By this time next week, the offseason will officially be underway. The World Series champions will have their parade, but the rest of the baseball world will be making changes to their management, coaching staff, and rosters for next year.
Minnesota’s 40-man roster is one spot short of being full, with outfielder Alan Roden still on the 60-day IL. However, many of those spots the Twins clear will bring the total number of players on their 40-man roster closer to 30 before the end of next week.
The names that filled the roster spots following Minnesota’s trade deadline fire sale won’t come as much of a surprise. Still, some former top prospects on the 40-man roster who haven’t fared as well in the majors could be surprising to some Twins fans.
As of now, nine players look as though they will be cut from the 40-man, so let’s examine who will be on the move and what could happen with them this offseason.
Keirsey was the 13th man on Minnesota’s Opening Day roster, whom they added for his defense and speed. But defense and speed can only do so much, even on the bench, when someone is only hitting .107 in 88 plate appearances. It’s not an encouraging sign that he’ll be around much longer.
It was a sharp contrast from how Keirsey hit in Triple-A, where he had a .250/.335/.436 slash line with three home runs and 23 RBI in 161 plate appearances. The Twins also added James Outman at the trade deadline, another left-handed hitting defense-first outfielder, which isn’t a great sign for Kerisey’s future in Minnesota beyond this season.
The Twins don’t need to carry two extra left-handed hitting, defense-first outfielders. Given Keirsey’s performance in the majors, they will more than likely cut him from the 40-man, and he will enter free agency for the first time in his career.
McCusker is another outfielder with a lot of promise in the minors who couldn’t replicate in the majors. He only had 30 plate appearances with the Twins, but he never hit a home run and struck out 16 times.
Through his first 36 games with the Saints, McCusker was living up to his McCrusher nickname, hitting .350/.412/.650, 10 home runs, and 36 RBI in 154 plate appearances.
But even after the Twins called him up for his MLB debut on May 17, McCusker only played in 16 games. He only played a full nine innings once, in the second game of Minnesota’s doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians on Sept. 20.
McCusker’s limited playing time in the majors was a clear indication that the Twins didn’t trust his abilities to flourish. He will be in the same boat in Keirsey: cut from the 40-man roster and entering free agency for the first time, unlikely to be in a Twins uniform again.
While the Twins claimed him off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates two weeks ago, Kreidler is more of a roster addition for Triple-A depth than Minnesota’s 40-man roster.
Kreidler is a .138/.208/.176 career hitter in 211 plate appearances stretching over his four-year career. He only played in 17 games this year with the Detroit Tigers and was 4-for-38 with no extra-base hits. Kreidler hasn’t hit above .238 in the minors either since 2021, when he had a career year in pro-ball, hitting 22 home runs, 58 RBI, with a .270/.349/.454 slash line.
The Twins will likely cut Kreidler from the 40-man, but brought back on a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training. He will fit into Minnesota’s Triple-A depth next season. If he can improve his swing, he will get a shot with the big-league club next year.
Although he once looked as though he’d be Minnesota’s answer to their corner infield problems, Miranda is the most likely player to be cut from the 40-man roster after he slumped in all of 2025.
Miranda had a rough start with a .167/.167/.250 slash line to begin the 2025 season in the majors with the Twins. After a bad base-running read in which he was initially called safe and he ended up out, the Twins sent him back down to Triple-A for the rest of the year. Miranda hit .195/.272/.296 in 90 games with the Saints, and said it was due to his swing being out of order since spring training.
Miranda will be out of options next season. However, he only played 12 games in the majors this year, so he’s still ineligible for his first year of arbitration. Miranda was one of the few players on the 40-man roster whom the Twins didn’t call up following the fire sale, and his performance at Triple-A didn’t help make the case for him to return. He went 18-for-103 in 29 games through August and September.
It’ll be a tough turnaround for Miranda, who once had so much promise for the future of Minnesota’s infield, to enter free agency for the first time as a 40-man roster cut. But such is the outcome when a player can’t hit above .200 at either Triple-A or in the majors.
Acquired via trade last Christmas Eve, Mickey Gasper came to Minnesota as a third-string catcher with the flexibility to move around the right side of the infield. The Twins and Saints used him that way, but there were varying degrees of success and shortcomings.
Gasper thrived in Triple-A, hitting .285/.385/.531 with 10 home runs and 26 RBI in 47 games. However, it was another story for Gasper in the majors. He hit .158/.257/.232 with two home runs and 11 RBI.
The Twins signed off on letting Gasper play in Winter Ball, down in the Dominican Republic. He’s off to a hot start so far, hitting .417/.588/.750 with a three-run home run in four games.
If Gasper can keep up the pace he’s hitting at in the Dominican Winter League, it can help his chances to remain on Minnesota’s 40-man in the coming weeks. But a four-game sample size won’t cut him right now, even with his versatility on the field between catcher and the right side of the infield.
Another catcher with a small sample size in the majors, Pereda was great at the plate for the Twins, going 10-for-29 in 11 games. But his arm strength made it hard to throw runners out at second, which didn’t help his case to remain a go-to backup catcher for the Twins next season.
The Twins are short on extra catching depth with Christian Vázquez entering free agency this offseason. Still, Pereda has only caught 292 innings in the majors over the last two years and will be 30 next season. As good as he was helping the team down the stretch, it’s hard to see a case where Pereda is still in the org next season.
Misiewicz spent nearly all the second half of the season on the 40-man roster. The only issue was that he was hurt for most of the time on it after suffering a left shoulder impingement on July 25.
If Misiewicz had remained healthy during that time, he might have found himself in a better position to stay on the 40-man roster. However, he posted a 9.64 ERA in 4 ⅔ innings, which doesn’t increase his chances of remaining on the 40-man roster. He will likely go into free agency again this offseason.
Hatch had one role to hold down when the Twins claimed him off waivers from the Kansas City Royals on Aug. 4: eat innings out of the bullpen. He did that over 11 games, pitching a total of 33 innings and posting a 5.45 ERA and 1.67 WHIP in his Twins tenure.
Hatch had a couple of good outings with the Twins, but they weren’t enough for him to hold down a spot to remain a part of Minnesota’s plans next season.
If Hatch was the righty who had to come into games and eat innings, Cabrera was the lefty in that role. Signed to a minor league deal on Aug. 14, the Twins were the fourth organization Cabrera pitched for in 2025. He previously pitched for the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
In 16 appearances out of the Twins bullpen, he pitched to a 7.98 ERA and 1.91 WHIP in 14 ⅓ innings. The numbers don’t help his case for staying with the Twins. Like many others, Minnesota will likely cut him from the 40-man once the off-season officially begins.