The Twins were falling rapidly out of contention, and we knew the rental players were going to be on the market. There was talk about Joe Ryan that was swiftly shut down, and the controllable pieces at the back end of the bullpen, which the Twins made clear would take quite a haul to make them available. Chatter grew louder, and ultimately a day begore the deadline, Jhoan Duran was traded to the Phillies.
And then it got worse.
On deadline day, the Twins traded almost the entirety of the rest of their bullpen, and certainly all of the best parts of their bullpen. Not only that, every position player that was on an expiring deal, save for Christian Vasquez, was traded away.
And then, Carlos Correa was given away, and the Twins window of contention was abruptly and rudely was slammed shut. I was under the belief that as long as the team had Byron Buxton and Correa under contract, still only 30 with at least a couple of years under contract, the window was open. It's closed now. Who knows when it will be reopened.
It sounds like, from various sources, that the Astros asked about Correa's availability, and when Derek Falvey, to his credit, was honest with Correa, he waived his no trade clause and a off to Houston. The only thing the Twins got was salary relief and bad vibes.
I can't talk about all the trades that happened, because there were so many. The crazy part is that, through the day, through the week, I can kind of get the individual trades. The rental players, obviously, make sense. Trading Jhoan Duran at peak value makes some sense, even if it doesn't feel good. And that could have been where it ended.
But then trading away Correa made sense, at that point, from a business standpoint. And then when he was gone, they could have been done. The best return on the day, from my standpoint, came on the last two trades, Griffin Jax and Louis Varland being sent to Tampa and Toronto, respectively. At that point, it felt like piling on, though, to most Twins fans.
I can argue for all of the moves that were made. None of them are particularly egregious, but taken in concert they are like a punch to the gut. I think it was someone on ESPN.com that stated that selling is one thing, but trading 10 players from the active roster tells you that the team wasn't actually that bad. That hurts too. The team was underwater on 1 run games, and it's parts were very good. Instead of getting real help for the last two years, the payroll was slashed and the team became driftless.
The lack of funds from ownership is something that we all hope changes when the Pohlads sell the team, but I am frankly not optimistic. The debt issue is very real, and the cash flow doesn't automatically improve with new owners. The sell off probably doesn't happen if the Twins can get up for important series against, of all teams, the Rockies and Nationals, but even that didn't happen, and will likely be the last straw for Rocco Baldelli, contract extension or not.
Carlos Correa is gone. This window is closed. Soon, ownership and probably the manager are going to be out the door. A new era for the Twins is coming, and it has to be better than this one was.
