For the month and a half of this season, the hottest teams in Major League Baseball played for Minnesota.
When the rankings were closed on May 17th, the twins won 13 times in a row, sitting second in the division. It was the longest winning streak in the franchise in 34 years and the longest winning streak in all MLB since 2022. Minnesota had Byron Buxton's best baseball staff and All-Star Outfielder. The spring training declaration by Derek Falby, the team's top baseball executive who suddenly “must be a mission from day one” to reach the World Series sounded like a possibility.
By this week's trade deadline, its mission had changed dramatically.
The twins were no longer in ascending order, and the twins were moving from buyers looking to bolster their lineup before the playoffs, running to sellers to extract some value from the lost season.
However, the scope of Thursday's sale at the last hour before the deadline was not typical. Many teams sell important parts from playoff competition. But the twins took it to extremes. In more than nine deals, they treated 11 players from a 26-man roster.
When Falvey sent a signed message to fans late Thursday, he wrote, “This isn't about patchwork or small adjustments.”
That was modest.
“We were hovering for a period of time or under .500, and we couldn't get things to go in the right direction. We have to find a new way to do that,” Falvay told reporters.
Falvey assembled the roster reset on May 17th as a baseball decision for the team's future, from six games to six of six games, from over .500. But in addition to regaining a collection of prospects, the trade has significantly reduced wages and made it cheaper to operate. The highest-paid twin trade, Shortstop Carlos Correa, was to ensure that the other team, Houston, would effectively ensure they would bill for more than $70 million remaining salary.
The twins were not one of the greatest spending teams historically. Their decline since May has not only added more costs to teams that were trying to get out of the baseball business, but they have been scrapped since late last year, when the Paul Rudd family, which has been owned by the Paul Rudds since 1984, announced they were selling the team.
“The sales process continues to be an ongoing reality for our organization and is something we will tackle at the right time,” Falby said.
The intent of the sale was announced when labor peace between players and the league, and the appeal of owning a franchise in a smaller market was raised in question. According to Spotrac, six teams last season earned salaries under $122 million. That's less than what the Los Angeles Dodgers allegedly paid in taxes alone.
The average MLB team rating at the start of the season was $2.62 billion per CNBC. Minnesota's $1.6 billion valuation ranked 22nd out of 30 teams.
The remaining few holdovers include pitchers Joe Ryan and Buxton, who were focusing on the security provided by his non-trade clause just two weeks ago.
“I'm a Minnesota Twin for the rest of my life,” Buxton said at the All-Star Game. “So, that's the best feeling in the world.”
The twins woke up to a different atmosphere on Friday. To fill the roster of the first game after the deadline, the twins were forced to call eight players from the minor leagues. Five bailiffs from the bullpen, who had been shining during the team's winning streak, are gone. Long-contracted players such as Correa, who expired at the end of the season, were addressed on equal measures.
On Reddit, one user said the roster's tumultuous changes have transformed Twins' official Instagram account into a series of graphics that announce either “trade alerts” or “thank you” to players who have set out.
Less than two years after Minnesota won the division and won the postseason for the first time in three years, an extreme decay occurred.
“I had some conversations with the Minnesota front office, but we weren't moving in the direction we thought we were chasing the playoffs (in 2023). They agreed that it was time to move me.”
There are 10 others.