It's been 790 long days since the Twins defeated the Blue Jays in Game 2 for their first playoff series victory in 21 years.
Since then, Twins fans have endured an epic end-of-season collapse to miss the playoffs, a trade deadline fire sale, and now signs are pointing towards that fire sale continuing into the offseason.
ESPN's Jeff Passan is reporting that Byron Buxton is willing to waive his no-trade clause to avoid the rebuild that the Twins are currently staring down the barrel at. This comes among speculation that the Twins are also exploring trades of Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez to continue to shed payroll to deal with their debts.
If I've learned anything about the Twins over the past decade or so, it's that the Twins are going to do whatever the fans don't want them to do, which is convincing me more and more that the Twins are going to enter the 2026 season without Buxton, Ryan, and Lopez on the roster.
And you know what? Maybe it's the right move. This is a franchise clearly more interested in saving money than fielding a competitive team, so why make those three endure the pain? Plus, Minnesota teams regularly fall into the trap of wanting to avoid a full-on rebuild, which results in constantly middling but never being elite (looking at you Vikings and Wild). So if you're set on a rebuild, you might as well not half-ass it.
But you can't help but feel for the Twins die-hards. Growing up I had to endure the likes of Torii Hunter and Johan Santana leaving, and today's young Twins fans are about to experience that same feeling. Target Field is about to be a ghost town in 2026. If the Twins decide to full-on bottom out, you're likely looking at 100+ losses. I've always said that Minnesota summers are a little better when the Twins are competitive, and it's looking like we might not experience that for a while.
Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and those three will be on the Twins next year and the fresh energy from the new coaching staff will make them competitive. But past experience has taught me not to hold my breath.
0 comments