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The Twins have made their first move of the trade deadline, and it's already left a sour taste. Chris Paddack has been traded to the Detroit Tigers for catching prospect Enrique Jimenez. At first glance, it looks like your typical deadline deal. Paddack hasn’t been good this year, holding a 4.95 ERA overall and a 6.04 ERA since June 1. Trading him for a lottery ticket type of prospect seemed fair enough at the time.
But then the details started to come out, and it quickly became clear that this wasn’t just about getting something in return for a struggling pitcher. It was reported that the Rays and Yankees had also shown interest in Paddack. That should have given the Twins some leverage. If multiple teams are interested, you’d expect the front office to work that into a better return. Let them bid. Drive up the price. Do the smart baseball thing. But that didn’t happen.
Instead, it was revealed that Randy Dobnak was included in the deal, as well. That changes the calculus entirely. Dobnak has bounced between the majors and Triple-A St. Paul for a few years now, but his recent performance has been rough. This year alone, he has a 7.57 ERA with the Saints, after middling seasons in 2023 and 2024. On top of that, he’s making $3 million this year, which means he’s still owed about $1 million the rest of the season, plus another $1 million buyout at the end. There is no real value there for a team in a playoff race.
And yet, there he is, packaged in the deal. That tells you everything you need to know about the Twins' true motivation. This wasn’t about acquiring the best prospect available for Chris Paddack. This was about dumping salary. It’s not hard to imagine that the Rays and Yankees weren’t willing to take on Dobnak’s money, as well as the entirety of Paddack's remaining contract, but the Tigers were. In exchange, the Tigers didn’t have to give up a better prospect. The Twins took the cheaper deal, not the better one.
That’s not to say Jiménez is a bad player. He’s a switch-hitting catching prospect in rookie ball and has some upside. But he’s a long shot—a true lottery ticket. He's the kind of player you might take if you were also getting something else or had no leverage. The Twins had leverage, and they still took the lighter return because it let them get out of paying Dobnak—not to mention the remainder of Paddack's own salary.
It’s disappointing. Not surprising, but disappointing. The Pohlad family clearly has one foot out the door, and their top priority at this deadline is saving money. They’ve already slashed payroll over the last two years, and with the deadline finally here, they’re not even pretending to try to get the best baseball value. They’re prioritizing their bottom line. That money isn’t going back into the team: not this year, not next year, and especially not while a sale is looming.
This is the kind of trade that makes you nervous about what’s to come. If the front office is being told to prioritize savings over value, how many more deals like this are we going to see? Are they going to keep attaching bloated contracts to semi-valuable players just to get rid of money, even if it means taking weaker returns? Is that the game plan? It's much too soon to say that for sure, but the very idea is unwelcome.
Maybe Jiménez ends up being something, and in a few years we’ll look back on this trade a bit more kindly. But right now, it’s hard to feel anything but frustrated. The front office probably could have done better. They just weren’t allowed to.
What do you think? Was there a better deal to be made? And does this trade make you worried about what the rest of the deadline will look like?
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