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With the trade deadline approaching and the Twins still stuck under .500, it’s no surprise that teams are calling to ask about players. What is surprising is who they’re asking about, and who the Twins might actually be listening on. According to MLB Network and reporter Jon Morosi, multiple teams are monitoring Joe Ryan, including the Boston Red Sox, as a potential deadline trade target. Let’s stop right here. That should not even be a conversation. Trading Joe Ryan would be, without exaggeration, a franchise-level mistake.
Ryan has been brilliant this season, earning a deserved spot in the 2025 MLB All-Star Game and leading the team’s rotation with a 2.76 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP, the third-best mark in all of baseball. With Pablo López sidelined and the rest of the rotation in chaos, Ryan hasn’t just held steady, he’s taken on the role of staff ace and delivered the best stretch of his young career exactly when the team needed it most. In the midst of a disappointing season and amid growing uncertainty about the team’s direction, Joe Ryan has been one of the few things the Twins can truly feel good about.
Not only is he thriving now, but he’s also cost-controlled and under team control through 2027. This is just his first arbitration year. He’ll likely earn somewhere around $8 million next year, then around $15 million in 2027. That’s affordable for a mid-rotation starter, let alone a legitimate top-of-the-rotation arm trending upward. His age, contract, performance, and personality all make him one of the most valuable pitchers in baseball, and while that may sound like the perfect formula for a trade chip, it’s actually the reason you don’t move him. These are the exact types of players you build around, not flip for future maybes.
And that’s the real issue here. If you deal Joe Ryan, what exactly are you trying to get in return? Prospects? A few Top 100 guys? Maybe one pitcher and two hitters, or vice versa? Let’s say you hit on one of them. Great, you got one impact player. The other two flame out, because that’s how this works. You end up spending years hoping to replace the guy you already had. Why not just keep the guy who’s already proven he can pitch like a frontline starter, thrives in your system, and actually seems to enjoy playing in Minnesota?
This is the exact type of pitcher the Twins have spent the better part of two decades trying to develop. Since Johan Santana in 2005, the only two starting pitchers the Twins have turned into All-Stars from within are José Berríos and Joe Ryan. That’s it. And while Berríos had his moments, Ryan is trending toward something even more special. His buy-in to analytics, his work ethic, his constant evolution as a pitcher, all of it points to a guy who still hasn’t hit his ceiling. You don’t sell on that. You double down on it.
And don’t give me the “we can’t afford him later” excuse. Nobody knows what the payroll outlook is going to look like in a year or two because the team is in the middle of a sale. It’s already awkward for the front office to be making any big-picture decisions when ownership is in flux and the regime itself could be out the door depending on who buys the team. Trading a foundational piece of the roster because of vague future financial concerns is not just short-sighted, it’s irresponsible. Maybe the next owner is willing to spend. Maybe they’re eager to keep guys like Ryan and López and actually build something lasting. Why take that decision out of their hands before they even get here?
We’ve seen how this plays out before. The Berríos trade was praised at the time. The Twins got two highly regarded prospects in Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson. But so far, neither one has come close to making the impact Berríos once had, and he wasn’t even at Ryan’s level. Go back further to the Johan Santana trade. The Twins traded away a true ace and got back a handful of top-10 Mets prospects, including Carlos Gómez. Gómez turned into a fine big leaguer, just not with the Twins. And the rest of the return flamed out. Once again, the dream of what those prospects could be never came close to matching what the Twins gave up. That’s almost always the case. Prospects are enticing because they represent possibility. But they rarely fulfill it.
So yes, Joe Ryan would bring back a haul. But there’s a reason for that, because every team in baseball wants a Joe Ryan. The question isn’t whether the Twins could trade him. It’s why on earth they would. You can still retool. You can still sell off rentals or arms in the bullpen. You can still plan for the future without throwing away the present. Because that’s what Joe Ryan gives you, a present and a future. A guy you trust to take the ball every five days. A guy who gives you a chance to win. A guy you can build around.
The Twins already lived through one decade of darkness after they tore down their core. Trading away the one legitimate ace they’ve developed in the last 20 years would be the first step toward repeating that exact same mistake. This team may not be good right now, but moving Joe Ryan would be waving the white flag not just on this year, but on the years ahead, too.
Want to see Joe Ryan stay in Minnesota? Think the Twins should cash in on a trade? Leave a comment below and start the conversation!
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