As MLB lockout looms, Twins have one month to answer these key questions

MINNEAPOLIS — Before the looming lockout that will halt the MLB offseason on Dec. 1, which threatens to linger into the 2027 season in a doomsday scenario, the Minnesota Twins have roughly one month to add to their roster.

The Twins have plenty of items on their to-do list. They’ll engage with free agents. They’ll speak with other teams in trade talks. When there was a lockout before the 2022 season, which shut down the sport for more than three months, five players signed $100 million contracts prior to the labor dispute.

There is a massive gulf between the Twins, who finished with a 77-85 record and seven games out of a playoff spot, and the top playoff teams. That gulf was exposed after the trade deadline when the Twins, who were still in the playoff picture, went 14-24 in a 38-game stretch that doomed their season.

They were well below .500 (10-18) against the four teams — Brewers, Rays, Dodgers and Guardians — that made the League Championship Series.

“Our goal this offseason is to field a roster next spring where making the playoffs isn’t a hope; it’s the expectation that everybody in this room agrees is realistic,” owner Tom Pohlad said at the end of the Twins season.

Here is a primer on what’s ahead for the Twins:

The Twins have two players, designated hitter Josh Bell and starting pitcher Joe Ryan, who have mutual options for the 2027 season. Those will need to be settled within the first five days after the World Series ends.

In the past decade, there hasn’t been one MLB player whose mutual option was picked up from both sides, so it’s more of an accounting trick than an actual decision.

Bell, who had a strong second half of the season and finished with 96 RBI, is owed a $1.25 million buyout on his $10 million mutual option, which will send him into free agency once one side declines their end of it.

Ryan remains under team control for one more season. He will be eligible for salary arbitration when his $13 million mutual option is declined, netting him a $100,000 buyout.

The Twins have three players who will immediately become free agents after the World Series ends: catcher Ryan Jeffers and lefty pitchers A.J. Minter and Taylor Rogers. Bell will join the group after his mutual option is declined.

The Twins have an exclusive negotiating period with their own free agents for the first five days of the offseason.

The Twins have five days after the World Series ends to extend a one-year, $23.15 million qualifying offer to Jeffers. Doing so would ensure that the Twins get a draft pick as compensation if he signed elsewhere as a free agent.

If Jeffers were to accept the offer, it would make him the highest-paid catcher next year. Seattle’s Cal Raleigh will be paid $23 million from 2028-30. Philadelphia’s JT Realmuto made $23.875 million per season from 2022-25.

Players have until Nov. 17 to accept a qualifying offer. Last year, 13 players were given a qualifying offer and four accepted it. Jeffers, 29, seems more likely to decline it as he’s one of the best hitters in a weak free-agent class and is seeking a long-term deal.

The Twins haven’t issued a qualifying offer to a player since Sonny Gray departed in free agency following the 2023 season. Gray declined and later signed a three-year, $75 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Twins drafted infielder Kyle DeBarge with their compensatory pick (No. 33 overall) in the 2024 MLB draft.

The Twins have 10 players who qualify for salary arbitration, and the team must decide by Nov. 20 whether to guarantee them a contract for the upcoming season.

The full group includes: Anthony Banda, Dean Kremer, Bailey Ober, Joe Ryan, Trevor Larnach, Royce Lewis, Cole Sands, Tommy Nance, Kody Clemens and Taj Bradley.

Most are easy decisions to keep under contract. The top candidates to be released, which would make them free agents, are Banda and Ober.

Banda is recovering from lat surgery, which will keep him sidelined until next July. Ober is projected to make around $7 million through arbitration, so the Twins must decide whether they think he has a realistic future in their rotation if his velocity remains below 90 mph.

The Twins don’t have any obvious prospects to add to the 40-man roster by Nov. 17, protecting them from Rule 5 draft eligibility. The last time there was an offseason lockout, the Rule 5 draft was scrapped, so teams may be conservative about which players they add.

Reliever Paulshawn Pasqualotto might be the top candidate to join the Twins’ roster after he struck out 95 batters in 70 innings while reaching Class AAA. Relief pitcher C.J. Culpepper and outfielder Kala’i Rosario are other candidates, but they went unpicked after they were exposed to the Rule 5 draft last year.

Expect the team to be much more active in free agency than in making trades in November, because of the uncertainty over how many games will actually be played next year. But the Twins do have a few players on the trade block, including left fielder Trevor Larnach, who was nearly dealt to Houston at the trade deadline.

General Manager Jeremy Zoll hinted the Twins may look to trade one of their starting pitchers who are eligible to become a free agent after the 2027 season, a group that includes Ryan, Ober, Kremer and Pablo López.

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