Twins will need to be ‘creative’ as financial restrictions hamper chance to improve roster

SAN ANTONIO — Although Derek Falvey really likes the look of his roster as the offseason begins, he understands there may be hardships ahead this offseason for the Minnesota Twins .

The Twins' president of baseball operations is bullish on a rotation that is at least seven starting pitchers deep and is backed by a strong core of late-innings relievers already in place. Falvey is excited about his position group, too, especially if the Twins can get full, healthy seasons out of Carlos Correa , Royce Lewis and Byron Buxton .

But with his team already in the ballpark of its projected $127-$130 million payroll, Falvey also realizes he may need to reallocate resources to round out the edges of the Twins' roster. What that may mean is a team that previously traded Mitch Garver , Luis Arraez and Jorge Polanco could be looking to deal another fan favorite to create financial wiggle room.

"We're going to have to be creative if we want to make a lot of tweaks to the group," Falvey said at the general managers' meetings on Tuesday. "But in some ways, I do believe the group as constituted is a really good team, a really competitive team. I know we need some guys to come back, we need some guys to be healthy, we need some good things to track for a lot of these players in a way that was better than where we ended the season. But, we feel like it's a good group to build off. We're going to just have to see where the rest of the offseason shakes out from a trade standpoint."

Though the Twins fell apart over the final quarter of the season, a 12-27 stretch in which they went from near locks to make the playoffs to missing them by four games, the franchise is hardly in dire straits.

Oddsmakers at Bet Online currently give the Twins 25-to-1 odds to win the World Series, better than any other team in the American League Central.

One reason for the optimism is the invaluable experience gained by Simeon Woods Richardson , Zebby Matthews and David Festa down the stretch. With Pablo López , Bailey Ober , Joe Ryan and Chris Paddack all returning and healthy, the Twins believe they have very good rotation depth.

While no determination has been made about Louie Varland 's future, the Twins' bullpen looks very strong with Jhoan Duran , Griffin Jax , Cole Sands and Jorge Alcala returning. If they did add Varland and have a healthy Brock Stewart , the Twins could have a lethal pen to follow their starters.

The Twins have both catchers returning; a full infield featuring Correa, potentially Lewis at second base, Brooks Lee , Jose Miranda , Willi Castro and Edouard Julien ; and an outfield that begins with Buxton, Matt Wallner , Trevor Larnach and Austin Martin .

But the Twins still have plenty of positions around the edges they need to fill and little, if any, money to do it.

Consider the Twins need a right-handed-hitting outfielder to replace free agent Manuel Margot and another outfielder to fill the void created by the expected loss of free agent Max Kepler. The Twins also are losing Gold Glove-winning first baseman Carlos Santana (though Falvey wouldn't rule out his return) and likely need a left-handed reliever with veteran Caleb Thielbar also a free agent.

The only way to create that flexibility would be to free up money by trading from the current group. The Twins previously have shown they're unafraid to shake things up as they did by trading Garver to Texas after the lockout ended in 2022, unloading Josh Donaldson's contract to the New York Yankees , dealing Arraez for López in 2023 and moving Polanco to Seattle in January.

"You're never going to go into the season with the same 26 as you had before," Falvey said. "We'll just have to stay open-minded. ... I'm not saying we don't have areas we wouldn't want to continue to try to get better, but we start with a pretty good baseline of a group. From a financial standpoint, that's our level of commitment right now we have to look at, we have to remain creative through the offseason. That might mean exploring trades. That might mean looking at ways we can reconfigure spots. We can't rule anything out."

Meetings notes

• Falvey wouldn't commit to Lewis shifting to second base because he's not certain how the roster will look when spring training opens in just over three months. But the Twins' top decision-maker did say the club will speak to Lewis about the possibility in case he's needed there.

"We would just want to make sure he's as prepped as possible to play," Falvey said. "He indicated even at the end of the season if he was prepped and planned for what that's going to look like, it's really important. Some of that will depend on the personnel that we acquire, don't acquire — how it all shakes out. But we want him to stay open-minded to that."

• The plantar fasciitis in Correa's right foot is progressing ahead of where the shortstop was with his left foot a year ago, Falvey said. If Correa stays healthy, the Twins intend to keep him as their starting shortstop and not switch him to third base.

"He's still young," Falvey said. "He's a tremendous shortstop. I see no reason why he wouldn't be as long he manages the plantar issues in a positive direction. ... He's tracking in a positive direction. He's got good plans for how he's going to handle it therapeutically and I think he's in a good place."

• Whether Santana returns is to be determined. But the Twins have informed Julien and Miranda to prepare to see some playing time at first base.

• Though the Twins could give one of their current staffers a bump in title to general manager, it doesn't sound as if the team intends to hire someone from outside to replace Thad Levine after the announcement last month he wouldn't return in 2025.

"We're status quo," Falvey said. "I feel really good about the group we have. We are kind of realigning some roles and thinking about some things within our leadership structure right now, but guys like Jeremy Zoll, Daniel Adler and others that have been assistant GMs in our group, they are already overseeing and managing a lot of our spaces. I feel really good about the group we have and we'll continue to evaluate what that looks like over the next couple of weeks."

• Reports about Joe Ryan's recovery have been positive as expected, Falvey said.

(Top photo of Pablo López: Eric Canha / Imagn Images)