The development in the ownership situation has changed things, as Derek Falvey now says they intend to keep their star players and add to the roster.

A sigh of relief would be a fair reaction to this news, but is it really worth celebrating?

The Twins have been in a state of stasis for almost three calendar years, declining to invest in moderate-cost or multi-year free agents while keeping much of the roster core almost precisely the same.

The results speak for themselves: the team missed the playoffs in both seasons since payroll was slashed heading into 2024.

The team is at a crossroads: the current roster clearly isn’t good enough, and ownership hasn’t been willing to invest enough to change things.

The news that the Twins were looking to build around their star players brought instant excitement.

Their current estimated payroll of around $95 million has inspired little hope for next season, and further payroll shedding would put the final nail in the coffin of fan morale. To hear them frame their plans in this manner was a refreshing development.

Unfortunately, it sounds like more corporate speak that Twins fans have grown so accustomed to.

“Building around” the stars on the current roster likely means a payroll that won’t approach the $135 million the team allocated at the beginning of 2025, and $110 million is a plausible result, according to Dan Hayes of The Athletic.

This number would place the Twins firmly in the bottom third of the league in spending and represent a decline in payroll for a third consecutive season.

Such a low number would leave the team scouring the bargain bin for one-year deals once again, a tactic that has had mixed results for this regime, to put it kindly.

The Twins could use impact players at multiple positions, but will likely once again have to settle for low-wattage deals with uninspiring names and hope to hit on a few of them.

A $110 million payroll would represent a notable decline from the payroll of the 2025 roster, which lost 92 games. Within this number is $10 million being paid to Houston, who took Carlos Correa off their hands at the deadline.

It would leave the bullpen without names such as Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, and Louis Varland, while also giving the team little chance to find adequate replacements.

Fan morale may have received a shot in the arm when Falvey announced their desire to build around their star players, but this is sure to dissipate throughout another quiet offseason.

It stands to fall back into apathy if the team gets off to another slow start with much of the same core.

There’s no telling how badly morale declines if 2026 includes another deadline sell-off where the Twins wind up parting with the star players they claim to be “building around” anyway. That’s assuming they’re healthy and performing well at the time.

Twins Daily users voted on this subject over the past few days, and basically split the vote, with 138 in favor of a rebuild, and 140 against a rebuild:

It would be difficult to frame a $110 million payroll as anything more than a disingenuous “attempt” to try to compete by Twins’ leadership, but it’s not difficult to envision them trying to do so.

They can repeat this talking point, hoping fans weigh their additions against their current 2026 payroll of around $95 million rather than comparing it to previous seasons, in which it is almost certain to decline for the third consecutive year.

If things go off the rails for a second consecutive year, they can sell off their rentals and consider doing the same with names such as Byron Buxton and Pablo Lopez to lower their bottom-line costs for the 2026 season, just as they did in 2025.

Unfortunately, this is a very real possibility.

The Twins appear unlikely to emerge from their three-year hibernation when it comes to significant roster moves.

Keeping their star players, such as Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan, at least gives them a chance to compete in 2026 if things go perfectly and if much of the roster that has failed them for two straight years finally comes around. That chance may be enough.

It does raise the question, though: Is reducing payroll even further and taking half measures to compete for the third straight season really better than entering a full-blown rebuild?