Hayes: "The [Minnesota] Twins Have Expressed Interest In adding A Veteran Shortstop"

Let’s start by quickly getting to know Luis Urías and Paul DeJong. Urías played for the Seattle Mariners in 2024, but spent most of the season at Triple-A Tacoma Relatively speaking, he is a bat-first utility infielder, but in reality, he’s a below-average producer on both sides of the ball. In 41 games and 109 plate appearances, he carried a .697 OPS with four home runs, a high strikeout rate, and a low walk rate.

If you’re not impressed by his hit tool (you shouldn’t be), you’ll be even less impressed with his glove. He's only nominally or vestigially a shortstop; he hasn’t played there since spending 200 innings as an injury replacement in Milwaukee during the 2022 season. Even then, it was ugly. While Hayes may have had this related to him as interest in a shortstop, Urías would be much more about giving the team another plausible option at second and third base.

DeJong spent time with the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals last year, and had a far more productive year at the plate—but he has similarly concerning strikeout and walk rates. In addition to being a better bat, he brings a better glove as well, and played both middle infield positions in 2024. I think most would agree DeJong moves the needle quite a bit more than Urías. DeJong might cost them as much as Harrison Bader did. Urías is likely to sign a minor-league deal.

Regardless of whether they end up signing either player (or anyone akin to them), what can we make of this news? My first reaction to this news was to think of two guys on the roster who primarily backed up Carlos Correa in 2024: Willi Castro and Brooks Lee. Regarding Lee, this report tells me that the Twins must not like the prospect of him playing shortstop. While multiple scouting reports suggest he could be an average shortstop at the big-league level, he posted a negative rating in multiple defensive metrics during his 200-plus innings there as a rookie. Thinking about Castro, who played 465 innings at short in 2024, led me to a bigger question which was: “where is all of this money coming from!?”

It’s been a weird offseason to follow, as we initially believed that the Twins wouldn’t be reducing payroll below the $130 million they carried in 2024 but that, due to arbitration and other raises (Pablo López, e.g.), they would need to cut roughly $10 million in salary to get down to that number. Then there was the announcement that the Pohlads were exploring a sale of the team, and many thought that could mean two things:

1. The Twins aren’t going to make any expensive moves that might deter a prospective ownership group; and/or 
2. They may look to offload a bigger salary (i.e., López or Correa) to make the finances of the organization appear more attractive.

We were never going to get a clear answer to those hypotheses unless they actually happened. Last week, Hayes reported that the Twins had roughly $5 million in leeway to their 2025 payroll. Now the Twins have added over $9 million in payroll, and are reportedly looking to add more? Assuming some sort of move for a backup shortstop comes to fruition, the Twins have more up their sleeve, and Jamie Cameron is asking the right questions.

What it likely means for at least one of Chris Paddack, Christian Vázquez, and Willi Castro is that their days with the Twins are numbered. Each of them has been the subject of trade speculation for the entire offseason simply, because they carry salaries north of $6 million for the 2025 season. This speculation grew bigger after yesterday’s signing of Harrison Bader, and will likely only grow as we hear rumblings about their contingency plan at shortstop. Or maybe they’re thinking of zigging, when everyone else is thinking of zagging, like Nate Palmer suggests.

We’ve also talked about the redundancy of Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach on this team, as two corner outfielders who struggle against left-handed pitching. Might they view Castro as more of an outfielder, given his poor infield defense, making one of Wallner or Larnach expendable? Given their age and controllability, it’s definitely possible the Twins could be trying to tie one of those two to one of the three contracts above to try and complete a deal that is more than just a salary dump. In fact, recently, I suggested that now is the time to trade Larnach, arguing that his value will never be higher.

After a quiet offseason, the last week or so has been fun. We have moves to analyze and speculation to run with. However, at the end of the day, it’s just speculation. We can read tea leaves all we want, but this front office has always kept their cards close to their vest, so we likely won’t get any answers until corresponding moves are made.

What do you make of the Twins trying to add a backup shortstop? Join the conversation in the comments!