You’re not a GM. You Shouldn’t Want to Trade Ryan Jeffers.

The Twins are two games out of a playoff spot and three and a half games out of a very winnable AL Central championship. There are 60 or so games to go this season. The team came in with low expectations, and there has been a very sour taste in many fans’ mouths since this time last year, when the Twins traded away 40% of their active roster in what was the largest trade deadline sell off in sports history.

And yet, we’ve got people hoping the team will, nay, begging, the Twins to trade away good players.

The title says Ryan Jeffers, and I’ll use him as a reference, but this can be applied to other players as well, such as Joe Ryan.

Ryan Jeffers is an impending free agent in the midst of a career year, albeit set back by a broken hamate bone that he appears to be recovering from nicely. The Twins are in a playoff race with the trade deadline coming up, and many fans are fixated on the idea of trading one of the team’s top three players so as to avoid “losing him for nothing” in free agency (assuming they don’t offer him the qualifying offer, which I am in favor of).

Now sure, you could say that’s the smart, calculating, cold-blooded, intellectual thing for the team to do, but I have a question:

Why should that matter to you?

What is the point of being a fan if you’re not hoping that your team does well this year? Following the Twins’ four-game skid from Saturday to Tuesday this week, many fans were almost gleeful that the team could “stop pretending to be a contender” and “wouldn’t be fooled into holding on to their assets.” That is, frankly, a pretty miserable way to be a fan.

I’m guilty of it myself from time to time, but here’s the deal: I’m not a GM, and neither are you. It’s not your job to hope that the team trades away its good pieces to pick up some lottery tickets, rather than having the privilege of watching meaningful baseball with playoff implications. It’s not your job to hope the team gets worse. It’s not your job to pray for a tanking season.

Sure, it’s better on your emotions to just check out and not care about wins or losses. But hey, maybe that’s a sign you should check out.

This isn’t a Twins-only thing. Fans everywhere are plagued by this strange habit of watching their favorite team as if they were a decision-maker. Rooting for transactions has replaced rooting for wins. We forget why we actually enjoy watching sports, or, in this case, the Twins. It should be fun to watch the games. Even if they’re bad.

If you read that last bit and heard me say “You should clap like a seal and accept mediocrity and shut up and buy a ticket,” then I’ll say you’re hearing someone else’s voice, not mine. If you’re not enjoying the product, go ahead and check out. Take a day, week, month, year, whatever, off. If the Twins are just a time filler between the end of Wild season and the beginning of Vikings season, be as casual as you want.

But if you are locked in, the last thing you should be doing is begging the team to get worse or duck out of a potential playoff run, even if it’s not the most likely outcome. That’s what makes sports fun. It’s the journey. If it’s only the destination for you, you’re going to spend your whole sports life angry and/or looking ahead to the next season, only to look ahead to the following one as soon as it starts.

Now, you might be saying, “But Gregg, I care about winning championships. This isn’t a championship team. They might as well cash in now and start building a team that can finally win a championship. It’s been 35 years and Minnesota sports are cursed and remember Gary Anderson?”

Sports don’t only matter when your favorite team wins a championship. If the only reason you watch sports is to feel like a vicarious winner, and any season that your team doesn’t win a championship is a waste of time, try to sneak onto your son’s tee ball roster and win the city championship. Or maybe buy a copy of Madden and turn all your ratings up to 99. You’ll get your winning that way.

Enjoy watching the game. Enjoy watching the team. Enjoy the storylines. Live and die with every win or loss. Otherwise, what’s the point of watching? You can’t sim to next season in real life. If Ryan Jeffers is trade it, so be it. But that shouldn't be your hope. Do you remember how miserable it was watching games last August and September?

The Twins are probably not going to make the playoffs this season. If you’re honest with yourself, you probably know that to be true. But stripping the team for parts—especially parts that are far from guaranteed contributors at some nebulous future time—kneecaps their chances. They kneecap your chances of having entertaining Twins baseball to watch over the next two or three months. Shouldn’t that be worth more to you than a 20-year-old pitcher that MLB Pipeline ranks as the Twins’ new #8 prospect?

I really hope it is.