The Minnesota Twins are in one of the most important offseasons in franchise history but a lack of activity at this year’s MLB Winter Meetings has fans apathetic toward the team entering the 2025 season.
Part of this is to be expected as Twins continue to operate under payroll restrictions as the Pohlad family looks to sell the franchise. But after a promising start off the field, fans may wonder what will change for a team that blew a double-digit lead in the Wild Card standings on the way to missing the playoffs in 2024.
Minnesota Twins made positive moves at the beginning of the offseason
The Twins needed some positive developments after the way the 2024 season unfolded. In addition to missing the playoffs, the team endured a lack of depth after the team slashed $30 million in payroll before the season.
If that wasn’t enough, fans couldn’t even watch games as Diamond Sports Group, the parent company of what’s now known as FanDuel Sports Network, entered a nasty dispute with Comcast, the largest cable distributor in the Twin Cities.
The Twins achieved one solution to their public relations problem when they announced that MLB will be producing their broadcasts on a subscription-based model in 2025. They earned another victory among fans when the Pohlad family announced its intention to sell the team weeks after announcing that payroll would not go lower than the $130 million the club operated at last season.
Still, there’s more work to be done under new President of Baseball and Business Operations Derek Falvey. In many ways, Falvey’s first 100 days as team president succeeding Dave St. Peter are a lot like a U.S. president in office and the Winter Meetings are a chance to present a new deal that gets fans excited for next season.
Lack of activity at MLB Winter Meetings have Minnesota Twins fans wondering what’s next
The Twins created headlines at the beginning of the Winter Meetings when Falvey told reporters he was listening to calls for shortstop Carlos Correa. Correa’s agent Scott Boras squashed those rumors a few days later but the Twins sat on the sidelines as Juan Soto signed a mega-deal with the New York Mets and Max Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million contract with the New York Yankees.
Nobody expected the Twins to be in on Fried or Soto but there hasn’t been any buzz on the Twins interest in mid-to-low-tier free agents. After their willingness to listen to offers on Correa was revealed and the likelihood the Twins will conduct a “salary dump” trade to create payroll space for a move, Twins fans are spending the hot stove season waiting for a step back before they can move forward.
Even if the Twins’ interest in bringing back Carlos Santana leads to his return, a 39-year-old first baseman or a right-handed hitting outfielder isn’t going to energize the fan base. Instead, the Twins need to find some way to improve the team’s depth or risk having the apathy spill into the beginning of the 2025 season.