Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler Drawing More Trade Interest, as Twins Wait…

The MLB hot stove has been on fire the last 48 hours and the the fire fighters are nowhere to be found. Juan Soto is a Yankee, the Cleveland Guardians just won the draft lottery and we still don’t know where Shohei Ohtani is going to end up.

In past offseasons during the Derek Falvey PoBO era, the Minnesota Twins have consistently been reported as suitors for some of the highest-caliber free agents, even if they rarely came out with the star players they were chasing.

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Minnesota Twins patiently waiting…

But not this offseason. After announcing their intentions to slash payroll in 2024, all has been quiet on the Twins news front, even as the rest of the league cooks at Winter Meetings. But if you ask Falvey, that’s by design.

“What we continue to hear on the trade front, just to be very candid about this part, is ‘Hey, we have interest in some of your players. We’d like to talk about these guys, but we have to wait on a few other things to happen’ or free agent discussions to come to pass. When that happens, you’re constantly waiting to some degree.”

Derek Falvey (quote via Star Tribune)

Not only have the Twins admitted to their cost-cutting offseason plans, they’ve all but made it clear they do not plan on being very active in free agency, especially early on this winter.

Because they need to cut payroll, Falvey’s plan is to improve areas of weakness by trading away four position specific veterans, who are scheduled to make anywhere from $6 million to $11 million (total of ~$37 million), in exchange for more talent at SP, 1B and CF.

Related: Minnesota Twins Set on Trading These 4 Veterans

Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler drawing heavy trade interest

Two of those veterans, according to Bobby Nightengale (Star Tribune), are garnering a lot of trade interest from other teams at Winter Meetings. The problem: interested teams are waiting to see how things shake out in the early stages of free agency, before they get serious with possible trade partners.

Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco are the two Twins players drawing the most interest on the trade market, according to multiple people familiar with trade discussions. The Twins fielded interest in Kepler last winter, who some teams view as a potential fit in center field, and he had a stellar second half.

Bobby Nightengale – Star Tribune

If you’re waiting for big Twins news, it’s time to find a hobby for a couple of weeks. Unless, Falvey spins a 180 and does something unexpected, the front office is going to wait patiently for other teams to figure out what their rosters are missing, before moving their offseason poker chips around.

Related: 4 Starting Pitchers the Minnesota Twins Should Target in Trade Talks

In Nightengale’s same piece, he says Christian Vazquez is also drawing some reasonable trade interest, which is a very positive development for the Twins.

Unloading an aging catcher, for a net-positive return, isn’t the easiest thing to do. Especially when he’s coming off the worst season of his career and he still has two years and $20 million remaining under contract.