Minnesota Twins: 5 trade targets to improve the Twins’ starting rotation
By Chris Schad
The Minnesota Twins have come up empty in their search for free-agent pitching, meaning to bolster the rotation, it will have to come via trade.
It was supposed to be a happier Christmas for the Minnesota Twins as they seemed poised to do plenty of holiday shopping this winter. In a world where free agents were not pursued at a rapid rate in years past, it seemed as if the Twins would have no problem adding a free-agent pitcher or two to help a rotation that started strong but fell off a cliff in 2019.
Fast forward two months and the Twins have reportedly been linked to many free-agent pitchers including Zack Wheeler, Madison Bumgarner and Hyun-Jin Ryu, but couldn’t get any of them to sign on the line to come to Minnesota. With the market moving faster than expected, the Twins were left out in the cold and fans were treated to coal in their Christmas stockings.
With all hope lost as far as finding a viable pitcher in free agency, the Twins will now have to turn to the trade market in order to add “impact pitching.” Fortunately for the Twins, that market should have plenty of names to choose from, but acquiring one of them would mean parting with an everyday player like Eddie Rosario or top prospects such as one of their promising outfielders or pitchers.
Regardless of what it takes to acquire an arm, the Twins must be active in the trade market if they don’t want to repeat their own history, but who could be on their list?