Twins bizarrely urged to trade Royce Lewis as a way of improving the roster

All but four teams are sitting at home working on offseason plans, and it could be a matter of days before the Cleveland Guardians join them after getting swept out of the ALCS. That would be a darkly humorous thing for Minnesota Twins fans to watch, but the reality of the situation is at least Cleveland is still playing baseball this deep into October.

The Twins spoiled thier own chances at that long ago.

That's why as the World Series nears, Minnesota is looking toward the future and how another historic collapse can be avoided. There's plenty of uncertainty on the horizon, from the Pohlads putting the team up for sale to their undying desire to never spent a penny more than they have to on the team.

It's that last bit that has fans worried it will be another offseason of frustrating inaction, or worse one that sees the team strip itself for parts in order to save some money.

Twins 'should trade Royce Lewis' to improve the roster, which makes absolutely no sense

In an early entry for 'Most Bizarre Offseason Hot Take', Bleacher Report burped up a suggestion that the Twins should trade Royce Lewis in order to get around the team's payroll constraints.

To be fair, it's acknowledged that the idea is whacky, but it was still uttered into existence.

"This is perhaps the most out-of-nowhere concept in this entire exercise, but there are multiple reasons for the Twins to be questioning how Lewis fits in their plans ... The Twins need to upgrade a pitching staff that degraded from 2023 to 2024, and they need to do it with less broadcasting revenue. A trade of Lewis could be a difference-maker to this end."

Given how much the Pohlads hate Twins fans, trading Lewis would be a perfect middle finger. As a baseball move, it makes absolutely zero sense and shouldn't even be whispered in the halls of Target Field.

It's true that the Twins need to get creative in order to navigate around the annoying payroll walls that have been constructed by ownership. That's why it was so hard for a handcuffed front office to meaingfully add to the roster to try and improve it, but trading Royce Lewis actively makes the roster worse.

There are only a select few -- see also: unrealistic -- ways dealing him would be worth it.

Salary dumping Jorge Polanco, a fan favorite and All-Star player, was bad enough but if the Twins cash out on a guy who could win an MVP over the next decade simply to save a buck now it would be baseball malpractice. Lewis has struggled to stay healthy and he slumped bad at the end of the season, but his heights are so high that it, for now, cancels out the lows. When Lewis is playing on his absolute A-Game, he's arguably the best player on a roster that also includes Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa.

Trading Lewis now makes absolutely no sense.

What would the return be? Minnesota can't trade him for more prospects since it would make zero sense to flip one that has finally developed and reset the process. If the idea is to get ahead of his arbitration years, then any sort of meaningful superstar return would add money to the payroll and negate the need to trade Lewis in the first place.

Minnesota has to find a way to improve the roster this winter, and it's a task the Pohlads probably won't make easy. While sadly more realistic than it should be thanks to ownership's greed, trading Lewis is not going to set the team back further than would be able to make up.

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