The Twins answered their first big question of the offseason on Monday — would they retain their manager? — when they made the decision to fire Rocco Baldelli.
The search for Baldelli’s replacement will dominate much of the early offseason for the Twins’ front office. But after a second straight disappointing season, one in which the Twins shipped away a large portion of the roster at the trade deadline, many more questions remain beyond who will be coaching the team.
Perhaps most pressing among them: What direction will the Twins take now?
The answer is tied to what their payroll — slashed again at the trade deadline — will amount to. And, at this point, it seems like not even Derek Falvey, who heads the Twins’ baseball and business operations, is fully sure what that will be.
“As I sit here today, I’ll shoot you super straight: I don’t have that direction yet,” Falvey said Tuesday. “I think that’s a conversation that we’ll continue to have, certainly with the (team-owning) Pohlads and whatever conversation they’d like me to have with the limited partners.”
Nearly a year ago, the Pohlad family announced it was exploring a sale of the team. That ended in August, when the family agreed to add two limited partnership groups, neither of whom have been identified publicly, while maintaining the controlling stake in the team.
Asked in August if the limited partners would allow the family to invest more money in the team, executive chair Joe Pohlad responded by saying it would allow the Twins to pay down their debt and “reset our financial picture in order to move forward.”
As the offseason begins, there’s little clarity on what effect the limited partner groups will have once fully in place and if the payroll will go up, go down or stay the same. The Twins shed a significant amount from their payroll at the deadline, sending their highest-paid player, Carlos Correa, to Houston, along with money to cover a portion of his salary over the next few seasons. They also shipped off nearly every impending free agent on the roster, as well as some players who were due raises via the arbitration process this offseason.
But it remains to be seen whether that money will be reinvested in other players or if the Twins will continue to cut their payroll, as has been the case past couple of years. The payroll was cut significantly from a team-record high after the 2023 season, following a season in which the Twins exhibited their first taste of postseason success in nearly two decades.
Starting pitcher Pablo López is due a team-high salary of north of $21 million next season, which could lead to the Twins shopping him if payroll is to decrease or if they decide to reallocate those resources.
Byron Buxton will earn $15 million, but he has a no-trade clause and has stated his intention to remain a Twin.
Joe Ryan, who earned $3 million last year, is arbitration-eligible and is due a healthy raise. The Twins received calls on Ryan at the deadline, but opted not to move him. Asked if he expected López and Ryan to be on the team next season, Falvey said that was his current “expectation.”
“It still requires some ongoing conversations with ownership and what that looks like,” Falvey said. “Ultimately, my hope is that we could build around that group. … That would be my hope.”
The Twins opened this past season with a payroll in the bottom half of the league. With few financial commitments beyond López, Buxton and the money owed to Houston for Correa’s salary, it’s very possible that they dip even further.
What that looks like will be played out over the course of this offseason.
“There continue to be ongoing conversations with ownership … in terms of exactly what we’ll do going through the course of the offseason,” Falvey said. “It’s a very unique offseason for us.”
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