Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Twins Rumors

Twins Outright Erasmo Ramirez

By | at

Aug. 27: Ramírez has accepted his outright assignment to Triple-A, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic.

Aug. 26: The Twins have sent long reliever Erasmo Ramírez outright to Triple-A St. Paul, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Minnesota designated the veteran righty for assignment on Sunday when they called up Taj Bradley. Ramírez has more than enough service time to elect free agency but could prefer to accept the Triple-A stint as depth for a young Minnesota pitching staff.

Ramírez was called up at the beginning of August to backfill the bullpen after the Twins’ deadline sell-off. He pitched nine times, tossing 11 innings with three earned runs allowed. Ramírez only punched out five of 42 batters faced. He missed bats on 7% of his offerings while averaging 89 MPH on his cutter.

The 35-year-old Ramírez has carved out a lengthy career based on his plus control and ability to absorb plenty of innings out of the bullpen. He spent the first three months of this season on the minor league injured list. Ramírez surrendered 10 earned runs with 15 strikeouts and four walks in 15 Triple-A frames before being called up. If he accepts the outright, he’ll remain on hand in St. Paul for a month. He’ll be a free agent at the beginning of the offseason.

José Ureña Elects Free Agency

By | at

Right-hander José Ureña has cleared waivers and elected free agency, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic. The righty had been designated for assignment by the Twins a few days ago when they recalled Mick Abel.

Ureña, 33, is a well-known commodity at this point in his career. He throws hard but doesn’t get a ton of strikeouts. He will keep the ball both in the strike zone and on the ground at a decent clip. The results won’t be astounding but he can take the ball and eat some innings. He hasn’t had a stint on the injured list longer than a couple of weeks since 2021.

A team usually grabs him when they need a fresh arm, either because they are facing a few injuries or a tough part of the schedule, but it’s rare for him to stick with one club for long. As a veteran with years of experience, he has the right to reject outright assignments and elect free agency, a right he is clearly willing to exercise. From the start of 2022 to the present, he has leaned into journeyman mode, pitching for the Brewers, Rockies, White Sox, Rangers, Mets, Blue Jays, Dodgers and Twins. Those last four clubs were all this year.

From 2019 to the present, he has logged 495 1/3 innings with a 5.09 earned run average. His 14.9% strikeout rate in that span is well below average but his 9.1% walk rate is right around par. His ground ball rate is down to 31.7% here in 2025 but he usually has that figure around 50%.

Teams won’t be super excited by Ureña but he should land somewhere. The fact that he cleared waivers likely suggests he’ll be limited to minor league offers. Teams always want depth, especially in this age of frequent pitching injuries. With the trade deadline having passed, it’s harder to find external additions.

Photo courtesy of Matt Krohn, Imagn Images

Twins Promote Taj Bradley, Designate Erasmo Ramirez

By | at

The Twins announced that right-hander Taj Bradley has been called up from Triple-A St. Paul, and will start today’s game against the White Sox.  In the corresponding roster move, Minnesota designated right-hander Erasmo Ramirez for assignment.

Though many of the Twins’ trade deadline moves were about cutting salary or moving impending free agents, the one-for-one deal that sent Griffin Jax to the Rays for Bradley was more of a pure baseball move.  Tampa Bay wanted to upgrade its bullpen with a controllable reliever, and Bradley (once a highly-touted pitching prospect) has yet to much deliver on that promise over three Major League seasons.  This made Bradley expendable in the Rays’ eyes, and the Twins jumped in to land a 24-year-old starter that may well benefit from a change of scenery.

Bradley has a 4.70 ERA over 354 career innings in the Show, along with an 8.6% walk rate and a 25% strikeout rate.  That latter number is a concern since Bradley’s K% this season is only 20.2% over 111 1/3 innings, which contributed to his 4.61 ERA.  Home runs have been an issue for Bradley during his brief career, and while he has improved on that front overall in 2025, the Rays’ temporary move to Steinbrenner Field didn’t help — Bradley had a 5.43 ERA and nine homers allowed in 56 1/3 innings at the Stein, as opposed a much more palatable 3.76 ERA and four homers allowed in 55 away innings.

Minnesota’s plan with both Bradley and fellow deadline acquisition Mick Abel was to start both pitchers in Triple-A for tune-up purposes, rather than immediately insert them into the big league rotation.  In Abel’s case, he looked really sharp in St. Paul but then struggled in his Twins debut yesterday, allowing six runs in a three-inning start against Chicago.  Bradley has a 7.53 ERA in 14 1/3 innings for St. Paul, as he pitched really well in his first two outings before being hit hard in his latter two starts.  With the Twins out of the playoff race, Bradley and Abel figure to get regular starts the rest of the way as the team evaluates them as rotation pieces for 2026 and beyond.

Ramirez signed a minor league deal with Minnesota last winter, but shoulder problems kept him from any game action until June 20, as part of a rehab assignment with the Twins’ rookie ball affiliate.  He went on to post a 6.55 ERA in 11 Triple-A innings before his contract was selected to the Twins’ active roster on August 1, as Minnesota had tons of roster spots to fill in the wake of its deadline fire sale.

This return to the Show made it seven different teams over 14 Major League seasons for Ramirez, who posted an impressive 2.45 ERA in 11 innings and nine appearances with the Twins.  Within the small sample size, Ramirez delivered his usual strong walk rate, though an 11.9% strikeout rate was low even by the righty’s standards of not missing many bats, and a .242 BABIP helped Ramirez limit the damage.

Bottom-line ERA notwithstanding, it always seemed like Ramirez was a spare part on the Twins’ pitching staff, and he’ll now return to DFA limbo.  Another team might consider claiming Ramirez if they need to cover some innings in the bullpen, but assuming he clears waivers, Ramirez can elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A.  The 35-year-old might well choose to move on in search of another late-season deal elsewhere, or play out the string in the Twins organization.

Twins Designate Jose Urena For Assignment

By | at

10:51AM: Urena’s DFA and Abel’s call-up were both officially announced by the Twins.

7:09AM: The Twins designated right-hander Jose Urena for assignment yesterday, according to The Athletic’s Dan Hayes.  Right-hander Mick Abel will be called up today in the corresponding move, and Abel will get the start in today’s game against the White Sox.

Urena was Thursday’s starter, and he was tagged for six earned runs over five innings in the Twins’ 8-3 loss to the Athletics.  This boosted Urena’s ERA to 4.58 over 17 2/3 innings since Minnesota selected his contract on August 1, as one of many roster moves the Twins made the day after their major selloff at the trade deadline.  Urena started three of his four appearances in a Twins uniform, and took a 2.13 ERA into Friday’s action, though neither his 12.8% strikeout rate or his 10.3% walk rate were anything impressive.

It was almost exactly two months ago that Urena signed a minor league contract with Minnesota, continuing a nomadic season that has seen the veteran log big league innings for four different teams.  Urena has a 5.00 ERA over 36 combined innings with the Mets, Dodgers, Blue Jays, and Twins, with a 12.5% strikeout rate and 8.1BB%.

In all three of his previous stops, Urena was designated for assignment, outrighted off the 40-man roster, and he then elected free agency rather than accept that outright assignment to Triple-A.  With more than eight full years of MLB service time, Urena has more than enough experience to allow him to turn down outright assignments in favor of return trips to the open market.

It seems probable that he’ll elect free agency again here in the likely event that he clears waivers, though Urena might prefer some stability after bouncing around the league in 2025, and his options are more limited given the lack of time remaining in the regular season.  Another team in search of innings could also potentially just claim Urena off the waiver wire and insert him into their bullpen as a swingman, or into the rotation.

Abel made his Major League debut earlier this season in the form of six starts and 25 innings with the Phillies, posting a 5.04 ERA in his first taste of action against big league hitters.  In perhaps the largest of Minnesota’s many deadline moves, Abel and Eduardo Tait were acquired from Philadelphia in exchange for Jhoan Duran, as the Twins opted to part ways with the closer in exchange for a top catching prospect in Tait and a big league-ready starter in Abel who is himself a former top-100 prospect.

Now in line to make his official Twins debut today, Abel has already shone in the minors, with a 1.76 ERA over three starts and 15 1/3 innings for Triple-A St. Paul.  Minnesota president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told Hayes and other reporters earlier this month that the Twins wanted to deploy both Abel and fellow deadline pickup Taj Bradley at Triple-A to begin their tenure with the team, since “sometimes you need to get your legs under you in a new organization before you take that next step.”  Bradley also figures to be called up relatively soon, with Hayes speculating that Bradley might also be promoted to start Sunday’s game in Chicago.

MLB, ESPN Nearing Deal Involving MLB.TV And In-Market Rights For Five Clubs

By | at

Major League Baseball and ESPN are seemingly going to continue their relationship but with a new shape. Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reports that the league and the network have an agreement in place which would give ESPN the right to sell all out-of-market games digitally. These rights have previously been sold by the league to consumers as the MLB.TV package. Under the agreement, ESPN will also acquire the in-market rights for the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, Rockies and Twins. ESPN would also have an exclusive weekly game similar to Sunday Night Baseball, but on a different night of the week. The deal is not yet finalized but could be signed in September. It’s unclear how much ESPN would pay the league for this package but Marchand says it will be “substantial”.

MLB and ESPN have an existing contract but it is about to expire. The deal previously ran through 2028 but both sides agreed to opt out after the 2025 season. Under that deal, ESPN still has the rights to Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Those rights are open for 2026 and beyond. A week ago, Marchand reported that those rights would likely be split up and sold to multiple companies, with Netflix being the favorite for the Derby while NBC/Peacock and Apple TV+ are each trying to get the other components. He echoes that framing in today’s reporting.

The new developments today are potentially seismic. MLB.TV has existed in essentially the same format since 2002. Baseball fans purchase the product through the league and get access to every MLB game, with some exceptions for local blackouts and other games guaranteed to be exclusives for certain broadcasters. If this deal goes through, it’s not exactly clear how it would impact existing MLB.TV consumers but Marchand writes they would likely have to get an ESPN subscription on top of an MLB.TV subscription. It’s unclear how this would impact those who purchase MLB.TV through cable or other linear subscription.

ESPN recently launched a streaming service, allowing anyone to pay $29.99 per month to access the network’s wares, whether or not they subscribe to cable or satellite. The network has recently been building out their portfolio, signing a number of deals with the NFL and WWE.

It now seems they hope to add a number of MLB components to their menu. It’s unclear exactly how MLB.TV customers would be impacted financially. Marchand reports that the basic MLB.TV sticker price should stay the same or could even drop. Paying the ESPN subscription fee as well would lead to customers paying more, though they would also gain access to other ESPN offerings outside of the baseball world. That new arrangement would naturally be a plus for some but a minus for others.

In addition to the MLB.TV plan, it seems ESPN will be gaining local rights for five clubs. Due to cable cutting, the regional sports network (RSN) model has been slowly eroding in recent years. The five aforementioned clubs have all seen their local broadcast deals collapse in recent years, which has led the league to step in and take over. Fans of those clubs have been able to purchase streaming rights, without blackouts, directly from the league. It seems likely these customers will be able to continue in a somewhat similar fashion, though Marchand suggests they would likely have to get an ESPN subscription and then pay an added fee for the specific team they want to access.

In addition to the MLB.TV rights and the local rigths of those five clubs, ESPN will also be getting the rights for some exclusive games to be broadcast nationally. It seems this will basically function the same way as Sunday Night Baseball, though on a different day of the week. It appears the details in this arena are still being worked out, as it’s unclear which day of the week is being targeted. Apple already has the rights to a game every Friday while Roku has an early game every Sunday. Marchand adds that MLB Network could also be part of the deal but that’s more up in the air.

Whatever deal is signed would be fairly temporary. Various different reporters have frequently suggested the league doesn’t want to sign anything that goes beyond 2028. They already have a number of deals expiring after that season. It seems commissioner Rob Manfred is hoping to market a large package, or packages, of rights to multiple broadcasters ahead of the 2029 season. All recent broadcast deals have been relatively short, with nothing going beyond 2028. Marchand reports that is expected to be the case with this ESPN deal as well.

These ongoing broadcast shuffles could hang over the upcoming labor strife. It is widely expected that there will be a lockout after the 2026 season. A prolonged stoppage could lead to games being cancelled in the 2027 season. Manfred and the owners would have to be cognizant of playing chicken with the players and how that could impact these broadcast negotiations. MLB is currently experiencing an uptick in popularity, with measures such as the pitch clock credited with increased attendance and TV ratings. That kind of momentum would help the league sell future broadcast rights but a lockout extending into the summer of 2027 could undermine that.

Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images

Twins’ Alan Roden To Undergo Thumb Surgery

By | at

August 20: Roden will indeed have surgery, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic.

August 19: Twins rookie outfielder Alan Roden was ruled out for the season when Minnesota placed him on the 60-day injured list over the weekend. The 25-year-old sprained a ligament in his left thumb, which he aggravated last week on a headfirst slide. Roden tells Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star Tribune that he’s leaning towards undergoing surgery after meeting with a hand specialist on Monday. The procedure comes with a two-month recovery timeline, so it shouldn’t have much of an impact on his offseason.

It’s nevertheless a frustrating situation for Roden, who would have had an opportunity to play regularly down the stretch. Minnesota acquired him and pitching prospect Kendry Rojas in the surprise deadline deal that sent controllable reliever Louis Varland to Toronto. Roden was in Triple-A with the Jays, who have a deep outfield. The Twins immediately recalled him. Roden played in 12 of the team’s 13 games before suffering the injury.

The lefty-hitting Roden struggled in that limited look, batting .158 with a lone home run while striking out 13 times in 40 plate appearances. Roden hadn’t hit much during an early-season MLB stint with the Jays either. He finishes his debut campaign with a .191/.261/.294 slash in 55 games. That won’t be enough to guarantee him a starting spot in next year’s outfield. Roden destroyed Triple-A pitching, though, batting .331/.423/.496 with more walks than strikeouts in 32 games. The former third-round pick has hit at every minor league stop and owns a career .302/.409/.457 slash below the MLB level.

Roden still has a pair of minor league option years after this one. The Twins can keep him in Triple-A for the foreseeable future. He should be healthy entering Spring Training and can compete for an Opening Day roster spot. Minnesota has nine outfielders who’ll be on the 40-man roster at the beginning of the offseason.

Byron Buxton is the only one locked into a starting role. Matt Wallner should get a lot of playing time but could see more time at designated hitter rather than playing every day in right field. Former first-rounder Trevor Larnach stands out as a speculative change-of-scenery candidate. Roden could vie with Emmanuel Rodriguez and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. for roles. It also seems likely the Twins will add at least one veteran (ideally a right-handed bat) to raise the floor with so many unproven players.

MLBTR Podcast: The Pohlads Aren’t Selling The Twins, Nathaniel Lowe, And Service Time Manipulation

By | at

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Are there some notable relievers who could be on waivers this month? Also, what happens to a player when he is on waivers? (44:55)
  • If I told you that the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker, would you believe me? (52:40)
  • What’s the craziest out-of-nowhere team to make the playoffs and could a team do it this year? (56:35)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Twins Select Genesis Cabrera, Place Alan Roden On 60-Day IL

By | at

The Twins announced this morning that they have selected the contract of left-hander Genesis Cabrera. Right-hander Travis Adams was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Cabrera on the active roster, while Cabrera will take the 40-man roster spot of outfielder Alan Roden. Roden was placed on the injured list due to a thumb sprain yesterday, and now has been transferred to the 60-day injured list in a move that effectively ends his 2025 season.

Cabrera, 28, signed with the Rays out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut back in 2014. His MLB debut came as a member of the Cardinals in 2019. After a middling start to his career as a swingman, he moved into a pure relief role and turned in solid results over the next few seasons with a 3.81 ERA and 4.53 FIP in 255 1/3 innings of work from 2020 to 2024 with St. Louis and Toronto. After pitching to a 3.59 ERA and 5.13 FIP in 69 appearances for Toronto last year, he reached free agency for the first time in his career.

Upon arriving in free agency, Cabrera signed in Queens on a minor league deal. He’s bounced between a handful of MLB clubs this year, pitching for the Mets, Cubs, and Pirates at various points this season. He’s not pitched especially well in those outings, with a 5.79 ERA and 5.65 FIP across 28 innings of work. Even so, the Twins scooped him up on a minor league deal and are now bringing him onto the roster after one outing with Triple-A St. Paul. In Minnesota, Cabrera will help to fill out a bullpen that lost Jhoan Duran, Louis Varland, Griffin Jax, Brock Stewart, and Danny Coulombe at this year’s trade deadline. That exodus of quality pitching talent has left the Twins’ relief corps in desperate need of reliable innings, and that’s something Cabrera can provide even if his results have generally been below average in recent years. His arrival also provides some support to Kody Funderburk, who had previously been the only lefty in the Twins bullpen following Coulombe’s departure.

As for Roden, the outfielder’s season is over after he was transferred to the 60-day IL today. The Twins are all but eliminated from postseason contention, and he won’t be eligible to be activated from the injured list until the regular season has concluded. Acquired from the Blue Jays in the deal that sent Varland to Toronto, Roden is a 25-year-old rookie who has hit just .191/.261/.294 in 54 games while playing primarily left field. It’s surely frustrating for Twins fans to see the under-performing corner bat they gave up a prized young reliever like Varland to acquire miss the final six weeks of his debut season, but after just 12 games in Minnesota there’s still plenty of time for the young outfielder to make a name for himself as a Twin beyond being part of the return for Varland. In the meantime, the Twins have Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner, James Outman, and Kody Clemens to handle the outfielder corners.

Latest On Twins’ Ownership

By | at

The Pohlad family’s stunning about-face on a potential sale of the Twins earlier this week sent shockwaves throughout the fanbase in Minnesota. Executive chair Joe Pohlad announced Wednesday that his family would continue on as the principal owners of the Twins and welcome two new limited partners into the ownership group instead of selling a majority stake in the team.

Additional details have since surfaced. Dan Hayes and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic report that the new incoming minority owners purchased a combined stake that constitutes more than 20% of the franchise. However, there’s no agreed-upon path for the new partners to grow their stake in the team, as we’ve seen in recent ownership shifts with the White Sox and Guardians, where Justin Ishbia and David Blitzer will reportedly increase their stake annually with an eye toward eventually becoming the majority owners. Hayes further reports that the roughly 20% stake of the Twins was sold at a valuation that exceeds Sportico’s recent $1.7 billion valuation of the franchise.

In the aftermath of his announcement, Joe Pohlad sat down with Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune to discuss the change in direction. “I don’t think we could have imagined a better outcome than where we landed,” he told Miller. That comment (unsurprisingly) has been near-universally panned by a fanbase that has been desperate for new ownership for decades, dating back to the late Carl Pohlad’s efforts to sell the team to a group that would’ve moved the Twins to North Carolina and his subsequent efforts to allow his team to be contracted.

The reported $425MM of debt the Twins had accrued has been said to have served as a major impediment in the Pohlads’ exploration of a sale, though Joe Pohlad pushed back on that notion in his chat with Miller, telling him: “As far as I’m aware, that debt was not a hindrance in this process.”

It’s a fairly remarkable claim to make with a straight face, given that the $425MM figure represents one-quarter of the franchise’s estimated $1.7 billion value. The notion that such a substantial figure did not adversely impact the sale process or dissuade potential buyers is difficult to believe. Regardless, Pohlad added that with the influx of the new minority partners, the Twins are “paying that debt down.” Whether that refers to a portion or the total sum isn’t clear.

Pohlad’s additional comment that his front office’s trade deadline fire sale were “truly primarily baseball decisions” has been met with further incredulity. The general expectation for the Twins in the run-up to the deadline was that Minnesota would sell off rental pieces like Chris Paddack, Willi Castro, Harrison Bader, Danny Coulombe and Ty France.

That quintet was indeed traded, but president of baseball operations Derek Falvey also shipped out controllable relievers Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Brock Stewart. Most notably, the Twins dumped $70.5MM of the remaining $103.5MM of their franchise-record deal with Carlos Correa on his old Astros club — and did so for virtually no return. Left-hander Matt Mikulski, the pitcher they received from the Astros, was a second-round pick by the Giants in 2021 but is now 26 years old and still in High-A, where he has an 8.00 ERA with more walks than strikeouts. The Giants released Mikulski at the end of spring training this year, and he signed a minor league deal with Houston just two months before he was traded to Minnesota.

It’s true that the Twins did get some quality returns for the players they shipped out. Duran brought lauded catching prospect Eduardo Tait and MLB-ready right-hander Mick Abel. Jax netted Taj Bradley, who isn’t far removed from being one of the game’s top pitching prospects and still has four additional years of club control. Varland netted a big-league-ready outfielder (Alan Roden) and an arrow-up pitching prospect (Kendry Rojas). Following the Twins’ slate of deadline deals, their farm system ranks second in the game at MLB.com and fourth at Baseball America. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked all 97 prospects traded at this year’s deadline, and the Twins collected four of the top 11 names.

That focus on bolstering the farm and slashing payroll only raises questions about the offseason direction, however. In theory, the Twins could turn around, reinvest a significant amount of the payroll they just shed, and aim for a swift return to contention. What seems far likelier is that the teardown will continue, with catcher Ryan Jeffers and right-handers Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober among the most logical names to hit the trade market in the offseason. Pohlad declined to give any sort of indication as to what lies ahead in terms of roster construction, telling Miller only that he’ll sit down with Falvey, GM Jeremy Zoll and others once the current season ends to plot that course.

Latest On Pablo Lopez

By | at

Pablo Lopez suffered a Grade 2 strain of his right teres major muscle in early June, and the Twins right-hander has now missed a little over 10 weeks of action.  This puts him within the projected 8-to-12 week timeline initially attached to his recovery, and Lopez has steadily been taking steps towards a September return, including five bullpen sessions and a simulated inning.  The next step comes tomorrow, as Lopez told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale Jr. of the Minneapolis Star Tribune) that he’ll face live hitters for the first time over two simulated innings.

Should all go well on Friday, Lopez will advance to a Spring Training-esque schedule of an additional inning every five or six days.  It can be assumed a minor league rehab assignment will be part of this plan given how much time Lopez has missed, but is aiming to be back in Minnesota’s rotation by early September.

Since the Twins had a virtual fire sale of their roster at the trade deadline and only faintly remain in wild card contention, it isn’t likely that Lopez will be returning to any meaningful games.  However, Lopez isn’t at all considering a shutdown, as he is intent on making “four or five, maybe six starts” in what remains of the 2025 campaign.

“Because time allows, I want to do it.  Also, peace of mind,” Lopez said.  “I want to be able to tell myself I was able to come back from this injury and pitch and perform at the level I know I can perform.”

Between this shoulder strain and a minimal 15-day absence due to a hamstring strain in April, Lopez has been limited to only 60 2/3 innings this season.  This injury-riddled year has interrupted a string of workhorse performances for Lopez, who tossed 559 1/3 IP over the 2022-24 seasons — the seventh-highest innings total of any pitcher in baseball over that three-season span.

The righty also posted a 3.83 ERA over that span, and the bottom-line results were even sharper this year since Lopez had a 2.82 ERA across his 60 2/3 frames in 2025.  The Twins were already impressed enough by Lopez’s first season in Minnesota to sign the righty to a four-year, $73.5MM extension in April 2023 that covers the 2024-27 seasons.  He is set to earn $21.5MM in each of the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

Speculatively speaking, it is worth wondering if Lopez and the Twins could be viewing any September starts as an audition for potential trade suitors.  Lopez and Byron Buxton are Minnesota’s highest-paid players now that Carlos Correa has been dealt to the Astros, and Buxton has already made it clear that he won’t be waiving his no-trade protection.  That leaves Lopez as the most natural candidate for a trade if the Twins continue to explore payroll cuts, and a few more outings in 2025 would also provide some evidence for rival teams that Lopez is fully healthy.  Since the Twins explored trading the less-expensive Joe Ryan at the deadline, it stands to reason that they would also be open to moving a pricier rotation option in Lopez, though naturally the front office would want a significant return rather than just a salary dump.

Wednesday’s surprising news that the Pohlad family was abandoning plans to sell the team threw another curveball into what has been a tumultuous few weeks for the organization.  It is possible the addition of two new minority owners has provided enough of a cash influx that payroll cuts are no longer a priority, yet we’ll have to wait until the offseason to see how things truly play out, and what types of rebuild-or-reload moves president of baseball operations Derek Falvey will be considering.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top