Max Kepler free agency prediction is a total nightmare scenario for Twins fans

It’s officially time for the hot stove to start heating up, as the Winter Meetings are right around the corner which should trigger some transactional action. Free agency is already open, but teams are slow crawling things for now in order to get a full lay of hte land before making any investments.

For Minnesota Twins fans, the question is whether the team will make any investments at all. The cowardly frugalness of ownership is even more noticeable now that the team is up for sale, something that would seemingly encourage them to spend to up the team’s value.

Nobody has ever accused the Pohlads of being competent owners, though.

Twins fans will be on the other side of the storefront window, hands and face pressed against the glass, watching as other teams around the make moves. We’ve already seen a handful of Top 50 free agent lists come out, but now we’re reaching the stage of the offseason when predictions are being made.

When it comes to former Twins outfielder Max Kepler, fans will want to avert their eyes and pray to the baseball gods that and early prediction with him doesn’t end up coming true.

SI predicts that Max Kepler will sign with the Cleveland Guardians

In their offseason predictions for the top free agents on the market this offseason, Sports Illustrated linked Kepler with the Cleveland Guardians. It almost goes without saying why this would be a total nightmare scenario for Twins fans.

Kepler leaving the Twins is already hard enough for fans to take, but the idea that his departure leads him to Cleveland would almost be too much to bear.

While last season wasn’t the breakout year we’ve been waiting for Kepler to have, he showed the sort of flash that will undoubtedly attract teams in free agency. That was already the case, as the Yankees reportedly asked the Twins about Kepler at the trade deadline, which makes New York a natural landing spot for him.

Seattle was another spot that seemed like a fit for Kepler last offseason when the Twins were thinking about trading him and Jorge Polanco. Only one of them headed there, but it could be that he ends up with the Mariners a year late.

Literally anywhere is better than Cleveland.

Kepler hit just .025 over his first five games, which is impossibly bad, but after a brief stint on the IL came back to hit .417 to close the month of April out. He was one of the brightest spots of the Twins offense for the first part of the summer, which is why his name popped up so seriously in trade rumors.

As has been the case with Kepler, and other Twins players who get hot, things cooled off as the season went on. He hits free agency for the first time in his career after having been with Minnesota since joining the team during the first Obama administration, which in of itself is almost hard to fathom.

A return to Minnesota isn’t out of the question, but there’s a crowded outfield situation developing that seems to have boxed him out. Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner will be fighting for playing time, as will Emmanuel Rodriguez who is expected to make his MLB debut next season. Kepler’s time with the Twins appears to be over, but watching him land with the Guardians would be extremely hard to stomach.

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