Top 5 Minnesota Twins On Trade Block This Winter

The Minnesota Twins will be in the trade market this winter, as most of the notable free agents might not be in their price range. The team will not be increasing payroll, after slashing it in 2024.

According to Aaron Gleeman in The Athletic, these are the top 5 Twins who are "most likely to be shopped," all of them fairly notable.

1. Chris Paddack, SP

2. Christian Vázquez, C

3. Willi Castro, IF/OF

4. Jhoan Duran, RP

5. Griffin Jax, RP

Paddack is going into the final year of his contract, at $7.5 million. For a No. 5 starter (behind Pablo López, Bailey Ober, Joe Ryan and Simeon Woods Richardson), that's a lot of coin, especially for the low-budget Twins. As Gleeman notes, they'd prefer to fill out the rotation with a much cheaper youngster.

Vazquez has been great defensively, as he always has been, but his offense, in his two seasons in Minnesota, has gotten to the point that he's almost unplayable. He's slashed .222/.265/.322 in 195 games with a 62 OPS+. That's the sixth-worst mark in Twins history. And he has a $10 million price tag in the final year of his contract.

As for Castro, sure, he was an All-Star and was voted the Twins' team MVP for 2024 (though that's not saying much considering the season they just had), but Gleeman feels that the payroll crunch would make Castro and his $6.2 million contract a sell-high proposition.

Duran and Jax were the anchors of the Twins bullpen. Why would they be on this list? Gleeman says the Twins subscribe heavily to the "top relievers can be replaced more easily than good starters or hitters" theory. And after the seasons each of these guys had, they could certainly bring back a big return.