Expect New Positions for Multiple Twins in 2026

This offseason, Minnesota Twins president Derek Falvey has a lot of work to do, now that he has flipped the Twins’ fluorescent sign out on the offseason market from “seller” to “buyer”.

Not only are the Twins getting a late start, compared to other buyers out shopping, but the sudden change in direction comes just months after the Pohlads ordered team president Derek Falvey to tear the big league roster down to its studs, at the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline.

Of course, Minnesota’s biggest problem at the Winter Meetings this week isn’t timing. It’s money. The Twins are trying to completely rebuild a bullpen they nuked at the end of July, while simultaneously searching for an upgrade at first base.

But Falvey only has $10-$20 million to go out and fill about 5-7 spots on the 26-man roster. In order to do that, some of the changes may have to be more creative than logging a transaction on the free agent and/or trade markets.

One option is for new manager Derek Shelton to take talent that might be built up at one position and try to move some of it to a spot where the Minnesota Twins are lacking big league options.

Healthy Luke Keaschall can play the outfield

Last season, Luke Keaschall made his highly-anticipated debut for the MN Twins and blew away even the highest expectations… when he was on the field.

Keaschall played through an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery in 2024. By the time he was ready to swing a bat again, he was still far from 100% from a throwing perspective.

But in 2025, Luke Keaschall should enter Spring Training at full-health, meaning the 23-year-old former Arizona State star is likely to play his first ever big league innings in the outfield this season — something GM Jeremy Zoll discussed with Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune down in Orlando this week.

The Twins want to give Luke Keaschall some experience in the outfield. He played some outfield during his 2024 minor league season, but he stayed at second base this year after recovering from elbow surgery.

A forearm fracture cost Keaschall three months last season and scuttled plans to experiment with Keaschall in the outfield.

“It could be really valuable if he could run out to left field or center field along the way,” Twins General Manager Jeremy Zoll said. “We’re going to have some more formal conversations on what all that is going to look like pretty soon.”

Star Tribune

In the minors Keaschall played 173 2/3 innings in the outfield, all of which came in center field. His speed makes him an ideal fit there, and his arm strength has never been an issue, prior to Tommy John.

Could that mean we see the Twins use Keaschall in center more than expected, especially now that Byron Buxton will be turning 32-years-old? There’s no sign of that yet, but father time is undefeated.

And it’s worth noting that we could see Byron Buxton play a corner outfield position in March, when he plays for Team USA at the World Baseball Classic. Even if we aren’t to that point yet, he will still be extremely valuable when Buxton needs a day off.

As a rookie Keaschall batted .302/.382/.445 across 49 games in a Minnesota Twins uniform. He hit 14 doubles, four home runs, and swiped 14 bases. Unfortunately, Keaschall missed most of the season with a broken forearm. For any of the above dreams to come true, he will have to stay on the field.

More Minnesota Twins starter-to-reliever experiments coming too

It’s a certainty that the Minnesota Twins need to overhaul their bullpen. After stripping it down to the studs last summer, there is very little left. Relief help is a lot cheaper than trying to trade for starters, which will certainly help this front office throughout the offseason.

But again, the bullpen is another spot where we should expect the Twins to experiment with internal options that may not have been considered previously. Of course, that would mean more positional changes.

Zoll told Nightengale at the Winter Meetings that we could see two talented young starter prospects — Marco Raya and Connor Prielipp — converted to relievers sooner than later.

The Twins haven’t committed to which starters will convert to relievers. Marco Raya, who spent the entire year in Class AAA, seems likely to end up in the bullpen.

Members of the front office are split on Connor Prielipp’s role. The lefty has the potential to be a frontline starter, which would take a little longer to unlock, or an impact reliever.

Prielipp started throwing a sinker at the end of last season. Twins player development staff want to “get one more crack trying to finish developing his [pitch] mix,” Zoll said.

Star Tribune

Raya is a former top prospect but he had an ugly 6.02 ERA in St. Paul last year. The strikeout stuff is there, but walk and home run rates got gaudy. It seems pretty straightforward to send him to the bullpen and see if he can be a guy right from the jump.

Prielipp is fun to dream on as a starter, but he’s dealt with so many injury issues that a relief role seems to make sense. Minnesota will probably wait to make that commitment, but it’s one they’ll be faced with answering this season.

If there’s a big league starter that could move into the bullpen, David Festa seems like the guy. He’s coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome, and he had a 5.40 ERA (4.88 FIP) in 53 1/3 innings last year. Another bump in velocity could happen out of the bullpen, and his limited pitch mix would play better there too.