about though.

[MeleMouth]

Fun exercise. You may have too many on the 40-man. Do you want to wish happy trails to anyone else?

Without going too deep into your proposal, one I would call out is Wallner: unless a player is a total masher or still developing, the Twins need to be done with poor defenders with bad contact rates. There is no future in Wallner and the present is pretty poor, also.

[darin617]

I would have loved to see these "trades" to see if they were insane as his roster decisions.

[tony&rodney]

On 8/22/2026 at 8:03 AM, Linus said:

Sorry. My response was saltier than needed. I do think the last 6 weeks will be critical information for making decisions this off season 

Maybe but you are correct. It is way too early right now to think about next year. The Twins are paying close attention to how the current players perform down the stretch.

The one thing that I expect and am actually pretty sure will occur is a shift that includes better defensive players wherever it is possible. 

[cmoss84]

Here are some of my "trades." I know...it is insane to cash in on damaged goods while they can still bring back a nice return...and to not wait for Ryan to lose value. If you are easily offended or feel as though looking ahead is cheating on your '26 Twins, read something else!

#1 Pablo Lopez to NYM for Jefferson Rojas (MLB #76) and Mark Vientos

#2 Joe Ryan and Henry Mendez to SF for Luis Hernandez (MLB #27) and Ramon Marquez (MLB #99)

#3 Victor Caratini to NYY for Pico Kohn (NYY #17)

I did mess up on my Jeffers contract. Wanted to compare it to Contreras, which I believe is 17.5 AAV. I'd be fine with  2/35 or 3/50.

If we want Keaschall, Culpepper, Clemens, Lee (and Houston) playing at the same time, they will have to "play out of position," or make themselves really good at multiple positions.  

Lineup might look something like this:

Keaschall (2B)

Jenkins (CF)

Culpepper (SS)

Buxton (RF)

Bell (DH)

Jeffers (C)

Clemens (1B)

Lee (3B) 

ERod (LF)

Bench: Olivar/Lewis/Houston/Vientos