4 Minnesota Twins who won't be back next season
Minnesota will be back next year, but a handful of players will not.
An incredible postseason run came to an unfortunate end on Wednesday night, as the Minnesota Twins were put away by the Houston Astros in Game 4 of the ALDS.
For the first time in almost two decades, Twins fans don't have to hang their head in shame while exiting the playoffs. Minnesota ended the most miserable streaks in professional sports, snapping an 18-game losing streak in the AL Wild Card but doing so in a way that inspires hope that this is the start of something special rather than the end.
Minnesota showed a type of fight we haven't seen in them before, battling back in Game 1 against Houston to score four runs in a game it was trailing 5-0 at the time. A day later the Twins bombarded the Astros in a 6-2 win that saw Pablo Lopez pitch an absolute gem, the kind that the team hoped it would get after trading Luis Arraez for him back in January.
Everything that usually went wrong for Twins teams of the past went broke their way, and it has created a magic around the team that fans hope will carry into next year. So many player stepped up in big ways, from Pablo to Carlos Correa and the emergence of Royce Lewis as a superstar on the rise.
Not everyone will be back, though, and the season ending on Wednesday means a few guys migh have played their last game with the Twins.
4 Minnesota Twins who won't be back next season
Trevor Larnach, OF
Larnach not being in the picture for the Twins next season might be more circumstantial than anything he's done to deserve a trip out of town. Minnesota experienced a youth movement this season, and Larnach figured to factor into that early on.
Instead, he was passed up by Matt Wallner as an everyday outfielder and guys like Royce Lewis and Edouard Julien outpaced him offensively. That's not a knock on Larnach, who still finished the season with a career-high in RBI and slugging percentage. He's a really solid contributor but there might be too many mouths for the Twins to feed.
Larnach is a left-handed outfielder, and the Twins need to find a right-handed outfielder to add to the lineup this winter. Where he might have the most value is as a trade chip in solving that problem, possibly as a package deal with another guy on this list.
Jose Miranda, 3B
Injuries are what will ultimately be what derailed Miranda's season, but he was looking pretty rough early in the year. Minnesota needed him to tap into the flashes he showed in 2022, and there was hope that he could slide over the third base and find a home but nothing went right for him this season.
Miranda is still only 25 years old and there's a good chance he becomes a really solid player, but he might have been boxed out of the Twins lineup. Kyle Farmer filled in for him at third base for a time before Royce Lewis entered the picture as the Twins everyday third baseman. Minnesota also has Brooks Lee in the pipeline who could get called up next year and be able to spend time at third, and there's also the possibility of adding someone in free agency.
The point is, Miranda's time with the Twins already appeared over and everything that has happened since he hit the IL confirms it further. Everything was down for him this year, but the sales pitch revolves around how Miranda looked last year when he was healthy. He played in 125 games and slashed .268/.325/.426 and batted in 66 runs. There's a lot to build on there, but he just doesn't have a feasible place in the lineup anymore.
Minnesota would be wise to see what it might be able to get for him in a trade this winter to give Miranda a fresh start and find a useful piece of a potential championship lineup next year.
Joey Gallo, 1B/OF
Unfortunately, this one feels rather obvious. Gallo had a much better year than anyone thought he might and it was definitely a bounce back from his dog days in the Bronx. It still wasn't great, though, and Gallo fizzled out as the season went on to the point where he wasn't even considered for the postseason roster.
That's not exactly what you're looking for out of a guy who is being paid $11 million.
Gallo started the year pretty strong, but he might have peaked during his revenge series against the Yankees at Target Field. During that series, Gallo hit .375 with 3 RBI, a 1.694 OPS, and was heckled by Yankees fans for playing too well. His whole first month was pretty solid, as he slugged 1.066 with seven home runs and 14 RBI.
Things went downhill from there, with Gallo's numbers dipping each successive month ending with him only playing five games in September. Injuries didn't help, but it was a steady downward trajectory after his hot start to the point where fans were calling for him to be DFA'd. That didn't happen but Gallo did himself no favors in auditioning for another contract with the Twins.
It was a good gamble by the front office, but it didn't work out the way anyone wanted it to.
Michael A. Taylor, OF
This one is tough because Taylor has been such a huge part of the Twins success this season. With Byron Buxton's season essentially a wash due to injuries, Taylor unexpectedly became Minnesota's everyday center fielder and gave a masterful defensive performance.
Minnesota traded for him to get some of that high-end defensive efficiency in its lineup, and that's exactly what they got. What ended up being a pleasant surprise was how much Taylor ended up contributing offensively. He finished the season with a career-high in home runs and the second-best OPS of his career. Taylor also came up with some clutch offense down the stretch of the season when the Twins were trying to put distance between themselves and Cleveland to win the division.
Trading for Taylor was an absolute steal for the Twins, but it was never meant to be a long-term option. He did exactly what the front office needed him to do: fill in for Buxton, and they ended up getting way more value out of that than intended. Minnesota could bring him back in 2024, but Taylor is an unrestricted free agent and will likely be able to leverage his great season to land a nice deal somewhere else. He very well could get a deal in the $10 million range, which is doable for the Twins but a bit rich for their blood considering the other options the team can roll with.
Willi Castro is likely to be back next season as part of a utility platoon and there's a potential opportunity for Austin Martin to get called up and become an everyday player. We saw Edouard Julien make the leap at the start of this season, and the same trajectory could be in the future for Martin.
Above all else, the best-case scenario for the Twins is that Buxton gets healthy over the winter and is able to return to the outfield. Not having him available to play the field complicated things, but the best and easiest solution is getting him back in 2024.
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