Minnesota Twins: Ranking the Top 10 Free Agent Shortstops Available
By Otto Johnson
The Minnesota Twins are facing a tough challenge ahead of the 2023 season. After the 2022 season went awry, fans are angry, and the roster has some pretty major holes. In order to fix things, the team needs to spend, and after seeing nine players entering the free agent pool, there’s lots of money to work with.
In addition to some potential trade moves (the Twins have a lot of decent talent in the high minors), the Twins could use help everywhere other than second base, whether that be another catcher to pair with Ryan Jeffers, a shortstop, a true first baseman, a legit third baseman to non-tender Gio Urshela, any of the outfield spots (Buck needs a backup), or more pitching.
We rank the Top 10 shortstops for the Minnesota Twins to go after in Free Agency.
With all of those needs in mind and free agency about to begin, it’s time to break down the different players that they can spend money on. We’ll go position by position, talk strengths and weaknesses, whether the Twins would be interested, and if there’s a real chance.
For each list, we’ll be breaking down the positions into three groups: decent players who would be disappointments, good players who would fill the need, and top notch players that fans would be thrilled to get.
We’ve already covered catchers and first basemen, and the team’s depth at second base (and only Jean Segura and Adam Frazier as viable options at the position), we skipped ahead to the team’s most desperate need: shortstop.
The 2022 Twins desperately needed a shortstop too, and they responded by taking advantage of a strange lockout market by signing Carlos Correa, arguably the best in the game at his position. Now, after Correa (as expected) opted out of his deal, Royce Lewis not due back until June/July, and Jermaine Palacios waived, the team once again desperately needs a shortstop.
The team will assuredly sign a shortstop, whether it be one of the four top options or a stopgap option until Royce Lewis returns, so similar to catcher, the question becomes: who will become the team’s Opening Day shortstop? Let’s talk about the potential answers.