Jhoan Duran has been lights-out for the Minnesota Twins in 2025. Despite a dip in velocity from years past, he’s thrived as the team’s closer, locking down late-inning leads with a 0.95 ERA and the second-highest WPA on the roster, at 1.6. His dominance was rightfully recognized when he was named the American League Reliever of the Month in May.
For a contending team with playoff aspirations, trading such a dominant weapon out of the bullpen seems counterintuitive, even reckless. But the Twins may be in a rare position of strength to consider it—not because Duran has lost anything, but because someone else has found something.
Louis Varland, once a fringe starter, has emerged as a bullpen stud. For the first time in a full-time relief role this season, Varland has been electric. His fastball regularly hits 99 MPH, and his knuckle curve is generating a whopping 41% whiff rate. Since May began, he’s pitched in the third-highest leverage spots in the bullpen, and he owns a 2.54 ERA with a 33:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s no longer just a promising arm. He’s one of the most dominant relievers in the Twins bullpen, and flashing that dominance in big-time spots.
So if the Twins can trust Varland (along with Griffin Jax) to handle the ninth inning, could they afford to deal Duran to address a glaring need on the offensive side of the roster? Although shocking on the surface, it’s a question worth digging into. The Twins offense has sputtered, and any path toward adding impact bats at the trade deadline comes with risk. They could deal from their farm system, but that’s a tough sell with the team’s ownership situation in flux. Do you really want to trade away cost-controlled prospects when you don’t even know who’ll be signing the checks next year?
They could explore moving a starting pitcher, as Cody Christie recently suggested with Chris Paddack. But with the riskiness of starting pitching injuries and how valuable the Twins’ rotation has been, that feels like an unnecessary gamble. Certainly, this week’s unfortunate Pablo López news highlights that. The third, perhaps most logical option, is to trade from the bullpen, the one area of true organizational depth.
Of course, trading Duran would create a domino effect. Everyone else in the bullpen would have to move up a rung. But the Twins have effectively built a unit deep enough to handle it. Cole Sands and Brock Stewart have both earned trust in key situations. Danny Coulombe is set to return soon. Beyond them, the front office could create another Louis Varland out of a minor-league starter like Marco Raya, Andrew Morris, or Connor Prielipp, all of whom profile as potential weapons in short stints down the stretch of the regular season.
There’s also the financial reality. Duran is making more than $4 million this year, and that number could exceed $7 million next season in arbitration. If the Twins aren’t planning to hang onto him at that cost (and there’s no guarantee they will), this could be the moment to flip a valuable asset for a hitter who can help both now and in the future.
Losing Duran wouldn’t be easy. But with Varland thriving, Jax dominating (1.50 ERA and a 31/3 K/BB over his last 19 appearances), and the bullpen pipeline stocked with arms, it might be a move the Twins can afford to make. Especially if it brings in a bat that finally balances this lineup and helps push the team to another level.
What do you think? Could Louis Varland’s emergence allow the Twins to trade Jhoan Duran? Would you make that deal for the right bat, or is Duran simply too valuable to this roster? Leave a comment below and start the conversation!