Twins look to regroup after trade deadline ‘reset’
CLEVELAND — A full-fledged meet and greet was the first order of business for the Minnesota Twins upon their arrival at the ballpark Friday.
Making nine trades and jettisoning nearly 40% of their team before the deadline the previous day meant there were plenty of new faces in the visiting clubhouse when the Twins began their three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians.
Minnesota traded players including standout shortstop Carlos Correa, closer Jhoan Duran and four high-leverage relievers several years away from free agency, among them St. Paul native Louis Varland.
“It’s a hard pill to swallow, but maybe a reset was needed,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “We were curious to see how far the front office would go, and they decided to go really far.
“The dominos just kept falling. It just kept coming. It felt like it never ended.”
Just two years ago, the Twins won the American League Central title and advanced to the division series. It turned out to be the high point of their post-pandemic era as they missed the playoffs in 2024 and are currently six games out of the final AL wild-card position.
“A lot of guys who were on our ’23 run aren’t here anymore because of the trades, so that hurt,” pitcher Bailey Ober said. “The business side of baseball sometimes shows its ugly face sometimes. It was surreal watching what happened.”
Ober was one of 10 players who spent Thursday together in a room in the team’s downtown Cleveland hotel, keeping track of the leaguewide activity. The upbeat mood changed when several of them received phone calls from Twins president Derek Falvey telling them they were on the move.
Manager Rocco Baldelli and Ober said no one took the news worse than hometown product Varland, an emerging reliever who was under team control through 2030.
“It was hardest on Lou, and I don’t think it’s close,” Baldelli said. “He loves the organization, and he loves being close to his family. Yeah, he took it hard.”
To field a full roster against the Guardians, the Twins recalled six players from Triple-A St. Paul and selected the contracts of two more Saints. Baldelli held a team meeting as soon as everyone arrived at Progressive Field, then spoke individually with many of his remaining veterans.
All-Star center fielder and unquestioned team leader Byron Buxton, who is on the 10-day injured list with left ribcage inflammation, also joined the Twins in Cleveland.
“Just having him here is huge,” outfielder Matt Wallner said. “That gives us some sense of normal.”
Starting pitcher Chris Paddack, one of six impending free agents, was the first to go Monday to the Detroit Tigers.
Duran, who had a 2.47 ERA with 292 strikeouts over 233⅔ innings in four seasons, was dealt Wednesday to the Philadelphia Phillies in the first sign that the Twins were serious about trading veterans. Duran fetched Triple-A starting pitcher Mick Abel and High-A catcher Eduardo Tait.
“It’s hard, but it’s about making sure that you’re constantly trying to find a way to not just sit on your heels, hope that it all goes better and keep your fingers crossed,” Falvey said. “It’s a way to actually go invest in the future of the team, hopefully the short-term and the long-term.”
Outfielder Harrison Bader followed Duran to the Phillies, and reliever Brock Stewart was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Reliever Danny Coulombe went to the Texas Rangers. First baseman Ty France and Varland were packaged to Toronto for Triple-A outfielder Alan Roden and Triple-A starting pitcher Kendry Rojas.
“I was in uniform, ready to play for the Buffalo Bisons when it happened,” Roden said, chuckling. “It was a pretty normal day until it wasn’t.”
Popular multiposition player Willi Castro went to the Chicago Cubs and reliever Griffin Jax was sent to the Tampa Bay Rays. Then came the headliner. Correa went back to his original team, the Houston Astros, in what amounted to a salary dump while also bringing back High-A starting pitcher Matt Mikulski.
“It was sad that Carlos left,” catcher Christian Vázquez said. “It was a hard day yesterday. We’re like a family in the clubhouse, so it was hard. It was a fun ride with all of them.”
Less than 22 months ago, the Twins were celebrating at a packed Target Field after Duran closed out a two-game sweep of the Blue Jays in the wild-card round for their first playoff series win in 21 years and the end of their record 18-game postseason losing streak.
Since then, they’ve been in ownership-ordered payroll purgatory in light of the hefty hit they took in regional television revenue after the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy that affected several other clubs from midsize and small markets.
Even the most aggressive scenarios the Twins envisioned prior to the deadline didn’t include Correa, who signed the richest contract in club history as a free agent after the 2022 season. But the Astros wanted him back and were willing to eat most of the roughly $103 million remaining on his deal through 2028, and Correa was willing to waive his no-trade clause to return to the team that drafted him. The Twins agreed to cover $33 million, due in four installments each Dec. 15.
Falvey was adamant that the Twins aren’t trying to bottom out with this rebuild as other clubs have done with varying degrees of success. The Twins kept both of their All-Stars: Buxton and starting pitcher Joe Ryan, who had plenty of suitors. They’re still confident in third baseman Royce Lewis, who has followed a series of injuries with inconsistency at the plate this season. Starting pitcher Pablo López, whose shoulder injury preceded a skid in June the Twins never corrected, will be back sooner rather than later.
“We’re here to win, let me be clear,” Baldelli said. “The locker room looks different, the team looks different, the lineup is different, but let’s go to work.”
MIAMI — Sandy Alcantara admitted that Thursday was one of the hardest days of his career.
It has been thought all season that the Miami Marlins could move on from Alcantara amid their rebuilding project, which has included shipping out established players for prospects.
And as Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET trade deadline approached, the Marlins’ ace could not hide his nerves.
He sat in front of his television watching baseball programming with his family for most of the day, repeatedly checking his phone to see if he had been traded.
“It was hard, man,” Alcantara said Friday. “Every time I get on my phone, I see my name. I thought that I was leaving.”
Miami opted not to trade its 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner. In their only trade Thursday, the Marlins sent their longest-tenured position player, outfielder Jesús Sánchez, to the Houston Astros for right-hander Ryan Gusto and two prospects, infielder Chase Jaworsky and outfielder Esmil Valencia.
The rest of the team, which has won five straight series and went 15-10 in July, remains intact. Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said Friday that the club’s recent success, in part, factored into its approach at the deadline.
And manager Clayton McCullough said if there weren’t trade scenarios that “moved the needle for us in the near and the long term,” the Marlins were happy to continue competing with the group they have.
Amid what was expected to be a season of finding out which of its relatively inexperienced pieces Miami could build around in the future, the Marlins are third in the National League East at 52-55 and entered Friday seven games behind San Diego for the National League’s third wild-card spot.
Bendix declined to say how close Miami was to finalizing a trade for Alcantara but noted that the team “felt really comfortable” with its ultimate decision.
“All of the things that go into building a sustainably successful team were taken into consideration,” he said, “at a deadline where you have all of these decisions in front of you. It’s our job to be disciplined. Disciplined means listening, means having conversations, and then means trying to figure out the best decision to make for every decision point that we have.”
Alcantara has played most of his eight-year career in Miami, going 47-64 with a 3.64 ERA in 159 starts while becoming the first Miami player to win the Cy Young Award after a 2022 season in which he pitched a league-high 228 innings and six complete games.
Alcantara, 29, missed the 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery and hasn’t yet returned to form in 2025. He is 6-9 with a 6.36 ERA, and despite being known as one of MLB’s most durable starters, has pitched only seven innings once.
He said it has taken a new level of mental toughness to play through a season not knowing if he would finish the year with the Marlins.
“It was a little hard because everywhere you go, every time you grab your phone, you see your name on the media,” Alcantara said. “But you [can’t] think too much about it. Just stay focused on everything you can do. I just came here, and if something happened, it just happened.”
Alcantara’s most recent two starts have been his best, an indicator to both the player and the Marlins that he might be close to returning to his All-Star caliber play.
He allowed one run and four hits in a season-high seven innings against the San Diego Padres on July 23, then pitched five shutout innings in a win at St. Louis on Tuesday.
“Sandy is continuing to trend,” McCullough said. “And we’re going to continue to be the beneficiaries of having Sandy for the rest of the season, continuing to get back to the pitcher that we all know Sandy is.”
PHILADELPHIA — Phillies slugger Bryce Harper was ejected in the seventh inning of Friday’s game against Detroit for arguing a called third strike on a check swing.
The Phillies scored three runs in the seventh to tie the score at 3-3 and had two runners on base with two outs when Harper faced Tigers reliever Will Vest.
Harper tried to check his swing on a full-count changeup from Vest, but third-base umpire Vic Carapazza rang up Harper, who ripped his helmet off his head in an outburst and shouted as he waved his arms at Carapazza.
Harper was promptly ejected and kept his helmet with him as he walked into the dugout.
“I left the batter’s box walking toward him, so I think it was warranted,” Harper said.
Harper said after the Phillies beat the Tigers 5-4 that he had yet to see the replay, which seemed to indicate he went around with his swing.
“Can’t get thrown out in that situation, especially with the ninth inning possibly coming around and my at-bat coming up,” Harper said.
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