The 2026 American League Central is likely to be wide-open. The Cleveland Guardians, Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers have each put together two straight winning seasons, but each time, they benefited from the extreme weakness of the Chicago White Sox. In 2025, none of them won more than 88 games. The Twins are stuck very much in the middle, but they do have some chance of putting together a good enough team to compete in the Central in 2026, even as they change direction and attempt to recover from two straight disappointing campaigns.

Most fans expect little activity from the Twins this offseason, but then, most expect little activity from the other three pretenders to the crown, too. Detroit has already brought back (albeit in a passive way, by having each opt in at significant salaries) Jack Flaherty and Gleyber Torres, but they don’t have the flexibility to make another big splash. Nor can Cleveland or Kansas City make major outlays to bolster the rosters they’ve constructed.

Whatever the Twins do spend will go further than it might in other divisions. They’re likely to sign a couple of free agents, even if it takes until the endgame of the offseason (as it has in each of the last two winters) and those players sign one-year deals for low salaries. Specifically, they can go shopping in the cheapest aisle of the hot stove marketplace, because it’s also the place where the things they need most are stocked. Here are three relievers who could help the Twins make an unexpected playoff push in 2026; who would be lovely trade chips if the season breaks bad; and who fit the team’s philosophy of pitching perfectly. The Twins love a good changeup, and all three of these guys have one.

Tommy Kahnle
No pitcher in baseball throws the changeup more than Kahnle. In fact, it’s barely a changeup when he throws it, because it’s the pitch batters have to be expecting each time he kicks and fires. Kahnle threw his change 85.6% of the time in 2025, with an extraordinary ability to kill spin. He doesn’t use a split grip, but the way he sharply turns his hand outward as he delivers the change turns the pitch into something close to an old-fashioned forkball.

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The way that pitch tumbles allows Kahnle to succeed despite throwing it practically all the time. He induced whiffs on over 26% of opponents’ swings on that offering in 2025, and has ridden the offering to a 3.61 career ERA. Next year will be his age-36 season, and he’s coming off a down year in Detroit—one in which he had a 4.43 ERA. For the six years before that, though, he’d posted an aggregate 2.90 mark. Because he lost some velocity and saw his numbers slip this year, Kahnle will come very cheaply. He’s probably not actually out of steam, though.

There is that one other thing, though. New Twins bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins famously called Kahnle “the worst teammate” he’d ever had during a broadcast in 2017. Kahnle himself shrugged that off even in the moment, and Hawkins said he’d put the divide between the two in the past, but presumably, there’s still no relationship or positive feeling between them. It doesn’t need to be disqualifying, because Kahnle and Hawkins butted heads in 2014. Each has lived a lot of years since, and Kahnle has been well-liked in several subsequent stops. It’s possible he’s evolved in ways that would impress and delight Hawkins. The two could well move beyond their past and form a productive partnership. Before signing Kahnle, though, the team would need to talk to Hawkins.

Luke Weaver
It’s a much more traditional pairing of fastball and change from Weaver. He throws a mid-90s fastball with good life about 60% of the time, and leans heavily on the changeup only as a complement thereto. Although he bloomed late, Weaver has been a sturdy presence in the Yankees bullpen for the last two-plus seasons. Discovering the right changeup changed his career. His pitch is much more of a power change, with fade and downward action but not the telltale, erratic tumble of the lower-spin split-change he used to employ. Batters whiff on this version of the cambio over 40% of the time, which has driven a 29.4% strikeout rate since he arrived in the Bronx.

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Our DiamondCentric Top 50 Free Agents list ranked Weaver 37th and forecasted a two-year, $16-million deal for him this winter. That still looks like a reasonable projection. It’s probably also the highest the Twins would go to get him, but Weaver would be an instant closer for the depleted relief corps.

Kyle Finnegan
Considering Finnegan is like studying the midpoint between Kahnle and Weaver. He uses his splitter more than Weaver uses his change, but less than Kahnle does. Kahnle is 36; Weaver is 32; Finnegan is 34. The former Nationals closer came to Detroit at the trade deadline in July and enjoyed one of the best stretches of his career. He throws harder than either of the others and has a highly kinetic delivery, launching himself at the batter in a way that makes his sharply sinking splitter especially deceptive.

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Way down at 48th on the DiamondCentric Top 50, Finnegan is projected for a one-year deal worth $6 million. If he actually signs for anything in that range, he’d be perfect for the Twins. He’d be eminently tradeable, if it came to that, but he’d also deliver high-octane heat and that swing-and-miss splitter to a pen that has missed those things since the trades that sent away Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax.

The Twins threw more offspeed pitches than all teams but the Angels and Tigers in 2025. They love changeups and splitters, not only for their ability to keep hitters off a good fastball, but for the way they thwart opposite-handed batters. Finnegan and Weaver have huge platoon splits, but they go in the opposite of the usual direction: they’re better against lefties than righties. Kahnle has only occasionally been that good against lefties, but his change plays against righties, too.

All three of these hurlers would be solid back-end relief options for the Twins, who need to be better than average at converting late leads into wins if they want to sneak to the front of the crowded but unintimidating AL Central. None will come at great expense. While it might be a quiet winter for Derek Falvey and Company, even on a tight budget, opportunities abound.