Twins begin 'match game' at GM Meetings

Here’s a sentence that should look quite unfamiliar at this stage of the offseason: The Twins might very well have enough pitching depth.

So, with that longtime nemesis of roster construction perhaps a lesser issue around the Twin Cities this winter, how will the organization find impact value to make the team better?

It’s a largely blank slate facing the Twins, with Carlos Correa’s opt-out and other departures freeing up massive chunks of salary, with no glaring needs outside a starting shortstop and a time-share catcher. That perhaps leaves this front office with a plethora of different avenues to move forward.

• Where will Twins find a starting shortstop?

At the annual General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey took an exploratory tone on Tuesday as the offseason began in earnest.

“The vast majority of our offseasons start with us checking in with everybody in free agency,” Falvey said. “If there's a way to add impact, we're going to try to figure out a way to explore that market. Now, where it lands and what that looks like, obviously, it'll take time to figure that out. But we want to find a way to be better and figure out a way to add to the team. It has to start with those conversations.”

Perhaps that looks like finding a top-tier starting pitcher.

The Twins won’t be in the market for another arm like Dylan Bundy, Chris Archer, Matt Shoemaker or J.A. Happ, the one-year stopgaps who ate innings to fill out starting rotations – not with Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober all penciled into slots, with at least three top prospects behind them.

A way to make a difference there would be to add a true top-end, frontline starter -- the likes of Carlos Rodón, Clayton Kershaw, Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi or perhaps Justin Verlander, instead of simply fortifying the depth. But it does take finding alignment of both terms and player desire, as the Twins have dealt with in the past, and Falvey indicated the Twins aren’t yet clear on where that overlap could be at this early stage of the offseason.

“This is the time here, at the GM Meetings, where you start to at least uncover whether or not you are a match for them based on the agent feedback, the potential market dynamics that are in play,” Falvey said.

“We've had some conversations with players along the way that have a lot of options. Maybe they've decided geographically or for whatever reason, maybe it just aligns better with what they want. That's OK. We've got to figure that part out, and then ultimately explore both the trade and free-agent markets to find something that will overlap."

And if there isn’t a match there, perhaps that looks like finding an impact position player -- at shortstop, catcher or perhaps in the outfield -- as the Twins did in signing Josh Donaldson in ’20 or Correa in ’21, even when a pitcher was perhaps a greater need.

• Twins pick up Gray's option, decline on three players

Minnesota is also deep in position players, but could use more impact right-handed hitters in the outfield or at first base amid a class that includes the “big four shortstops” and other major options like catcher Willson Contreras, longtime division rival José Abreu and outfield options like Mitch Haniger and Wil Myers.

“At the front end of the offseason every year, we're seeking to find a way to add real talent to the team, right?” Falvey said. “So we don't shut off any avenues.”

And amid that search for value and impact, Falvey noted that Correa’s opt-out doesn’t preclude the superstar shortstop from a possible reunion with the Twins, even as he and agent Scott Boras now have a chance to more fully establish their market leaguewide.

“I would say that's probably an agent's job and the collective group's job, to try and figure out what the market is,” Falvey said. “That's what free agency is. From our perspective, which is all we can control, nothing changes in terms of the way we're having conversations with his representation and ultimately with Carlos. I think he said as much, too, publicly. That's never changed. We've remained very open about that part of the conversation.”

This Twins front office has found value while remaining reactive to the market in years past -- including that deal with Correa back in March, the ultimate such value. To this point, it seems there’s still much feeling-out that remains.