5 Twins players who could be valuable trade chips this offseason

After finally ending the miserable 19-year playoff losing streak, the Minnesota Twins enter the offseason with monumental expectations.

The thick fog of the curse has lifted, and Twins fans have their eyes set on World Series contention moving forward. It’s not as lofty a goal as it might have seemed in years past, as the Twins showed the type of fight and talent in October that suggested the playoff streak being squashed was the beginning of something rather than the end.

That’s why there’s so much pressure on the front office to nail the offseason.

Minnesota has already announced the payroll will be slashed by roughly $20 million, which isn’t exactly the most exciting start to Hot Stove SZN. With a drastically reduced payroll, the front office will have to get creative in how it improves the roster this offseason which likely means trades will be leaned on as a way of adding talent more so than they have before.

If that’s the route the Twins go, there are more than a few valuable trade chips the team could flip.

5 Twins who could be used as trade chips this offseason

Max Kepler, OF

We've heard Max Kepler's name pop up more and more in trade rumors, and it's starting to feel like his time in Minnesota is over. There's a ton of outfield talent already in place and more on the way with what's bubbling under the Major League surface.

• RUMORS: 4 trade destinations for Max Kepler this offseason

Already the team has Matt Wallner, Byron Buxton, Trevor Larnach, and Willi Castro in the outfield and could easily bring back Nick Gordon. There's also the potential that Austin Martin makes the Opening Day roster and the emergence of Emmanuel Rodriguez looms in 2025 -- if not sooner.

Kepler doesn't need to be traded, but corner outfielders will be hard to come by this offseason. Finding a good bat will also be difficult for teams, which boosts Kepler's value and could help the Twins flip him for pitching help it greatly desires.

Christian Vazquez, C

Earlier this offseason there was some discussion over whether Vazquez was too expensive for the Twins plans next year. That's a conversation worth revisiting in light of the payroll situation, as every penny will count when it comes to finding ways to improve the roster.

He's entering the second year of a deal $30 million deal that expires at the end of the 2025 season. Paying $10 million a year feels like a lot more than it did before the payroll shrunk, but Vazquez is an elite defensive catcher who wouldn't be easy to replace.

Vazquez makes sense as a trade candidate, though, especially if the Twins have plans for Jair Carmago. He made waves at Triple-A St. Paul last season and is someone the team made sure to protect from the Rule 5 Draft by adding him to the 40-man roster.

It's a gamble to go from Vazquez to Camargo, but it would open up an even bigger lane for Ryan Jeffers to be the everyday catcher for the Twins. Minnesota could also go out and find a cheaper option than Vazquez, but that doesn't seem to be the team's first option. Despite how expensive he is, the plan seems to be having him continue to split time with Jeffers next season, but it hardly feels like he's untouchable if the right offer comes along.

Jose Mirada, 1B/3B

The question with Miranda isn't if he should be considered a trade chip, it's how valuable will be he in helping the Twins acquire talent. For every argument about trading guys like Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler due to a surplus of positional depth, the same and more applies to Miranda.

Unlike those two guys, Miranda essentially played himself off the team this season. He couldn't get it going offensively and ended up getting hurt which didn't help his cause at all. While everything was down for him this year, the upside for a team that might acquire him is 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, and the right situation might help him unlock more of who he was last year before things started to go off the rails.

Minnesota is not the right situation, because there's simply no room for him to grow. Royce Lewis finished the season as the team's third baseman and there's a potential logjam of infielders like Edouard Julien, Austin Martin, Brooks Lee, and Yunior Severino that pushes Miranda to being the odd-man-out. If there's a guy who can be added to a deal as a sweetener, the Twins can do worse than Miranda.

Jorge Polanco, 2B

Of the Twins two top players on the trade block, it feels far more likely that Jorge Polanco gets moved this winter. There are reasons trading Max Kepler makes sense, but it's hard to see him getting dealt and not Polanco -- possibly in the same deal.

If positional depth is a reason for trading Kepler, that goes double for Polanco. Minnesota is about to have such an influx of talent that it might push Polanco out of the picture. Guys like Brooks Lee, Austin Martin, and Yunior Severino might take a while to develop but they represent what the future looks like. In the meantime, Minnesota needs to find a way to keep Edouard Julien's bat in the lineup, and being the everyday second baseman seems like the logical way to do that even if his glove could use some work.

• RUMORS: 4 potential trade destinations for Jorge Polanco

This is a situation we've already watched the Twins encounter, as the team played Polanco at third base as a way to keep Julien in the lineup. An injury to Royce Lewis opened up third for Polanco to test, but the results were less than ideal and pretty much boxed him out of the future.

It's a bummer because Polanco is still really good, which makes him an even more valuable trade chip. He has another year of team control on his contract in the form of a club option, which sweetens the deal even more. Polanco checks too many boxes to not be flipped this winter, and the Twins should sell high even if it will be painful to say goodbye to another fan favorite.