The Minnesota Twins have left their fans wanting more over the past couple of seasons. Payroll restrictions have limited their ability to make moves during the offseason and at the trade deadline and one of the transactions Twins fans were hoping for was to acquire Cody Bellinger.
The dream of Bellinger landing in Minnesota died when he signed a three-year, $80 million contract from the Chicago Cubs last spring. But the Twins still have a connection with a player they could have acquired on numerous occasions.
While Bellinger could have helped in some ways, he could have been an inconvenience in others and another chapter was written when the 29-year-old was traded to the New York Yankees on Tuesday.
The Minnesota Twins were connected to Cody Bellinger in 2023
The Twins were heading toward the playoffs in 2023 but they needed another piece to tie it all together. An 18-game postseason losing streak hung like a cloud over their heads but adding another outfielder at the trade deadline was a possibility as Byron Buxton’s health faded.
With the deadline approaching, The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman mentioned Bellinger as one of 12 trade candidates the Twins could pursue. But as a pending free agent, the Twins also needed to make the deal more enticing than the compensatory draft picks the Cubs would have received if he signed elsewhere.
Still, you could make a case for the deal. Bellinger was hitting .308/.365/.523 when Gleeman wrote his piece on July 20 and finished the season hitting .307/.356/.525 with 26 home runs, 97 RBI and 20 stolen bases. Even if Buxton returned to health, Bellinger could have filled in at first base where the Twins were leaning heavily on Donovan Solano.
Like most deadline rumors involving the Twins, a trade never came to fruition. But the Twins still went on to win the American League Central Division and break their postseason losing streak. Momentum was on the Twins’ side heading into the offseason and Bleacher Report’s Zachary Rymer suggested it would have been understandable if the Twins signed Bellinger to play first base to help the team make a deeper run and provide insurance for Buxton in 2024.
“The plan, for now, is to have Byron Buxton back in center field in 2024 after persistent knee issues limited him to designated hitter duty throughout 2023,” Rymer wrote. “But if the Twins lose faith in that idea, they might just have the payroll flexibility to mount a pursuit of Bellinger.”
Bellinger was on the market longer than expected and Twins fans hoped that Bellinger would sign another one-year deal to prove his value. But the Cubs killed that idea with their big contract last February.
What would have happened if Cody Bellinger played for the Minnesota Twins in 2024?
The Twins wound up being fine at first base last season as Carlos Santana won his first Gold Glove Award and left the door open for a return in 2025. But Bellinger could have provided the kind of depth Minnesota needed last season.
Max Kepler and Byron Buxton spent prolonged time on the injured list last season while Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach were confined to corner outfield roles. While Bellinger’s left-handed bat probably wouldn’t have prevented the Manuel Margot experiment, he could have spelled Buxton in center field, representing an upgrade over Austin Martin.
But Bellinger’s 2024 performance, where he hit .266/.325/.426 with 18 homers and 78 RBI. was roughly $10 million under his $27.5 million salary according to FanGraphs, which would have left fans disappointed.
This also would have led Bellinger to be placed on the trading block, but the Twins would have received a minimal return. The Yankees agreed to eat most of Bellinger’s salary but also received $5 million in the deal while giving up Cody Poteet, a 30-year-old reliever with just 83 major league innings in his career.
Poteet could resemble the same type of buy-low reliever the Twins acquired in Justin Topa as part of the Jorge Polanco trade. But it also would have been part of a full-blown salary purge where Chris Paddack and Christian Vázquez are already mentioned as “salary dump” trade candidates.
Considering the Twins are handcuffed as they wait to clear salary for a potential move, Bellinger would have been an albatross the Twins didn’t need, allowing them to dodge a potential bullet as they enter their cost-conscious future.