Twins confirm payroll reduction is coming in 2024

The Twins set a team record by spending $156 million on payroll in 2023.

The Minnesota Twins have a $200 million shortstop, a $100 million oft-injured center fielder and a $73.5 million ace and all signs point to them not adding another expensive player ahead of the 2024 season. 

Major League Baseball's GM meetings this week in sunny and warm Scottsdale, Arizona delivered a cold blow to Twins fans with word from chief baseball officer Derek Falvey that the Minnesota Twins' 2024 payroll will be reduced after spending a team-record $156 million in 2023. 

"We've pushed our payroll to heights that we had never pushed it before with the support, certainly, of ownership. We know there is some natural ebb and flow to that," Falvey told media Tuesday, as was first reported by Bobby Nightengale Jr. of the Star Tribune.

"Will it be where it was last year? I don't expect that. I expect it less than that."

A payroll reduction appeared inevitable without a TV contract with Diamond Sports Group and Bally Sports North. That contract, which was highly-publicized in bankruptcy court earlier this year, generated $54.8 million in revenue for the Twins and without that money incoming, elevating or simply maintaining the payroll became far less likely. 

As of now, the Twins have about $90 million tied up in Carlos Correa ($32m), Byron Buxton ($15m), Jorge Polanco ($10.5m), Max Kepler ($10m), Christian Vazquez ($10m), Pablo Lopez ($8m), Chris Paddack ($2.5m) and Randy Dobnak ($2.25m) in 2024, according to Spotrac. 

According to Cots Baseball Contracts, the total estimated 2024 payroll for the 40-man roster is about $125.6 million, about $119 million of which would go to players on the 26-man opening day roster. 

Kepler and Polanco are free agents in 2025, which makes them logical trade candidates. That's even more true when you consider the surplus of depth the Twins have in the minors, many of them ready to make the jump to the big leagues. 

If the payroll situation means the Twins won't be active in free agency, they still have a roster that won the AL Central and advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. 

The starting rotation should include Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and Chris Paddack. The fifth start is a question mark since Sonny Gray is expected to decline his $20 million qualifying offer from the Twins and Kenta Maeda is a free agent. 

Filling out the position player lineup won't be that difficult without changes; it's just a matter of which players win the starting jobs. 

C: Ryan Jeffers, Christian Vazquez

1B: Alex Kirilloff

2B: Jorge Polanco, Eddy Julien, Yunior Severino (Triple-A)

SS: Carlos Correa, Brooks Lee (Triple-A), Nick Gordon

3B: Royce Lewis, Kyle Farmer, Jose Miranda (Triple-A)

LF: Matt Wallner, Willi Castro

CF: Byron Buxton, Austin Martin (Triple-A)

RF: Max Kepler, Trevor Larnach