The Twins are still keeping the door open for Ryan Jeffers, even while the catcher weighs the qualifying offer they handed him earlier this month.
General manager Jeremy Zoll said Monday in Las Vegas that the club has stayed in contact with Jeffers and has talked through more than one path for a possible return. The team, he said, is not treating Nov. 17 as a hard stop before those conversations can continue.
“Ryan earned the right to become a free agent, explore the market, and I want to give him that respect,” Zoll said. “[He’s trying] to understand what is out there, but also, we’re in touch there. We have made clear that we’d love to have him back, not just in a QO scenario, but in other scenarios, too.”
The Twins are among the teams gathered this week at the Aria Resort for the annual GM Meetings, where the offseason’s biggest moves often start taking shape. Zoll said the early part of the winter still feels fairly normal from an operations standpoint, even if the market is beginning to stir.
“Not yet,” Zoll said when asked whether this offseason has felt different. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have a better answer for you by the end of the week, but right now, I’d say it feels closer to normal than not from a general operations perspective.”
For now, that means the Twins are doing what front offices do in November: talking with agents, checking in with other clubs, and laying the groundwork for whatever comes next. The urgency hasn’t fully arrived yet, though Zoll acknowledged the calendar could change that quickly. With the league expected to lock out players at the beginning of December, he said “deadlines spur action,” and a busier stretch at the end of the month still seems likely.
The club also used Monday to announce a series of staff promotions, headlined by Jonas Lovin moving up to major-league assistant pitching coach. Lovin had been serving as the assistant minor-league pitching coordinator, and the Twins interviewed several candidates before deciding to elevate him.
He’ll now work alongside new head pitching coach Brian Reith and bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins.
Zoll pointed to the way the team’s hitting group operated this past season as a model for the pitching side, saying the staff functioned with more overlap and flexibility.
“Our hitting group this year did a really good job working as a team, and it felt like they could all kind of fill in for-you know, one person might float over here, the other person could fill in,” Zoll said. “Some players worked with just [Keith Beauregard] or just Trevor [Amicone], or Rayden [Sierra], and then some worked with all of them, and there wasn’t as clear of a delineation on, ‘This person is only doing this set of responsibilities, and this person’s only doing that set of responsibilities.’”
The Twins did not move Reith into a larger title such as director of pitching, but the expectation is that Reith and Hawkins will work with a broader, more connected approach than the previous setup with Hawkins and Pete Maki.
“You still need to create some level of roles there, but I think with the group we have for this year, we’re hopeful that it creates a little bit of a more well-rounded nature and a little bit less redundancy in skill set and expertise,” Zoll said.
Ross Seaton is also getting a new role. Already part of the club’s advance scouting group, he has been promoted to head that department and will also help the pitching coaches and pitchers with game preparation.
Hailey Leviton, previously an assistant director of baseball operations, has been elevated as well. She is now the director of major-league operations, a move Zoll said gives her “take on a more clear lead function.”
In Other News...
Twins Could Face A Tough Ryan Jeffers Decision This Winter
The Twins are heading into the winter with a familiar kind of uncertainty behind the plate, and it starts with Ryan Jeffers. Minnesota has already put a qualifying offer on the table, but if Jeffers decides to move on, the front office will have to sort through a catcher market that is thinner than it looks at first glance. That puts a premium on fit, cost and whether the club wants to chase a veteran stopgap or explore a longer-term solution.
Among the names being weighed are Victor Caratini and Tyler Stephenson, along with other possibilities that could come via free agency or a trade. Each brings a different mix of offense, defense and contractual complexity, which is why this decision feels so important for a team that would prefer stability at a position where continuity matters. For now, the Twins are still in evaluation mode, and the real question is how aggressive they want to be if their current catcher ends up elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Trevor Larnach Just Added A New Twist To Twins Trade Talk
Trevor Larnachs offseason took another turn this week, adding a fresh layer to a situation that had already put him in the middle of Twins trade chatter. The outfielder had been viewed as a possible move candidate, and a potential deal with the Astros was already off the table, leaving his status in Minnesota worth watching even before the latest update.
Now comes the health piece: Larnach is set for arthroscopic surgery on his left wrist after soreness lingered from a sprain that cost him the final two weeks of the season. General manager Jeremy Zoll has framed it as a minor cleanup and does not expect it to affect Larnachs availability when Spring Training opens, but for a player whose name had already been floating in trade discussions, it adds one more variable to an already unsettled winter. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Bullpen Pursuit Could Hinge On How Far They'll Go
The Twins are still looking for bullpen help, and JoJo Romero has emerged as a name worth watching as the market starts to take shape. Minnesota has obvious reasons to stay involved, with free agency opening up holes in the relief corps and a need to find dependable left-handed depth, while projections around the industry have pointed to a deal in the neighborhood of two years and $13 million.
What could make the difference is how aggressive the Twins are willing to be if the bidding gets tight. Romeros market is already drawing interest from multiple clubs, and Minnesota may have to lean into the kind of contract structure that gives a reliever extra security if it wants to stay in the mix. For a team trying to stabilize the bullpen without overcommitting, that balance could end up being the real test. [Read more 🡒]