The Twins are contemplating a full-time move to second base for young infielder Royce Lewis, writes Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Minnesota briefly experimented with Lewis shifting from third base to second base late in the season, but a more permanent move is under consideration. Making the shift at the beginning of a season, when Lewis has an entire spring training exhibition schedule to acclimate to his new defensive environs, would presumably benefit the 25-year-old slugger as opposed to last year’s on-the-fly look, when Lewis logged only eight innings at the position.
Lewis is just one piece of a crowded infield puzzle in Minnesota. The former No. 1 overall pick and top prospect has been playing third base in deference to Carlos Correa but was drafted as a shortstop. From the time he was drafted in 2017, some scouts have questioned whether he’d stick at shortstop or move to third base, second base or perhaps center field. A pair of ACL tears in the same knee in consecutive seasons has probably impacted that decision for the organization as well.
In addition to Lewis and Correa, the Twins will be looking to juggle playing time between top prospect Brooks Lee (the No. 8 overall pick in 2022), Edouard Julien (who posted terrific rookie numbers in ’23 before struggling in ’24), Jose Miranda (who rebounded nicely from a 2023 season ruined by shoulder surgery) and utilityman Willi Castro (.251/.334/.395 with 21 homers, 47 steals in 282 games with the Twins).
Carlos Santana’s potential departure in free agency and the surprising retirement of injury-plagued former top prospect Alex Kirilloff opens some at-bats at first base, which could be handled by Julien and/or Miranda. Lee, considered a better defender at third base than Lewis, would presumably be in line for the bulk of the playing time at the hot corner if he makes the roster. Lee missed considerable time with injury and struggled in his first taste of the big leagues last year, however, so if he opens the season in Triple-A, that’d leave Miranda and Julien to share the corners early in the season, with Castro (who has extensive outfield experience as well) mixing in all over the field. The Twins also have fast-rising prospect Luke Keaschall to consider; the 2023 second-rounder has played second, third, first and center field in the minors and currently ranks 39th on Baseball America’s ranking of the game’s top 100 prospects.
One option the Twins could explore, of course, is a reunion with Santana. The 39-year-old switch-hitter is aiming to play at least three or four more seasons and by all accounts quite enjoyed his time in Minnesota. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey recently told the Twins beat that he’s not ruling out the possibility, even if it would “create some other changes that we have to consider on the roster” (link via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). Santana hit .238/.328/.420 with 23 home runs and won a Gold Glove at first base in 2024 after signing a one-year, $5.25MM deal in Minnesota.
It’s possible that the glut of infield talent could lead a trade of some variety this offseason, though given the team’s payroll situation, trades of veterans on somewhat notable salaries are considered likelier. That could include Castro, who’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $6.2MM in his final season of club control, but there are other areas where the Twins have notable salaries they could shed. Catcher Christian Vazquez and his $10MM salary are one option, and Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote recently that there’s an expectation that righty Chris Paddack will also garner some calls this winter. (We ranked Paddack 16th on our list of MLB’s top trade candidates heading into the offseason.)
Paddack, 29 in January, is signed through the 2025 season and will earn a $7.5MM salary next year. He returned for his first full season following a second career Tommy John surgery in 2024 and pitched 88 1/3 innings with a 4.99 ERA. That’s not a flattering number, but a substantial portion of the damage against Paddack came in one nightmare outing where he yielded nine runs in 5 1/3 innings to the Orioles in April. From that point forth, he posted a 4.38 ERA with a solid 22.3% strikeout rate and excellent 5.1% walk rate. He spent the final two months of the season on the injured list due to a forearm strain.
A former top prospect who looked on the cusp of stardom after a dominant rookie season when he gave the Padres 140 2/3 of 3.33 ERA ball with plus strikeout and walk rates, Paddack is still something of a project even as he approaches his 29th birthday. That said, he’s younger than most free agent pitchers and paid roughly in line with what might be expected of an older reclamation project. For instance, Alex Wood ($8.5MM), Wade Miley ($8.5MM) and James Paxton ($7MM) all signed one-year deals in this range coming off injury-shortened seasons of their own last winter.
Paddack’s deal may not be teeming with surplus value, but the Twins also might not need to eat any money in a trade. Dealing him would thin out the team’s rotation supply, but the Twins could still pursue some more cost-effective depth arms to complement Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods Richardson and top prospects David Festa and Zebby Matthews, both of whom made their MLB debuts in 2024 (each struggling to varying extents). Prospects Marco Raya and Andrew Morris are also on the near-term horizon.
Twins should trade Buxton while they can
He has a no trade contract.
He also has no trade value, or at least very limited value.
The 102 games played this year was only the second time in his 10 year career where he surpassed 100 games played (2017 was his only other time doing that)
No one thinks he will be available on a regular basis going forward. No one thinks this one season somehow means he’s now healthy.
No one will trade anything of real value for him, no matter how tantalizing his skills may be.
He was still worth 3.6 war. He has trade value but twins won’t trade him
Come to terms with the BB, the time has passed. Best off just rooting for him to bounce back !
The mascot?
Why do I have a feeling the Jays will land Vasquez and Paddack as their rotation and back up catcher additions.
Would Buxton be a good backup if Giants strike out in Free agency again? They do need some offensive talent in the OF.
How about Correa? Word is the Giants need a SS. He almost signed there initially. Maybe his foot problems will scare the Giants off like it did the first time around? Twins have a crop of young infielders and need to save money, not going to make much on tv in upcoming seasons
Correa wouldn’t be a bad addition but does he have positive trade value right now? How about Baez instead? He might have played himself out of Detroit and I did like what Trey Sweeney showed me during his callup.
Correa probably doesn’t have a ton of surplus value, but Baez is not an option for anybody. He’s terrible. He had -0.7 fWAR, a .515 ops, and a 43 wRC+. Nobody is trading for Baez.
You mention how Correa doesn’t have positive trade value but then move on to Baez? Baez might be released here soon.
Yes. In Correa’s case, they can improve the return and create surplus value by paying down a portion of his guaranteed years (they have full control of the outer years). In Baez’s case, they can’t create any surplus value by paying down the remaining years. He was that bad.
Baez isn’t getting released soon.
I’m just throwing names out there. Lol to be honest. I think Baez is out of MLB pretty soon anyways.
The Giants have an interesting team. I was looking over their roster earlier lot of position player options just hard to tell who’s gonna improve or keep playing well moving forward.
Baez is Chris Davis. Nobody wants him even at league minimum. They have to either ride it out and hope he gets his act together or just eat the contract and cut him loose which I see them doing during or after the season if he doesn’t improve.
Never really got all the hype about Carlos Santana. he’s been a poor to fair option at 1B for his whole career IMO. I mean how far does ” Great Locker Room Guy” Really take you in sports today? Who cares?
Udonis Haslem says hi UncleMike!
I can give you locker room cancers that helped teams win too. Antonio Brown says What you talkin bout Raz?
Carlos Santana produced the same WAR last year that Christian Walker did. He’s a good player.
He did post a 2.5 WAR last year with an above average batting line. He’s no hall of famer but he has been an above average player for 12 years out of a 15 year career.
Oh I know but Carlos Santana was never a cancer, That’s my main point. He’s been a model citizen each and every place he has gone
Santana was the absent on deck batter when O’Neill Cruz tore up his leg at home plate. Santana should have been in position to tell him to slide, but was nowhere to be found. He also helped end the Twins season with bad base running. He may be great in the club house, but he lacks when on the field.
@stymeedone that’s an interesting factoid to be aware of…did you happen to see the play or just remember commentary about that ?
A lot of people blamed a lot of people for that play. The fact was the 3rd base coach sent him into certain death. Cruz made a horrible decision on when and where to slide and Grandal just stood there with the ball and blocked the plate legally. But every body wants to make something out of nothing. It was just unfortunate. Santana probably was thinking what we all were who saw it. WTF is he doing?
What numbers make you think “poor to fair” instead of “fair to good” though?
Like “fair to good” better than “poor to fair” because of positive lower than league average k rate.
The guys in the locker room absolutely care.
But the reality is that with the universal DH you don’t have to plug a guy like Mark McGwire at 1B just to keep his bat in the lineup anymore. The other side of that coin being that coaching staffs and front offices take anyone with bad defense at other positions and stick them at first base as though it’s an unskilled position they can master in Spring Training or even mid-season. So a guy like Carlos Santana who is a slightly above average bat with above average defense at 1B is pretty valuable.
Eric Hosmer is still drawing a paycheck for being a great locker room guy.
I never thought of Carlos Santana as a “hyped” player. Probably slightly undervalued, as evidenced by your post.
I’ve just never seen the allure everyone seems to have for the guy. It’s just my opinion.
Well yeah, and nobody is attacking that opinion, I’m just asking what you’re basing that conclusion on. It’s fine if you don’t want to share, this just seems like the platform to do so.
Just based it on my opinion of watching him play for the last decade and not being terribly impressed. I really don’t give a crap about WAR or most of that stats based opinion nonsense. I just trust my eyes. Have for 68 years.
Stay healthy Uncle Mike, here’s to another 68 more!
Thanks man! Not happening though. Already the longest living male in my family by 6 years. LOL. I don’t even know why this is a big deal. You can say the guy is a this WAR player or a that WAR player it doesn’t impress me. There are as many ways to compute WAR as there are ways to cook eggs. Every team and stat site computes it differently. I could care less. I’ve never actually gone into a season thinking hey Carlos Santana is in the top 3rd of 1st baseman overall. or thought gee that guy scares me. I’ve just never thought he was all that. Somebody always seems to sign him tho. Not sure if the position is that bad overall or the scouting is that bad but like I said, Just my opinion.
Fair enough! Good for you. Keep on keepin on!
Santana wanted to return to Pittsburgh before the Twins signed him last year but the cheapest and most incompetent GM decided that Carlos’ asking price was too much so instead he signed Rowdy Tellez for $2 million less and a wasted 2024 season at first base
You’re absolutely right, and PIT even had an opportunity to somewhat make it right by trading for a 1B at the deadline which didn’t happen. Pirates need to solve the revolving door at 1B with someone other than the flotsam and jetsam they plug in there annually.
@Unclemike 1525. Santana has a career wRC+ of 116 along with a terrific glove. Are there better 1B out there? Sure. At his age, he’s nobody’s long term solution, either. But “a poor to fair option?” Not if you’ve seen him play and if you’re being objective.
For years he produced like this as a catcher, which made him more valuable. The reputation is rooted in that time when he was a good guy, playing enough catcher defense and hitting well. Now that he’s only a good guy with a good 1B glove the hitting doesn’t look as impressive, but he shows up every day and is still above average. That counts for a lot in real life.
@ Crise. Santana caught a grand total of 330 games between 2010 and 2014. That’s it. He hasn’t caught since. He built no reputation as a catcher other than he was awful defensively. In contrast, he has played 1383 games at 1B.
Giants and Twins do have some needs and surpluses that line up.
SFG needs infield help; MIN needs a corner OF, pitching and some salary relief.
Brooks Lee, Paddack and Vasquez for Matos, Villar, Murphy, Beck and Arteaga.
Lee is the prize, he can play SS, he’s from SLO, CA and he can hit. Matos is a very good OF but blocked in SF. Twins get salary relief, good players with lots of team control and plug holes. Win Win.
Seems light for Lee.
Why not just move the surplus IF to OF ? If I’m twins, I’d rather trade 2/3 players for 1 if they decide to trade. Get another front line starter. Lee and paddock for one of Seattles young controllable studs
@big whiffa c’mon it would take A LOT more to get one of Seattle’s starters and Royce Lewis would have to factor in.
You underestimate Brooks Lee. He’d be manning ss for Seattle for next 1/2 a decade if they acquired him
Seems like to me what twins need the most is better coaching. Their lineup and rotation are loaded! Especially in the AL central ! They have the best team in the division on paper right now going into next season. Make sure you have the manager and coaches that’ll create the results !
It’s loaded on paper, but in real life they’ve been savaged by injury a couple times and the recent budget cuts have really hurt their ability to cover for some of the gaps.
One of the ways the front office is finding value is taking a lot of injury risk. For example Correa and Buxton both have contracts built around managing their limited playing time that saves MN a ton of cash and long-term risk. Paddack was signed to a two year injury recovery contract and Lewis has already lost three full seasons by the age of 25 (two ACLs and a Covid.)
They could still bring Santana back to DH, so it’s not like there isn’t room for everyone
Why would you DH a gold glover?
That Gold Glover will be 39 next April.
And therein lies the rub. He deserves to play the position, but I don’t care which player we’re talking about, putting that much faith in a 39-year-old is a roll of the dice.
And who has a better 1B glove you’d prefer to see over there? Your current choices at 1B are Miranda, Julien, maybe Lewis, possibly Vasquez, They lost Kirilloff and Santana who played most of the innings there, and of the entire group Santana is by far the best 1B. It’s not a sure thing that an infielder being “demoted” to a new corner is going to be better than a diligent student of the position.
Santana would be a good platoon option at 1B for the Guards, once they trade Naylor.
Eye test or not, I don’t know how anyone can get down on a player whose had a solid, very respectable career, .785 OPS, 300+ homers, likely to retire with 2,000 hits in addition to already scoring 1,000+ runs and driving in same in addition to power hitter whose put the ball in play throughout his big league career with a lifetime 16.5% K rate, and very healthy 14.6% BB rate.
For old timers – including myself – the batting average – lifetime .242 – is low, but overall he’s been a rather solid offensive player and a fine first baseman.
If he were ever to become a hitting coach, players will look at his career performance and view him as someone who succeeded in the majors – whose been there and done it over the long term and has weathered good times and bad. Much to learn from him, including the mental part of the game, filled with detail and nuance
I would love to get Santana back at first for a couple more years. Plus i got his jersey last year! His gold glove was definitely well deserved and earned last year. Plus I love homers. please trade Julienn for anybody! I dont wanna see him on the team after he cost us 5 games last year.