MN Twins Insider Worried Byron Buxton Will Request Trade

The Minnesota Twins are just four games away from the hell that has been the 2025 MLB season finally comes to an end. For the apathetic Twins fans out there, of which there are many, let me give you a quick two-sentence update on their current state.

Your “favorite” baseball team has actually won two-straight, allowing them to avoid their 90th loss of the season, which goes back on the line tonight against the Texas Rangers in game 158 of 162. Pablo Lopez is back on the shelf, Byron Buxton is going to finish as a top 10 MVP candidate and Royce Lewis is worried he’ll be traded.

The A-talker, however, is the plan for this offseason. After the Pohlads signed off on a full roster deconstruction at the trade deadline, those close to the team are concerned more cuts are coming this winter.

Local insider concerned more changes are coming for MN Twins

Add former MN Twins beat writer LaVelle E. Neal III to that lengthy list of concerned insiders. The now Star Tribune columnist was on KFAN Radio with Paul Allen on Wednesday, where he voiced pretty extreme concern over the lack of direction for the organization, as we near October.

Much like other local insiders, the MN Twins’ lack of transparency on the situation has Neal foreseeing an all-too plausible future in which team president Derek Falvey shops and eventually deals away the Twins’ best two starting pitchers, Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan.

“We don’t know what the hell their plan is. We don’t know when the limited partner groups are going to be announced, that are coming in here to hopefully pay down the debt. Will that give [the Pohlads] more flexibility to put funding back in payroll? Or [are they] just cutting costs for a sale three years from now?

LaVelle E. Neal – KFAN Radio

We could go over all the reasons why LaVelle is probably right about the Twins’ plan to continue their roster teardown this offseason, and why it could very well include Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan.

Both pitchers are 29 years old, and if the Twins do not plan on winning in the near future, they’ll never get more for either player in return, than they will this offseason. So if the Pohlads have instructed Falvey to save more money, that’ll be one of the first places he goes.

Up until now, there wasn’t anything the Pohlads could do that made us overly-concerned about Byron Buxton’s status as a Minnesota Twin. He has a full no-trade clause in his contract and he’s made it very clear he has no intention of waiving it.

Could Byron Buxton change mind on Minnesota Twins trading him?

Buck built a life here with his family, including kids who have now began working their way through one MN school system their entire lives.

But in his radio appearance on Wednesday, LaVelle E. Neal put everything we thought we knew about the future of Byron Buxton to the test. He believes that if Minnesota does indeed move Ryan and Lopez, that it could be Buck’s last straw.

“We don’t know what the hell their plan is…and if [they trade Ryan and Lopez], I have to imagine Byron Buxton is going to say, ‘I don’t want to be here!’…That may be the last straw for Buck.”

LaVelle E. Neal – KFAN Radio

He made it very clear during the All-Star break, too, that he was not going to accept a trade. But listening to LaVelle rant on the radio this morning may have me changing my tune ever so slightly.

Buxton told reporters a couple of weeks ago that he does not want to go through another rebuild, which appears to be exactly where the Minnesota Twins are heading. Were his words that evening a precursor, as the local columnist theorized Wednesday, to an eventual trade request not that far down the road?

“I think the one to watch is Byron Buxton. He has a full-no trade in his contract so he would have to approve the deal. But it was pretty ominous when he said a couple weeks ago about, ‘if we are going on a rebuilding plan, this is the third rebuilding plan since I’ve been here.’ Okay, so that’s a message.”

“The Pohlads come across as tone-deaf when it comes to listening to the desperate pleas from this fanbase to put a winning team on the field. But you can’t be tone-deaf to the guys in your locker room/clubhouse. You have to understand [if you’re the Pohlads] that if the temperature is being turned up in there, that you need to address that.

And if your best player Byron Buxton, who’s one of the best all-around players in baseball — probably the best offensive center fielder in the game this year — is dropping hints like, ‘I don’t want to go through this again,’ that’s not heading in the right spot.”

LaVelle E. Neal – KFAN Radio

It’s important to put a disclaimer here, as Neal did, that he claims not to have any insider steam on Byron Buxton’s current thought process. He is simply putting together the scenarios in his head.

Unfortunately, LaVelle E. Neal could be right…

How can you argue his logic, though? If the first step of the Minnesota Twins offseason is to trade the only two legitimate MLB pitchers remaining on their roster… what would be the incentive for Buxton to stay?

“I’m worried. I don’t have any evidence, folks. I’m not saying I have any inside dope or anything, but I am worried there is more rock-bottom baseball to come for this organization in 2026.

So to me, they have to articulate what the hell the plan is going forward, sooner than later, now that the season is about to wrap up. They need to be forthcoming on about what they plan to do.”

LaVelle E. Neal – KFAN Radio

That’s an especially worthy question to ask, considering how ownership would react if Byron did indeed ask out. Because knowing the Pohlads, they’d rather collect the savings on him leaving, than everything he provides as the face of their wannabe MLB franchise.

LaVelle E. Neal believes that articulating the plan better to fans, media and Byron Buxton, himself, will help mend the situation. Unfortunately, I am worried that more transparency will only shed light on what we already know, deep down.