We've reached the point in the offseason where the hot stove hasn't heated up enough for any actual moves to get made, which is prepetually the setting that the Minnesota Twins seem to forever be stuck in.
Last year the team decided to not make single meaningful addition to the roster after slashing the payroll by $30 million. It was a baffling move considering less than a year before the Twins had handed out a massive free agent contract to Carlos Correa, something that signaled the team was finally ready to enter a new era.
It turns out that was just a tease, as the Pohlads panicked and scaled back spending at the first sign of potential trouble. A bad television deal with Diamond Sports Group scared ownership so bad it reverted back to the worst version of itself in terms of investing in the team, a move that has done more damage than simply setting the Twins back.
Minnesota's unwillingness to be serious about properly investing in the team has sent up smoke signals that one MLB insider thinks should circle some big market sharks in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
To the surprise of nobody, the New York Yankees are being named a potential landing spot for Carlos Correa this offseason. To be clear, the Twins have not indicated that they're interested in trading their star shortstop, but it doesn't take a genius to draw a line between the team's desire to operate with an unserious payroll and the need to offload a contract like Correa's.
Twins trading Carlos Correa to the Yankees would be an all-time embarrassing moment for the team
MLB insider Joel Sherman not only thinks the Yankees should call about a Correa trade, he went so far as to say Minnesota should essentially donate him to New York in a lowball deal the Twins should be happy to receive.
"The Twins would have to do a trade similar to, say, what the Marlins once had to do with the Yankees to move Giancarlo Stanton — accept back the bad contract of Starlin Castro as a slight counterweight and receive two lottery-ticket-type prospects," Sherman wrote. "The key element would be not just the lottery tickets, but the financial flexibility to use whatever money is saved to diversify with multiple players."
The backhanded way this trade is framed as the Yankees doing the Twins a solid in this deal is perhaps the worst part about it, and that's a direct reflection of the reputation the Pohlads have created around the team. Nobody thinks this team is serious about contending to the point where three years into Minnesota's championship window the idea of them bailing out is being discussed.
That's so incredibly embarrassing.
The good news is that the Pohlads are selling the team, which means the long terrible nightmare of them running the Twins is nearing an end. When that sale happens, though, is another question and there's anxiety among fans about what ownership will do while they're still at the wheel to harm the team's future.
Panic trading Carlos Correa to the Yankees is such an embarrassing thing to suggest because it sadly feels so on-brand for the Twins.
They don't typically peddle in Marlins-style fuel dumps, but they've started to trend that way over the last year. Jorge Polanco was a salary dumped to Seattle, the Twins didn't add at the trade deadline despite having clear and obvious needs for a team still in serious contention, and it seems like we're about to embark on back-to-back offseasons where the team tries to add by subtraction.
Fans are still dealing with the whiplash from what happened after last season, and Minnesota willingly making itself a little brother to the Yankees would be a new low not even the most pessimistic among us thought the team could sink to.
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