Twins brass doesn’t blame payroll cuts or trade deadline inactivity for late collapse

Following the Twins’ late-season free fall in the standings, owner Joe Pohlad and President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey downplayed the role a slashed payroll had on the club’s collapse.

The Twins infamously dropped their payroll by more than $30 million entering the season, cutting into their depth.

“No, I don’t think it’s just tied to payroll,” Pohlad said after the Twins missed the playoffs by four games.

The Twins’ only addition to the starting rotation, Anthony DeSclafani, didn’t make it out of spring training before a season-ending injury. Carlos Santana was a savvy free agent signing, but the Twins didn’t receive much from bullpen additions Justin Topa, Josh Staumont or Jay Jackson, or from outfielder Manuel Margot.

How does Pohlad view his role in making the Twins a better team?

“Giving our baseball group the resources that they need in order to [win],” Pohlad said. “Yes, there are always some restrictions. But I thought — I know — that there was agreement that they had everything they needed. Throughout three-quarters of the season, we were in position, so I don’t think that this is a resource conversation right now.”

Falvey says the Twins weren’t constrained financially from making a move at the trade deadline, yet their only acquisition was Trevor Richards, a reliever who was removed from the roster three weeks later. The Kansas City Royals, meanwhile, added Michael Lorenzen to their rotation and Lucas Erceg to their bullpen with good results.

The Detroit Tigers were sellers at the trade deadline and sent starter Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they clinched an AL wild-card spot after a stretch in which they won 15 of 18 games.

“You can only do so much at that time,” Falvey said of the trade deadline. “When I look at what transpired over the last four to six weeks, a lot of the group that we were going to rely on anyway during that stretch, we didn’t get as much out of as we hoped. Those wouldn’t have been replacements at the [trade] deadline, necessarily.”

The Twins were in the market to add pitching, particularly a starter, at the trade deadline. Another starter could have pushed Louie Varland to the bullpen earlier. The Twins showed interest in lefty Yusei Kikuchi, who pitched well with Houston after he was traded from Toronto, but they were outbid by the Astros.

There was added difficulty, Falvey said, in attempting to acquire pitchers from inside their own division such as Flaherty, Chicago White Sox starter Erick Fedde or White Sox reliever Michael Kopech. The inability to complete a deal for a starting pitcher became more painful when Joe Ryan was lost for the season two starts after the trade deadline.

“We made some decisions at the deadline to pursue some guys and, ultimately, it was a baseball decision that didn’t align or that we ultimately couldn’t access certain players,” Falvey said. “Those were the realities of it. … There’s always a focus on pitching and pitching acquisitions. Unfortunately, it was our offensive production in aggregate and our overall defensive play that I think held us back more than the pitching.”

The Twins fired hitting coaches David Popkins and Derek Shoman, according to a report from The Athletic. The Twins declined to comment and said they weren’t announcing any coaching changes Tuesday.

It’s the second time in the past three years the Twins crumbled in September, falling short of the postseason in 2022 after myriad injuries, but Falvey viewed this year’s collapse differently. In 2022, the Twins didn’t have as many players who represented the core of their roster on the field at the end of the season.

“That’s not how I felt this go-around,” Falvey said. “I felt that this group was plenty capable of doing the things that were needed to get to where we wanted to in October. Now we need to look deep at ourselves and say, ‘How did we not get out of that group what we needed?’”

The Twins aren’t planning another reduction in payroll this winter, but they’re entering the offseason with little payroll flexibility. Internal projections, according to a source, have the club starting with a payroll around $126 million. They ended this season with a payroll of about $130 million.

They have $90 million committed to five players: Carlos Correa, Pablo López, Byron Buxton, Christian Vázquez and Chris Paddack. A dozen players will be eligible for salary arbitration, which means raises will be due for Willi Castro, Ryan Jeffers, Royce Lewis, Bailey Ober, Joe Ryan, Griffin Jax, Jhoan Duran and Trevor Larnach.

“To find ourselves in this position, it’s embarrassing, it’s angering,” Pohlad said. “It’s all of the feelings, right? We’ve got to really look inward and figure out what happened because it’s not acceptable at all. We’ve got to sort some things out, for sure.”