The Minnesota Twins Didn’t Tear It All Down, At Least Not Yet

I know, it’s clickbait Twins Daily at it again, selling out all of their integrity to get you to read about how it’s not that bad, actually! or three things that are Pollyanna at 1 Twins Way! or even everything is horrible and it will not get better! But no, I’m being serious. This is not a full-blow teardown—at least not yet.

Yes, the Minnesota Twins had one of the biggest fire sales you’ll ever see in American professional sports. A full 40% of their active roster (and 2019 playoff legend Randy Dobnak) is now wearing another uniform. They paid the Astros to take their star shortstop off their hands, with no return to speak of. They rid themselves of the top five arms in their bullpen. Their Opening Day first baseman, second baseman, and left fielder, as well as their current third starter? All gone.

It’s impossible to say that selling off that many names isn’t a shock to the system, and I won’t spit on your boots and tell you it’s raining. But I will say that it’s bordering on a half-measure. And you can take that however you will.

Look at what the Twins traded. First, five rentals: Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, Chris Paddack, Danny Coulombe, and Ty France. All five of those players were headed for free agency, and none ever had a great chance to get an extension of their liking from the Twins, even if the team’s payroll was higher. Technically, all of them are eligible to return to the Twins, but I wouldn’t have put those odds high beforehand. There’s truly nothing of note in trading the last two months of these players for future value. So let’s not even consider them.

What did the Twins really trade? What were the difficult decisions? Well, obviously, Carlos Correa was the biggest name. The Twins bailed out of the back half of his six guaranteed years, and they agreed to pay approximately one-third of his remaining salaries, removing about $75 million from their books in the process. Again, I’m not going to pretend that wasn’t shocking, notable, or future-altering. But I’ll come back to this.

The other four players were the top four right-handed bullpen arms—Jhoan Durán, Griffin Jax, Brock Stewart, and Louis Varland. Durán, Jax, and Stewart each had two years of team control remaining, but Varland had five. Most fans expected at least one—if not two—of Durán, Jax, and Stewart to be traded, but Varland was the surprise. The bullpen represented the greatest strength for this team.

And yet.

If we lined up all of the possible ways to trade 40% of a team’s active roster and ordered them from least devastating to most devastating, this specific one is probably on the lower end.

To start with, half of those players were not likely to return anyway. Even if you believe that any of those five should be back next year, you rarely see an extension signed this close to free agency. So, really, it’s Correa and four bullpen arms that have been erased.

There’s a whole gamut of opinions on Correa, but one thing is clear: he wasn’t worth the over $30 million he made per year during the first half of his contract, and betting men (no offense to any Cleveland Guardians) wouldn’t put money on a transformative turnaround. The trade cost the team their shortstop of the present, but he was also headed to third base soon, if he and the Twins allegedly had their wishes.

So, no, they didn’t trade their superstar shortstop. They traded their solid, highly-paid third baseman, who was playing shortstop for now. They got nothing of value in return, but they did free up about $20 million per year in spending money, which is more than they spent on free agents in the last two years combined. Naturally, you need to believe that the Twins won't cut an additional $40 million from the payroll for that to make a difference, but so be it.

The bullpen, on the other hand, was the strength of this team, and it’s a huge blow to peel off two upper-echelon late-inning guys and two very good setup men, one with five years of control. However, making the bet year-to-year that a bullpen continues its dominance is a risky one. Obviously, it’s not a coin flip. I’m not going to tell you that there’s a 50% chance that the pen would cease to be a strength next year if held intact. But if a team is looking for a way to consistently sell high on their value that might not be there in the future, here it is.

There’s going to be a lot of questions heading into 2026, and I won’t pretend that it’s easy to reconstruct a bullpen like this. But it’s a whole lot easier to reconstruct a bullpen than an infield or a pitching staff.

Speaking of which, the outlook for the lineup is relatively unchanged. The Twins lost Bader and Castro, who are more valuable high-end bench players, but they’re not building blocks. They lost Correa, whose defense has been waning and has not yet reached a league-average OPS for 2025. I don't want to be too dismissive of his talent; he was an elite hitter in 2024 when healthy, but his presence and performance in the first three years of his Twins contract has been shaky enough to scare even the most optimistic of fans, and we have seen worse falloffs before.

There is no great promise in this lineup as constructed, either. It’s been the greatest issue for the Twins, both defensively and offensively, but the (alleged) building block pieces are still there, and the Twins added additional options to sort through as 2025 concludes in Alan Roden and James Outman (you're free to hate the moves that brought them here, but—outside of Correa and his eighth-best OPS—the Twins did not subtract from their 2026 corps and instead added, even if only by technicality). If nothing else (and I believe that this factor has not gotten enough attention), if these hitters continue to struggle in 2026, they were always going to be a bad offense, regardless of this deadline.

And in the rotation, the Twins still boast two starting pitchers who comfortably fit into the number one starter category, as well as Bailey Ober and a host of young, developing starters between the ages of 23 and 25 in Zebby Matthews, David Festa, Simeon Woods Richardson, and newcomers Taj Bradley and Mick Abel. The starting rotation is also not only still intact but deeper ahead of 2026 than it was last week. Again, your mileage may vary, but the Twins did not take a step back in the rotation, instead adding.

In addition to bringing in far-off prospects, the Twins more or less stood pat in the lineup and bolstered the rotation. There are a ton of questions in the bullpen, but given where the Twins stand heading into next season, it’s hard to call this a full teardown.

The thing that would make it a teardown? Breaking up the starting rotation, especially the top two. And that's my biggest point. It's not torn down, yet—whether you agree with the above assessment or not.

The Twins were engaged in trade talks with Joe Ryan. That was widely reported. They maintained a high bar to acquire him, and no one met it, but he was technically available.

And it’s very possible that Pablo López would have been in trade talks, especially with all the emphasis on shedding payroll at this deadline, had he been healthy. It’s possible that the Twins ran out of time. But both Ryan and López are under team control through 2027, and with two guys like that on the roster (and Byron Buxton, I suppose), you’re not really packing it in for a couple of years. Or at least you shouldn’t.

Maybe in December they’ll change teams. Or perhaps in spring training, they’ll be flipped to some team that just lost their ace to Tommy John. But until then, the Twins didn’t trade either of their two most important pieces, and I refuse to call it a teardown. It’s trimmed to the bone in some places, but it’s not stripped to the studs. Not yet anyway.

And for what it's worth, former Twins GM Thad Levine seems to agree.