MLB Trade Deadline: The Minnesota Twins Are Open for Business

We’ve been waiting for this moment to cover the Chris Paddock trade to the Tigers. We love a good AL Central trade. What did you think of the deal? That was the start of I think what they’re going to do, which is Paddock is one of or was one of six impending free agents that they had. I think he was probably, you know, third or fourth most valuable in that group. You know, Harrison Bader, Willie Castro, Danny Kulom, and then Paddock they traded. And then they also have Christian Vasquez at catcher and then Ty France. You know, I think they’re still sort of in the wild card mix. I mean, their playoff odds are like 10 or 15%. But I think the Paddock deal doing it so early in the week, three days out from the deadline, I think signals they’re going to trade all of the impending free agents that they can get some kind of value for. And, you know, not that Paddock had huge value or anything, but they dumped a bunch of salary. I think 4 a.5 million, which I know that doesn’t really mean anything except to the pole ads, the owners. Uh, but I think that was part of the equation with that trade. And then they got a catching prospect back who seems like a decent 19-year-old catcher prospect uh from the Tigers. But I would expect kind of that to be the first step with a bunch of very similar moves the rest of the rest of the next couple days. So are we talking Durant? Are we talking JS? Are we talking Castro? Are we talking who are I mean are they going to go all in and just dismantle and start over? And then if they do do that, how does Carlos Koreah feel about that? Byron Buckton feel about that? because these guys signed these long-term deals and now they’re kind of stuck. Yeah. I mean, I think I wouldn’t rule out them trading Don J, somebody like that. Even maybe Brock Stewart relievers who have two or three more years of team control, but I think they’re in a position where they would need to kind of be blown away to accept one of those offers. I’m not saying they wouldn’t do it or that they that might not happen, but I think their focus is going to be, you mentioned Castro, I think he’s definitely going to be traded. Uh, I think Harrison Bader is definitely going to get traded. I think they’ll probably find a a small deal for Danny Kulom, who can just be a second lefty in some contenders bullpen. If they get blown away on an offer for a non-impending free agent like some of the names you mentioned, I do think they’re somewhat open to it. But then the other thing we couldn’t, every time I’m on, we talk ownership to some degree with the Twins and I think the uncertainty of we’re now nine or 10 months in to the Twins having the team for sale and they haven’t actually sold it. It’s difficult, I think, for the front office to know what their future is. So, to trade somebody who has a is a very good player like Jax or Don, but also as team control, not just this season, not just next season, but 2027. I think that is a a big leap for a front office and ownership group that is sort of in flux right now. Does that give not no hope because they’re still exciting players, but Twins fans like, “Oh, great. We’re just going to get a bunch of six six more one-year rentals next off season because there’s no ownership drive or motivation or even direction if that’s how this trade deadline goes.” To me, if I were Twins fans, I would be more excited if we got rid of a Griffin Jax because of the return, because of what that could potentially be, but it could be another missing trade deadline or missing off season because ownership situation just isn’t is still in flux. Yeah, I mean, all that is definitely true. I agree with all that. And I mean, it is a very frustrating low morale time last couple years basically since the end of 2023 for Twins fans. payroll got cut, team has been underwhelming, all sorts of that stuff like you mentioned. You know, I do think that it it is viable if you get a great offer, especially for a relief pitcher. I mean, we know even the best relievers sometimes have a pretty short shelf life. You know, they they kind of burn bright, fade away a little bit. And if you can get multiple building block type of young players for a reliever, even if they are a reliever with two more years of team control, I do think that’s something you can consider. But also, if I’m this front office and I don’t know that I’m even going to be around next year, let alone 2027, because first of all, if new owners come in at some point, which obviously Twins fans are hoping for, they might bring in their own people to begin with. That happens a lot. And regardless of that, the Twins are about to miss the playoffs for the fourth time in five years. So, I think it’s fair to question the performance of this regime anyway, which has been in place since 2017. So I definitely agree that depending on the quality of the offers you’re getting and the fact that class A just got taken off the market too could potentially lead to bigger and better offers for Don and Jackson and Stewart from the Twins perspective. So I definitely think they’re smart to listen and for that matter if you want to listen on Joe Ryan too. I mean I’m not against listening like let someone try to go crazy and make you an offer. But I do think that the front office might feel like do we want to enter into another rebuild or even a you know step back where it’s not going to be good here for a couple years where are they going to be here in a couple years? What who’s even going to own the team in a couple years? That was my next question. Aaron is Derek Faly’s in charge. He’s been in charge. They lost Bad Lavine. But how handcuffed are they? How how much are their hands tied by this ownership? I don’t want to call it a problem, but ownership selling or not selling. We might sell if we sell Joe Polad still has to be part of the ownership group. Like how handcuffed is Derek Faly with this team and the payroll and the trades he’s actually allowed to make. Yeah. I mean, we’ve seen, you mentioned it, the last two deadlines when they were in a position to be buyers, like clear buyers. I think two years ago, they were in first place at the deadline. Last year, they were in the first wild card. Their playoff odds at the deadline the past couple years were like 70s something percent. Now it’s 10%. And they didn’t do anything. I mean, they brought in like a middle reliever each time and then ended up cutting that guy before the end of the season. And I think a lot of that was their overall lack of aggression as a front office, but it gets also back to what you just said, which is they didn’t have any money to add anybody. And any deal they were going to have to make in the last two years would have to involve the selling team eating a bunch of money which is going to cost you more prospects from the Twins point of view or would have to involve money coming in and money going out major league from major league deal which that’s a a very tough needle to thread all the time. I think this time around any trade they make is going to be shedding money. They already shed four a.5 million with the Paddock deal because they included Randy Dominic’s uh contract in there too. you know, if they end up trading the three or four other names that I mentioned, Castro, Bader, Koulom, etc., that’s they’re going to shed over $10 million. Now, am I confident that money will ever be reinvested in the team on the field? Absolutely not. Uh I’ve been covering the Twins way too long to know that. But I, you know, it is, I think, a factor. But then the thing you have to worry about, would they get better prospects, let’s say, for Chris Paddock? And I think they got a decent prospect. Enrique Jnez is a decent prospect. But could they gotten could they have gotten a higher level of prospect or maybe a second decent prospect if they would have eaten $4.5 million or $3 million in that deal instead of having the Tigers take it all on. And so I think that’s another example of yes the payroll has been slashed since 2023. Yes, the front office’s hands are tied, but even in a selling position not, you know, trying to maximize the money saved could hurt the return you’re getting on some of these deals. Do you have the best VPN in the game? Are you saving enough on your VPN? You got to check out surfshark.com/val or use the code fol at checkout on the site to get four extra months of SurfsharkVPN. There’s a risk-free 30-day money back guarantee at surfshark.com/val. Kratz, if you’re on the go a lot, you got to check out Surf Shark. It’s a no-brainer. I’m at the beach, so I should know something about a Surf Shark. Just saying. Get it done 30 days. That’s right. Secure your digital life with Surf SharkVPN. You can hit the link below for four extra months of Surf Shark, either on the podcast page or on the YouTube channel. Don’t let online threats catch you off guard. This has been your tech update. You want to keep your data safe and make sure you check out Surf Shark today. It’s a 30-day money back guarantee. You can secure your digital world right now. At the All-Star game, Byron Buckton absolutely squashed any any decisions or talk about getting traded. He said, “I have a no trade clause. I love Minnesota.” Is that good for the Twins? Is that good? Yes. Oh, man. I get to keep my jersey for another, you know, count of years. But you also sit there and you go, Byron Buckston, you kind of want to go somewhere that, you know, may want to be investing in the team or is it just a is it just a hey, that’s neat. Midwest baseball pool, we get to keep Byron Buckton. There’s a little of that. I will tell you that uh probably like many flyover states, the people of Minnesota, and I’m a lifelong motan, there’s a little chip on everybody’s shoulder because uh stars often leave here. Very rarely do non-h home togoen stars talk the way that you just described Buckston talking how he said Minnesota’s home I don’t want to leave I want to retire here on and on and he didn’t just say that at the all-star game he’s been very consistent about that since he signed his extension a few years ago and demanded a no trade clause not because you know some players get a no trade clause and they figure well I can get a little more money or leverage out of this if the time comes that they want to trade me I I think Buckston just got it he doesn’t want to go anywhere he’s got three kids and a wife they like it here He’s comfortable with the Twins. They drafted him. They developed him. And yes, could he get traded to a contending team and maybe make a playoff run this year? Sure. But also, if you’re a Twins fan, you want the players to believe it’s not 10 years away, right? Like, no matter how bad this season has been and how frustrating last season’s collapse was, you do want Buckston to believe deep down we could make a run at it next year. We could make a run at it in 2027. And I do think they have some of the pieces in place, which is why, you know, trading Joe Ryan or trading Don is a tougher decision than it would be, I think, for a lot of selling teams. But in general, I I think it’s a good thing for the people of Minnesota to have a superstar player who is a good dude and a good player on the field who actually enjoys being here and is making it clear he wants to be here. And I know everyone will go, “Well, but they could trade Buckston and they could get some massive hall.” Okay, you get two prospects. Maybe five years from now, one of them’s half as good as Byron Buckton. I do think there’s a little bit of a myth of a rebuild and I mean the Twins have gone through re rebuilds where you come out after five years of being terrible, you win a couple of division titles and then that’s all you get. That’s sort of where they’re at now. So I think in general I like the comments Buckton said and it’s also just consistent with what he said the last two or three years. Oh, I just want to stop you there. I came up with the Twins. I never wanted to leave. There was a lot of guys that were that I came up with that didn’t want to leave and they either got traded away or pushed out. So, I don’t I don’t agree with kind of what you just said. Like there’s a lot of people that I played with in Minnesota that wanted to stay there their whole career. Like I was traded. You know, Mavic, he wanted to stay, he was traded. There’s a ton of guys Tory Hunter left as a free agent. He got paid and they were never going to pay him. But there was a lot of guys, trust me, that wanted to stay. I loved my time in Minnesota. So, don’t just say like I loved my time there. I think that’s a good point actually because he got paid like he got a six-year 90 million to 100 million total because he had one more year of arbitration and at the time he was even more injured than he’s been the last couple years. So, he took sort of a $15 million a year, which is not all-star level money, but there was the injury risk built in there. And so, that is one of the biggest extensions the Twins have ever given out. And like you said, you had plenty of very good young players who were in position to get extensions in the early to mid, you know, 2000s. And the Twins just really didn’t spend any money at that point. And they don’t spend now, but they really didn’t spend back then. And so, I I definitely see what you’re saying that a lot of Twins stars or borderline star players were traded away in past years. they had no choice. He’s one of the few that’s gotten paid. And I think, you know, if this was a pass regime or he came up with you at the time, like you said, when Tory Hunter, you know, he probably would have left already for free agency. And I think it’s it’s a little bit of a different situation just because he did actually get the extension that a lot of guys on the teams that you’re talking about, which was a much more successful era and had all kinds of homegrown star guys, but they didn’t really pay anybody, including, you know, Tory Hunter, including Johan Santana, all kinds of David. Kad Morno, they all walked away. It’s true. Yeah. Well, they kind of let Ortiz go. I mean, Ortiz go for They let Ortiz go for nothing because two million two million bucks is what they would have had to pay David Ortiz for the season that they cut him. That is uh even for the Twins, that’s not much. Yeah. It’s not like they couldn’t afford him. They just didn’t because they thought they had other guys coming was one of them. And also, they didn’t love back then, they didn’t love 100 strikeouts. David struck out a little, right? So, they didn’t love that. We were told, you know, you don’t strike out 100 times. Well, that now 100 strikeouts is a great year for most of you guys. Yeah. You only struck out a 100 times, you’re you’re Luis Arise. He’s a contact. Yeah. Seriously, game has changed. All right. So, I I’ll finish the way we started. What are the Tigers getting in Chris Paddock? Because apparently some other insiders were saying that teams like the Rays were in on Paddock. That’s according to John Haymon. Although, that one’s kind of interesting because I thought the Rays were selling, but maybe they’re buying and selling. Bob Nightingale said the Yankees were pursuing him. So clearly some teams were into Paddock and he’s always had that potential, but this year it’s a fiveish erra. Really bad in his last eight starts, a lot of homers. What was going on? I think you’re definitely right. I was told that they had a handful of teams interested, which is how they ended up dumping the whole salary and getting a decent prospect back. You know, I think I’ve watched a lot of Chris Paddock over the last three or four years, and the description you gave is right. Like there are starts where you watch him and the fast ball is 95 plus consistently and the change up is good and he’s a he pounds the strike zone and he controls the game and you talk to him afterward and he says all the right things and you go wow this guy is really in control of what’s going on and I want to bet on him uh having a next you know five starts going really well and then the next start he gives up eight runs and I think this year what we saw that’s even different than the frustrating aspects from past years strikeout rate went way down. I mean, when he came up with the Padres’s, he was a change up pitcher whose fast ball wasn’t that good, but he got such swing and miss with his change up. Now, he’s basically a fourseam guy and works off that and his change up and and breaking ball don’t even get swings and misses. It’s it’s been a really weird kind of comeback postsecond Tommy John surgery, the pitcher he’s turned into. But I think from the Tigers point of view, I know they lost Reese Olsen for the season. So, I’m sure they figured, can we just sort of inexpensively in terms of prospect capital fill the fourth or fifth spot in this rotation because they got to figure he’s not going to start a playoff game for them, but they got to get to the playoffs. They can’t exhaust their bullpen. And I I do think, you know, every fifth day trying to get him through five innings is going to be a better bet just from a veteranness standpoint, striketh throwing standpoint, uh, than maybe some random AAA guy or some even lower wattage trade they can make. But I would be surprised if he had a big impact for the Tigers. Although I will say I’m a little bit intrigued by the idea that they could move him to the bullpen down the stretch maybe at preparation for a multi-inninging role in the playoffs because when he first came back from the second Tommy John in 2023, the Twins did that for a handful of appearances in September and he was throwing upper 90s borderline 100 at that point. So, I do think, you know, fourth or fifth starter for now and then maybe shift to the bullpen in in uh October could be somewhat intriguing for

Chris Paddack is headed to the Tigers, and it might just be the first domino to fall in Minnesota. Senior writer Aaron Gleeman from The Athletic joins the show to break down what the trade means for the Twins, who could be next to go (Griffin Jax? Jhoan Duran? Joe Ryan?), and how ownership uncertainty is shaping the team’s strategy. Plus, thoughts on Byron Buxton’s no-trade stance and whether the Tigers got a rotation piece or an October bullpen weapon.

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0:00 Sending Chris Paddack to Tigers
1:09 Twins Trade Pieces
2:53 Giving Twins fans hope
4:52 Handcuffed by ownership
7:07 Byron Buxton
13:03 What are the Tigers getting with Paddack?

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