Twins just became most hated team in MLB after ridiculous trade deadline tease

On Monday night, in an otherwise forgettable outing before the rain soaked Target Field and flipped the Twins' fortunes, the broadcast booth mused about whether Jhoan Duran's ninth inning, featuring two stolen bases by David Hamilton and a Roman Anthony laser to break the tie, would be his last in a Minnesota uniform.

That reality may have temporarily been lost in the sopping wet pandemonium as DaShawn Keirsey Jr. scored the winning run, but the Twins certainly brought that emotion back to the forefront early in Tuesday's game.

With two runs already in for the Red Sox in the top of the third, that stirring you saw in the bullpen wasn't someone getting warm to relieve a rookie hurler making his MLB debut. It was über closer Jhoan Duran getting up to hug his teammates, signaling that trade rumblings were afoot and he had to swiftly get out of Duluth.

Where was he going?! Surely, with 2.5 years remaining, Duran moving would both start a domino effect of lesser relievers, and could potentially reignite the Twins' farm system with a paradigm-shifting package.

Unfortunately, this was all ... a prank.

The Minnesota Twins all hugged Jhoan Duran with the eyes of the world upon them, and it was for naught. He has not been traded yet.

As Dan Hayes of The Athletic tweeted, just as the mania was getting stirred up, Duran was merely hugging his boys. Nothing to see here, other than a little harmless fun.

Harmless fun that got a trade-starved public very righteously angry.

Let's face it. We're past the 48-hour mark 'til the trade deadline and we haven't seen substantive movement all week ("Oh, so I'll just go f*** myself then?" said Seranthony Dominguez). Duran leaving Minnesota would be a seismic shift in the Twins' chain, but to outsiders, a Duran blockbuster would represent league-wide hope that the GM stalemate had finally broken.

Nope. According to one Twins person who Hayes spoke with, "I think (Jhoan Duran) hugged Frank - like he always does." Noted. Just a hug. Should've known by the face of the man seated behind Duran, which kind of gives off the vibe of, "People are ... yeah, people are going to get mad at this."

Back to our regularly scheduled programming, it seems. Now that Duran has become The Closer Who Cried Trade, we don't know who to believe, though.