A very quiet Twins offseason finally started to pick up some steam this week, when the club signed Harrison Bader and Danny Coulombe to one-year guarantees. Coulombe will earn $3MM, while Bader will earn at least $6.25MM, with a chance to earn more in 2025 based on incentive clauses. (Bader and the Twins also share a $10MM mutual option for the 2026 season.)
For now, it adds up as a $9.25MM boost to the Twins’ payroll. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) that the spending space came about after Twins chairman Joe Pohlad “greenlighted….the ability to add a little bit here to this team. I think that’s a credit to them and certainly a tick up for us that allows us to add a little bit more to this roster that we feel already had a good base, but now we’ve clicked off some of those needs.”
While $9.25MM is a fairly modest sum by modern baseball standards, it underlines the narrow budget that Falvey and GM Jeremy Zoll are believed to have been working under for much of the winter. Past reports indicated that the Twins’ 2025 payroll was going to roughly match their approximate $129.6MM payroll (hat tip to RosterResource) from last season, and the club’s lack of activity for much of the offseason was due to the difficulty in trying to both add to the roster while also shedding some unwanted contracts. Christian Vazquez ($10MM in 2025) and Chris Paddack ($7.5MM) were two of the impending free agents widely viewed as trade candidates as Minnesota tried to balance the books.
It’s safe to assume the front office is still open to offers for either Vazquez or Paddack, though the Twins’ need to deal at least one of the two players doesn’t quite seem as glaring as it did even a few weeks ago. The trade market in general, Falvey said, has somewhat cooled, which is perhaps why Minnesota turned its attention to free agents like Bader and Couloumbe to address needs.
“I think teams are a little more focused internally now as they’re ready to ship off to Arizona and Florida and try to get things squared away [for Spring Training]. Some of those last remaining free agents, I think that’s been the vast majority of the noise,” Falvey said.
The Twins’ outfield needs could explain why they stretched the budget to bring in Bader, who now fills a key role as the fourth outfielder. The right-handed hitting Bader can both back up Byron Buxton in center field if Buxton again runs into injury problems, plus Bader can spell the left-handed hitting Matt Wallner or Trevor Larnach (Minnesota’s other projected regular outfielders) when a southpaw is on the mound. Falvey revealed that the Twins had been targeting Bader for several seasons before finally landing the former Gold Glover this winter.
RosterResource currently projects Minnesota’s 2025 payroll at around $146.4MM. It seems possible the number could still increase a little further, as Falvey said the team is considering other upgrades, even if minor league deals could end up being the preferred course of action to bring in roster depth. A veteran first baseman on a non-guaranteed deal is a potential target, as this hypothetical player would bring some experience to a first base mix that currently consists of Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien as the top options.
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