Dodgers weigh Joe Ryan trade as Twins push payroll cuts

Dodgers trade – The Minnesota Twins’ push to cut payroll and rebuild their farm could set up a deal for Joe Ryan, a controllable starter with a year-plus remaining after this season. The Los Angeles Dodgers, chasing a third straight World Series, see Ryan as a way to deepen a

For the Minnesota Twins. the offseason has the feel of a numbers crunch—one ownership is already willing to act on. With the team still alive in the AL Wild Card race. the pressure to lower payroll is real. and the direction coming from the front office is just as clear: cut costs now. and feed the rebuild through the farm.

That makes a trade involving Joe Ryan—still under contract for a year after this season—more plausible than it might have been earlier in the year. The idea isn’t just to move a valuable arm. It’s to create payroll flexibility while adding prospects they can develop.

The Twins’ incentive is only sharpened by how the AL Wild Card picture looks for more than one team. The Minnesota club may be in the hunt. but the same can be said for the Detroit Tigers and just about every other down-and-out team in the American League—meaning the market for controllable starters has urgency built into it. If Minnesota decides it’s time to turn a productive, movable asset into long-term depth, Ryan fits the mold.

On the other side of the table, the Los Angeles Dodgers are weighing what it would take to go after Minnesota’s ace. They’ve been linked to Detroit Tigers star Tarik Skubal as a potential trade target, but an emerging backup plan has started to take shape: Joe Ryan.

The Dodgers don’t have to look far to understand why. Their rotation is already loaded with talent. but recent seasons have been a reminder that “fully healthy” is a temporary state. Tyler Glasnow has been a difficult bet to bank on, and Blake Snell has faced durability questions as well. Even with Shohei Ohtani performing on the mound this year. the fact that he’s a two-way player adds another layer of risk—one that matters most when October games demand everything be ready.

In this setting, Ryan reads like a straightforward answer to a recurring problem: depth that isn’t speculative. He’s the kind of pitcher the Dodgers can reasonably see as part of a long runway. too—one they’d value even more because the team’s goal isn’t a one-month fix. The attraction is the possibility of putting Ryan at the center of their starting rotation in 2027.

The sticking point is always the price. Trading for Ryan will not come cheap. Skubal. the Dodgers’ other major target in the conversation. can be had for a top-100 prospect and filler. but Ryan’s value is higher. He has better statistics. more starts under his belt. and—most importantly—there’s still a year left on his deal after the 2026 season.

That’s where the Dodgers would have to decide what they’re willing to sacrifice. If the Twins are going to deal Ryan and his year-plus of control, they would want a substantial return.

The names that come up are pitching and prospect depth—the kind Los Angeles can build from but can’t afford to empty. In the Dodgers system. Sirota is described as the 39th-ranked prospect in all of baseball and the third-best outfielder in the Dodgers organization. His toolkit is valued for both hit and power. rated with 55-grade hit and power tools. and his 60-grade run tool makes him a threat on the basepaths.

Sirota’s value matters, too, because Ryan’s current readiness complicates the trade calculus. Ryan is Detroit’s age-of-now?. No—he’s Minnesota’s immediate leverage. He’s listed here as the Dodgers’ top-ranked pitching prospect before a season-ending injury in 2024. and this year he’s working his way back to the big-league club. His Triple-A numbers at Oklahoma City are a 4.46 ERA.

When Ryan is healthy, the expectation is that he would slide into the Twins rotation. That’s part of why Minnesota would demand a real haul.

And the package doesn’t stop with Ryan. Root enters as the added “cherry on top.” He was selected with the 40th-overall pick in 2025 and is described as the Dodgers’ second-ranked left-handed pitching prospect. Root has a 2.65 ERA in A-ball.

Taken together, Root and Sirota are the kind of prospects that could tempt a Twins front office that wants to accelerate the rebuild. In this matchup of needs and resources, the verdict laid out is simple: yes—Minnesota would make a trade for Joe Ryan if the price is right.

From the Dodgers’ perspective, the reasoning runs through the one thing their organization prides itself on: the ability to replenish. Trading two top-100 prospects is painful, the case is that it’s necessary if Los Angeles is serious about winning a third-straight World Series.

They’ve asked a lot of their starting rotation and bullpen in back-to-back postseason runs. Bringing in Ryan would lighten that load. It would also change the month-to-month calculus for Ohtani this October—because anything that reduces the stress on a rotation can translate into fresher arms where games are decided.

The Dodgers can afford to part with Sirota, in this telling, because Zyhir Hope and Eduardo Quintero are both ranked above him per MLB Pipeline. The counterweight is that trading Ryan and Root will sting for a farm system that lacks much starting pitching talent.

In the ledger, there’s also risk baked into Ryan’s profile. He comes with significant injury risk, and Root hasn’t proven anything in the upper levels of the minor leagues yet. Still, the argument in favor is that Ryan is a proven product.

With Ryan added, the Dodgers’ rotation—already considered one of the best in MLB when fully healthy—would have no weaknesses in a seven-game series, the case goes. The closing conclusion in this scenario: yes, the Dodgers would consider the trade for Joe Ryan.

For now. it’s still a “could be” built out of contract control. farm strength. and a recurring league truth: one deep roster can’t last the year by talent alone. Health, timing, and leverage decide everything. And as the Twins weigh payroll cuts and rebuilding through the farm. Joe Ryan sits in the exact intersection where that decision can land.

Minnesota Twins Joe Ryan Los Angeles Dodgers Tarik Skubal MLB trade rumors payroll cuts farm system AL Wild Card