A Preliminary Look at the Minnesota Twins' Baseline 2027 Roster and Payroll

[LewFordLives]

Should the numbers include Josh Bell's buyout?

They really need to bring back Jeffers.  Ugh......

[DataNerd]

Lewis hasn't been near a good enough hitter to go into the year penciling him in at 1B.  Clemens is a good UTIL, but he's not been a great defender (and been better in the OF than IF).  Sign/Trade for a 1B & 2B, move Larnach to DH would bolster the offense.

[tony&rodney]

33 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

The single biggest priority is re-signing Jeffers to be our starting catcher in ‘27 and ‘28 and then transition to 1B/DH in ‘29-‘30.   Four years at $17.5MM for a total of $70MM.

This supports Falvey's pattern of drafting and signing players who could be big bats (Jeffers, Wallner, Larnach, Rooker, Sabato, etc.) but are best suited to slot as DH only. If the team wanted a slugging DH, the ticket was Kyle Schwarber at $35M per year. Ryan Jeffers is not a good catcher by any objective means. He doesn't throw well and struggles to block pitches down, which is a real negative for any pitcher. Tough to see Jeffers as anything but a poor first baseman. Finally, will Jeffers offer a bat as consistent as Josh Bell for 150 games at DH?

A QO is one year and that works. I think Jeffers takes it but have no idea really. It is easy to understand how many people like Ryan Jeffers. I can respect those opinions. As a former pitcher I want Patrick Bailey as my catcher. My hope is that the Twins try to complete a trade (which can be done by mid November) or sign a defensive minded catcher and that Vahn Lackey develops quickly (2028).

[saviking]

2 hours ago, Clear Lake Twinsfan said:

Nick, I think that you may have understated the salary for Jeff Hoffman in 2027.  While it is correct that he is in the last year of the 3 year, $33 million contract that he signed with Toronto ($11 million AAV), both Baseball Reference and Fan Graphs Roster Resource show that the salaries were not spread evenly over the three years and show a 2027 salary of $12,666,667.  It appears that Tom Pohlad took on more salary at the trade deadline than he was given credit for.

I like Hoffman but man, that's a big salary for a relief pitcher. 

[LyleCole]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

While it is easy to agree with you that the Twins passed on multiple opportunities to trade players, the time has arrived to look forward. I have been greatly frustrated by the Twins missing out on transaction opportunities in 2023, 2024, and the 2025 offseasons. That is gone now, so I'm hoping and looking forward to some change before December. Think positive. 

Positive thinking is not analytical thinking.   And it is absolutely correct to point out mistakes that have happened in the past.   The mistake they made at the beginning of 2026 was not trading Buxton and Joe Ryan.   If you set their relative trade value to 100 in the offseason of 2026, I would argue that Buxton's trade value is now about 40 and Ryan's 50.  Less than half.   I would argue that Ryan Jeffer's trade value relative to the trade deadline is also 50.  

And the real need to make those trades at max value is that the Twins pitching pipeline is rather barren and we really do not have a lot of other methods of adding to the pitching core.  We have to make smart draft picks for pitching, develop those players and then add smart prospects from trades, such as getting Joe Ryan in the first place, to fill out the staff. 

Where we need to be positive is believing that our core group of prospects that are just pushing to the majors now will have what it takes to become a competitive team over the near far term (2-3 years).  Jenkins, Culpepper, Rodriguez, Houston, Lee, Diaw, Lackey, Tait, Tinney, Mendez, Gonzales, Roden, Keaschall.   I think there is a lot of data that suggests we should be positive with this group.  

If we brought up that entire group like the Twins did in 1982 with the Hrbek-Gaetti-Brunansky-Viola cohort, took their lumps, found out which of these guys pans out and which does not, then bring in the second wave Gagne-Puckett,  And then make smart moves in trades (Jeff Reardon, Bert Blyleven) and lower end free agents hopefully we can form a truly competitive team.

And while people have made comments that baseball today is not what it was in 1982, one factor that is different is that if we "tank" for a year or two that just adds top level draft picks to our system.  But in that era without signing bonus slot values it was very difficult for the Twins to sign their picks.  In 1983 the Twins failed to sign the #1 player picked in the draft, Tim Belcher and their 2nd round pick, #29 Bill Swift.  That was a major blow and I also believe it made them gun shy from drafting players they feared would not sign.

[Mike Sixel]

That's actually a better team than last year's, given the vastly improved outfield defense, and Culpeper at short to start the year. 

I'm not convinced it's not a playoff roster, actually. So I'm 100% expecting Tommy boy to instruct Zoll to do something stupid, like trade actual prospects for a one year player. I hope to be wrong.