No man left behind.
The Twins traded nearly half of their MLB roster at last week’s trade deadline, but if it weren’t for the Carlos Correa deal, pitcher Griffin Jax likely would have stayed put.
Once Correa was moved, Jax knew it was time to go and immediately put in a trade request of his own, which wound up landing him with the Rays.
According to The Athletic, Jax had a confrontation in the dugout with Twins manager Rocco Baldelli late in Wednesday’s loss to the Boston Red Sox, which Correa tried to mediate.
But this wasn’t going to force Jax to request a trade, it was afterward when Correa informed Jax of a conversation he had with team president Derek Falvey: Correa would only waive his no-trade clause if the team was pursuing a full-blown roster sale at the deadline.
So, when Correa was traded back to the Astros, a team he spent seven years of his career with, Jax knew that the roster teardown Correa mentioned was underway and he wasn’t fond of the idea of being left behind with the aftermath.
The reliever requested a trade and was dealt to the Rays for former top pitching prospect Taj Bradley.
Jax was thriving as a swing-and-miss arm out of Minnesota’s bullpen before the deadline, as he had racked up 72 strikeouts across 46 innings, good for a 14.1 K/9, which is second in MLB among relievers with at least 40 innings pitched.
In the 24 hours leading up to Thursday’s trade deadline, Minnesota dealt 10 players off its 26-man active MLB roster.
It was perhaps the most shocking deadline for any team in baseball, as that extent of selling at the deadline toed the line of excessive.
The Twins also traded elite closer Jhoan Duran, which was originally what made many surprised that they also decided to move Jax — as it turns out, though, it was Jax’s request in the first place.
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