There have been dozens of threads on TD over the last 10 days about whether the twins should be buyers or sellers. Whether they should make a trade to attempt a push towards October this year, or maintain the long-term trajectory and hold to the rebuilding strategy the FO seems to be holding to. My question and thought is, is there a possibility we could do both? I've seen people calling for catching help, and I've seen people calling for bullpen help. Those seem to be the two main positions of need. I would add that we need DH and shortstop upgrades as well. My question is, how can the twins attempt to be relevant this year, while not sacrificing the hopes of building a long-term competitive team?

I will attempt to answer my own question with as few words as possible...which doesn't come easily to me. I think the first step IMO is to call up Sano, Polanco and a combination of one or two of the following relief arms that the organization deems to be the most ready. Achter, Oliveros, Meyer or Burdi. My reasoning is Sano may not bat to his future potential this year, but he is advanced enough that its not going to hurt him, and he will be significantly better than what we are getting currently out of the DH position, even if he can only manage to bat .250/.300/.475 with 15 home runs over the rest of the year. My thought is DH him 3-4 days a week, then give Mauer off a day or two a week, and slide Plouffe to first so that Sano can continue to get reps at third to see if he can stick there. Play Polanco at short. His bat is advanced enough that he deserves a shot, and will upgrade the position offensively from Escobar/Nunez. Don't get me wrong, I like Escobar and think he's a great utility infielder, but would prefer Polancos bat. I think he at least deserves a shot to prove whether or not he should stay at short, and why not let him prove that in Minnesota, where the fans can watch him hit.

As far as the bullpen help goes, sub one or two of those previously mentioned guys out for Duensing for sure and then maybe another for one of the other rarely used relievers.

I still have not addressed the catcher issue, and don't know realistically if that can/will be addressed this season. However, by inserting Sano and Polanco into the lineup you can then bat Suzuki/Hermann in the number 8 or 9 spot and they will be much less of a liability than they are batting 5th or 6th.

Again, I don't think anyone expects the twins to win the world series this year. While that would be nice, its just not going to happen short of a couple dozen miracles. However, I don't think that its out of the realm of possibility for the twins to play .500 ball the rest of the way and end up with 85 wins and a shot at a hard-fought division title, or maybe within reach of a wild-card spot. If nothing else, they would be relevant and fans would stay interested. They don't need jaw-dropping changes, just slight improvements, and by getting a little more production offensively from the DH and short stop and removing the bullpen liabilities while adding some guys in there that can actually be of some help, I think we would make ourselves better this year, while not jeopardizing, and in fact continuing to develop talent for the years to come.