MLB insider says Twins could pull off ‘significant’ trade for pitching

It's been a quiet offseason for the Minnesota Twins so far. The only thing that's happened so far is the announcement that the team is slashing its payroll thanks to the giant bankruptcy mess with Bally Sports North, which set the winter off on a bit of a down note.

Outside of that, the moves that have been made thus far have been free agents showing themselves the door. Kenta Maeda was the first big name to leave, signing a $24 million deal with the Detroit Tigers before Sonny Gray tipped the scales with his departure to St. Louis a day later.

With Gray and Maeda gone, the Twins are down two of their starters from last year's rotation. Both losses are significant in their own way, with Gray's departure being the biggest role Minnesota needs to replace this winter.

Doing that on a budget won't be easy, but it's not impossible.

Twins could pull off ‘significant’ offseason trade for pitching

The Athletic’s Keith Law took a look at the Twins situation after losing both Maeda and Gray and painted a hopeful picture for fans. Law didn’t drop any names, but he did say that Minnesota has the fuel to pull off a significant move to acquire pitching this offseason.

“The good news, sort of, is that they have some position player depth from which to trade, at least enough to make one significant move for pitching if they choose to go that route,” Law wrote.

We've been hearing rumblings of this sort of thing since the start of the offseason. Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco had their options picked up, giving the Twins two valuable trade chips to flip in a potential deal. Kyle Farmer was tendered as well, and the expectation is that he will also be traded at some point this offseason.

Insiders across the league have repeated the same message, that the Twins will use a wealth of positional depth in an otherwise shallow free agent market to pull off a trade. Law isn't the first guy to say it, but the fact that we're still talking about a potential deal -- and that the adjectives keep getting more aggressive -- is exciting.

Money will remain an issue all winter, but the Twins offloading guys like Kepler, Polanco, and Farmer will send money out that potentially offsets whatever pitcher is acquired. This means a guy like Tyler Glasnow might be more of a possibility for Minnesota in a trade than someone like Blake Snell or Marcus Stroman would be as a free agent signing.

Until the Twins make a deal, and the right deal at that, all we have to go off is speculation. It's part of the fun this time of year and while the team didn't exactly start the offseason out on the right foot it'll be interesting to see how Derek Falvey and Thad Levine land the plane and add to a roster that has World Series expectations in 2024.

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