Minnesota Twins: Full 2022 Twins Trade Deadline Preview

The Trade Deadline is officially here, as the first two major dominos have fallen in Andrew Benintendi to the New York Yankees and potential Minnesota Twins Trade Target Luis Castillo to the Seattle Mariners.

With the Twins desperately needing pitching and potentially a backup catcher, they have to be active in the market if they want to hold onto their perilously small division lead after a brutal July from their rotation.

We get you ready for the most important weekend of the Minnesota Twins’ season: The Trade Deadline.

With things set to start moving very quickly over the next day, we break down buyers and sellers, what the Twins need most, the best available, what the Twins can offer, and make some predictions for what happens next. Let’s get into it, starting with the buyers and sellers.

Minnesota Twins Deadline Preview: Buyers, Sellers, and In Between

Buyers: New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres

The Yankees, Astros, Blue Jays, Mariners all look like surefire locks for the playoffs in the American League and are committed to adding talent. The Rays have limitless prospect talent and will make a move despite injuries. The Twins, Guardians, and White Sox are all going to make moves to try and win the wild AL Central. No other AL teams look interested.

In the National League, the Mets, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Dodgers, Padres, and Phillies will all go hard for the seven playoff spots. Ironically, I don’t think there’s much of a race, as no other team is going to buy.

In Between: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Miami Marlins, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies

The Orioles and Red Sox are right on the edge of a playoff spot, and I could see both just holding on and seeing what happens. The Orioles are coming out of a rebuild, so they won’t buy, while the Red Sox are an east coast powerhouse that wants one more run with it’s core.

For the Marlins and Giants, both teams expected to be better than this and plan on being better in 2023 with strong groups of talent. All four of these teams could opt to sell a few pieces, or make a small buying addition, but none will do anything drastic. The Rockies are the worst-run organization in baseball and apparently only sell at the wrong time, so they’re here too.

Sellers: Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks

All of these teams are in various points in their rebuilds and will be open for business, ready to deal anything for the right price. They all are at least twelve games back of a playoff spot, and by early August, that’s a death sentence.