The MLB Winter Meetings are set to start next week, which means the floodgates might be about to open in terms of Hot Stove action finally taking place. Juan Soto is expected to sign somewhere and that seems to be linchpin to a bunch of other moves happening.
While the Minnesota Twins are nowhere near the epicenter of the offseason, they're still being talked about as a team on the fringe that could make some spicy moves.
The Athletic's Jim Bowden named one free agent fit for each team and changed things up when it comes to the Minnesota Twins. Rather than having a pitcher as his pick, Bowden went with former San Diego Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar as his choice -- and it's one that makes a lot of sense.
Minnesota is in the market for corner outfield depth this winter, and Profar fits the profile. His .380 on-base percentage was the second best in all of the National League last year, and he finished the season hitting .280 with 24 home runs, 29 doubles and 10 stolen bases. Better still, Profar is a switch-hitting outfielder which means he could be the right-handed hitter the Twins have been searching for these past few years.
Jurickson Profar is a perfect fit for the Twins, but will they actually try to bring him in?
Profar wouldn't replace Max Kepler in right field, but he'd be able to play the other corner spot and allow Matt Wallner or Trevor Larnach to move over. He'd also form a nice platoon with those guys, plus Austin Martin, and has experience playing second base and shortstop which could come in handy given how things shake out there.
A super radical idea could be making Profar an upgraded version of Willi Castro. Minnesota already needs to shed payroll is it wants to make some moves, and trading Chris Paddack has been the most talked about way of going about that.
If Profar can be a utility man for the Twins, then that could mean trading Castro and moving off his $7 million expected salary is on the table.
That's the sort of roster shuffling that won't keep fans up at night worrying that the team is being gutted just to save money. Already there have been hypotheticals tossed out that involve trading Joe Ryan or Griffin Jax, which would a total nightmare scenario.
Profar makes sense on paper and the way to get him on the roster feels right too. Now it's just a question of whether or not the Twins actually pursue this, or deem whatever they find in the clearance aisle sufficient enough.
More Minnesota Twins news and rumors