Five offseason questions facing the Twins

With the World Series kicking off Friday night in Los Angeles, it’s almost time for the offseason to truly begin.

The Twins already have made some moves — dismissing four coaches and hiring a new lead hitting coach, Matt Borgschulte — but player movement won’t start until after the World Series concludes.

After a late-season collapse, this offseason should provide more intrigue than most as the Twins try to figure out how to plot their way forward. With that being said, here are five questions facing the Twins this offseason:

In a surprising twist, the Pohlad family, the longtime owner of the Twins, announced its intention to explore a sale of the team earlier this month. The decision was made “after months of thoughtful consideration,” executive chair Joe Pohlad said in a statement.

But does that mean that the Twins will have new owners by Opening Day of the 2025 season?

The answer is likely no. Team sales generally take around six months on the short end, so it’s not likely the Twins will have changed hands at that point.

After payroll was slashed by nearly $30 million last offseason, the Twins’ upcoming payroll is expected to stay roughly near the $130 million mark next season, which means president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and company will have to be creative with their budget.

Last year, they did this by creating some payroll flexibility for themselves by first subtracting.

The Twins traded Jorge Polanco and his $10.5 million salary to the Seattle Mariners in January for a package that included two major leaguers and two minor-league prospects.

While the major-league portion of the deal didn’t exactly work to plan — starting pitcher Anthony DeSclafani had surgery and did not throw a pitch all season, and reliever Justin Topa dealt with injuries, returning at the end for just three games — outfield prospect Gabriel Gonzalez was always the biggest prize of the trade.

And in addition to adding him to the system, the Twins were able to create space to add to their payroll, which they used to sign Carlos Santana, who very well might win his first Gold Glove Award this year.

If the Twins were looking to shed payroll this year, Christian Vázquez’s $10 million could be a good place to start if another team wants to take that on. Chris Paddack, who spent much of last year hurt, is owed $7.5 million and they could look to move him, as well, to free up some space.

While a trade of someone like, say, Vázquez could create some payroll flexibility for the Twins to be more involved in the free-agent market, they also could address their needs by trading from their core.

First, the Twins will need to decide if they can rely upon that core after a late-season collapse that saw many of their younger players — Royce Lewis, Jose Miranda, Edouard Julien and Brooks Lee — slump for a prolonged period of time.

While Matt Wallner came out of his own early-season struggles to emerge as one of their top hitters, and Trevor Larnach was relatively solid through the year, Alex Kirilloff had the worst season his career at the plate and missed much of the year with injury.

Can the Twins trust this group moving forward, or will they opt to trade from it to bolster the roster?

There aren’t too many glaring position battles entering the offseason, but the Twins will have to answer this question, either externally, as they did last offseason, or internally.

For $5.25 million, the 38-year-old Santana gave the Twins all they could ask for, playing Gold Glove-caliber defense and leading the team with 23 home runs and 71 RBIs. The switch hitter played in 150 games.

If the Twins move on from the veteran free agent, both Miranda and Kirilloff are internal options at first base, though Kirilloff, in particular, has done little to inspire confidence of late.

The Twins’ pitching depth was shot by the end of last season.

DeSclafani got hurt before it started, Louie Varland began the year in the rotation as an ineffective starter, and as the year went on both Paddack and Joe Ryan got hurt, thrusting three rookies — Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa and Zebby Matthews — into the rotation.

Pablo López, Bailey Ober and Ryan should front the rotation next year. Paddack, if healthy and not traded, should be back. Woods Richardson and Festa should also be in the mix for a spot, with Matthews likely headed back to the minors to begin the year.

But will the Twins try to add to this group? And what about the bullpen?

Varland has shown his effectiveness out of the bullpen in two straight seasons and could be primed for a full-time move there. But the Twins will need more to add to a group headed by Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran, particularly since they can’t yet count on the health of Brock Stewart.

The Twins made a number of moves to address the bullpen last offseason (and one at the trade deadline) that did not work out for one reason or another — Topa (injury) and Jay Jackson, Josh Staumont, Steven Okert and Trevor Richards (ineffectiveness). Will they be as active in adding pieces for the bullpen from outside this offseason?