3 Twins players we’ll be glad are gone in 2024 and 2 we wish stayed
It's not all bad.
The Minnesota Twins found themselves in an interesting position as the offseason progressed. The lineup and defense hasn't changed much, aside from a trade that sent Jorge Polanco away, and it hasn't really needed to change much. The rest of the AL Central — specifically, the Tigers and Royals — scrambled in their additions to both their hitting and pitching staffs during the offseason, but the Twins had the luxury of being the best team in the AL Central by some margin in 2023, with a healthy mix of veterans and talented young up-and-comers.
However, they did see eight players leave in free agency, which inevitably informed the shape of the Twins' offseason. Ultimately, this group consisted of four position players and four pitchers, a mix of players they maybe should've considered DFA'ing during the season and of players they should've fought harder to keep.
3 Twins players we’ll be glad are gone in 2024
Joey Gallo
There are players who immediately strike fear into the hearts of fans for all the wrong reasons, and the Twins mercifully said goodbye to one in free agency this year. However, when Joey Gallo came to Minnesota on a one-year, $11 million contract, the mood was actually sort of optimistic. He'd done better with the Dodgers at the tail end of the 2022 season than he had with New York for a season and some change, and it seemed that maybe all he needed was to get away from a merciless Yankees fanbase that had taken to booing him at every game.
But Gallo's 2023 season with the Twins was still mostly a bust. He's in the Max Muncy/Kyle Schwarber camp distinguished by low batting averages and high home run counts, but Muncy and Schwarber were sitting at 36 and 47 homers on the year with better averages than Gallo (.212 and .197), while Gallo had 21 and a .177 mark on the season. His season also ended early in September with a foot contusion.
He signed with the Nationals for a steep pay cut in free agency — one year, $5 million — so he's in DC striking fear into the hearts of poor Nats fans who just want to see their team break fifth place, and Twins fans shouldn't be sad he's gone.
Dallas Keuchel
It's been nearly a decade since Keuchel's incredible Cy Young-winning 2019 campaign, when he threw 232 innings with three complete games and two shutouts. He kept being great-to-brilliant until 2021, his second year with the White Sox, when everything took a downturn that led to a nosedive. In 2022, he only pitched 32 innings before being DFA'ed, so Chicago had to eat the $18.5 million they still owed him. He quickly signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks, threw 18 2/3 innings in the majors, then was DFA'ed. He then signed a minor-league deal with the Rangers, threw 10 innings, then was DFA'ed again.
He went unsigned in 2023 until June, when the Twins picked him up on a minor-league deal and he was brought up to the majors after Joe Ryan went down with injury. He pitched 37 2/3 innings and displayed a flash of that old brilliance in a 6 1/3 inning perfect outing against the Pirates, but he quickly went back to his old, not-so-brilliant ways in seven more appearances.
Keuchel became a free agent again at the end of 2023 and remains unsigned, as of this writing. He's 36 but has yet to announce retirement; if he does come back to baseball, it'll likely be another minor league deal that will hopefully send him far away from the Twins.
Emilio Pagán
Pagán came over to the Twins in 2022, in a trade with Chris Paddack that sent Taylor Rogers and Brent Rooker to San Diego, and he ended up pitching 63 innings in that first year for a 4.43 ERA. He looked better on paper in 2023, when he pitched 69 1/3 innings for a 2.99 ERA, but by June he was already leading the league in relief appearances that lowered a team's win probability by at least 50%, leading to renewed calls for a swift DFA.
However, he finished out the year with the Twins and left in free agency at the end of the year, signing with the Reds on a one-year, $8 million deal with a player option for 2025. The Twins made up for the loss by trading for a few more arms, including Steven Okert and Justin Topa. Cincinnati went on an early offseason signing blitz of available pitchers, but the Twins shouldn't be disappointed that he was gone so quickly.
2 Twins players we wish stayed in 2024
Sonny Gray
This one was pretty obvious, right? The Twins lost their ace and near-2023 Cy Young winner Sonny Gray, to the Cardinals during their early offseason strike, easily the best get out of the "Gray, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson" signing spree. After rejecting the Twins' qualifying offer and taking $75 million from St. Louis, Gray rubbed salt into Minnesota fans' wounds by saying in his introductory press conference that he'd always wanted to be a Cardinal.
Still, the innings Gray was able to give the Twins (not to mention the quality of those innings) have proven to be impossible to replace. Minnesota did pick up Anthony DeSclafani in a trade with the Giants, but it just isn't the same (and his buildup has been slow due to elbow concerns). Gray was probably never going to come back to the Twins, especially not with the money the Cardinals were willing to give him, but it's still incredibly disappointing that we had to watch him go.
Kenta Maeda
Maeda was also always going to be easier to replace than Gray, but when he left for the Tigers in free agency, the Twins lost their most experienced pitcher and another near-Cy Young winner. His production since 2020 hadn't been ideal, and he missed all of 2022 after undergoing Tommy John, but if the Twins were always going to lose him, it would've at least felt a little better if it wasn't to an AL Central rival. Throw in the fact that Detroit was just willing to give him more money than Minnesota was, and it all gets a little sadder.
DeSclafani is the team's clear replacement for Maeda — another veteran, back-end starter who's battled injury and had a 4.00-something ERA in 2023 — and luckily, both Louie Varland and Bailey Ober, who the Twins were eyeing to move to the rotation, have both looked good over a few innings in spring training this year. Still, Maeda, his splitters, and his clubhouse presence will be missed in Minnesota.
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