The “You’re the Twins’ GM!” series asks our writers to put themselves in the position of a Twins baseball exec, and come up with a realistic plan for the offseason. Here’s what Lou came up with. We invite you to write a blog and share your vision for the offseason!
Overall Approach
This is going to be a pivotal season for the Twins as they try to keep their window of contention open. Despite the epic second-half collapse, the core of this team still has substantial upside, and now is the time to double down on them, especially without the seamless ability to add more star power on the free agent market. If things go south again in 2025, they’ll likely be dismantled anyway.
My plan calls for the team to keep their offensive nucleus that includes Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee, as well as their promising top three starting pitchers in Pablo López, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober. It will also rely on young pitchers such as Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa, Zebby Matthews and others to help carry the load for large portions of the season.
Some key differences include the dismissal of all of the team’s free agents, as well as a few trades to create some much-needed wiggle room.
Non-Tenders and Extensions
I would decide to let veteran relievers Michael Tonkin and Justin Topa walk rather than pay them their modest raises in arbitration. It’s another bust from the Jorge Polanco-to-Seattle trade from last year, but Topa should be seen as one of the fungible relievers who can be found on the open market at various points throughout the season.
One of the most underrated aspects of the current front office was their ability to sign young, core hitters to long-term deals that locked in their arbitration prices and ate a free agent year or two. We saw this with Polanco, Max Kepler and Miguel Sano. The first two went rather swimmingly for the Twins and probably saved them some money, and while Sano didn’t live up to expectations, his deal wasn’t really a hindrance to the club at any point and he had the prospect pedigree to suggest he could’ve reasonably had an even bigger breakout.
I want to see the Twins do that again, and I want them to bury any sort of hatchet they have with Lewis. I lock the former first overall pick into a five-year deal that pays him $6 million this year, $10 million in 2025 and $17 million in each of the next three seasons, with a $23 million player option for 2029. That’s $67 million guaranteed to a player that has battled health issues every year since 2020, but has shown tremendous upside. If he opts into his age-30 season at the tail end, the deal will be six-years and $90 million, and still allows him to explore another big payday as a free agent in 2030.
Trades
The first move I would make is to shop catcher Christian Vázquez and as much of the $10 million that is owed to him for 2025. I find a taker in his former…
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