MLB Trade Rumors: 3 Top Trade Candidates Who Will NOT Be Dealt — Report

While trade boards have been listing all the most likely major leaguers to be traded this offseason, we can now scratch a few of those names off the list. According to Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic, the Minnesota Twins will NOT be trading three of their star players, as many expected. In fact, the team hopes to contend in the AL Central in 2026. Believe it or not.

All those fans waiting for their teams to acquire one of the Minnesota Twins’ stars probably can forget it.
The Twins do not anticipate moving center fielder Byron Buxton or right-handers Joe Ryan and Pablo López, according to league sources briefed on their plans. Minnesota’s goal is to keep those players, build around them and compete in 2026.

This comes as a surprise to many teams who were looking to the Twins as a team they could deal with to add a major piece to their rotations. But Ryan and Lopez are apparently staying in the Twin Cities, as is Buxton, who had his healthiest season in eight years and slugged 35 homers.

The New York Mets were one team that was pursuing Ryan, and also Lopez, who had several other teams hot on his trail as well. It was thought that the Twins wanted to lower their debt by trading at least one of those starting pitchers and/or Buxton. But it sounds like they'll have to find other ways to tighten the purse strings.

"Finances presumably remain an issue," writes Rosenthal, "but trades of players such as Ryan and Buxton would further alienate the fan base. Club officials believe the team is talented enough to compete in the AL Central, one of baseball’s weaker divisions."

The Twins traded away no less than 10 players at the 2025 deadline, two of them going on to participate in the World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays—reliever Louis Varland and first baseman Ty France.

The team, however, does not want to part with their three remaining stars this winter.

"Rival clubs interested in Ryan, Buxton and López almost certainly will keep pushing to acquire them, as teams always seek to add high-end players," adds Rosenthal. "The Twins will listen, as clubs in their position are obligated to do. But it likely would take an overwhelming offer for any of the three to be traded."