The Minnesota Twins finished the 2025 season with a 70-92 record, which marked their worst campaign since 2016 and represented a massive fall from the team that won the AL Central just two years ago.
After ownership essentially forced a salary dump at the trade deadline that saw 11 players leave the 40-man roster, the Twins now sit with one of the lowest projected payrolls in baseball heading into 2026, and the state of their contracts shows a franchise in transition.
Starting pitcher Pablo Lopez carries the largest salary on the roster at $21.75 million for 2026, and he has one more guaranteed year after that at $21.5 million through 2027.
Advertisement
When healthy, Lopez showed he can still pitch like an ace, posting a 2.74 ERA across 14 starts in 2025 before injuries cut his season short.
Center fielder Byron Buxton follows at $15 million, which is part of a seven-year, $100 million extension he signed before the 2022 season that runs through 2028 and includes a full no-trade clause.
The Twins also have $10 million in dead money for Carlos Correa on the books after trading him to Houston at the deadline, and they will owe him $10 million each year through 2028 as part of the $33 million they retained in the deal.
That blank space could actually end up being the third-highest “salary” on the 2026 payroll if the team continues cutting costs.
Advertisement
Joe Ryan might be the best value on the entire roster after putting together a career year in 2025 where he went 13-10 with a 3.42 ERA and 194 strikeouts across 171 innings.
He earned his first All-Star selection and is projected to make less than $6 million in arbitration, which makes him a steal for a pitcher who performs like a top-of-the-rotation arm on the open market.
Catcher Ryan Jeffers is another strong value at a projected arbitration number under $7 million, as he provides solid production at a premium position.
Buxton showed why the Twins locked him up when he finally stayed healthy enough to play 126 games in 2025, which was his second-highest total ever behind his 140 games in 2017.
Advertisement
He clubbed a career-high 35 home runs, drove in 83 runs, slashed .264/.327/.551, and won a Silver Slugger award, which proved that when he is on the field, he is still one of the most dynamic players in baseball.
Several Twins players are in line for new contracts through arbitration heading into 2026. Ryan Jeffers, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Royce Lewis, and Cole Sands all seem like easy decisions to retain at their projected numbers because they provide value that far exceeds their cost.
Lewis struggled in 2025 with a .237 batting average, but at a projected $3 million salary, he carries too much upside to non-tender.
Ober is coming off a down year where he surrendered 30 home runs, but his track record suggests a bounce back is likely.
Advertisement
The bigger question is whether ownership will actually boost spending back toward the $130-$140 million range the team operated at in 2023-24, or if they will continue cutting payroll and make even Lopez and Ryan expendable as trade chips this winter.
With the Pohlads still exploring a potential sale of the franchise, the financial future of the Twins remains very much up in the air heading into the new year.