Let’s take a trip back to the beginning of the Derek Falvey regime. The Minnesota Twins were coming off a second-place finish in the division, but essentially, there wasn’t a strong feeling that the roster as constructed could keep up with the teams pushing for the pennant. Under Falvey’s leadership, there has been an influx of much higher-end talent than has been seen on the Twins in some time. The prospects that line the current Twins prospect list are much different than those lists at the beginning of the Falvey regime.
Falvey’s imprint and direction on the organizational depth are evident today, but it took time to reach our current state. As fans, we have begun seeing the first glimpses of pitching success stories in the last couple of seasons. Hitting has lagged, but there were still successes, such as identifying Willi Castro on that side of the ball. 2023 was the peak of major league success under Falvey with the playoff series win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Twins Territory showed just how much they could make Target Field rock. As the season closed in a loss to the Astros, we now know so did the door to contention as the Pohlad’s followed with a slamming shut of the checkbook.
2025 still seemed to be a year with a chance at contention. The organization has some of the most intriguing young talent it has had in some time. The major league pitching looks as good as many fans can remember. Even as the team struggled, there still seemed to be a path to contention as early as 2026 if the front office could make the right moves at the trade deadline. What none of us expected was that they would make all the moves.
Instead of a retooling or reshuffling of key pieces, the Twins tore the entire bullpen down. Most believed there was a strong possibility that some bullpen pieces would move at the deadline, as it is one of the most valuable moves a selling team can make. It was more than some in the end. All the top bullpen arms were traded, and it was a shock, which leaves the roster, outside of the starting rotation, full of many unproven pieces. In short, the Twins traded the ability to sell to fans a contender in the making for hope in prospects, and in some cases, prospects whose flame has grown dim.
For most of 2025, there has been confidence in the pitching staff, whether starting or in relief. It was the clear base the Twins were built on. The biggest problem came with the lineup and its inability to score runs. When thinking long term, the development of or addition of a few quality bats would turn this roster around. After the trade deadline, it is only the starting rotation that looks ready to go for contention.
Professional sports teams most often find themselves in one of two places. With the need to rebuild both a lineup and a bullpen, the Twins bring us back to an all too familiar place. That place is where fans are once again being sold on the aforementioned hope of prospects. The hope of development. A hope that all too often is not fully realized. The Twins roster, especially in the bullpen, went from proven commodity (even as fickle as a bullpen arm can be) to needing to learn the names of who is in the room.
There is at least some ready or near-ready MLB talent to try and fill in the empty spots left by trades. The concern is that they are all still unproven talents. Some will hit, some will completely flame out, and some will end up somewhere in the middle. As fans, we will be left to hope in a lot of unproven and unknowns.
There certainly is a path to this hope being fulfilled. Even as early as 2026. Much of that has to do with the teams around the Twins in the AL Central. The Tigers bought some pieces, but there are significant questions about how well they bought. The Royals and Indians mostly sold. We all know where the White Sox currently stand. Cleveland has proven time and again that a solid rotation and enough bats can play in this division.
So, the Twins could work the same magic this front office has many times on a smaller scale and replenish bullpen arms quickly. Some hitting prospects could graduate to the majors and hit the ground running in stride. It could all magically click with a much younger group of players. That just rarely fully clicks in the way we dream. Just look at the Twins’ 2025 lineup, and there are plenty of examples of how that can fail as a plan.
The Twins could also take a page out of the A.J. Preller playbook, do what they seemed not to want to commit to this offseason, and trade away some of their prospects for proven major league talent. A willingness to “buy” in some trades this offseason seems a more likely path back to contention than the development route. There are far too many outfielders who can be given a role in the depth of the organization. Right now, there are starting pitchers to trade from as well. A trade from those two positions within the organization could and should go to address what has ailed this team all season. Bats that will help the team score runs.
There is a path to success for 2026, but it is trending as unlikely. It brings us back to the place of hope in unproven prospects. It is a place we have been before, and while it can produce a winner, there are a lot of variables at play. At the start of August, the Twins seem much further away than they were before the deadline. As mentioned above, while a lot of moves were made, the offense simply was not addressed. The offense has been the problem all season long.
Is this hope we can buy into? Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, James Outman and Alan Roden could and will need to bolster this roster in ways others couldn’t. Hope is a powerful thing. Hope realized isn’t a guarantee, and the Twins just dealt proven commodities (or the closest thing we may have to a guarantee in baseball) for Hope. I for one, would like a few more of those proven commodities around, but instead I guess one must hope.
Are you ready to hope again? Do you see hope in the moves the Twins made this deadline?