Grading the Twins’ trade deadline

The Twins came into the trade deadline with three clear goals: improve the bullpen, rotation depth, and find a way to get into the playoffs. With the Tigers, Royals, and Orioles pivoting to sell mode, the path became clearer for GM Jeremy Zoll and owner Tom Pohlad, even if the playoff odds don’t yet reflect it. Let’s take a look at Minnesota’s four trades and grade them all.

Note: prospect rankings are both via FanGraphs and Twinkie Town, mostly because FG and Aidan both know more about Twins prospects than most other publications. You can see the full lists with the links above, and Aidan’s full post-draft and deadline list will be available shortly.

Twins receive: RHP Tommy Nance

Blue Jays receive: C/IF Ryan Sprock (#31 FG, NR TT)

This wasn’t technically a deadline deal, but I think we should loop it in as it was close enough and a move that Toronto wouldn’t have considered if we were any further away from the trade deadline.

The Twins picked up a solid veteran reliever with multiple years of team control. Both Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis said Nance is one of the nastiest relievers they’ve had to face, so he already had the internal stamp of approval. All they had to give up to get him was a fringe catching prospect who likely will have to move off of that spot soon anyway and who’s swing and frame offer limited offensive upside. Think Micky Gasper. Maybe he figures things out, but this seemed like a fair deal all around.

Grade: B+

Twins receive: LHP AJ Minter

Mets receive: IF Bruin Agbayani (NR FG, TT) & IF Billy Amick (NR FG, TT)

Second trade, same as the first. The Twins got a reliable lefty who has been solid for a decade straight and gave up an infielder who likely will never play in the majors (Amick) and one with some interesting tools but has barely played and is even further away than Sprock (Agbayani).

Rental relievers with high salaries aren’t as cheap as they used to be, but this ultimately didn’t cost much. The high grade here is less about Minter himself and more about just doing the right thing. Smart move, Zoll.

Grade: A

Twins receive: RHP Dean Kremer

Orioles receive: OF Jhonmardo Reyes (#10 FG, TT)

Now things get interesting. Starting pitching is pretty much the most expensive asset to acquire at the trade deadline. Pretty much every true contender could, at minimum, use some rotation depth to make up for injuries or underperformance and there are teams like the Dodgers who are willing to give up nearly anything to do it. You don’t need to look further than the Twins’ 2025 deadline when they received a legitimate catching prospect in exchange for Chris Paddack, who had about 6 months of good pitching collectively in his entire career when he was dealt.

The Twins are on the other side of the equation this year. They came into the season with excellent starting pitching depth, but that has been eroded to the point where they were an injury away from regular bullpen games. There have been season-ending injuries to Pablo Lopez, Mick Abel, David Festa, and Mike Paredes. Joe Ryan is once struggling in the second half. Bailey Ober now is having a tough time cracking 85 MPH with his fastball at the end of games. Connor Prielipp is already 20 innings over his previous career high. Needless to say, starting pitching became a must.

The Twins got Kremer to fill that void and while his numbers look rough this year, he’s been a consistent contributor for half a decade and his peripherals look nearly identical to his career numbers outside of an astronomical home run rate. Once that normalizes, Kremer will likely slot in as Minnesota’s third-best starter behind Ryan and Taj Bradley. If the Twins are able to make the postseason, he and Ober are likely battling to be the third starter in a potential playoff series. Kremer’s additional year of team control also makes him a bit more expensive.

Reyes is a long ways away, but his physical stature and power already on display at just 18 years old is what scouts dream about. Like every low minors player, it’s basically a coin flip chance he ever even makes it to Triple A, let alone the majors, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes a regular on Top 100 lists shortly. In the meantime, the Twins traded a lottery ticket for some guaranteed security, and who among us hasn’t made that trade before?

Grade: B-

Twins receive: RHP Jeff Hoffman, cash

Blue Jays receive: LHP Dasan Hill (#12 FG, TT), RHP John Klein (#35 FG, TT), IF Dameury Pena (#49 FG, NR TT), & international signing pool money

Hoffman’s ERA won’t get you excited, but if you look at nearly any other metric, Hoffman is still one of the best relievers in baseball. Whether he closes games or not, he immediately slots in as the Twins’ best, most feared reliever and will give manager Derek Shelton a trusted high leverage arm besides Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gomez.

The prospect cost in this deal was higher than expected, but that’s because the Blue Jays are still paying down a portion of Hoffman’s $12.67M salary for 2027. It’s unclear how much that is, but that’s an asset to be factored in here too, assuming that means owner Tom Pohlad allows GM Jeremy Zoll to use those savings on improving other areas of the roster next season.

The headliner return is Hill, the Twins’ second-round pick in 2024 who had a breakout 2025 in his first action, but has struggled to throw strikes in High A this season. Hill was peppered around the backend of some Top 100s before this season, but has since firmly fallen out. He’s still only 20 and has among the best strikeout rates in all of the minors, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he’s back on those lists this time next year.

Klein is also nothing to scoff out. The former undrafted free agent is one of the organizations best recent development success stories, performing well enough from 2022-2025 that the Twins had to add him to the 40-man roster to prevent Klein from being selected in the Rule 5 draft last offseason. He had a cup of coffee in Minneapolis earlier this season, but has struggled to keep the ball in the park at Triple A and simply wasn’t throwing enough strikes to make up for his lower velocity. The Twins had him in a swingman role in St. Paul, partly because their SP injuries made keeping him stretched out a necessity, but I still think Klein can turn into a solid middle relief arm if given the opportunity. I’ll be very curious to see what Toronto does with him.

Pena, 21, hasn’t grown into his body quite as much as the Twins would have liked when they signed him as a 17-year-old from the DR. He’s shown a decent hit tool, a good eye, but absolutely no power with just 10 home runs in 158 career minor league games over three seasons, including just one this season. For his slight frame, he’s also not that fast and isn’t a particularly good defender. Pena is truly nothing but a lottery ticket throw in, likely the final piece that got the Blue Jays to agree to pay down some of Hoffman’s 2027 figure.

Grade: B

IN: RHP Tommy Nance, LHP AJ Minter, RHP Dean Kremer, RHP Jeff Hoffman, cash

OUT: C/IF Ryan Sprock, IF Bruin Agbayani, IF Billy Amick, OF Jhonmardo Reyes, LHP Dasan Hill, RHP John Klein, IF Dameury Pena, international signing pool money

Collectively, this looks like a lot to give up for handful of pitchers in their mid-to-late 30s. Additionally, there’s a real argument to be made that the Twins could have prevented themselves from being in this spot in the first place if they had simply signed any reliever besides Taylor Rogers in the offseason. However, neither Tom Pohlad nor Jeremy Zoll had the reigns at that point and both have been vocal and aggressive about fixing it in-season, which I believe they should could some credit for.

Also, they were able to do all of this without dipping into any of their top 10 prospects, including the eight that were in FanGraphs’ latest Top 100. They held on to all three of Joe Ryan, Ryan Jeffers, and Trevor Larnach, arguably their three best players this season (sorry injured Buxton), despite all three being in countless rumors over the past month. And while you may have been able to get more “value” by trading them, retaining them gives you a much better chance to actually make the playoffs this season which goes far beyond any prospects they could get back.

Losing Hill and Reyes in particular could hurt, but as I’ve been saying all week: you have to give up value to get value. Unless you’re the Boston Red Sox who love to give away good players for nearly nothing, it’s really hard to truly take advantage of another team with all the resources every front office has at their disposal. Right now, the Twins are a significantly better team than they were last week.

Time to finish things out and make some noise in October.

FINAL GRADE: B+