The Minnesota Twins were officially eliminated from postseason contention on Sunday. After failing to address several big needs in the offseason, only to buy before the trade deadline, the team's front office must be feeling plenty of regret.
The Twins had an Opening Day payroll of roughly $104.7 million, a far cry from the $154 million the team spent on the 2023 team that won the franchise's first playoff series in 21 years.
The Twins front office probably wishes they could go back in time after being eliminated from postseason contention
The Twins failed to address the team's biggest need, bullpen help, over the offseason after trading away nearly the entire bullpen as part of the infamous 2025 trade deadline fire sale. While most of those trades look good on paper (besides the Louis Varland-Blue Jays deal), they left the Twins without a single established late-inning arm for the 2026 club.
The Twins made major offseason changes, firing manager Rocco Baldelli, parting ways with president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and replacing controlling owner Joe Pohlad with his older brother Tom Pohlad. However, the team failed to make enough changes to the roster, which matters most.
Minnesota added a backup catcher/first baseman in Victor Caratini, a solid DH in Josh Bell and a couple of decent bullpen arms in Taylor Rogers and Anthony Banda. However, none of those moves were substantial enough to make the team a postseason contender. They were relatively affordable acquisitions for an organization that has slashed payroll by nearly $50 million from three seasons ago.
Then came the 2026 trade deadline. The Twins were in the postseason mix, but didn't appear to be true World Series contenders. Yet, the Twins' front office decided to buy, acquiring right-handed starting pitcher Dean Kremer from the Orioles, left-handed reliever A.J. Minter from the New York Mets and right-handed relievers Jeff Hoffman and Tommy Nance from the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Twins gave up several promising prospects, including left-hander Dasan Hill, to acquire those pitchers. Now that Minnesota is eliminated from postseason contention, you have to imagine the Twins regret making those moves.
On the other hand, while the Twins surrendered several promising prospects in those trades, none of them, besides maybe Hill, look like they will be major game-changers in the same way that Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez could be. Also, the Twins have all of the newly acquired pitchers, besides Minter, under team control past this season. Still, Minnesota added those pitchers hoping to make the playoffs this year. If the front office could go back in time, they'd likely add more help before the season began, or go back to the days before the trade deadline and initiate a sell-off instead of buying.
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