Minnesota Twins fans are hunkering down for what is expected to be another cold winter where the Hot Stove won't be providing much heat. That was the case last year too, as the Twins cut $30 million out of the payroll and waived the white flag before Opening Day had even arrived.
Not meaningfully adding to the roster was a major contributing factor to the historic meltdown at the end of the season. Minnesota crashed out of the playoff picture after having a near-90 percent chance of making it to October and the lack of resources and depth on the roster is a big reason why.
That's why the idea of another quiet offseason is eroding what little faith fans have left that things will be different. Everything suggests the strategy is to run things back but lean more on young players and prospects to fill roster gaps, which is once again an uninspiring approach.
It might not be as grim as we're expecting, though. Twins fans have to grab any glimmer of hope they can find and MLB might have gifted them that this week.
Twins could use extra Competitive Balance draft pick as trade currency this offseason
On Thursday MLB awarded teams Competitive Balance draft picks based on teams that fall in the bottom 10 in revenue or market size. Minnesota was among those teams, and now has an extra draft pick to use one way or another.
There's one major difference between this pick and a normal compensatory pick: Competitive Balance picks can be traded.
What this means is the Twins might have been gifted a little extra currency to use in trying to make additions to the roster this winter. It's not a super valuable pick in that it will be worth flipping on its own, but it could help sweeten a package that allows the team to get the contract of Chris Paddack or Christian Vazquez off the books.
Those two players are the most likely trade candidates Minnesota has, which is sort of upsetting considering they don't have a ton of standalone value. Still, Paddack has upside that the team can cash in on, and attatching this Competitive Balance pick to a deal might help push a trade across the finish line.
Don't get too excited, though. The plan still seems to be salary dumping Paddack to free up payroll and roster space to make a mid-tier move in free agency. Think along the lines of signing Carlos Santana last year or trading for Michael A. Taylor the year before.
We won't be seeing the Twins pull off a blockbuster deal this winter, but this additional draft pick could help grease the wheels on the team actually doing something. Of course, this could also end with Minnesota hanging onto the pick and using it as intended, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either.
It's not yet clear where exactly the pick will land, but it's going to be somewhere between the first and second round of the MLB Draft. That's not bad real estate to own, and could mean another top prospect in the farm system to develop or trade later.
At the very least, even though the team did nothing, something mildly exciting happened and that's more than any of us expected.
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