The Minnesota Twins remain atop the American League Central, holding a solid lead over the Cleveland Guardians. The team is buoyed by a strong (though often inconsistent) offense and the ability to cruise through a weak division.
Unfortunately, if the team wants to compete in the playoffs and end their streak of 18 consecutive playoff losses, they need to go after three or four positions to upgrade the team. To help look at some options, we’re going to pick some players the team can go after.
When looking at different players, we aren’t looking at players from contending rosters. So this means all current contenders and most potential contenders were off limits (sorry, no Kyle Gibson). Over the past couple of days, we’ve taken a look third base and first base, continuing on with starting pitching today.
We rank the Top 8 Starting Pitchers for the Minnesota Twins to go after before the trade deadline.
Unlike with the first two parts of the series, where we were advocating for trading for players that would be luxuries, we’re instead talking about a position of true need for the Minnesota Twins. Their rotation has been overall solid thus far, but it could use an upgrade.
Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray are both playoff-ready starters, but a playoff rotation needs at least three starters for the team to be a real contender. Devin Smeltzer has been good, but isn’t someone you’d trust to get the ball in Game 3 of the ALDS or Wild Card series. Same with Bailey Ober.
Dylan Bundy is in the midst of a really good stretch, but he’s not the guy either and is best suited as a fifth or even sixth starter. Lastly, Chris Archer has shown he can’t last in games past the fifth inning, so the Twins should look to add another arm to facilitate his move into a long relief role.
All this adds up to the fact that the Twins should add at least one more arm to their starting rotation, even if it’s just a guy to help give the group a little more depth and take some pressure off the bullpen. Let’s get going, starting with the back end additions.