The Minnesota Twins find themselves in an awkward position just two weeks out from the July 31 trade deadline. At 47-49, 11.5 games back of the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers, the division crown is out of their reach, barring a historic collapse by Detroit. At the same time, the club is just four games out of the third and final AL Wild Card spot.
While Minnesota has yet to have any serious internal conversations about selling at the deadline, they'd be wise to employ a multi-faceted approach of both buying and selling, parting with veterans on expiring deals to get back longer-term assets as the centerpieces of their deadline dealings to better position themselves to compete with the upstart Tigers for years to come.