2026 Trade/Waiver Targets

[tmwiese55]

9 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

No. Like I said, he’s the Twins best player. Why would they move him for anything but elite prospects? And Minnesota isn’t at the point where they’re willing to give him away simply for salary relief.

. 
 

 

Because the team is bad and it makes sense to get as bad as possible to improve draft picks. Second, the team is in bad financial shape and been trying to sell the team because of it.  Third, they recently dumped players to save money so it makes sense they'd continue it.   Fourth, if a long term player like him asks for it they might want to oblige the guy. Fifth, getting second tier prospects is still better than none (just like in all our recent trades of our good players that didn't have 'elites' in the return).

Why did we trade Burnes, Hader, Peralta, etc for non elite prospects 

[cragi]

flipping him for prospects might make sense, but they are still in playoff contention right now. unloading your best player with 2 years on the contract will piss off fans unless they get a haul in return, and no reason to expect that won't happen. 

Would the Brewers be a good suitor? sure, they have prospects to deal and could use some more pop for playoffs and they have some struggles in the OF this year. But they have somewhat of a logjam with Chourio/Yelich/Bauers/Lockridge/Mitchell/Frelick/Perkins and their most-ready hitters at AAA in Leonard/Lara/Black. Seems the real opportunity is replacing from within, but Id be all for packing some of these guys and a couple arms to get a bat like that.

[Outlander]

$15 million a year for a couple of years of a 4 WAR player is not much of anything, there would be plentry of takers.

[endaround]

1 hour ago, cragi said:

flipping him for prospects might make sense, but they are still in playoff contention right now. unloading your best player with 2 years on the contract will piss off fans unless they get a haul in return, and no reason to expect that won't happen. 

Would the Brewers be a good suitor? sure, they have prospects to deal and could use some more pop for playoffs and they have some struggles in the OF this year. But they have somewhat of a logjam with Chourio/Yelich/Bauers/Lockridge/Mitchell/Frelick/Perkins and their most-ready hitters at AAA in Leonard/Lara/Black. Seems the real opportunity is replacing from within, but Id be all for packing some of these guys and a couple arms to get a bat like that.

A bunch of guys (Lockridge/Mitchell/Frelick/Perkins) is not a log jam.

[Jopal78]

2 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

Because the team is bad and it makes sense to get as bad as possible to improve draft picks. Second, the team is in bad financial shape and been trying to sell the team because of it.  Third, they recently dumped players to save money so it makes sense they'd continue it.   Fourth, if a long term player like him asks for it they might want to oblige the guy. Fifth, getting second tier prospects is still better than none (just like in all our recent trades of our good players that didn't have 'elites' in the return).

Why did we trade Burnes, Hader, Peralta, etc for non elite prospects 

Buxton would likely be on a Hall of Fame trajectory if he didn’t average less than 90 games  played per season. 
 

… and as we know too well with Yelich, players who are constantly injured with sprains, strains, spasms, do not suddenly get healthier as they age into their mid 30s.

Thats why no team is going to trade for a veteran guy  with a 40+ million dollar guarantee remaining when they can’t count on him to be available when they need him. 
 

That being said, given where the Twins are in  the success cycle I’m sure Minnesota  would love to move Buxton’s contract. The most likely explanation why they haven’t yet is lack of interest due to unreliability and financial cost. Apparently the Twins are not yet in salary dump mode either where they’ll pay part of his contract to move him just for the financial savings. 

[cragi]

32 minutes ago, endaround said:

A bunch of guys (Lockridge/Mitchell/Frelick/Perkins) is not a log jam.

Black (.838 OPS), Lara (.948) and Leonard (1.002) are done with AAA. Payne and Adamczewski also look promising. Lockridge comes back. In the sense there are too many guys right now who should be at the next level in some capacity, there is a logjam, even though Buxton is an immediate upgrade.

[sveumrules]

1 minute ago, Jopal78 said:

The most likely explanation why they haven’t yet is lack of interest due to unreliability and financial cost.

Buxton has a full NTC and has publicly stated his desire to retire as a Twin.

If he moves off that position and is put on the market there would be substantial interest.

His lengthy injury history is already priced into the contract at only $15M annually for a guy that averaged 382 PA | 134 wRC+ | 3.3 WAR per season since 2021 and is already at 185 PA of 144 wRC+ for 1.8 WAR this year.

[cragi]

wild card standings AL

[tmwiese55]

35 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Buxton would likely be on a Hall of Fame trajectory if he didn’t average less than 90 games  played per season. 
 

… and as we know too well with Yelich, players who are constantly injured with sprains, strains, spasms, do not suddenly get healthier as they age into their mid 30s.

Thats why no team is going to trade for a veteran guy  with a 40+ million dollar guarantee remaining when they can’t count on him to be available when they need him. 
 

That being said, given where the Twins are in  the success cycle I’m sure Minnesota  would love to move Buxton’s contract. The most likely explanation why they haven’t yet is lack of interest due to unreliability and financial cost. Apparently the Twins are not yet in salary dump mode either where they’ll pay part of his contract to move him just for the financial savings. 

Yet he's also their best player so they won't trade him.  And he's so in demand that we'd have to give up elite prospects to trade for him.     You see how that is contradictory right?     All the issues you point are what makes him an option for us, if he didn't have those issues his salary would be double and the prospect demand would be out of this world.

His NTC and trying to keep a name or two around to be competent are the reasons so far.  And yes its possible those two things won't change.   Another thing to note, while having a good season last year he was put on the IR right before the deadline (when MN was selling off big time), thus eliminating the possibility of them receiving an offer and having to ask him if he'd waive NTC. If healthy leading up to the deadline this year, who knows how the conversation goes.  And of course, MN will have to fall off in the standing like it seems they should. But the AL Central is so trash you never know, they could hang

[Vgmastr]

Royce Lewis was optioned to AAA by the Twins after a terrible start to the season.  It's a bit crazy how much his career trajectory looks pretty close to Vaughn's.  Former #1 pick, a few decent seasons but just couldn't get anything going this year.  Could be worth looking at as another reclamation project.

[Jopal78]

2 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Buxton has a full NTC and has publicly stated his desire to retire as a Twin.

If he moves off that position and is put on the market there would be substantial interest.

His lengthy injury history is already priced into the contract at only $15M annually for a guy that averaged 382 PA | 134 wRC+ | 3.3 WAR per season since 2021 and is already at 185 PA of 144 wRC+ for 1.8 WAR this year.

Yeah his injury history is proved into his guarantee, but I doubt the substantial interest part. 
 

It’s like when the Brewers traded for Shelby Miller they got him for free by absorbing some salary, and almost immediately was injured again. Same thing with Trevor Rosenthal. Never was able to ring the bell for Milwaukee 

Those are insignificant moves for role players. Buxton is a middle of the order hitter 

[Brewcrew82]

Tarik Skubal may become available here if the Tigers continue to fall off. Just saying. 

[BrewerFan]

8 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Tarik Skubal may become available here if the Tigers continue to fall off. Just saying. 

You're starting with Pena... probably a couple guys like Braylon Payne, Dinges, Adamczewski and then a guy like Letson or Knoth.

 

I know you're just throwing it out there, but... man, you'd REALLY need to be loaded and think you were one dominant pitcher away. And...to be fair, if things line up, if Skubal's injury really is mild, him, Misiorowski, I'd think Sproat would pitch more as an opener, 2-3 innings and then give way to Harrison, and then whoever else is healthy, that WOULD give you one helluva chance. 

 

It'd be one of those moves where I wouldn't do it, but I'd sure as hell enjoy it if it happened!

I do think that we're going to be taxed because our #11 or #12 prospects are a lot of teams #5. The way Braylon Payne is hitting, he'd be top 3 in most of the last 20 years. Same with the other two I mentioned at this point to be honest. 

Give is 2-3 years when we've got virtually a whole lineup of guys who are ~2-4 years into their career, maybe Turang is near the end, THEN I'd be more inclined to make one of those big trades if we haven't broken through. 

[wallus]

16 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Tarik Skubal may become available here if the Tigers continue to fall off. Just saying. 

Would be fun but I would rather improve the offense. I also think the Tigers will be buyers vs selling 

[Jopal78]

4 hours ago, wallus said:

Would be fun but I would rather improve the offense. I also think the Tigers will be buyers vs selling 

They’re 9 games under .500. There’s a lot of season left but the Tigers need to really play well the next 10 weeks 

[wallus]

2 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

They’re 9 games under .500. There’s a lot of season left but the Tigers need to really play well the next 10 weeks 

Yeah but that division is probably the worst in baseball. 

[nate82]

3 hours ago, wallus said:

Yeah but that division is probably the worst in baseball. 

The AL West record wise is worse actually the whole of the AL is horrible.  There are only 5 teams at or above .500 in the AL.  The NL Central has 5 teams at or above .500.  The AL West only the A’s have a .500 record.  This probably won’t last all season but the AL is looking really bad right now record wise.  

[brewmann04]

Thinking they have the pitching ammo they can use the hitting ammo 

[jay87shot]

Could JP Crawford be an option? The M's have Colt Emerson and Cole Young as long term SS options and a whole at 3B. The M's are 3 games under .500 and I wouldn't expect them to fall out of contention or sell. However maybe we could piece together a 3 team deal to get them a 3B and we get Crawford. He is hitting .210/.358/.364 with a 111 ops+, he is at least metrically getting poor grades as a defender this year but has been a solid defender at SS his entire year. It would be a cheaper way to get a solid upgrade.

We get JP Crawford, Mariners get Brett Baty, Mets get Brock Burke and a pitching prospect from the M's

 

[TURBO]

On 5/21/2026 at 12:38 PM, jay87shot said:

We get JP Crawford, Mariners get Brett Baty, Mets get Brock Burke and a pitching prospect from the M's

 

I'm assuming you mean Blake Burke?

I simply wouldn't trade Burke for Crawford.