Bob Nightengale: Twins Could Explore Joe Ryan Trade Market This Offseason

[Matthew Taylor]

With the GM Meetings underway and a December lockout looming, the MLB offseason could move quickly over the next few weeks. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggests teams may be motivated to get deals done before the uncertainty surrounding the next collective bargaining agreement.

 

For the Twins, Joe Ryan remains a name to watch. Nightengale notes that Minnesota could explore trade offers this offseason or hold onto the right-hander until next July, when his value could potentially increase.

As we previously discussed in our coverage of Jon Morosi’s reporting, Ryan’s trade market could be complicated by the possibility of a shortened 2027 season. With just one year of team control remaining, teams may be reluctant to surrender significant prospect capital, potentially making a deal involving another impending free agent more realistic.

While it stings to trade away an ace-level talent like Ryan, the Twins have rare depth at the starting pitching spot, and could use Ryan’s pedigree to potentially land a big bat, a back-end reliever, or some package featuring both.

What do you think? Should the Twins look to trade Ryan this offseason, or hold onto him and revisit the market next summer?

View full rumor

[MackMan]

It a 2 fold thing. The right package needs to come along this off-season for it to happen. If we can't reload or get the players we need, we have to hold onto him and bank on him performing like he did in the first half of last season. Then we flip him because someone is willing to bet they can make him work in the 2nd half of the season. 

[nicksaviking]

This equation DOES NOT WORK. 

You can trade Ryan and let Jeffers walk, I get it, that's a path you can take and maybe down the road it pays off.

But promising to spend is then a completely different path. You don't do both. If you're going to spend money, don't also make your team worse by removing the good players. If you're going to trade Ryan and let Jeffers go, then you run with the young players and 'play for the future'. This fence-straddling the Twins do is frustrating and inexcusable.

[Cory Engelhardt]

I wish articles about other things would be written as rumor like this;

Talks are ongoing for what Cory’s family will have for dinner this upcoming Thursday night. One child wishes it could be pizza, another sushi. Talks from the adults center around possibly the chicken that’s on sale at the local grocery store through the weekend. More details to come at the meetings this week. 
 

Basically, baseball rumors are fun aren’t they?

[HerbieFan]

I think it's malpractice to not at least explore the market.  I don't think Joe has a burning desire to stay.  But could we at least see something to the nature of "How Joe Ryan Could Help Twins Win AL Central"????  Something positive please?

[Whammy]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

This equation DOES NOT WORK. 

You can trade Ryan and let Jeffers walk, I get it, that's a path you can take and maybe down the road it pays off.

But promising to spend is then a completely different path. You don't do both. If you're going to spend money, don't also make your team worse by removing the good players. If you're going to trade Ryan and let Jeffers go, then you run with the young players and 'play for the future'. This fence-straddling the Twins do is frustrating and inexcusable.

I've seen plenty of versions of the "Twins Daily You Be The GM" Tool that don't have Jeffers or Ryan on the roster that also do a very healthy amount of spending, and have excellent 2027 rosters.

The Twins could move on, based solely on merits, from either one of those guys. They could say to themselves, "we just don't want to sign a catcher in his 30s to a 3+ year deal for $50M. And they could look at Ryan as a trade chip to fill another area of weakness (catcher for example) and cash in on his value before he likely hits free agency after the 2027 season. 

 

 

[nicksaviking]

3 minutes ago, Whammy said:

I've seen plenty of versions of the "Twins Daily You Be The GM" Tool that don't have Jeffers or Ryan on the roster that also do a very healthy amount of spending, and have excellent 2027 rosters.

The Twins could move on, based solely on merits, from either one of those guys. They could say to themselves, "we just don't want to sign a catcher in his 30s to a 3+ year deal for $50M. And they could look at Ryan as a trade chip to fill another area of weakness (catcher for example) and cash in on his value before he likely hits free agency after the 2027 season. 

 

 

I've seen many of those rosters. To each their own, but it's still fence-straddling. 

[Whammy]

Perhaps you could create a version that doesn't straddle fences

[Cory Engelhardt]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

This equation DOES NOT WORK. 

You can trade Ryan and let Jeffers walk, I get it, that's a path you can take and maybe down the road it pays off.

But promising to spend is then a completely different path. You don't do both. If you're going to spend money, don't also make your team worse by removing the good players. If you're going to trade Ryan and let Jeffers go, then you run with the young players and 'play for the future'. This fence-straddling the Twins do is frustrating and inexcusable.

What if letting Jeffers walk and trading Ryan for a young defensive catcher with 3 years of control remaining and another pitching prospect they like, and then turning around and using the money they were going to spend on Jeffers AND the money they were planning to add by also then getting Jake Bauers, Raisel Iglesias, Bryan Abreu and AJ Minter? Wouldn't that in effect upgrade catcher defense, add pop to the middle of the lineup and solidify the bullpen? How is that team worse?

[nicksaviking]

12 minutes ago, Whammy said:

Perhaps you could create a version that doesn't straddle fences

I have one, but it's at 155M and that's supposedly over the salary cap for the Twins so I've not pushed the publish button. If 135M is truley the Twins salary ceiling this year, then yeah, they might as well sell off Ryan and not re-sign Jeffers, because that's not a legit payroll and Tom Pohlad is full of bologna.

Anyway, it involves overpaying for Jeffers and Arozarena and trading for another starter, I picked Bryce Miller. This team has to focus on better players, not more players. And obviously it's fair to question if anyone likes my players better. But I'm done chasing 8-15M per year players. Worst value for your money in the game. 

[TheLeviathan]

We're like a year or two away from these scoop guys having headlines like "Twins might maybe (probably) consider the possibility of contemplating the thought that they might ponder the decision to perhaps mull over the act of weighing the deliberation to trade Joe Ryan"

[tony&rodney]

21 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I have one, but it's at 155M and that's supposedly over the salary cap for the Twins so I've not pushed the publish button. If 135M is truley the Twins salary ceiling this year, then yeah, they might as well sell off Ryan and not re-sign Jeffers, because that's not a legit payroll and Tom Pohlad is full of bologna.

Anyway, it involves overpaying for Jeffers and Arozarena and trading for another starter, I picked Bryce Miller. This team has to focus on better players, not more players. And obviously it's fair to question if anyone likes my players better. But I'm done chasing 8-15M per year players. Worst value for your money in the game. 

Put it up. Cody Schoenmann put up a $160M+ roster.

I stuck to $130M, but might put up a $150M. Why not? It's not like anyone is serious.

[nicksaviking]

10 minutes ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

What if letting Jeffers walk and trading Ryan for a young defensive catcher with 3 years of control remaining and another pitching prospect they like, and then turning around and using the money they were going to spend on Jeffers AND the money they were planning to add by also then getting Jake Bauers, Raisel Iglesias, Bryan Abreu and AJ Minter? Wouldn't that in effect upgrade catcher defense, add pop to the middle of the lineup and solidify the bullpen? How is that team worse?

I'm not adding more than two relievers to this team, good bullpens are developed through repetition, consistent usage and trial and error. You don't need to add big name guys, you just need to add the right guys to the the group of starters you are transitioning to relief. If there's one lesson we should learn from the Ray and Brewers, it should be how to build bullpen. Or, if they want to be prideful, the Twins can say they learned this lesson from the good Twins bullpens of the past.

And sorry, I'm not a Bauers guy. I don't trust late age breakout players to continue to be good players. He unexpectedly found something in Milwaukee, I definitely don't want to pay to see what happens when you take Milwaukee away from him; these guys far too often don't take what they found with them. I want free agents that are better and more expensive than these players. If the Twins are not willing or able to do that, then it's time to move on from Ryan and Jeffers and Buxton and Lopez and Hoffman, and they instead should be trying to build a competitive team from within. That means prioritizing at bats for as many young hitters as possible to find the right ones, quite possibly at the expense of defense. It means giving young arms all the innings they can handle, quite possibly at the expense of depth. That makes for frustrating baseball, and I know that's not a popular avenue to take, so I hope that's not the one they choose.

I think a few top tier players to go along with a healthy crop of homegrown players is the best combination to maximize your money while keeping the most talented players on the roster. I think a bunch of mid and low tier free agents added to your homegrown players just makes for roster clutter, blocked opportunities and a very low ceiling. 

And I am decades beyond having interest in an organization that prioritizes being average and who's stated goal is trying to win a crappy AL Central or get a Wild Card spot. 

[Cory Engelhardt]

4 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm not adding more than two relievers to this team, good bullpens are developed through repetition, consistent usage and trial and error. You don't need to add big name guys, you just need to add the right guys to the the group of starters you are transitioning to relief. If there's one lesson we should learn from the Ray and Brewers, it should be how to build bullpen. Or, if they want to be prideful, the Twins can say they learned this lesson from the good Twins bullpens of the past.

And sorry, I'm not a Bauers guy. I don't trust late age breakout players to continue to be good players. He unexpectedly found something in Milwaukee, I definitely don't want to pay to see what happens when you take Milwaukee away from him; these guys far too often don't take what they found with them. I want free agents that are better and more expensive than these players. If the Twins are not willing or able to do that, then it's time to move on from Ryan and Jeffers and Buxton and Lopez and Hoffman, and they instead should be trying to build a competitive team from within. That means prioritizing at bats for as many young hitters as possible to find the right ones, quite possibly at the expense of defense. It means giving young arms all the innings they can handle, quite possibly at the expense of depth. That makes for frustrating baseball, and I know that's not a popular avenue to take, so I hope that's not the one they choose.

I think a few top tier players to go along with a healthy crop of homegrown players is the best combination to maximize your money while keeping the most talented players on the roster. I think a bunch of mid and low tier free agents added to your homegrown players just makes for roster clutter, blocked opportunities and a very low ceiling. 

And I am decades beyond having interest in an organization that prioritizes being average and who's stated goal is trying to win a crappy AL Central or get a Wild Card spot. 

I get all that. 

I'll pose my answer a different way;

The Brewers got DL Hall and Joey Ortiz (along with a comp A pick in the draft that they used on Blake Burke) for Corbin Burnes. I don't think the Twins have as much value with Ryan as the Brewers did with Burnes, but I do think the Twins could get creative in what they receive to help other areas of the team.

I do also believe that the Twins will go as far now as their younger crop coming up will take them. If they are to win a series in the next 5 years, it'll be because Jenkins and Culpepper and Keaschall and others help lead the way.

But you can't tell me that getting a different catcher than Jeffers (or extending him) and possibly getting some return for Ryan will 100% make the team worse. There are other transactions still to be had after that. And if it isn't Bauers, I hope they do make meaningful additions both to the middle of the lineup for 2027 as well as the back of the bullpen. The rest can be figured out.

[Whammy]

27 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I have one, but it's at 155M and that's supposedly over the salary cap for the Twins so I've not pushed the publish button. If 135M is truley the Twins salary ceiling this year, then yeah, they might as well sell off Ryan and not re-sign Jeffers, because that's not a legit payroll and Tom Pohlad is full of bologna.

Anyway, it involves overpaying for Jeffers and Arozarena and trading for another starter, I picked Bryce Miller. This team has to focus on better players, not more players. And obviously it's fair to question if anyone likes my players better. But I'm done chasing 8-15M per year players. Worst value for your money in the game. 

I have no idea why the $135M was used. It's certainly not based on anything the Twins have said. 

My assumption is that they felt the need to pick a number (I swear in the past, that was an editable number) for the baseline. I've done two blueprints. One of them came in around $140M and the other around $150M.

Like @tony&rodney said, no harm in hitting publish. 

I find them to be a good way to spur conversations and I think that regular article contributors to Twins Daily should be encouraged to create one. It's far more interesting to me to see the Nicks, Codys, and Matthews of Twins Daily create a plan like that, than many other offseason article possibilities. . 

[SE23]

I'm not a Bauers guy either, but I agree with Cory's thesis that we can lose Jeffers and Ryan and still be a better team.

[Linus]

Let me just snarkily suggest TD does not have to write an article every time one of the talking heads sends out a tweet. 

[Blyleven2011]

Changing the subject to free agency …

The first signing has been reported , Detroit has inked pagan to a 1 year 11 million 1 year contract , I guess pagan thinks Detroit has a better chance than the reds to make the playoffs , he turned down his 10 million option with the reds …

[MackMan]

1 minute ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Changing the subject to free agency …

The first signing has been reported , Detroit has inked pagan to a 1 year 11 million 1 year contract , I guess pagan thinks Detroit has a better chance than the reds to make the playoffs , he turned down his 10 million option with the reds …

Something tells me it really wasn't about the money for this signing. Something tells me he looked at the make-up of the Reds and decided they weren't playoff bound for a few seasons and wanted to be on a competitive team (at least on paper) and the team that approached him first were the Tigers. They must have made a good pitch for him to agree.

[Whammy]

Depending on the contract details, because of the uncertainly around the 2027 season, it could be that the $11M new contract has a lot more value than a $10M exercised option.

That $10M would've been prorated to exactly the number of games that get played. That could be how the $11M contract is written, but if you incorporated, say, a $3M signing bonus, that could be viewed as significantly more valuable.

[IndianaTwin]

On 11/10/2026 at 12:35 PM, Cory Engelhardt said:

I wish articles about other things would be written as rumor like this;

Talks are ongoing for what Cory’s family will have for dinner this upcoming Thursday night. One child wishes it could be pizza, another sushi. Talks from the adults center around possibly the chicken that’s on sale at the local grocery store through the weekend. More details to come at the meetings this week. 
 

Basically, baseball rumors are fun aren’t they?

One or the other seems likely to be correct. I predict he either will get traded or he won't. 

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Changing the subject to free agency …

The first signing has been reported , Detroit has inked pagan to a 1 year 11 million 1 year contract , I guess pagan thinks Detroit has a better chance than the reds to make the playoffs , he turned down his 10 million option with the reds …

Not to mention that Detroit is a better place for fly ball pitchers than Cincinnati. 
 

Also: Little Caesar’s > Skyline Chili (which is more a reflection on Skyline Chili than on Little Caesar’s).

[IndianaTwin]

52 minutes ago, Whammy said:

Depending on the contract details, because of the uncertainly around the 2027 season, it could be that the $11M new contract has a lot more value than a $10M exercised option.

That $10M would've been prorated to exactly the number of games that get played. That could be how the $11M contract is written, but if you incorporated, say, a $3M signing bonus, that could be viewed as significantly more valuable.

Per MLBTR: "Pagán’s deal is for $11.5MM plus a bonus clause, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer."

(Emphasis mine.)

So, yeah, slightly better deal.