nclahammer

In the wake of losing the Carlos Correa sweepstakes, it appears other teams may smell blood in the water and are calling about starting pitchers Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda.
Should the Twins decide to start trading pieces for 2023, this could signal a massive mid-offseason pivot that is rare to see in baseball and probably unprecedented in the history of the Minnesota Twins organization.
What do you think? Should the Twins pivot this drastically in a division that once again looks weak in 2023?

Joel Sherman of the New York Post mentioned today that the Yankees are discussing trading for an outfielder with the Twins and Diamondbacks, possibly to stay under a luxury tax tier.
The Twins have a glut of outfield options currently in the majors and high minors. They need to find spots for the likes of Max Kepler, Nick Gordon, Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, and Matt Wallner. In case you're not good at counting, that's a lot of outfielders. More than three.
The Yankees system has a bunch of enticing names that surely interest the Twins. And we all know how well trading an outfielder to the Yankees has worked for the Twins in the past. But still, this deal could make a lot of sense for both teams if done well.
John Ryan Murphy was unavailable for comment as this story was published.

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.

A lot to sort out here but quite a bit of good news mixed in. The Dodgers appear to be out on Correa, as they're not keen on spending that kind of money on a player their fanbase loathes. The Giants are still in after missing out on Judge, as are the Twins. He believes the Cubs are a long shot, though mentions the Padres possibly being in, which contradicts what I heard elsewhere where the Pads were "Turner or bust", which is baffling given how they already have Tatis Jr coming back this season. Boegarts and the Red Sox appear to be back at the negotiating table so that's good news as well. And given that the Yankees just broke the bank with retaining Judge, it's hard to see them doubling down for Correa, especially given their apparent faith in their farm system at short.
All in all, this seems pretty promising. I think it's going to be Giants vs Twins with no clear favorite.