White Sox hilariously saved the Twins from making a terrible trade deadline deal

Now that the trade deadline is in the rearview, we're starting to get a better picture of what the chaos was like as the dust settles.

We all know what the Minnesota Twins did, making just a single trade with Toronto and one that hardly moves the needle compared to what the team needed or what was rumored to happen. In the moment it was frustrating to see a low wattage deal for Trevor Richards be the only thing Minnesota did, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.

The Twins were apparently deep in talks with the Blue Jays for another player, Yusei Kikuchi, before the Houston Astros busted in like the Kool-Aid Man with a wicked overpay. Some fans thought the team would make a trade for Alex Cobb, but there was never any interest there and he ended up going to Cleveland.

Where Minnesota did have interest was two AL Central pitchers that their teams refused to be adults about trading. Erick Fedde and Jack Flaherty were both on the Twins' radar heading into the deadline, and there was indeed an attempt to land at least one of them.

How things went once the Twins got on the phone, though, is the type of stuff you can't make up.

Twins were reportedly willing to trade Luke Keaschall to the White Sox

Dan Hayes wrote in The Athletic about how the Tigers and White Sox were deeply unserious about actually trading with the Twins at the deadline, but also noted later just how willing to make a deal Minnesota seemed to be.

While Brooks Lee and Walker Jenkins are very obvious non-starters in trade talks, Hayes notes that the Twins were willing to trade Top 100 prospect Luke Keaschall to acquire Fedde.

This is a meal best savored in two courses.

First up is the utter panic that Minnesota was willing to trade a top prospect to a division rival for a half-year rental player. The Twins could have simply signed Fedde over winter and avoided this whole situation, but instead decided to slash the payroll and put themselves in a position where givins up a Top 100 prospect was a card the front office was going to play.

However, the main course consists of the White Sox so blindly trying to own the Twins that they played themselves out of a good deal. Chicago's front office might have gotten a good chuckle out of what amounted to a crank call of a trade offer, but opted to trade Fedde to St. Louis in a three team deal that left a lot to be desired.

Chicago could have emerged from the deadline having used the Twins frugalness against them to pluck a Top 100 prospect from their farm system. The only thing dumber than that would be refusing to make that trade -- which is the route the White Sox chose.

Minnesota can't savor the idocy of their division rival for long, though. While it's certainly entertaining to see the White Sox step on a rake, the fact of the matter is the shadow of how badly the Twins bungled this offseason continues to haunt them.

Let's not gloss over the fact that the Twins could have easily been in an entirely different situation had the team spent some money over the winter. At least three trade targets -- Michael Lorenzen, Jack Flaherty, and Fedde -- could have been signed to free agent deals thus negating the need to give up future assets to land them five months later.

It's another embarrassing reminder of the weird knots a frugal franchise will tie itself into and yet another reason why kicking the can down the road has resulted in nothing but misery for the Twins for as long as anyone can remember.

More Minnesota Twins news and rumors