After his personnel staff unloaded 10 regulars in a series of trade deadline moves from July 28-31, Twins president Derek Falvey flew to Cleveland, where the remaining players — and a few new ones — were ready to start a three-game series against the Guardians on Aug. 1.
The task for Falvey was to meet with players and coaches and explain why he and general manager Jeremy Zoll did an about-face on the roster they built to contend for a division title this season.
Because he has been rehabbing a shoulder injury in Minnesota, Pablo Lopez was not at that meeting. So, it was several days later that the veteran right-hander heard the gist of that talk one-on-one with Falvey in Minneapolis.
Lopez acknowledged that he was a little confused when Falvey told him that trading away players such as Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Willi Castro and Ty France was a step toward building around “younger talent that’s ready to display their set of tools and abilities, and we’re still gonna be a really good, competitive team.”
“Obviously,” Lopez added, “when you hear that after what transpired, you’re kind of like, ‘OK, 2 and 2 doesn’t, like, add up.’ ”
But Lopez, who had a successful, two-inning simulated start against live batters before Friday night’s game against Detroit at Target Field, said he quickly came to a separate peace with the moves.
Lopez might not understand the business decisions behind the sell-off, nor does he necessarily want to. But he and remaining veterans such as Byron Buxton, Bailey Ober, Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers decided they could use the change to stimulate winning within the clubhouse.
“I don’t understand the business side, so it’s hard to buy into that fully until you really understand it,” Lopez said. “But what we can buy into right now is what we really have in this clubhouse, which is the talent, which is the opportunity to really reshape and do our own rebuilding of the culture.”
“Culture,” he added, “is one thing we’ve been lacking the last couple of years.”
Despite fielding what was largely the same team that advanced to the American League Division Series in 2023, the Twins missed the playoffs last season and are on a pace this year that will likely see them eliminated from contention before the season actually ends.
Before Friday’s game against the division-lead Tigers, Minnesota was fourth in the Central, 13 games out of first place and seven games out of the third wild card spot. That’s roughly where they were at the July 21 trade deadline, when they still had all-stars Correa and Castro, closer Duran, set-up man Jax, lights-out lefty Danny Coulombe and starting first baseman Ty France.
What’s left is in-house young talent such as infielders Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis, power-hitting outfielders Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach, a former first-round draft pick, and starting pitchers Simeon Woods Richardso, Zebby Matthews and David Festa.
Now management has added prospects from other organizations such as pitchers Mick Abel (acquired from Philadelphia for Duran) and Taj Bradley (acquired from Tampa Bay for Jax), as well as outfielder James Outman and Alan Roden, who started immediately with the big-league club.
“We have an opportunity here to take this clubhouse and say, ‘Hey, let’s take this opportunity to create the culture that we’ve been lacking the last couple years,’ the culture that prevents good teams from losing a lot of games, a good culture where instead of losing five games, you lose two and the guys pick themselves up so fast that it’s like, ‘Hey, we lost two; let’s back in the winning column.’
“That is something we’ve discussed as a group, like, ‘Hey, let’s reshape the philosophy and culture of who the Twins are: We hold each other accountable, we play hard, we compete and we don’t take anything for granted. We’re happy to be here. You’re fortunate and blessed enough to wear this (uniform), but you also have to play hard. Just being up here doesn’t fully cut it.”
Lopez, 29, has two years left on an extension signed in April 2023. He acknowledged wondering about whether he still might be moved ahead of next season but added that it doesn’t occupy him.
“The front office, the business side, has their vision and their thing to figure out,” he said. “And we also have things to figure out and we’re on it. We’re on it and on the way to creating that (winning) culture.”
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