The Twins Have Never Before Spent Like This at a Trade Deadline

As the trade deadline dust settled on Monday night, the Minnesota Twins couldn't be blamed for lack of trying in 2026. But more importantly, Tom Pohlad made good on his promise from this spring. Money went out of his pocket and into the team. In all, an estimated $8.5 million was added to the team's payroll, bringing the total up to $113 million.

That might not seem like much in the long run, and given some of the names bandied about, it’s less than some fans might want. But this is still ultimately a .500 team in an evenly competitive fight among not just two other AL Central teams, but a handful of Wild Card hopefuls. With no reason to cash in all the chips, it did what a normal team with a normal payroll would do: quietly buy, but not by running straight to the bargain bin.

During Joe Pohlad’s tenure (not to mention Jim's), the trade deadline became a nonsensical spectacle. Despite working with much higher payrolls then than they are right now (adjusted for baseball inflation, at least), the deadline always became an awkward moment where the team asked fans to look the other way. That resulted in two near-silent deadlines, despite the potential of the team, followed by an event that's still scarring much of the fanbase.

Not for Tom’s pesky Twins. They got a big infusion of talent, via a big infusion of money. So how big was this trade deadline? I put the numbers together, looking at not just how much more money was taken on, but the actual percentage of payroll added during the season over the last decade. (Some numbers are rough estimates, but the results are largely in the same range.)

(For this calculation, I included Hoffman’s first pitching incentive, which begins at 60 IP. He currently sits at 48, and as long as the team remains competitive, he should reach it easily. If he goes 70 somehow, the team will kick in another $500,000.)

As shown, the Twins have never before increased their payroll by over 5% of their current setup. (Obviously, we're not looking back at all of team history, but the previous clubs were even more skinflint than they've been lately, and these are the winning teams (therefore, the ones worth adding money to) since Derek Falvey took over.) Just as starkly, the raw dollars spent doubled even the biggest increase before this, in 2022. Of course, much of this began with payroll sitting so low in comparison, but neither Hoffman nor Minter came cheaply. They came at standard reliever prices that previous administrations would have likely balked at.

Even with the $3 million and change covered by Toronto for 2027 (as reported), Hoffman is now the biggest acquisition by the Twins at the deadline. He actually ranks quite high compared to the biggest payroll splashes made by other teams, too. Just look at the money spent on big names over the years in comparison: 

In the past, the Twins have usually spent less than 10% of what was spent on the most expensive player league-wide. This year, they're on the high side of 30% of that figure; they took on a big bill for Hoffman. Another way to think about this: the Dodgers are spending about $9.58 million—the largest of any player's annual average value—to acquire Tarik Skubal at the deadline, along with some mostly waiver pick-ups. The Twins might be far behind in payroll, but they're not far away from having spent more at the deadline than the Dodgers did.

As one of the long-tenured Pohlad skeptics, I've always questioned what Tom Pohlad might do. You might scoff at the Twins not getting Zack Neto or otherwise landing a bigger name, but the most important thing happened in Twins trade deadline history: money was not the impediment to the goal. Jeremy Zoll set out to buy relievers, and buy relievers he did. Now, the rest is up to the team.

Do you approve of the job Derek Shelton is doing as Twins manager?

Do you approve of the job Derek Shelton is doing as Twins manager?

• Do you approve of the job Derek Shelton is doing as Twins manager? Required
  

  
• Save

See All Twins Polls >