The news Thursday morning came out of nowhere. Until the Pohlad family released a statement announcing its intent to sell the Minnesota Twins after 40 years of ownership, there hadn’t been an inkling something this drastic was even under consideration.
Sure, the Pohlads took heat from fans and baseball writers for the club cutting payroll this season, collapsing down the stretch and missing the playoffs. That goes with the territory, and they know it as well as anyone. And sure, some militant fans and media types demanded the family sell the team, which most of us dismissed with a, “Yeah, right.” The club had just passed to a third generation of leadership. What were the chances of that actually happening?
Higher than zero, clearly.
Look: whether you believe this or not, the Pohlads I’ve gotten to know over the years (Jim and Joe, mainly) care deeply about the club and its employees. They want to win as badly as any long-suffering Twins fan who remembers Zoilo Versalles and still listens to games on the radio.
When I saw Jim Pohlad leaving Target Field the night the Twins were eliminated from the postseason, he looked ashen, as if there had been a death in the family. No one’s that good an actor.
This is the same Jim Pohlad who told me during the Ron Gardenhire era, shortly after the Twins traded Carlos “Go-Go” Gomez, that Gomez was his favorite Twin. He ached over the 18-game postseason losing streak, too.
But the family had to live with decisions — business and on-field — that didn’t work out, leaving a Twins fan base that’s never been angrier at the club, or them.
The goodwill from 2023’s brief postseason run, glorious by modern Twins standards, went right down the drain this summer when the club blew what appeared to be a cinch wild-card berth.
And it wasn’t all about payroll. Top executives Derek Falvey and the now-departed Thad Levine deserve their share of blame for acquiring pitchers with injury histories who broke down again, assembling an unreliable bullpen and building a team around three players — Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis — who can’t stay healthy.
Navigating baseball’s economics
But the economics of the game are changing for clubs without an in-house broadcasting arm, like the Yankees and Mets, whose local TV revenues dwarf the $54.8 million Diamond Sports Group paid the Twins in 2023. With MLB taking over the Twins broadcast operation, local TV revenue figures to dip dramatically. It may be years before the Twins get back to previous levels — if ever. That puts even more pressure on the club to sell more tickets. The Twins haven’t drawn more than 2 million fans to Target Field since 2019, and the latest collapse doesn’t make that benchmark any easier to reach.
At a local baseball dinner last winter, former Twins president Jerry Bell admitted the club erred in 2004 by shutting down its in-house Victory Sports broadcasting venture and re-upping with Fox Sports North. The Twins couldn’t convince regional cable providers to carry the fledgling network and chose the most lucrative guaranteed deal instead of sticking it out. That left the club vulnerable to the business whims of whatever entity carried its games, leading to last season’s disastrous three-month blackout on Comcast/Xfinity.
So what happens now?
First, there’s no guarantee the Pohlads will find a buyer willing to meet their price — hence the “explore selling the Twins” language in the family’s statement. As Phil Miller mentioned in his Star Tribune story about the sale, the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Nationals have been “for sale” for four years with no buyer(s) in sight. For a sense of what it would take, the Kansas City Royals fetched a reported $1 billion when sold to local investors in 2019, and the Baltimore Orioles $1.725 billion seven months ago.
The Twins could be more attractive to investors because Target Field is paid off, relatively modern (it opened in 2010) and still generating significant revenue from suites, club seating and on-site bars and restaurants. There’s tax money banked for renovations, too. Those factors also make it unlikely a new owner, even from outside Minnesota, would move the club.
Shoring up the fan base
Whether the Pohlads or someone else owns the Twins in 2025, there’s work to be done to lure fans back. It starts with outreach, which has been an issue for a while. Twins players and staffers do fewer public appearances than ever, a trend that began during the pandemic (understandably) and hasn’t increased enough in subsequent years.
The Twins annual Winter Caravan made more than 40 stops across four states in 2017, with manager Paul Molitor and then-young stars like Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios and Eddie Rosario on board for some of it. Last year’s Caravan made only 15 — one each in North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. It’s almost impossible to get manager Rocco Baldelli, who lives in Rhode Island in the off-season, to commit to anything outside the ballpark; he made one caravan appearance last year, in St. Paul. If the manager won’t invest the time, why should the players?
We’ll see how this all plays out. It’s not clear whether a new owner will retain upper management or clean house; new owners often bring in their own “people.” A rash of big-name resignations or retirements could signal a deal is near and they’ve been told they’re not in the plans.
One last note for fans who demanded the Pohlads spend more or sell the club: it’s conceivable a new owner(s) might read the financials, panic over the TV revenue uncertainty and decide to cut payroll even further. Be careful what you celebrate.
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