Five days before the Aug. 1 MLB trade deadline and rumors are beginning swirl around the big leagues, with news Tuesday suggesting the Tampa Bay Rays are in serious talks with the Chicago White Sox for right-handed starting pitcher Lance Lynn.
As contenders like the Rays are looking to get better, so too are the Minnesota Twins, who have two very obvious needs: bullpen and a right-handed bat. The obvious question facing the Twins is if they will be active on the trade market or entrust players returning from injuries to fill the gaps.
Minnesota is due to get Jorge Polanco back from a hamstring injury any day now, and relief pitchers Brock Stewart and Caleb Thielbar are believed to be close to returning. Also on the mend and possibly back in mid-August is Royce Lewis, who was on fire at the plate before he suffered a strained oblique in early July.
Jorge Polanco will play in St. Paul today and then fly to Kansas City with the #MNTwins to be activated on the road trip.
Caleb Thielbar will throw one more outing for St. Paul this weekend and then track to rejoin the Twins in St. Louis.
Reinforcements almost here.
— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) July 26, 2023
“I don’t think that we’ll match any of that kind of addition [of those four players], and I don’t think we’re trying to, quite frankly,” Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey told Do-Hyoung Park on Tuesday. “Those are really impactful players. We want to find ways to upgrade our team, but as we look at our group, you think about the bench that we have and those guys coming.”
Falvey admitted that teams have expressed interest in Minnesota’s crowd of left-handed hitting corner outfielders.
“There are other teams that don’t have any of that and they’re dying to get some. It does come up in a lot of conversations. We have a high bar for all of those guys, though,” Falvey told Park.
Falvey didn’t name players, but the left-handed hitting corner outfielders could include Max Kepler, Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach
Meanwhile, a report from The Athletic suggests the Twins could trade left-hander Dallas Keuchel, who has a 0.69 ERA in five starts at Triple-A St. Paul. Keuchel’s contract gives him the power to opt out and become a free agent 48 hours after the Aug. 1 trade deadline if the Twins haven’t added him to the big league roster.
One team that the #MNTwins have engaged with on trade talks and that will have a scout at CHS Field the rest of the week watching the St. Paul Saints: The Washington #Nationals. The Twins have obviously engaged way more teams than Washington ahead of next Tuesday's deadline.
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) July 26, 2023
Keuchel getting the call to the Twins would likely require an injury to a starting pitcher this week because there are no signs that Minnesota intends to change the current starting five of Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez, Kenta Maeda, Bailey Ober and Sonny Gray.
