Hopefully the Twins get us a gift this week
The Past Week on Twinkie Town:
- There were no Twins transactions to speak of, besides a multitude of rumors regarding potential Twins trade candidates.
- Matt Monitto continues on with his Total Twins Draft League playthrough on Out of the Park.
- Zach Koenig remembers a legend in Twins history – Bob Casey.
- The Twins 2025 bullpen is looking good, many thanks to a resurgent season from Cole Sands in 2024. John Foley looks at Sands’ recipe for success.
- Brandon Brooks documents the week in the Central in his Rival Roundup!
Elsewhere in Twins Territory:
- To add some fear to the Twins fan offseason fire, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the Twins have listened to trade offers on Pablo Lopez ($). Now, this is probably a similar scenario as Carlos Correa where the Twins are willing to listen to any and all offers, but are unlikely to move Lopez. That being said, the penny-pinching Pohlads are still the team owners, and it wouldn’t be the most shocking news for them to force Falvey to move on from the team ace because his base salary is going up this season to $21 million.
- With Cleveland shipping off first baseman Josh Naylor to Arizona, Carlos Santana ended up signing as his replacement for a one-year, $12 million deal. According to Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic, Santana’s main suitors were the Mariners and the Guardians ($).
- With Max Kepler signing with the Phillies for a one-year, $10 million deal, Chris Schad at Puckett’s Pond reminisces about the Twins’ 2009 international free agent class.
In the World of Baseball:
- Legendary outfielder Rickey Henderson passed away on Friday. The Man of Steal was a 10-time All-Star, two-time World Series champion (both with the A’s), and the AL MVP in 1990. After retiring in 2003, he became a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2009. He still holds the single-season record for stolen bases (130) and has the MLB career record for stolen bases (1,406) and runs (2,295).
- Notable transactions this week involved Cody Bellinger (traded to Yankees), Jesús Luzardo (traded to Phillies), Nathaniel Lowe (traded to Washington), Robert Garcia (traded to Rangers), Patrick Sandoval (signed with Boston), Paul Goldschmidt (signing with Yankees), Christian Walker (signing with Astros), Joc Pederson (signing with Rangers), Walker Buehler (signing with Red Sox), Sean Manaea (signing with Mets), Patrick Sandoval (signing with Red Sox), and Andrew McCutchen (re-signing with Pirates).