Souhan: Twins have waved the white flag, both on and off the field

On August 5, 2024, the Twins earned their fifth consecutive victory to improve to 63-48.

They were headed to what would have been their fifth playoff berth in nine seasons under the leadership of Derek Falvey, and they were winning despite their usual epidemic of injuries.

Since that date, the Twins are 70-89. They collapsed at the end of the 2024 season, and have collapsed again this summer, leading to Falvey and General Manager Jeremy Zoll conducting a fire sale this week.

In the last calendar year, these once-promising Twins have played well for exactly one month — May 2025.

The Twins believe they have a leading candidate to purchase the franchise. Once the sale is concluded, the new owner will officially begin to assess the key members of the organization.

The Twins front office trading Carlos Correa and Jhoan Duran is like a suspect walking into a courtroom holding the blood-stained murder weapon.

The Twins’ brain trust chose not to use the injuries to Pablo López and other key players as an excuse for this collapse. They chose, instead, to sell exactly the kinds of players who would give them a chance to win next season.

Falvey and Zoll are saving the franchise money and rebuilding the farm system. What they are not doing is burnishing their résumé for the new owner.

These trades are an admission that too many of the players they acquired, developed and promoted are not good enough, that their strategies and philosophies are dubious.

That list includes but is not limited to Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner, Brooks Lee, Edouard Julien, Jose Miranda, Griffin Jax, Jorge Alcala, Royce Lewis, Correa, Christian Vázquez, Zebby Matthews, David Festa, Chris Paddack and Simeon Woods Richardson.

What will this brain trust say to the new owner?

The Twins were routinely devastated by injuries for years. So they fired their training staff and hired Nick Paparesta, who is well-regarded throughout the industry … and they continue to have devastating injuries.

They looked like a franchise on the rise when they won a playoff series in 2023. In part because the Pohlads refused to raise the payroll to support that team in 2024, they have done little to improve the roster the past two seasons.

Whatever credit you want to give this regime for its past successes, and whatever legitimate excuses are available to explain this year-long slump, the current state of the team could justify a visit from FEMA.

The Twins received good value for Duran and Jax, and saved a lot of money by getting out of Correa’s contract, but the Twins do not have immediate replacements for either.

This feels too much like 1993. The Twins were considered the best franchise in baseball in 1991 and ’92. In 1993, they collapsed, and a year later General Manager Andy MacPhail was leaving for the Cubs because he knew the Twins couldn’t or wouldn’t compete financially as baseball’s wealth disparity took control of the sport.

Even if every trade the Twins made pays off over time, the front office is sacrificing a chance to compete in the immediate future.

Trading Harrison Bader, Ty France and Danny Coulombe was logical if you’ve given up on the season.

Trading Duran, Willi Castro, Louie Varland and Jax was an admission of what former Vikings coach Brad Childress liked to call “total systemic failure.”

Trading Correa was the front office giving up on winning anytime soon.

Maybe in five years, we can remember the Twins’ activity at the 2025 trade deadline with fondness.

But the past two times the Twins decided to strip down and rebuild — in the mid-90s and the early 2010s — they sentenced their fans to years of terrible baseball.