4 players the Minnesota Twins should trade and 2 they should keep

It has become abundantly clear that the Minnesota Twins do not intend on getting involved in free agency, at least not the high end of it.

The only additions the team has made so far are low-risk gambles like Josh Staumont and Bubba Thompson. Both have intrigue but neither really moves the needle or does much to fill any of the voids that still exist on the roster.

Namely, the Twins need to find a replacement for Sonny Gray at the top of the rotation. Pablo Lopez is the team's ace, but he needs a Robin to his Batman which is something the Twins don't currently have. Chris Paddack will be a nice addition to the rotation but he's not a frontline starter, and neither is Joe Ryan who feels more like a No. 3 starter.

That's where a trade comes into play, something that has been teased all winter without any payoff. Minnesota will almost certainly make a move, something Rocco Baldelli is betting on, but the question becomes who should the Twins trade and who needs to stay?

3 players the Minnesota Twins should trade and 2 they should keep

Twins should trade: Jorge Polanco

We're not really breaking any new ground here by suggesting the Twins need to trade Jorge Polanco, but the lack of movement so far suggests the front office might need a reminder.

Minnesota has historically waited out the market and landed on its feet. That seems to be the strategy here with Polanco, as the slow free agent market combined with a small pool of infield help bodes well for the Twins finding great trade value. The question is how long is too long to wait for a deal?

Already Twins fans are bracing for the possibility that this could be an extended situation. The rumor mill has been quiet when it comes to Polanco with no signs of that changing. We've also been prepped for Polanco possibly still being on the roster when Opening Day rolls around, which seems like a failure even if having him in the lineup objectively makes the Twins better.

The logjam of infielders is what seals the deal for Polanco, as it's truly a matter of when not If he gets dealt. Brooks Lee, Austin Martin, and Junior Severino can all play second, with Edouard Julien occupying that space now. What the Twins can't afford to do is hang onto Polanco so long that it starts to ding his value, as front office will likely be much more inclined to offer a bigger deal now when putting together their rosters than after things are set and it's apparent that the Twins have no place for him in the lineup.

Maybe that's reading too far into it, but the longer Minnesota waits to make a deal the more frustrating the lack of movement becomes.

Twins should keep: Brooks Lee

Let's not overthink this one, which is something that's starting to happen with Brooks Lee. The arrival of Walker Jenkins bumped Lee out of the top spot in the Twins prospect rankings, but the hype around him is still there. He's been the best prospect in the farm system since he was drafted back in 2022, and last year saw him rise all the way to Triple-A St. Paul where he started to prove he might be Major League-ready sooner than expected.

There's a very decent chance that Lee gets called up this season, but the calls to trade him as part of a deal that brings back a Sonny Gray replacement are a bit misguided. One of the key hangups seems to be his future positional value, as the entire left side of the infield is spoken for.

Royce Lewis is going to be playing third for the foreseeable future, with Carlos Correa manning shortstop. Even second base gets tricky, as Edouard Julien needs to be in the lineup, although he can easily be moved to DH (or first base) since Lee is better defensively.

There's room for Lee in the infield, and the Twins should trade him before seeing what they have. That's something the team can afford to do and should do, especially with how well the youth movement worked last year. Lee's trade value is being amplified by the glut of talent Minnesota has coming up, but it shouldn't be misconstrued as a reason he needs to be dealt when there might be other options that allow the Twins to have their cake and eat it too.

Twins should trade: Kyle Farmer

When the Twins tendered Kyle Farmer, the idea seemed to be they were doing so with the intention of trading him. He wasn't going to come cheap, as his pre-arbitration salary projection was around $6.6M but the team ended up settling at $6M that includes and extra $250,000 if he gets let go.

There's a $6.25M mutual option for next season, which could end up being important if he ends up in trade talks. The infield market is thin, as we've gone over, and having Farmer potentially under contract for more than one season is the type of thing that adds to his value.

Farmer is also a really good utility player, capable of playing all over the field. He falls into the same bucket as Jorge Polanco does in terms of there potentially being too many mouths to feed. The infield logjam impacts him but so does the presence of Willie Castro and Nick Gordon on the roster. Both players essentially equal the value of Farmer's contract, and present a classic two-for-one situation that makes Farmer's contract feel out of place in the payroll.

Then again, the Twins might have viewed his arbitration settlement as a free agent signing and chalked up the money spent to retain him the same they would have bringing in an external candidate. Just like Polanco, the Twins don't need to trade Farmer and would be perfectly fine having him do what he does best again next season. His pricey salary and the glut of talent at the positions he plays seems to suggest his best value might be what he can help bring in on the trade market.

Twins should trade: Another top prospect (if needed)

That shouldn't prevent them from sweetening the deal with someone else, if needed. The idea is to get better right now, and that might cost mortgaging part of the future but the good news is the Twins farm system remains respectably deep.

Walker Jenkins and Brooks Lee should be the only untouchable prospects -- everyone else is worth a conversation if it means landing the right starter. If, for instance, the Marlins wanted to trade Jesus Luzardo for Polanco and a prospect, that's worth exploring. Same thing with Logan Gilbert out in Seattle, the Twins can't afford to let a trade for a frontline starter fall apart because of its death grip on top prospects.

Emmanuel Rodriguez might not be far behind in the 'Do Not Trade' group, but some of the top pitchers in the Twins system could be used as currency to acquire someone ready to replace Sonny Gray right now. David Festa and Marco Raya are two of the top pitching prospects Minnesota could dangle, but it would need to be in the right deal. The Twins front office is still seeing stars after getting rocked by two bad trades back in 2022, one that saw them trade top prospects in splashy moves that didn't pan out.

Tyler Mahle needing Tommy John surgery was a plot twist and Jorge Lopez forgetting how to pitch after being named an All-Star was also a bad break. If the Twins moved prospects, though, swapping out future pitching talent for someone truly impactful now -- like a Luzardo, Gilbert or Corbin Burnes -- feels a bit different than what happened with Mahle or Lopez. It wouldn't be a short term rental like Gray, it would be an investment in the future the same way waiting for one of those pitching prospects to pan out would be -- only the payoff would come a lot sooner.

Twins should trade: Jose Miranda

Minnesota is dealing with logjams at a few different positions, but Jose Miranda got in on the ground floor of getting boxed out of a job with the Twins. There was a ton of promise for him as he came up a few years ago, but injuries have stunted his development and he hasn't made as much of his time in the Majors as others at his position have.

Last year the Twins switched Miranda to third base, with the expectation that he'd settle in as the everyday man there. Instead, he struggled offensively and then got injured, which was compounded by the rise of Royce Lewis as a key piece of the core moving forward. Third base now belongs to Lewis, with Miranda merely being depth there.

Miranda made the move from first base, where he might still have a shot at earning a regular role in the lineup. The logjam at second base might have a ripple effect that takes this scenario out of play for Miranda, though. Edouard Julien needs to be in the lineup, but if Brooks Lee comes up -- or if Austin Martin fills in -- then moving Eddy to first makes sense. The Twins soft launched this idea last year and it's likely they'll return to it again.

That means at both corner infield positions, Miranda is depth. He's a much better player than simply being part of a platoon, which is where his trade value comes in. He might not command a ton of return on his own, but if Minnesota is looking to package players in a deal that lands a top-end starter, they can do worse than throwing in Miranda.

He had a down year, but the sales pitch revolves around how Miranda looked when he was healthy in 2022. 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.