3 Twins to watch as tender deadline looms

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As teams tidy up their rosters in preparation for their offseason moves and the upcoming Winter Meetings in Dallas at the start of December, there’s one more significant deadline that looms: Friday’s 7 p.m. CT cutoff for clubs to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players.

The Twins (along with many other teams) typically also use this deadline to avoid arbitration with those players altogether by agreeing to guaranteed one-year deals -- and they sometimes get more creative, like the one-year deals with options they found with Kyle Farmer and Jorge Alcala at this point last season.

Of the Twins’ recognizable names eligible for arbitration this year -- that’s Willi Castro, Ryan Jeffers, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Jhoan Duran, Trevor Larnach, Griffin Jax, Royce Lewis and Brock Stewart -- there don’t appear to be many difficult decisions, as that group encompasses much of the core of this roster.

Alex Kirilloff might have started to approach non-tender status given his injury and performance history -- especially as he got deeper into his arbitration eligibility -- but his retirement earlier this offseason ultimately made that a non-issue ahead of this deadline.

But outside of that, who might be some names to watch in the non-tender discussion?

RHP Michael Tonkin

The Twins clearly saw something intriguing in Tonkin, considering they brought him back off waivers twice last season -- seven years following the conclusion of his initial stint with the club -- but they also designated him for assignment in between those two claims and didn’t really give him a shot at leverage situations when he was on the roster.

Tonkin is eligible for arbitration for a second time this season, with Cot’s Baseball Contracts estimating a $1.575 million salary in 2025 as the 35-year-old comes off a 3.63 ERA for the Yankees, Twins and Mets in ‘24. It’s not all too crazy of a price, but considering Minnesota’s continued financial constraints, it’s far from a sure thing.

RHP Ronny Henriquez

Though Henriquez pitched in some leverage spots down the stretch for the Twins, posted a 3.26 ERA in 19 1/3 innings and isn’t yet arbitration-eligible, he shows up on this list because, well, Minnesota already non-tendered him once last season (before bringing him back to the organization on a Minor League deal).

For the decent surface stats in that small sample size, Henriquez’s underlying numbers aren’t as flattering, and he’s out of Minor League options, which means he could eventually be a fringe-type reliever without roster flexibility -- a tough spot.

RHP Justin Topa

Topa would be the least likely candidate here, mainly because the Twins traded for him last offseason considering both his team control, his high-quality stuff and his enormous success with a 2.61 ERA in 69 innings out of the Seattle bullpen in 2023.

But Topa is coming off a nearly lost 2024 season -- one in which he finally tracked back from knee issues and arm fatigue to make three appearances at the very end of September -- and is entering a second season of arbitration eligibility, though it projects to be a fairly cheap one (estimated at $1.225 million, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts).

The high-quality stuff could still help Topa stick on the roster.