{"id":840669,"date":"2026-08-01T16:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840669\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T16:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:04:09","slug":"aggressive-minnesota-twins-looking-to-bolster-roster-further-after-acquiring-dean-kremer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840669\/","title":{"rendered":"Aggressive Minnesota Twins looking to bolster roster further after acquiring Dean Kremer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.<\/a><\/p>\n

SEATTLE \u2014 The Minnesota Twins have made two trades in two days. And they want to do more.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after completing a deal for a relief pitcher, the Twins acquired much-needed starting depth on Friday night by trading a rookie-league outfielder<\/a> for Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Dean Kremer.<\/p>\n

Though Kremer is struggling this season \u2014 he\u2019s 1-4 with a 6.50 ERA in 36 innings \u2014 he provides the Twins with an experienced major-league starter for the stretch run.<\/p>\n

The Twins, who moved back above .500 Friday night with a 5-3 comeback victory over the Seattle Mariners,\u00a0previously acquired lefty reliever A.J. Minter from the New York Mets<\/a> for two prospects on Thursday night to bolster the bullpen. In making the deals, the Twins uncharacteristically took on payroll, paying the entirety of the roughly $5 million combined owed to Minter and Kremer.<\/p>\n

MLB Mailbag: Trade deadline lightning round<\/p>\n

Andy McCullough<\/p>\n

Though they\u2019ve already been one of the more active teams at the deadline, the Twins next want to add a right-handed, late-inning reliever before Monday\u2019s trade deadline, a Twins source said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the team\u2019s thinking. The source said Twins chairman Tom Pohlad has authorized general manager Jeremy Zoll to add even more payroll if necessary.<\/p>\n

Those actions would fall in line with what Pohlad said on July 10 about being aggressive. Whether it\u2019s bolstering the roster with trade deadline acquisitions, or increasing future payrolls, Pohlad is trying to win back the trust of a clubhouse disappointed by two straight rotten deadlines as well as the favor of a disinterested fanbase with aggressive moves that don\u2019t align with what the Twins have done historically.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be willing to make investments and make bold moves that allow us to be successful in the playoffs,\u201d Pohlad said. \u201cAnd I think the difference between where we\u2019ve been and where we\u2019re going. \u2026 This is a build and they will come situation. The fans are not going to come back based on words. They\u2019re going to come back once they see investment in the team and success on the field. I know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though adding Kremer isn\u2019t sexy, it\u2019s an addition the Twins desperately need as they attempt to curtail the workload of rookie hurler Connor Prielipp. Prielipp already has completed 91 innings between the majors and Triple A after pitching a combined 112 2\/3 across the first four seasons of his career.<\/p>\n

The moves came less than 24 hours after the Twins bolstered the bullpen by trading for Minter, a steady lefty who should help mitigate the loss of Anthony Banda, who underwent season-ending surgery after tearing his lat muscle on June 28.<\/p>\n

Twins players were excited before Friday\u2019s game about the addition of Minter, who\u2019s expected to join the team on Saturday. Royce Lewis said the team\u2019s players shared a viral meme featuring Minter from his college days at Texas A&M on their text thread.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously exciting to see, especially this early in the deadline,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to wait until the last second. I remember Tom (Pohlad) making a quote about that: \u2018Why do people have to wait? Go get the guy.\u2019 I thought that was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

While winning back the fans will be a far more considerable challenge, Pohlad has already made big gains inside the Twins\u2019 clubhouse since taking over as ownership\u2019s newest point man in mid-December.<\/p>\n

Whether it was flying to Georgia to meet with Byron Buxton or a California rendezvous with Joe Ryan in the offseason, Pohlad wanted to rebuild the trust he believed the ownership group lost with its players after making what he described as a series of missteps dating back to November 2023.<\/p>\n

Only a month after the Twins won their first playoff series in 21 years in October 2023, the team\u2019s front office signaled it would cut payroll by $30 million. Then the team didn\u2019t make any serious additions at the 2024 deadline even though the Twins were contending for a wild-card spot, a decision that backfired when a club that was 70-53 collapsed, losing 29 of 41 games and missing the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say (it was disappointing) for the clubhouse,\u201d starting pitcher Bailey Ober said. \u201cObviously, we were happy we got Trevor (Richards). But as a whole, I think we were expecting a little more players in return to help bolster the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis remembers noticing the disappointment felt by veterans like Buxton and Carlos Correa and being impressed with how professionally they handled it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely hurt seeing guys like Carlos and some of those other leaders, Buck, kind of upset, bummed out and frustrated,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cObviously, they\u2019re so professional. They didn\u2019t show any emotion. They played their butts off. But you could see the letdown in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came one of the darkest weeks in franchise history at last year\u2019s trade deadline. Over the course of four days, the Twins traded 10 players off their major-league roster, including the entire back end of their bullpen.<\/p>\n

Though Buxton downplayed his disappointment about the \u201924 deadline, he knew exactly where he was \u2014 \u201cNew York\u201d \u2014 when the team\u2019s only addition was veteran reliever Trevor Richards, who was designated for assignment Aug. 27 of that season.<\/p>\n

Still, Buxton has been a believer in Pohlad from early on. It\u2019s one of the reasons why, as the trade rumors began to fly in early June, Buxton indicated he would use his no-trade clause to stay with the Twins unless Pohlad\u2019s plans changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing what he said he was going to do, so to us, it ain\u2019t really a surprise,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cWe trusted him from the beginning. It\u2019s good to see the position that we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Twins would love to enhance their position by further bolstering the bullpen. Saying the team\u2019s \u201cdirection is clear,\u201d Zoll said Tuesday the Twins would be buyers at the deadline with a priority on improving the bullpen.<\/p>\n

After acquiring Minter, who should become the team\u2019s top lefty option, the focus is now on adding a quality right-handed reliever. Even though the Twins already completed a deal with the Mets, they could turn to David Stearns and the Mets once again to add a right-hander to pair with Yoendrys G\u00f3mez, Andrew Morris and Tommy Nance, who was acquired from Toronto for a prospect on July 10.<\/p>\n

A team source indicated earlier in the week that the Twins reached out to the Mets and other teams who were expected to be busy ahead of Monday\u2019s deadline to work on potential trade concepts, a lesson learned a year earlier when the Twins completed eight trades over four days.<\/p>\n

As they look to add on more, the Twins potentially could look to target veterans Jeff Hoffman, Riley O\u2019Brien, Luke Weaver, Huascar Brazob\u00e1n, Jeremiah Estrada and former Twin Emilio Pag\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you get very optimistic,\u201d Twins manager Derek Shelton said on Friday afternoon. \u201cI love the fact that we were aggressive. We found ourselves in a situation with a deal we liked. \u2026 We\u2019ll see how the next couple days shake out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline. SEATTLE \u2014 The Minnesota Twins have made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,3965,462,82],"class_list":["post-840669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}