Since the Twins raised a white flag at July’s trade deadline, surrendering 10 players off their roster in a sell-off that still stuns rival executives months later, team officials have refused to use the word “rebuild” when describing their outlook for the 2026 season.
Call it semantics when coming up with ways to describe the roster. No American League team lost more games in the final two months of the 2025 season. The Twins dropped the season series to all their AL Central rivals, including the definitely rebuilding Chicago White Sox. Expectations for the Twins are at the lowest point in about a decade.
The speed at which the Twins return to playoff relevancy will largely be determined by how the top players in their farm system perform. The Twins have one of the highest-rated groups of minor leaguers, which is partly attributed to the prospects they acquired from all their trades.
Baseball America ranked the Twins as having the fourth-best farm system after the trade deadline. MLB Pipeline has the club at No. 2, and ESPN slotted the Twins at No. 5.
“We know we’re going to be young,” Twins President Derek Falvey said. “We know we are going to look different than we were a couple of years ago. To me, that can be exciting.”
Some of the Twins’ upper-level prospect depth will show itself Tuesday, when they’re expected to add about a half-dozen minor leaguers to their 40-man roster, protecting them from next month’s Rule 5 Draft.
Connor Prielipp, Andrew Morris and Kendry Rojas are certain to be added as Class AAA starting pitching depth. C.J. Culpepper, who pitched well at Class AA despite an injury to start the season, is another likely addition, while outfielders Gabriel Gonzalez and Hendry Mendez have the strongest cases among position players.
That doesn’t even include top prospects like center fielder Walker Jenkins or shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, who could reasonably contribute next year.
