Thursday was one of the most surprising and consequential days in Minnesota Twins history as they completed trades that saw 10 of their 26 active players depart.
The impact of the players they received in return won’t be known for a while since the vast majority are prospects, but it is still possible to evaluate what the Twins’ did from a big-picture perspective.
We graded all the Twins’ moves both individually and collectively and talked about the rationale on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Several national outlets also weighed in on the Twins’ moves, so let’s dissect those at the outset of today’s 10 things to know in Minnesota sports:
- The Athletic was the most positive overall, giving the Twins a “B” grade and saying they did an “excellent job of selling.” More: “If you’re going to sell at the deadline, you might as well go all-in, and that’s basically what the Twins did.”
- USA Today largely gave the Twins good marks for their moves, including an A-minus for the Correa trade. “This was Minnesota’s one and only chance to get out of the Correa contract. Kudos to them for seizing the opportunity,” they wrote.
- On the other hand, CBS Sports gave the Twins a “D” grade, though perhaps not for the reasons many Twins fans might think. Their biggest beef seemed to be that the Twins didn’t trade Joe Ryan in what was a hot pitching market, a curious argument for a team that traded nearly 40% of its MLB roster.
- Yahoo was not impressed at all, giving the Twins an F. They wrote: “Any time you trade 10 players off the big-league roster during a season in which you planned to contend, you get a big, fat F, regardless of the prospects. ... What even is this team now? There are dark days ahead up north; a years-long winter of woe awaits.”
- In their piece on the deadline’s biggest winners and losers, ESPN put Twins fans in the first spot of the biggest losers category. They wrote: “What a sad, brutal day to be a Twins fan. ... It might be a few years before the Twins are even thinking of the playoffs again. Twins fans can only hope that assessment is wrong.”
- My take: I can see the rationale behind most of the trades, but taken as a whole it feels like a massive overcorrection. President Derek Falvey said the moves were about baseball and not money, but it’s hard to believe that’s true. This line from Bobby Nightengale’s newsletter today was particularly telling: “Officials from other teams told the Minnesota Star Tribune all month that President Derek Falvey’s group was under pressure to slash payroll.”
- Here are more comments from Falvey.
- Jim Souhan has some good historical context on what the Twins did.
- I can’t wait to hear what Patrick Reusse has to say on this a little later today.
- Here’s La Velle E. Neal III and I breaking down the Correa trade and big-picture Twins thoughts.
