The Minnesota Twins want to buy at the August 3 trade deadline — front office, ownership and clubhouse alike — according to MLB.com’s Matthew Leach, who reported Wednesday that the organization’s intent is to add players rather than shed them as it chases a first postseason berth since 2023. A year after a deadline sell-off that Leach writes still stings inside the clubhouse, the stated preference this time runs the other direction.
The standings support the ambition, quietly. Minnesota reached the break at 48-49, third in the AL Central, three games back of the top, and tied with Seattle for the third wild card after going 7-3 over its last ten. That is not a commanding position, but it is a real one — a year ago the club sat 11.5 games out at the break, per MLB.com, and FanGraphs puts the current playoff odds at 34.6 percent.
General manager Jeremy Zoll stopped short of a declaration. “There’s still a lot of games left to unfold and teams aren’t really making those declarations until the last possible minute,” he told MLB.com, adding that the club is continuing to evaluate while the team is on a nice run. Leach’s own assessment of the need is blunter: the bullpen is priorities one, two and three. Even after adding Tommy Nance, and with Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gómez emerging as the late-inning combination, the report says Minnesota remains at least an arm or two short, with Cole Sands expected back soon.
There is a third path between buying and selling, and Leach lays it out: trading from the major-league roster to improve the major-league roster. Trevor Larnach is the name floated as the type who could move for pitching, which would clear room for Walker Jenkins, the No. 14 prospect in baseball, waiting at Triple-A St. Paul. And if the team slides instead, the report expects heavy interest in Ryan Jeffers and Joe Ryan — whose trade market we covered before the break. The evaluation window is short: the second half opens Saturday at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, the start of a road stretch that also runs through Cleveland. The Twins do not need a great trip. They need to avoid a bad one.
For fantasy managers, Jeffers is the quiet add in two-catcher formats now that he is back from the hamate injury and the club is publicly counting on him. Morris and Gómez keep their late-inning value for now, though a deadline arm would cut into somebody’s leverage work — watch the first week after the break. Ryan remains a hold everywhere, exactly as before.
