Minnesota Twins: Top 25 RP Trade Candidates for the Twins to Target

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 all current contenders and most potential contenders were off limits (the Seattle Mariners are in contention, but still have a pair of relievers on here). We’ve checked in on third basemen, first basemen, starting pitchers and it’s time to check in on the Twins’ biggest need: relief pitchers.

We rank the Top 25 Relief Pitchers for the Minnesota Twins to go after before the trade deadline.

Third base and first base are both positions that would be more luxuries than necessities, and the Twins could attempt to skate by without adding a starter, but the team can’t be a real contender (or maybe even make the playoffs) without addressing the major issue that is their bullpen.

The Twins only have three legitimate relievers that you can trust in big situations: Griffin Jax, Jovani Moran, and Jhoan Duran. Duran is a closer-level talent (if the Twins would ever use him that way), Moran has been excellent, and Jax is a solid seventh inning setup man. The issue is the pitchers around them.

Caleb Thielbar had a rough start to the year, and is walking too many batters to be consistent (though his peripheral numbers are good). Tyler Duffey has bounced back after a rough start (but is still not trustworthy). Jharel Cotton walks a ton of batters, so his outings are always up and down. Trevor Megill is a question mark. Emilio Pagan needs to be off the roster.

When Joe Smith, Jorge Alcala, and Danny Coulombe come back, the Twins’ bullpen will be a little more consistent, but the team should still add another reliever or two to help solidify things and improve the pen.

When looking at different pitchers, we only included arms that were under contract through 2025 (with one exception) and are likely to be traded. With so many options on the market, we put together a list of the 25 best arms the Twins should consider, and we start with lower end pitchers.