The Minnesota Twins have made some changes to the first week of Spring Training in Fort Myers, Fla., after last year’s late-season collapse to miss the American League Playoffs for the third time in four years.

Baseball Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby is credited with one of the more famous quotes about the baseball offseason:

“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Staring out the window and waiting is one way to spend the cold, baseball-less months before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in February. Another way is to play armchair front office decision-maker and tell us how you would handle this offseason if you were in charge of the Twins!

Addressing the Twins’ deficiencies after their stretch run collapse will be no simple undertaking because the 2024-2025 offseason is expected to be heavily influenced by competing financial issues that will limit the front office’s checkbook.

First, the team’s new television deal with MLB, which should expand access to Twins baseball, is expected to be significantly less lucrative than the prior regional sports network setup. Second, the contracts for Carlos Correa, Pablo López, and Chris Paddack are structured with significant year-over-year salary increases in 2025. Third, many of the Twins’ young veterans — Bailey Ober, Joe Ryan, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Trevor Larnach, and Royce Lewis — will reach arbitration for the first time and are expected to earn healthy salary increases.

Roll those factors together, and there is a good chance the Twins’ payroll is already above the expected 2025 target before any moves to address players departing in free agency or to fortify any weaknesses can be made.

And that’s all to say nothing of any potential impacts that may come about from Pohlad’s intention to sell the team.

Despite that bleak-sounding assessment and the disappointing 82-80 record last season that left a sour taste, Minnesota is returning a strong core that should again be expected to contend in the suddenly formidable AL Central.

Most of the current roster is under contract to return in 2025. Long-time right-fielder Max Kepler will be a free agent, as will first baseman Carlos Santana and lefty reliever Caleb Thielbar. In addition, outfielder/first baseman Alex Kirilloff announced his retirement, and both outfielder Manuel Margot and infielder Kyle Farmer have mutual options with the Twins that seem likely to be declined.

In addition to finding answers for first base and bench hitting depth, new hitting coach Matt Borgschulte will be tasked with coaxing more consistency out of a lineup that produced solid numbers in aggregate but possessed a nasty tendency to run very hot or very cold for weeks at a time.

The Twins also need more quality depth for a pitching staff that finished 21st in ERA and significantly wore down late last season. While the emergence of David Festa and Zebby Matthews in the starting rotation and the solid campaign from Simeon Woods-Richardson were bright spots, those shouldn’t be taken as givens to repeat (see: Varland, Louie) and the bullpen lacked enough quality high-leverage options beyond Jax, Duran, and perhaps Cole Sands.

Then there is the evergreen need for strong backups in center field and at shortstop to weather the inevitable Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa injuries.

In a more macro sense, the Twins roster lacks athleticism and speed. You can see in the 2024 data above that they were terrible at running the bases (a multi-year theme under Derek Falvey and Rocco Baldelli). They were also one of the poorest defensive clubs, especially after the Buxton and Correa injuries. That’s a major reason the pitching staff’s run prevention numbers under-performed, despite very strong strikeout and walk rates.

The payroll status and expected constraints could mean the winter will be a quiet one, or it might push Derek Falvey to be creative and active in the trade market as he seeks to improve the roster. Minnesota possesses one of baseball’s most highly regarded farm systems. That’s headlined by Walker Jenkins, a strong candidate to be the top prospect in baseball next season, and Emmanuel Rodriguez and Luke Keaschall, who both figure to spend time at Target Field in 2025. The Twins’ system is also lauded for its depth of potential big league contributors, which might be a useful tool from which to facilitate deals.

Against that backdrop, what would you do this winter? Will you try to bring back Kepler and Santana? Do you believe in José Miranda and Edouard Julien to stay healthy and bounce back? Could they be the answer at first? How will you improve the pitching staff and fortify the roster’s depth?

Below is a guide to the offseason that includes an outline of all the key decisions that need to be made, and links to some useful resources to help with your decisions. We’ve put together a nifty roster template to help you keep track of the players and numbers.

Here are helpful resources for how to make a FanPost (Here is the SB Nation FanPost help guide) so you can write up your plan and tell us what you’re thinking. We’ll promote any off-season plan posts to the front page so everyone can read them.

Happy roster building! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!