5 Contending Teams Who Need the Sneaky Value of Harrison Bader at 2025 MLB Trade Deadline

Prospects! Are we in a retool or a rebuild? It doesn't make sense to rebuild, so why do we want redundant prospects? We need young MLB-ready players to shore up weak areas, to fuel our rebrand after Falvey is gone. Social media & teams want to give us their prospects, but I sure don't want them. IMO, Twins are stupid to take them.

11 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Prospects! Are we in a retool or a rebuild? It doesn't make sense to rebuild, so why do we want redundant prospects? We need young MLB-ready players to shore up weak areas, to fuel our rebrand after Falvey is gone. Social media & teams want to give us their prospects, but I sure don't want them. IMO, Twins are stupid to take them.

Players who are more or less MLB ready can be prospects. There are exactly zero teams that will trade a young contributing player on their current 26 person roster unless that player is seen as an extra piece that is easily replaceable. 

Do you mean AAA/AA MLB ready players? Are you specifically opposed to prospects below a certain level? If so, what level of baseball is too far removed to consider a prospect?

Since Ty France has a salary of 1 million and he is outperforming Carlos Correa at the plate, the "sneaky value" of Correa is less than 1 million. Good job Falvey!

49 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Prospects! Are we in a retool or a rebuild? It doesn't make sense to rebuild, so why do we want redundant prospects? We need young MLB-ready players to shore up weak areas, to fuel our rebrand after Falvey is gone. Social media & teams want to give us their prospects, but I sure don't want them. IMO, Twins are stupid to take them.

You aren't getting much for Bader. If they're MLB ready, they'll be role players, #7 starter or a weak RP. 

From my Mets, someone like Dom Hamel. Maybe someone like Drew Gilbert. 

The alternative is keep Bader, win 78 games and see him go elsewhere anyways. 

11 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Players who are more or less MLB ready can be prospects. There are exactly zero teams that will trade a young contributing player on their current 26 person roster unless that player is seen as an extra piece that is easily replaceable. 

Do you mean AAA/AA MLB ready players? Are you specifically opposed to prospects below a certain level? If so, what level of baseball is too far removed to consider a prospect?

It's true, if I want to compete, I'd want to trade my lotto ticket than my MLB-ready player. So that's why social media & buying team are putting lotto tickets out there as targets for MN. MIA & CWS are rebuilding, so yeah, they want prospects but we are not rebuilding, we still want to compete next year. How can we do that with MiLB players?

CWS has stated that they were willing to trade one of their outstanding rookie catchers, LAD, I've heard stated that they're willing to trade Rushing under certain conditions. Many of the trades that have happened have been MLB player for MLB player. There are young MLB SPs that haven't been established yet, teams that want to win now should be willing to trade them for established veteran players. But some teams need to find roster spots so they'd rather trade MLB players. 

If we aren't rebuilding, then to compete, we need to target promising young MLB-ready players, mainly those who had some experience & success. Otherwise, I won't trade. I may take a promising player in AAA or AA that'd could come up yet this year for an expiring contract.

You sell at the deadline and buy in the offseason. Prices are lower in the offseason because supply is higher.

22 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Well, the minors are not filled. And you could get lucky. Would you rather just keep Bader and get nothing? I'm not sure your point?

My point is negotiations. What are our needs & projecting those needs to buyers. A few teams need a player like Bader at the deadline, so you negotiate for a player who can contribute next year. Just because Bader is probably leaving, so what good if take the easy way out & say ok I'll take a prospect that may contribute 2 yrs, down the road after our window is closed? Or another OFer who probably won't get a chance? I would rather not base my work on luck & hope but focus on what should work.

24 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

You aren't getting that for two months of Bader. 

Of course, you can't get a Quero or Teel just for Bader, But you could package Bader or settle for a young promising #3 catcher instead.

5 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

The team still exists after 27.....

Roxs still exists after '27 but I don't expect them to do much.

14 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Roxs still exists after '27 but I don't expect them to do much.

Ironically, their franchise is in a much better position. So I wouldn't be throwing stones in this glass house we're sitting in. 

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Prospects! Are we in a retool or a rebuild? It doesn't make sense to rebuild, so why do we want redundant prospects? We need young MLB-ready players to shore up weak areas, to fuel our rebrand after Falvey is gone. Social media & teams want to give us their prospects, but I sure don't want them. IMO, Twins are stupid to take them.

Young MLB ready players are still prospects.  

Bader is not going to pull back a hot prospect but could he pull in a quality reclamation project? I think of a guy like Kevin Parada who makes a lot of sense. Two years removed from the Twins almost drafting him and going 11th overall. Good change of scenary candidate and adds catching depth to the system. 

7 hours ago, DFlow said:

Bader is not going to pull back a hot prospect but could he pull in a quality reclamation project? I think of a guy like Kevin Parada who makes a lot of sense. Two years removed from the Twins almost drafting him and going 11th overall. Good change of scenary candidate and adds catching depth to the system. 

I like those kinds of ideas. You are right, 2 months of Bader will not get us much of anyone substantial, but maybe we strike gold on  reclamation project like you suggested. On the other side of the equation, we could keep Bader and re-sign him. He's been a fun and useful player to have and I would be more than happy to have him around next season too. 

3 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

I like those kinds of ideas. You are right, 2 months of Bader will not get us much of anyone substantial, but maybe we strike gold on  reclamation project like you suggested. On the other side of the equation, we could keep Bader and re-sign him. He's been a fun and useful player to have and I would be more than happy to have him around next season too. 

OK but he's a free agent (almost certainly). This is a bad team and he likely would prefer to sign with a good team. You can't just say you want to keep and sign him when there's no guarantee of that, and nothing to really suggest trading precludes you from signing him if that's what you really want to do. 

8 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

OK but he's a free agent (almost certainly). This is a bad team and he likely would prefer to sign with a good team. You can't just say you want to keep and sign him when there's no guarantee of that, and nothing to really suggest trading precludes you from signing him if that's what you really want to do. 

True, He certainly would not be the first player we traded away and then signed again later. I think we did that with Rick Aguilera once or even twice!

If possible I'd be interested in packaging Bader and Coulombe to the Mets for Drew Gilbert. Former top prospect who has fallen out of their plans, but is having a solid resurgence year in AAA with a .790 OPS and appears to be big league ready. It would allow you to also move Larnach for something and replace him with Gilbert, who is faster and a better fielder, and has a similar hitting profile. Gilbert could also probably play a decent CF, so thats a plus. The new outfield would be Gilbert, Buxton, Wallner with depth pieces such as Martin, Keirsey, ERod, McCusker, Gonzalez, Jenkins, Rosario, Fedko and whoever else you may acquire in a trade. Plenty of guys to give chances and shake things up a bit.

10 hours ago, glunn said:

What could the Twins throw in to get a catcher who is almost MLB ready?

Probably an "almost MLB ready" player at another premium position. 

Not like the Twins are the only ones looking at decent catchers.  Kinda like pitching in that there is never enough quality to go around  - and the differences between the top and bottom tiers are astounding!

39 minutes ago, cjm0926 said:

If possible I'd be interested in packaging Bader and Coulombe to the Mets for Drew Gilbert. Former top prospect who has fallen out of their plans, but is having a solid resurgence year in AAA with a .790 OPS and appears to be big league ready. It would allow you to also move Larnach for something and replace him with Gilbert, who is faster and a better fielder, and has a similar hitting profile. Gilbert could also probably play a decent CF, so thats a plus. The new outfield would be Gilbert, Buxton, Wallner with depth pieces such as Martin, Keirsey, ERod, McCusker, Gonzalez, Jenkins, Rosario, Fedko and whoever else you may acquire in a trade. Plenty of guys to give chances and shake things up a bit.

Mets just traded for a LHRP and probably aren't that interested in Coulombe, but could get something like Vientos AND Gilbert, plus an arm like Dohm for Jax and Bader. I will say, Gilbert seems like he's a bit lacking in defense so I don't expect him to be over a 2 WAR player at any point. 

Is that intriguing? 

Otherwise, if you don't want to do a package, Gilbert for Bader is likely a close swap. 

7 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

OR, hang on to him and sign him under new ownership at $9.5M.

OR, trade him and you can still try to sign him. If you're good at people management a trade to a contender won't have any adverse effect on your efforts to bring him back as a free agent. Especially since he gets a 500K bonus if traded! 

His option is mutual so there's very little chance it's exercised. 

13 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

You're looking at Ford or Ballesteros, which I'm pretty sure I spelled wrong. So Seattle or the Cubs.

Do you think Ballesteros will stick at catcher?

From Fangraphs full report

Quote

Ballesteros' best defensive attribute is his arm accuracy. He doesn't have an all-world hose, but he has a surprisingly quick release for a guy his size and throws a lot of accurate one-hoppers to second in the 1.95-2.00 second range, sometimes from his knees. His receiving has improved to a place of viability, but his ball-blocking, especially to his left, mostly has not. Though this problem was much more pronounced during the 2024 Arizona Fall League than it was during the regular season, it's an issue that might prevent him from catching pitchers whose stuff is apt to expose his issues, and in his particular case that means guys whose stuff tends to finish in the dirt.

From MLB

Quote

Much heavier than his listed 195 pounds, Ballesteros has well-below-average speed and quickness, giving him no value on the bases and leading to questions about his long-term viability as a catcher. In 72 games behind the plate last year, he committed seven errors and 13 passed balls while surrendering 87 steals in 99 attempts (88 percent). He does feature soft hands, which along with his hitting ability earns him some Alejandro Kirk comparisons, and he’ll flash solid arm strength that plays down because of his slow footwork and transfer. First base is his only other realistic position, but no big leaguer 5-foot-8 or shorter has played 100 games in a season there since Joe Judge in 1930.

Rushing has much better numbers as a catcher but might be more expensive. If they want to take a chance on a guy who has questions at catcher but can hit they could consider Luis Campusano. He might be a buy low they can pick up with giving up any key player with control.

Ford would be awesome.

Everybody of value not expected back next year should be on the block. I don't think Bader is under-the-radar, I think teams are a little nervous that his offensive production will regress to previous years.

If the Twins think this is the real Bader, they should look to extend him. Bader in LF, Buxton in CF gives them some relief with defensive concerns in RF, and provides a viable injury backup for Buxton.