It seems the Minnesots Twins offseason has been defined by reduction, despite the hopefulness fans felt at the end of the season.
Despite winning the AL Central and ending a 19-year playoff losing streak, the Twins have sat on their hands this winter and haven't added anything meaningful to the roster. Instead, the only moves we've seen are players leaving as guys like Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda signed elsewhere this winter.
Tyler Mahler, Emilio Pagan, Andrew Stevenson, and Dylan Florio all left as well, and while none of the losses have been unexpected the lack of movement for the Twins is frustrating even by their low standards.
The exodus extends beyond just the Major League roster.
Rob Antony, who had been a front office executive with the Twins since the 1980s, got word that the team was parting ways with him at the end of the year. He joins TV announcer Dick Bremer as long-time members of the team to have been given their walking papers this offseason (although Bremer is being reassigned within the organization).
Even minor leaguers are leaving for other gigs.
Blayne Enlow, who the Twins took in the third round back in 2017, announced on Instagram that he had signed a minor league deal with the Giants. To be fair, he was already outside of the Twins organization, having been DFA's back in January, but the optics make it look a little worse than it is.
As for Enlow, the former Top 10 prospect gets a shot to find his footing with another team.
The San Francisco Giants have signed Blayne Enlow to a minor league contract. The pitcher has 382 strikeouts throughout his minor league career. The contract includes an invitation to major league spring training. pic.twitter.com/JEdfEVvwZW
— Milb Central (@milb_central) December 15, 2023
Enlow was a once promising pitcher in the Twins farm system, and was ranked as a Top 10 prospect by Baseball America after he was drafted. He was ranked as a Top 30 prospect in each of his seasons with Minnesota, but he never made an impact at the Major League level.
Part of this was due to some bad injury luck.
Blayne Enlow never reached his top prospect potential with Twins
He missed most of the 2021 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and his entire 2020 campaign was wiped out due to the pandemic forcing MiLB to cancel the season. Enlow essentially missed two full seasons due to bad luck, but he showed some flash with the opportunities he did see.
Nothing about Enlow's game was lights out, as he posted a 4.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 8.6 K/9, and a 2.62 SO/W ratio in six minor league seasons. He did get added to the Twins 40-man roster back in 2021 but never worked his way into the team's plans, although he received invites to Sprine Training to see if he could make it onto the Opening Day roster.
That never happened, but he's still a worthwhile gamble for the Giants to take.
Enlow has been all over the palce in the minors but he's still only 24-years-old and could develop into a useful bullpen arm. San Francisco has an utter lack of starting pitching talent in its farm system, though, so they could opt to continue his development in that department.
Minnesota didn't lose anyone in this year's Rule 5 Draft, but this is essentially that sort of move. The team had already punted on Enlow as a long-term option in their plan, but he's still a young player who could turn into that for someone else. Here's to hoping that happens for him in San Francisco.