MINNEAPOLIS - The Twins aren’t planning to sit around and wait for the market to come to them this winter.
With a Dec. 1 lockout on the horizon and a November free-agent period that could move fast, new GM Jeremy Zoll says Minnesota will be ready to jump early instead of following the old approach of waiting until late in the offseason to get busy.
“It’s not lost on me that a number of previous offseasons, the story has been we’ll wait until late January or early February to get to work,” said Zoll. “That is not our plan, heading into this offseason period. We’ll have a much better sense of that when this actually opens, but we will be ready to act if there are willing participants there.”
Owner Tom Pohlad framed the coming month as another chance for the organization to show it means what it says after the club tried to rebuild trust with fans by buying at this year’s trade deadline.
“This free agency period that’s coming up is no different,” Pohlad said. “It’s another opportunity for us to put action to words, and so I’m really excited about the month ahead.
We’re going to spend the month both on the business side and on the baseball side, a post-mortem, if you will, of what’s working and what areas need to be addressed. We’ll obviously be heavily focused on baseball for the next 30 days, and we’re excited to get going.”
The Twins do have a few clear areas to attack. Bullpen help sits near the top of the list, even after Minnesota added Jeff Hoffman and A.J.
Minter at the deadline. Hoffman remains under contract for next season, but Minter was a rental and is headed back into free agency.
Minnesota could bring Minter back, and there’s at least a path to that reunion after he emerged as the club’s top left-handed reliever in 2027. Still, Zoll made it clear the relief corps needs more than one familiar face.
“[The] bullpen’s gonna be an area we need to keep working to improve, and how we go about exactly doing that - whether that’s free agency or trades is to be determined,” said Zoll, “but we had some guys take real steps forward, and feel encouraged about that, but we know that it needs to keep getting better.”
The bullpen picture includes some encouraging internal development, too. Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gomez both showed breakout potential out of relief, but 2026 was their first full season in that role, and the workload started to catch up with them by the end.
Beyond the bullpen, Ryan Jeffers looms as the biggest name on Minnesota’s roster heading into the market. Zoll would not say whether the Twins plan to extend the qualifying offer, but he did clarify that the club could use the $23.5 million attached to it if Jeffers accepts.
If Jeffers declines the one-year deal, that money could be redirected toward the bullpen or toward another catcher to pair with Victor Caratini next season.
The Twins are also considering another route to shape the roster: locking up young talent before it gets expensive. Around the league, teams such as the Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays have increasingly extended top prospects before they even reach the majors. Minnesota could explore that path with Luke Keaschall, Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez or Kaelen Culpepper this winter.
“That’s definitely something we’re going to explore this offseason and going forward,” said Zoll. “I know there have been in-season extensions around the league.
Personally, I don’t think it serves anyone particularly well to potentially create a distraction for players during the season on those fronts. So those will be things we’ll engage in this offseason, and we’ll see how that all shakes out.”
Even with all of that, the Twins’ broad plan is pretty straightforward: attack free agency first, examine an extension for one of the organization’s top young players, and then see what trade opportunities are still out there before the Dec. 1 deadline changes the board.
Pohlad also addressed the payroll question, without pinning down what a bigger budget would actually look like. The Twins are starting from a $100 million baseline in 2026, and it remains unclear how far beyond that they’ll go.
“I know everybody in this room wants me to define what meaningfully is, and I understand that that’s a subjective word,” said Pohlad. “But I am confident that J.Z., if he has conviction about a move that’s going to improve this roster and help us accomplish our goals, that this ownership group is prepared to support him with the financial resources he needs.”
In Other News...
Twins Prospects Are Already Raising A Bigger Arizona Fall League Question
The Twins sent eight players to the Arizona Fall League, and the assignment list says plenty about where the organization sees this group in its development. Most of the names are coming from Class-A or High-A, with infielder Kyle DeBarge the lone Double-A presence, a mix that gives Minnesota a chance to push some younger talent into a tougher setting before winter really sets in. DeBarge and outfielder Yasser Mercedes were in the Salt River lineup for the AFL opener and helped the Rafters roll to a 9-3 win, giving the Twins an early look at two players who have been on different tracks in the system.
What makes the setup interesting is the bigger question it raises about what the AFL is meant to solve for Minnesota this fall. This is usually a stage for prospects to face better pitching, sharpen routines and show whether they can handle a faster pace, but the Twins are leaning heavily on players who are still early in the climb. For a front office that has plenty of prospect context to work with already, the real value may come less from the scoreboard than from how these players respond to being challenged a little sooner than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Twins 2027 Outlook Already Puts One Long Term Pressure Point In Focus
Looking ahead to 2027, the Twins already have a few pressure points taking shape in the way their projected roster is expected to fit together. A baseline look at the clubs arbitration-eligible players and payroll picture suggests the front office will be juggling the usual tradeoffs, but the most pressing questions appear to be in the same familiar places: how much starting pitching depth will be available, who will handle first base, and how the bullpen will be pieced together.
Those issues are still a long way from being solved, which is part of why the discussion is more about planning than prediction at this stage. There are possible player moves and areas where the Twins could choose to invest, but for now the bigger takeaway is that the organization already has enough uncertainty on the horizon to make 2027 a meaningful checkpoint for the roster it is trying to build. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Ryans Price Tag Just Made A Twins Debate More Serious
Joe Ryans next arbitration jump is starting to give the Twins a real front-office puzzle. Projected to earn about $9.6 million for the 2027 season, he would be making a significant step up from his 2025 salary, a number that reflects both his value and the way the market keeps pushing starting pitching prices higher. For Minnesota, that matters because Ryan is still under team control, which means the club does not have to decide anything right away, even as his name naturally fits into conversations about payroll and roster balance.
The challenge is that a pitcher with Ryans profile can sit in two very different buckets at once. He is the kind of arm teams want to build around, but he is also the kind of controllable starter who can draw interest if a club decides it needs to reallocate resources elsewhere. That is what makes this such a serious Twins debate now, because the team has to weigh the value of keeping a quality starter in house against the possibility that his rising cost could make him one of the more appealing trade pieces on the roster. [Read more 🡒]