Dman

Phil Miller reported that Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said the bullpen is not a priority right now. The Twins did a good job of addressing the bullpen at the last trade deadline and shuffling some pieces led to the Twins being middle of the pack overall.
But given the acquisition of Carlos Correa, Joey Gallo, and Pablo Lopez, this feels like a re-hash of previous offseasons, the last two of which has gone very poorly for the Twins in regards to fielding a good bullpen in the first half of the season.
Given the availability of marginal but solid relievers and the low cost of acquiring one as insurance against Jorge Lopez, Griffin Jax, Emilio Pagan, and others, I don't see why this decision is being made once again.

Could the Minnesota Twins wind up with Correa after all? The Giants deal fell through, then the Mets deal was agreed to weeks ago, but hasn’t been finalized due to medical concerns. And now today is a Jon Heyman report that “Boras engaged at least one other team regarding Correa this afternoon.”
The Twins are mentioned in the report as having tried to reengage, and as an obvious landing spot, having employed Correa (healthy) last year, and having a vacancy and payroll space to accommodate him.
The likelihood of Correa coming back to the Twins has to have crept up. Maybe 25%?
 
 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/giants-taylor-rogers-agree-to-three-year-deal.html
Good for him! Although for that money, I'm fine with the Twins taking a pass.

Okay, I'm not piling on Dan here, I love his work and you should subscribe to The Athletic. In a piece this morning, he quoted some Twins management and sources about what they plan to do in the wake of Correa going to the Giants. And a lot of it is rational, useful information. But holy Moses did this quote stick in my craw:
*uncontrollable gagging*
I mean, what? This is the team that traded Gio Urshela earlier this offseason. Justin Turner is a fine player, I guess, but he's the only name on that list that doesn't make me reel in horror.
My suggestion to Twins officials: if those are the names you're going to mention, don't mention any names.
Anyway, go read the piece, there's interesting information contained within that didn't make me dizzy and nauseous.

In a rundown of post-Winter Meeting events, Gleeman and Hayes (if you're not subscribing to The Athletic for this duo, you should do so) talk about several items but specifically call out the fact that Kepler is drawing trade interest. Alongside Luis Arraez, the Twins appear to be shopping the right fielder to secure more pitching depth.
To me, this makes a ton of sense. I think teams will be (irrationally) high on Kepler due to his continual under-performance of metrics like BABIP and with the looming shift reduction happening, this might be the time to move on from Kepler. With players like Larnach, Kirilloff, and Wallner looming, having yet another left-handed corner outfielder on the roster makes less sense by the day.

Dougie from KSTP and Dougie with the Scoop, said on news last night, that rumors are Twins plan to meet with Correa and have been willing to offer 10 year deal, full no trade, multiple opt outs.  No rumor as to money, and if they are offering most overall, but it sure shows how much they are willing to offer.  If we do not sign him, if the rumor is true, they sure tried. 

Five words Twins fans did not want to hear to start this offseason. Jon Heyman has reported that while Trea Turner is obviously open to returning to the premiere Los Angeles team, the Dodgers themselves may be targeting Correa as their number one shortstop free agent.
This is terrible news for the Twins, especially coupled with rumors that the Yankees may be sore after their ALCS loss and may also enter the fray for Correa.
It's safe to say that if those teams are involved, the Twins' chance of retaining Correa approaches zero.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/10/dodgers-interested-in-carlos-correa.html

The Athletic's Dan Hayes mentions briefly that the Twins are more interested in Tyler Mahle than they are Luis Castillo.
Mahle doesn't have the eye-popping stats of Castillo but would be a considerable upgrade to the Twins' rotation, as would Castillo. If the Twins are pursuing Mahle over Castillo, is it due to price, untapped potential, or both?
I still think Montas is a long shot, the A's seem to be really intent on asking top dollar for him. If they haven't already overplayed their hand, I think there's a good chance they'll end up doing so.