Now is the Time for the Minnesota Twins to Go All-In

If you were to lineup all 30 teams around baseball in a singular line and begin to look at who some of the most surprising and disappointing teams around the league are, you would probably be able to come up with a list very quickly especially for most disappointing teams. Among the most disappointing are the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies, and to a degree Philadelphia Phillies.

With that being said, once you get over to the most surprising category, things get a bit more challenging. You could have pegged the Texas Rangers as a surprise team, but considering that they've lost their last 7 games in a row heading into play tonight, the idea of them being a surprise playoff team is quickly fading. Elsewhere, you might say that the entire National League Central has been a surprise from a competitive level, but heading into the season many expected that division to be the most competitive in baseball and it's certainly played out that way.

That brings us to the American League Central, more specifically the Minnesota Twins who have certainly surprised many people that widely expected the Cleveland Indians to command first place in the division, during most of the year. However, dating back to Saturday, April 20th, the Twins have occupied first place and have not made things easy for the Cleveland Indians up until the past couple of weeks.

Right around the middle part of June, the Minnesota Twins had a commanding 11-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central, but as time has moved forward that lead has shrunk especially since the Cleveland Indians have done a complete 360-degree turn in their style of play over the last month. Currently, as it stands heading into play tonight, the Twins lead is down to only 3 games and, if they end up losing to the New York Yankees tonight and the Cleveland Indians rack up a win against the Toronto Blue Jays, that lead could shrink down to 2 games.

Therefore, a fair argument can be made that the Minnesota Twins need to be all-in and fully committed to bringing in some high level starting pitching and relief help over the next handful of days leading up to the 31st. Over the past several weeks, the Twins have been connected to impactful names on the trade market including: Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants (at one point a deal was thought to be close between Minnesota and San Francisco before it was nixed over the return heading to the Bay Area), Matt Boyd of the Detroit Tigers, Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays, and to a lesser degree New York Mets, Noah Syndergaard.

Syndergaard has been a complicated name all along for teams, such as the Minnesota Twins, because the New York Mets remain very reluctant to trade him away unless they get a return that overwhelms them to a high degree. Beyond starting pitching, the Minnesota Twins have also been scouring the market for relief help as well. Among the names they've been connected to: Will Smith and Sam Dyson of the San Francisco Giants, Shane Greene of the Detroit Tigers, Sergio Romo of the Miami Marlins, Mychal Givens of the Baltimore Orioles, and Ken Giles of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Beyond being close to completing a deal with the San Francisco Giants for Madison Bumgarner a few weeks ago, the Minnesota Twins have reportedly been interested in doing a package deal with the Toronto Blue Jays for starter, Marcus Stroman, and reliever, Ken Giles. Around the same time, the New York Yankees were mentioned as another team interested in that same type of deal, but that gives you an awareness of how active the Twins are being on both the starting and relief pitching markets.

All along, especially over the last two to three weeks, one of the biggest problems has been the idea of teams failing to surrender and failing to give up their hopes of clinching one of the postseason spots particularly in the National League Wild Card race. Given those dynamics, that's likely another reason why a trade for Madison Bumgarner never came to fruition and why the Twins haven't been able to link up with another team so far despite having three-open spots on their 40-man active roster going into play tonight.

While the market has certainly been challenging and the Twins have nothing to show for the discussions going on right now behind the scenes, one thing remains constant and that's the fact that Minnesota needs to continue to be extremely aggressive and continue to remain committed to going all-in over the next 9 days in an attempt to, not only solidify their placement at the top of the American League Central, but to have the opportunity to play deep into the postseason - something that hasn't happened since 2006 when the Twins opposed the Oakland Athletics in the ALDS.

Heading into this season, according to MLB.com, the Minnesota Twins had the 8th best farm system in all of baseball. That likely has changed since the June Amateur Draft which is terrific news for the Minnesota Twins front office brass, their fan base, and every team around the league with the proper goods to sell to the Twins. Among the Top 100 prospects in the sport, the Twins possess three of them in: 5 - SS Royce Lewis, 9 - OF Alex Kirilloff, and 68 - RHP Brusdar Graterol.

However, the Minnesota Twins have made it very clear over time, that they won't trade their number one prospect and the third best in all of baseball, SS Royce Lewis, and would prefer to stay away from dealing their number two prospect and ninth best prospect in all of baseball, OF Alex Kirilloff as well. Although, Minnesota must realize that championship teams have to be open and willing to dealing anyone within their farm system to get better at the big league level and more importantly focus on not only making the playoffs, but giving themselves the best chance to advance deep into the postseason as much as possible.

Therefore, the Twins should be open to making any of their top prospects available because that's the price it's going to take to pry away some of the top names mentioned earlier in this article. If anything and Minnesota's front office brass is reluctant to do that, they should take a look at recent history to find out what teams dealt away to bolster their rosters moving into the postseason.

For example, back in 2016 the Chicago Cubs dealt away four prospects to the New York Yankees for a half season rental in closer, Aroldis Chapman. The price was exuberant and it certainly hurt the Cubs front office brass seeing the four players dealt away leave the organization, but Theo Epstein & Company knew that was the price they had to pay and ultimately it paid off with a World Series Championship. Among those players dealt away was the New York Yankees number 5 prospect (at the time), SS Gleyber Torres. If you haven't noticed already, Torres has turned into a star with New York and was once a highly regarded part of the Cubs farm system, but was ultimately made available as every top prospect should be.

Furthermore, how about the Justin Verlander trade involving the Houston Astros and Detroit Tigers from almost two years ago? At the time, the Astros elected not to do anything at the July 31st Trade Deadline, but were scavenging the market all throughout August looking for more impactful pitching help and were able to find it at the very last second. While team's no longer have that luxury (there is now one singular trade deadline on July 31st), the Astros still paid a price with the return they gave up to the Tigers. The full return that went to Detroit included: RHP Franklin Perez (Astros number 3 ranked prospect), OF Daz Cameron (Houston's number 9 best prospect), and C Jake Rogers (ranked number 11 at the time).

Keep in mind the return of those three top prospects was for a year-and-a-half control of starting pitcher and future Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander. The price was steep, but as was the case with the Chicago Cubs, the Houston Astros realized that they had a need and were more than willing to deal away those three prospects, if it meant adding a frontline workhorse to their starting rotation and an arm that could legitimately give them a chance to win a World Series Championship which ultimately ended up happening later that year.

Those are just two instances where the eventual World Series Champions went all-in around this time of year and made trades that ended up paying off huge dividends, but examples that should illustrate to the Minnesota Twins front office brass that they should be more than willing to deal away anyone from their prospect base for a shot at winning the American League Central and playing deep into October. Now, history and the overall pedigree of the Twins would suggest otherwise when it comes to being all-in and not being afraid to add payroll to the books, but now is the time to act for Minnesota and the time to give their fanbase something significant to cheer about especially given how much buzz has surrounded the team all throughout this season.

If the Twins are hesitant to deal prospects now and only make minor moves, then they are only surrendering themselves to the Cleveland Indians and giving Cleveland an opportune shot at winning the American League Central for the fourth consecutive year. In addition, with the roller coaster performance of the Twins over the past few seasons, nothing is guaranteed which means that if not now, when? If the Twins don't go all-in now, what makes anyone think they will this offseason? The time to act for the Twins is now and it's time for them to put their foot on the gas pedal, as they continue to scour the market for impactful starting and relief pitching, and take back the lead in the American League Central before it's too late.