The Twins pulled off a significant trade Monday evening, sending second baseman Jorge Polanco to the Mariners for a four-player return.
While Minnesota brought back a pair of MLB players — Justin Topa and Anthony DeSclafani — in the deal, that’s not coming at a notable financial cost.
DeSclafani is due $12M for the upcoming season. The Giants agreed to pay $6M in the trade that initially sent the veteran righty to Seattle. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports that the M’s are paying down the other $6M as part of Monday's deal.
Topa is playing on a $1.25M arbitration salary. Divish reported the M’s are including some cash beyond the $6M owed to DeSclafani, presumably to cover a portion of Topa’s modest contract.
Even if Minnesota takes on most of the money owed to Topa, the trade clears a good chunk of space. The M’s take on Polanco’s $10.5M salary for the upcoming season. Minnesota opens at least $9.25M in payroll room.
According to president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, the Twins aren’t planning to pocket that money.
Falvey told reporters Minnesota expects to reallocate those savings into the roster (relayed by Dan Hayes of the Athletic). He suggested the team was likely to look for help on the position player side after acquiring a reliever and a rotation option in the Polanco trade (via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com).
The front office leader didn’t specify any players or positions of interest. At the beginning of the offseason, Falvey suggested the club would evaluate the first base market. They haven’t made any additions there thus far and are presently set to count on Alex Kirilloff, who has had wrist and shoulder surgeries in his career.
Speculatively speaking, a right-handed hitting outfielder would also make sense. Minnesota has a corner outfield group consisting of left-handed bats like Max Kepler, Matt Wallner and Nick Gordon. Gold Glover Byron Buxton is optimistic about his chance of moving back to center field after knee injuries limited him to DH in 2023.
The Twins could still look for a center field option to back up Buxton given his injury history. Last year’s primary center fielder, Michael A. Taylor, remains unsigned.
In November, Hayes reported that Minnesota expected to open the season with a player payroll in the $125-140M range. Roster Resource projected their spending around $124M before tonight’s trade.
Moving Polanco should reduce those commitments to roughly $115M, explaining why they say they’re prepared to redistribute that money.
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