Now that the Minnesota Twins' season is over, the tough task of sifting through the rubble of a historic collapse begins.
Part of that will be assessing which pieces should remain and which ones can be allowed to get taken off the board. Joe Pohlad has already claimed the payroll won't shrink again, but considering how small it already is that isn't saying much. Instead of adding any big pieces in free agency, the likeliest path forward for the Twins is to reshuffle things in-house.
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That means looking at guys with expiring contracts and deciding if any of them should be brought back. What budget the front office has will dictate a lot of that, but it could be that we see some notable players walk away and sign deals elsewhere this winter.
Twins have some notable players hitting free agency after the 2024 season
Anthony DeSclafani, SP
- Unrestricted Free Agent
- Contract: $4M
He came to Minnesota as part of the Jorge Polanco trade, but Anthony DeSclafani didn't pitch a single inning for the Twins. There was hope that he'd be able to replace Kenta Maeda at the back of the starting rotation, but an elbow injury in Spring Training wiped out his entire season.
The upside is that the Twins barely paid any money for him in 2024. Minnesota got Seattle to foot the bill for most of his $12 million salary which dated back to the Mariners acquiring him from San Francisco. In theory the thought process in adding him to the roster was correct, at least by the Twins' logic. Minnesota needed to replace some innings and DeSclafani was a classic injury-prone veteran flier the team loves to take.
It didn't work, and unless the Twins can get him back at or below the $4 million they paid last season it doesn't feel like he'll be back.
Jorge Alcala, RP
- Club Option
- Contract: $1.5M
It was a topsy-turvy season for Jorge Alcala, who looked good early but fell apart late in the season when the Twins needed him most. He was on the mound for the implosion against the Rangers in August that kickstarted the month-long losing slump that saw Minnesota fumble away a near-90 percent chance of making the playoffs.
He finished the year with a 3.24 ERA but for most of the season he was absolutely solid. Save for a few rather significant flare ups, Alcala posted a 1.63 ERA in 38.2 innings between Opening Day and the end of July.
There was a stretch in April where he was hurt and he got optioned in early May after giving up four runs in an appearance against Seattle but once he returned he had a 0.95 ERA from May 26th to August 2nd.
9) Jorge Alcala (MIN)
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) August 15, 2024
Alcala is a pitching model darling, firing off high 90s fastballs and a hard slider. He has been effective at generating whiffs, and even better at inducing weak contact.
Alcala is such a fun pitcher to watch! pic.twitter.com/KdUE2dY3aW
The wheels came off after that, though, but that wasn't exclusive to Alcala. Minnesota's entire bullpen struggled, and the team would be foolish to not pick up the $1.5 million option to bring him back for what could be a nice bounce back season if he can tap into what he was doing over the summer.