Twins Rumors: AL Central team listed as possible landing spot for Shohei Ohtani

As the MLB Trade Deadline approaches, the winds from the rumor mill are going to blow harder and faster with every wild piece of speculation.

For the Minnesota Twins, there are a few different conversations going at the moment. Some are debating whether the team should buy or sell, which dovetails into which players could be involved in those scenarios.

Sonny Gray has been mentioned as a player who could be sold at the deadline if the Twins want to give up on competing in a very bad AL Central, w

One name that keeps popping up with low-grade seriousness is Shohei Ohtani. For some reason, the Angels appear to have fumbled the bag — again — and could be on the verge of losing a generational talent.

Los Angeles hasn’t officially placed Ohtani on the trade block, but they’re inching as close to that line as posssible without crossing it. The Angels are listening to offer, have outlined a price, and MLB insiders are already looking at potential destinations.

Minnesota has adjacenty popped up in these conversations, but so has the rest of the league. Any Ohtani talk needs to be taken with a grain of salt but there are enough dots to connect to at least muse about it, even if it’s a far-fetched reality.

While there are ways to make the Twins make sense as an Ohtani destination, they aren’t the AL Central team at the top of insider’s lists.

Twins Rumors: AL Central team listed among Shohei Ohtani destinations

Over at The Athletic, Jim Bowden listed some teams he has on his radar as potential landing spots for Shohei Ohtani should the Angels actually trade him. He has an AL Central team on his list, but they rank at the bottom of his possible destinations and it’s not the Twins.

Bowden lists the Cleveland Guardians among the 13 teams he thinks could make a play for Ohtani at the deadline.

”These teams are built — and are building — for the long term. None of them are mortgaging their future for a rental, even one as special as Ohtani,” Bowden writes.

Much like the Twins, this isn’t the first time the Guardians have found themselves involved in an Ohtani trade thought exercise. Also Ike the Twins, it seems like a stretch that Cleveland will be able to land him.

It’s not that the Guardians, Twins, or any team in the league wouldn’t want to have Ohtani. He’s the best baseball player in the known universe, a front office is lying if it says it has no interest in him. Where lines start to get drawn is the resources needed to land Ohtani, which will be a steep price on every level.

Ohtani is projected to earn as much as $600 million on his next contract, which prices out most of the league. Trading for him as a half-season rental is a risk since it will mean giving up a package of top prospects for what could amount to no more than a few months of Ohtani being on the team with no guarantee he can carry you to a World Series.

It’s an attractive idea, and a long-term commitment from Ohtani would obviously change the approach, but breaking the prospect bank to pay the Angels is a tough pill to swallow. Twins fans should be thrilled at the idea of the Guardians pillaging their own farm system for such a short-sighted gain, which likely tells you all you need to know.