The Minnesota Twins postseason dreams officially ended on Friday night. After weeks of terrible performance , the math finally caught up to them . Unfortunately, the same financial limitations that held the Twins back in 2024, are expected to cause more roster issues in 2025.
Another payroll reduction for the Minnesota Twins
Immediately following their best postseason performance in decades, the Minnesota Twins ownership forced the front office to cut payroll . The television situation was to blame , but things never got better this year. They shouldn’t be expected to get better next season, and the result could be another scale back. Aaron Gleeman highlighted that ugly reality at The Athletic.
“While it would be nice — and some might argue , smart and logical — for ownership to recognize the damage they did and reverse course with a payroll increase to 2023 levels, that’s wishful thinking. Revenues are well short of the team’s internal projections because Target Field attendance is about 300,000 lower than they hoped, the TV situation hasn’t improved and there won’t be any money from playoff games. If the Twins were willing to wreck last season’s goodwill and fan excitement over $30 million, it stands to reason more cuts could be coming.
Barring a shocking change of direction, and heart, by ownership, the best fans can probably hope for is a similar payroll for 2025. That would equal around $130 million to spend, leaving the front office with little wiggle room given the current roster — with guaranteed contracts, arbitration raises and free-agent departures — is projected to make at least $125 million as is.”
Aaron Gleeman on the Twins 2025 payroll (The Athletic)
It’s almost impossible to think that the Twins are in a position to add payroll. Everything went wrong after they slashed figures in 2024 , and that isn’t going to make things easier in the year ahead. There is no postseason revenue this time around, and the team saw declines at the gate already .
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The Twins could be better next season due to their incredible farm system . That group should still be supplemented with free agent talent, and that doesn’t appear to be likely.
Who is leaving for the Minnesota Twins?
How the Minnesota Twins shed salary this offseason remains to be seen. Max Kepler is for sure gone . Kyle Farmer will be non-tendered to rid his figures as well. Both Carlos Correa and Pablo Lopez see sizable salary jumps though, and arbitration figures start to play a factor for plenty of guys.
Realistically the Twins would love to deal players like Christian Vazquez and Chris Paddack . Given their salaries though, both have negative trade value. If they want to add anything at the big league level, they may need to pay the prospect freight to move either of them.
Without a realistic path to increase payroll, it’s going to be another offseason of Derek Falvey needing to get creative. That required some serious needle-threading last time around, and it didn’t really work out. Minnesota’s best hope is that the youth is primed for a step forward after experiencing this sort of big league grind.
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Once again, that’s putting a lot of stress on the internal depth. It’s what forced the Twins to crack this time around, but clearly ownership is willing to try it again.
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