Twins plan to “retool” on the fly, keep trio of stars

ORLANDO The Twins are planning on hanging onto their stars at this time Now the question for the remainder of the offseason is how they can best build around them and bring the organization back to a competitive level This Twins president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey had maintained all along was his hope though he admitted he didn t inevitably know if it was path the band would take Given the association s financial situation and on the heels of last July s sell off rumors had swirled about starting pitchers Joe Ryan and Pablo L pez Even Byron Buxton who holds a no-trade clause had been the subject of speculation with a statement suggesting he might waive it if the unit was headed into a rebuild L pez and Buxton are the gang s highest-paid players and if rebuilding was the path the Twins opted for they would be logical pact candidates Ultimately they chose otherwise I was hopeful that we d get to this place but I inevitably knew there could be different paths that we could choose Falvey commented Monday at MLB s Winter Meetings I think at this stage figuring a way to add to this group was clearly the best fit for all what we aligned around New Twins manager Derek Shelton revealed his assumption when he took the job in late October was that the trio would be part of the gang But still he thought it was critical that they heard it from him and required to reinforce that in his conversations with them this offseason With that settled the question turns to how the Twins are going to improve the company around them and what areas they need to upgrade after stripping down the roster at the arrangement deadline and shipping away major leaguers Five of the traded players were relievers and adding to the bullpen is the club s the greater part obvious need at this point The rebuilt bullpen will likely be a mix of players already on the roster starters converted to relievers and external additions On the position performer side general manager Jeremy Zoll referenced their desire to add another bat or two with specific thump with specific impact First base seems like a natural place to add Their ability to add to the roster of class comes back to payroll and the Twins have made no indication publicly about the payroll flexibility they might have though they re certainly not expected to be big spenders The addition of two limited partners joining the Pohlad family in ownership was reported in August and there s still a question of how those two groups might affect the squad s payroll Falvey did indicate that there should be news on the limited partners in the near term He also mentioned presenting options for the direction of the association to a larger ownership group with a sparse more people that we get to talk to about it Jeremy and I had a number of conversations internally with our group and then ultimately with ownership to discuss what that could look like going forward and we ll continue to work closely with them through the offseason in terms of navigating what comes next Falvey disclosed But my job our collective job is to figure out methods that we can add particular pieces to the group that we have now The Twins finished last season in fourth place leading to the firing of Rocco Baldelli and the dismissal of several of his coaching staff But specific of the players they got in return like Taj Bradley and Mick Abel and Alan Roden are major-league ready and Falvey declared it was dependably on his mind that the Twins would find a way to retool the group on the fly and add to a group that they thought could compete It s going to take particular creative work in trying to figure out how to plug chosen holes Falvey revealed Ultimately we re going to need a few guys to step up but that s supposedly consistently going to be our situation to particular degree Related Articles First order of business for new Twins manager Derek Shelton Meet the band Three things Twins fans can watch for during MLB s Winter Meetings Twins transaction for catcher Alex Jackson tender contracts to seven Twins Saints set for Field of Dreams games Twins deal for pitcher add six to -man roster