Expected starting rotation for the Twins after being acquired by the Mariners

The starting five that Minnesota is anticipated to use following the trade of Jorge Polanco are shown here.

The Minnesota Twins made the significant move for which we had been waiting all winter. On Monday, the Seattle Mariners acquired Jorge Polanco in exchange for four players returning to Minnesota.

It’s not an easy agreement to work out, since some supporters don’t think Polanco’s return package was worth the money they paid. The Twins obtained two MLB players in addition to two prospects in Anthony DeSclanfani and Justin Topa. The Twins acquired a player ranked in the Top 100, although Gabriel Gonzalez is the more noteworthy of the two. He is now ranked as the No. 79 prospect in MLB’s most recent rankings.

Despite how fantastic the comeback appears to be, it falls short of Sonny Gray’s starting rotation replacement. DeSclanfani had a 4-8 record and a 4.88 ERA in less than 100 innings pitched during the previous campaign. The Twins were never going to find a one-for-one replacement for Gray, but they have been hinting at the possibility of acquiring a front-line starter all winter, and that was not what this trade offered.

It appears that the Twins have finished adding players to their starting rotation, so perhaps another move is not in the cards. This implies that when the season begins in a few months, we will have a good idea of who will start in the top five spots.

Twins’ anticipated starting lineup with the acquisition of Anthony DeSclafani
Nobody is surprised to learn that Pablo Lopez will start on Opening Day, as announced by Rocco Baldelli. Pablo would be the Twins ace going into the season, as we have always known. The issue has been how Minnesota can complement his output.

Here’s where we think things will probably wind up:

Although things can change, Derek Falvey had previously stated before the deal that he was fine with the starting five looking the way they did at the beginning of the season. Louie Varland was considered a possible No. 5 option at the time, but DeSclanfani’s purchase appears to have changed that.

Varland is still anticipated to be considered for a position on the Opening Day roster, but if he does, he will be used as a reliever.

After all the hoopla about how the club might enhance the rotation, it’s difficult to be unduly optimistic about how it turned out. It seems like a high price to pay that the Twins traded Polanco to replace Kenta Maeda at the end of the rotation rather than Gray.

However, Justin Topa is also a crucial component of this trade since he provides some much-needed depth to the bullpen. Hard-throwing reliever Topa concluded the previous season with a 2.61 ERA in almost 80 innings of relief, and the Twins are in desperate need of some consistency in the pen.

But starting pitching was the organization’s biggest need for the summer, and it doesn’t seem like the team addressed that need as much as supporters had hoped.