Josh Donaldson officially signed his four-year contract with the Twins, the biggest free agent deal in team history, on Jan. 22, 2022.
The Twins acquired Pablo López in 2023 in a swap for Luis Arraez on Jan. 20. Less than 10 days earlier, The Twins inked Carlos Correa to a six-year, $200 million deal that eclipsed Donaldson’s.
ADVERTISEMENT
All that to say, Derek Falvey and company are used to waiting this late (or later) in the offseason to strike.
TwinsFest weekend arrived this past weekend and the Twins have yet to make move to add a major league player via trade or free agency (and if they do add in free agency, they certainly aren’t expected to make a splashy signing given their current payroll constraints).
But the timeline doesn’t seem to worry the Twins’ president of baseball operations.
“We’ve come to learn offseasons go a lot later than they used to go,” Falvey said Friday. “You used to have your team built out by mid-January and you were kind of wrapping up and getting ready to go to spring training, wherever that was. It’s no longer like that.”
No, it isn’t.
Just last year, the Twins traded Jorge Polanco to the Mariners on Jan. 29 and then turned around and used that money to sign Carlos Santana, who went on to win a Gold Glove, days later in February. A year earlier, by the time Donovan Solano signed his one-year deal, spring training had already begun. And the lockout the year before that meant major roster moves were happening in March 2022.
“You look at our roster the last few years, there’s a lot of transactions that have occurred for us in February and even into March and all the way up to Opening Day,” Falvey said. “For us, we’re not stopping. We have a continued series of conversations happening with other clubs.”
ADVERTISEMENT
That hasn’t amounted to a trade yet, though. Part of that, Falvey said, is that there are fewer sellers than normal. More teams are concentrated on adding to their major league roster and competing, which can make it hard to find a trade partner.
With Santana gone — he signed a contract with the Cleveland Guardians — and Alex Kirilloff retired, first base is one of the areas the Twins are looking to improve. They currently have Jose Miranda, and have mentioned Edouard Julien and Willi Castro as options there, but Falvey said it was “an area we’re focused on to see if we can find a way to complement the roster.”
Likewise, the Twins could use another right-handed bat — maybe one who could play a corner outfield spot. A left-handed reliever could be of use, as well.
But as to when the Twins might start making moves to supplement a team that fell apart at the end of last season and ended up missing the playoffs, well, perhaps a little more patience is still required.
“Nothing’s really come to fruition. We’ll continue to find ways to augment and add to the roster,” Falvey said. “I do believe in the core we have. I like the group we have. But we’ll continue to work on that over the next few weeks and months.”
______________________________________________________
This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.
The Trust Project
