Like a bear waking up from winter hibernation, the Minnesota Twins are finally starting to stretch their legs and make some offseason moves.

Spring Training is nearly here, with pitchers and catchers set to report to Fort Myers next week, but when the full squad arrives a few days later things will look a little different.

After twiddling thumbs for most of the last three months, the Twins went on a spree this past week adding to the roster in ways that actually feel meaningful.

Minnesota added Danny Coulombe back to its bullpen after he spent the last two seasons in Baltimore, and the team finally found the right-handed hitting outfielder they’ve been looking for the last few seasons in Harrison Bader.

The additions apparently won’t stop there, as the Twins are rumored to be looking at trading for a backup shortstop like Paul DeJong or Luis Urías.

All of this incoming action requires some moves to be made to the roster to make space, which triggered yet another move in the form of a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Minnesota Twins trade Michael Helman to the Cardinals to make room for recent additions

Space was going to be needed on the 40-man roster to fit Bader and Coulombe, and the first domino to fall was utility-man Michael Helman.

He wasn’t so much traded as he was sold off to the Cardinals, as the Twins will be getting cash considerations in return.

The Twins trading a player to get some money feels extremely on-brand, though.

The Twins have traded Michael Helman to the Cardinals for cash

— Brandon Warne (@brandon_warne) February 6, 2025

What doesn’t feel as on-brand is the number of seemingly meaningful moves the team is making late in the offseason.

Historically this is usually when the Twins strike, as we saw them make trades in late-January in back-to-back seasons as well as make their annual veteran flier signing around the same time.

Pablo Lopez was acquired in January two years ago, while Jorge Polanco was traded last year right before the Twins went out and signed Carlos Santana. Two of those moves proved fruitful, as Lopez remains the team’s ace while Santana won a Gold Glove at first base.

We don’t talk about the Polanco trade, which was effectively a salary dump in which neither team won.

Moving Helman is almost a MacGuffin, as the real talking point is how the Twins added Bader and Coulombe to help fill key areas of need.

We’re in the third straight offseason of the team needing to find an insurance policy for Byron Buxton and Bader is easily an upgrade over Manuel Margot; meanwhile Coulombe arrives as much-needed relief to a bullpen that was solid for almost the entire season until it imploded at the exact wrong time.

Perhaps these moves end up not working out, but they’re far better swings than anything the team did last year.

One thing the Twins couldn’t afford to do was shoulder shrug their way through another season of being unserious about contending, and while they were late to the party — per usual — these moves feel more like what we saw the team do two years ago rather than whatever happened last offseason.