The Minnesota Twins are sitting at a crossroads with a month to go before the 2026 MLB trade deadline, and the question hanging over them is simple: buy, sell, or somehow try to do both?
At 42-46, Minnesota is third in the American League Central, trailing the 45-41 Chicago and 46-42 Cleveland clubs that are tied for first with matching .523 winning percentages. In the Wild Card picture, the Twins are three games behind Seattle and stuck in the middle of a crowded pack of teams trying to keep their playoff hopes alive.
That kind of position usually invites a long look at the roster and a hard decision from the front office. For a small- to mid-market club, the deadline often becomes the point where the organization decides whether to push in or cash out.
Conventional baseball thinking says the Twins should cash out.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic laid out the case for another selloff, starting with Joe Ryan. Hayes wrote that Minnesota should continue to move talent and build back through the farm system rather than making expensive additions in a watered-down American League.
“Conventional wisdom says the Twins should sell. Ryan would bring an absurdly good return.
Because he’s a potential impact catcher, Jeffers is likely to fetch more than a typical return for a rental. Rather than making costly adds to compete in a watered-down AL, various other pieces could easily be peddled, setting the Twins up with even more young talent for the future.”
Ryan Jeffers, who is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, would also draw plenty of interest. Before his injury, he was hitting .295 with a .949 OPS, and he has missed the past two months with a broken hamate bone.
Ryan is in a different contract situation, but still a tempting trade chip. He technically has one year left on his deal, and Spotrac lists that cost at $13 million. Then there’s Byron Buxton, who at age 32 may never have had more trade value than he does right now.
One social media post summed up the production this way:
“I need you guys to read every word of this:
Byron Buxton has 25 HOME RUNS his last 54 games
That is a 75 HOME RUN pace over a full season, and he’s still top 1% in sprint speed pic.twitter.com/1HyJCm4uUx
- Fuzzy (@fuzzyfromyt) June 23, 2026”
Moving those three players alone could bring in enough young talent to give Minnesota’s aging farm system a major boost, with some prospects potentially jumping near the top of the organization’s rankings right away.
That is the logic around the league, which is why the Twins will keep showing up in trade chatter over the next month no matter what the fan base thinks, what the club thinks, or what Buxton thinks.
But there’s another layer here, and it points in a different direction.
Tom Pohlad does not sound eager to repeat last summer’s fire sale. Hayes noted that the new control partner has made it clear he believes the organization made a mistake when it tore things down, and he went back to Pohlad’s opening press conference, where he criticized Joe Pohlad and the team’s former president for last year’s deadline selloff.
Pohlad also said he would invest in the team when the time was right, and Hayes believes he may see that time as now.
“Recognizing the franchise’s issues, new Twins control partner Tom Pohlad has insisted since he took over in mid-December that the club would be competitive this season, with him intending to repair trust issues with players in the clubhouse as well as providing fans with the team they deserve.
To date, those promises haven’t been fulfilled. But the deadline - if the Twins are still relevant in a month - represents Pohlad’s first chance to make his words ring true.”
There’s also the business side. The Twins’ TV revenue has taken a hit after the move to Twins.TV, and attendance at Target Field has continued to slide. The numbers tell the story: Minnesota is averaging 19,487 fans per game this year, down from 21,836 in 2025.
That decline has become part of the larger frustration around the franchise, and it gives the deadline a financial angle too. If the Twins buy and it works, they could help put more people in the ballpark immediately. If those moves lead to a postseason run, the payoff gets even bigger with home playoff games this fall.
Hayes believes Minnesota would likely be looking for at least two high-leverage relievers and a front-end starter if it chooses to buy, with the goal of easing the load on Ryan.
Of course, none of that matters unless the Twins start stacking wins. Their next test comes Friday, when they open a three-game trip to New York against the Yankees.
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