Twins owner Joe Pohlad, grandson of longtime owner Carl Pohlad and nephew of successor Jim Pohlad, announced that his family will begin exploring a sale of the team. The Pohlad family has owned the Twins since 1984 — the third-longest tenure of any ownership group in the sport behind only the Steinbrenner family (Yankees) and Jerry Reinsdorf (White Sox).
“For the past 40 seasons, the Minnesota Twins have been part of our family’s heart and soul,” Pohlad said in this morning’s press release. “This team is woven into the fabric of our lives, and the Twins community has become an extension of our family. The staff, the players, and most importantly, you, the fans — everyone who makes up this unbelievable organization — is part of that. We’ve never taken lightly the privilege of being stewards of this franchise. However, after months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins. As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public.
We truly respect and cherish what the Twins mean to Minneapolis, St. Paul, the great state of Minnesota, and this entire region. Our goal is to be as informative as possible with the team, staff, and you, the fans. You deserve that, because in so many ways, this team doesn’t belong to any one family – it belongs to all of you. It’s our objective to find an ownership group who all of us can be proud of and who will take care of the Minnesota Twins.
After four decades of commitment, passion, and countless memories, we are looking toward the future with care and intention – for our family, the Twins organization, and this community we love so much.”
Carl Pohlad purchased the Twins franchise from former owner Calvin Griffith for a purchase price of $44MM back in 1984. Three generations of the family have since spearheaded ownership, with the 42-year-old Joe Pohlad being tabbed as the team’s control person just two years ago. It’s impossible to know precisely how much the Twins might fetch in a sale, but it’ll surely top $1 billion. The Royals ($1 billion), Marlins ($1.2 billion) and Orioles ($1.725 billion) commanded at least that much in their sales within the past half decade. Entering the season, Forbes placed an estimated $1.46 billion value on the Twins — a five percent increase over the prior year.
For a frustrated Twins fanbase, it’s surely welcome news. Ownership drew the ire of Minnesota fans by slashing $30MM off the payroll on the heels of the team’s first postseason series win since 2002 just this past offseason. Uncertainty surrounding the television broadcast rights in the midst of Diamond Sports Group’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings largely fueled that decision, but it was nevertheless a disheartening trajectory for a fanbase that has long voiced frustration with ownership even before that reduction in budget.
The Twins have long resided in the bottom half and frequently the bottom third of Major League Baseball in terms of player payroll. Fans were sold hope that the construction of Target Field, which opened in 2010, would boost spending capacity. It’s technically true that the team’s payroll has risen, but only relative to their prior spending levels and not relative to the rest of the league. The Twins haven’t ranked in the top half of the league in payroll size since 2012, and this past season’s 18th-ranked payroll falls right in line with the same levels they sat at the Metrodome in 2003-09, when their payroll ranked between 18th and 25th in the sport each season (per Cot’s Contracts).
It bears emphasizing that exploring a sale and committing to a sale are not one and the same. Angels owner Arte Moreno and Nationals owner Mark Lerner have both explored the possibility of selling their own clubs in the past two to three years, only to eventually express a change in direction and intent to continue on as the owners of those respective teams. Both of those clubs were purchased by current ownership far more recently, however, and play in much larger markets. That meant loftier sale prices and less potential for return on investment than the Pohlad family stands to make in soliciting bids on a small-market club that was purchased four decades ago for a price smaller than the combined salary of the Twins’ two most-expensive players (Carlos Correa and Pablo Lopez).
For now, the prospect of a sale surely instills a sense of hope in fans but also creates more questions than answers. It’s unclear whether the Twins are wholly committed to selling or simply seeing what the franchise might fetch, nor is it presently known what price they’ll seek or if there’s any sort of deadline after which they’ll stop fielding interest. On a smaller scale, it’s difficult to glean just what a sale of the club might mean for the 2025 roster and payroll. Joe Pohlad had already publicly stated that he did not anticipate further reduction in payroll, though that was before the sale of the club was made public.
It’s also possible, though far from certain, that news of the impending sale process prompted now-former general manager Thad Levine — the team’s No. 2 baseball operations executive behind president of baseball operations Derek Falvey — to step down and seek new opportunities. Levine announced his departure from the club just last week. He did not cite a reason for his decision, but Levine has spoken fondly of the Pohlad family in the past and turned down interview opportunities to interview as a baseball operation leader with other organizations, including the Mets and Phillies. The Rockies were also linked to him before sticking with an internal name and elevating scouting director Bill Schmidt to the GM’s chair. Levine did interview for the Red Sox’ front office vacancy one year ago, but the Sox ultimately hired former Cubs assistant GM Craig Breslow.
horaceallen
Hopefully the new owners will commit to more spending.
Samuel
Yawn
tangerinepony
Considering that they’re a small market team I wouldn’t hold your breath that they’ll increase spending. How’s that contract they gave to Correa or even Buxton turning out ?
Aiden Awe
Minnesota is a mid market city.
lowtalker1
Or maybe they want to relocate the team back home so Montreal can get their team back
kleppy12
The twins franchise was never in Montreal
lowtalker1
Your insight and reading skills are lacking. Twins are from dc you knuckle dragger
Nationals are from Montreal.
ActionDan
What are you talking about “back home to Montreal”? The Twins were never in Montreal. The Twins relocated from Washington DC where they were the original Washington Nationals/Senators.
seamaholic 2
The Twins are pretty near their red line I imagine. Owners do not subsidize franchises from their own pocket and the infinite revenue that fans tend to assume is just fantasy.
StudWinfield
I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for Santa Claus to own your favorite team.
mlb fan
“More spending”…You think of that one yourself?…I ask only because it’s so “original” and well thought out.
Aoe3
With inflation and growing of the sport the price tag will be high to just purchase them. That will probably result in the same mediocre spending. MIN ranks 23rd in attendance for 2024.
ckc12537
inflation is normalizing btw
matthewruske
PLEASE let this happen.
HopefulTwinsFan
LET’S GO. It needs to happen. Twins fans NEED this after a season of hearing that the team wouldn’t acquire good players unless it meant offloading existing spending. Hopefully, new owners will spend more and commit to keeping the team where it is.
Texas Outlaw
New owners will most likely mean higher ticket prices.
benhen77
That’s not how economics works.
CardsFan57
Given the falling revenues, I expect team valuations in smaller markets to drop instead of rising.
Samuel
What falling revenues?
The Bally bankruptcy is temporary.
CardsFan57
The loss of the ability to charge non-fans for local TV rights is not temporary. The RSNs altered the economics of the sport in huge way. The fall of the RSNs are also going to alter the economics of the sport in a huge way, especially in smaller markets.
CardsFan57
Paying for the ability to watch baseball is going from passive and automatic to an active and optional participation. Things will not be the same.
stwawk
That’s highly unlikely. Despite what these owners and MLB imply to the contrary, MLB franchises are extremely profitable.
CardsFan57
Of course they are profitable; but, small market teams just got less profitable. It will affect their valuations.
YankeesBleacherCreature
According to Forbes, no MLB team has historically decreased in their year-over-year valuations. All it takes is two potential buyers bidding. The loser gets nothing as there is no alternate option.
CardsFan57
How far back did Forbes look? I don’t take those kind of summary statements at face value. I need the details behind it. Frankly, that one sounds a lot like there’s never been a nationwide collapse in home prices.
YankeesBleacherCreature
It’s the best public info we got aside from the Atlanta Braves (Liberty Media). MLB attendance is up again and revenue-sharing checks will be larger for recipients.
CardsFan57
I find it extremely difficult to believe that no teams have ever lost market value. They used a cutoff date. I’d simply like to know if it was before or after the emergence of the RSNs.
jdgoat
Twins fans rejoice
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
Now a super billionaire like Jeff Bezos can buy the team and run a 400 million payroll just to finish in 4th place!
stwawk
Then shed payroll two seasons later and make a push deep into the playoffs.
BigV
Haha yep
mlb fan
“Just to finish in 4th place”…Many people will ignore the fact that the big payroll Padres & Mets of just last year didn’t succeed(this year) until they cut, reallocated and more evenly spread out their payroll.
ATLbravos
hope billy heywood has enough capital to buy it back
HalosHeavenJJ
Selling right after the RSN took a dump is rough. That drop in the primary revenue source will certainly impact the price.
Hopefully for Twins fans a new ownership group works out.
I’d kill to have one here.
hiflew
I am not a Twins fan, but I haven’t liked Pohlad since he was basically OK with contracting the Twins (and Expos) as long as money got put in his pocket. These guys are not really “owners” of the team per se, they are simply caretakers. Teams have been around far longer than any single owner and these guys are just taking care of the team until the next caretaker comes along.
stwawk
After reading this, I thought about how the Angelos family handled the sale of the Baltimore Orioles — night and day. Baltimore is fortunate to have ridded itself of that slimy family. This is an example of how ownership should communicate their decisions to fans. I don’t know enough about their tenure to judge how the family handled the team over the decades, but this seems like a decent way to go out. I’m sure some fans will rejoice because they think a new owner will blow up payroll, but at the end of the day, the Twins are still a small market club.
Aiden Awe
Twins are far from a small market, twins are historically mid market franchise.
ForDoingNothing
Best baseball news of my life
I was ready to cut ties with this team
Glad I no longer have to
benhen77
Obligatory reminder-since MLBTR just posted another ad. Betterhelp is not a reputable company- make sure you do some research. Have no problem with MLBTR getting the bag from them, just be a smart consumer and don’t fall for the marketing.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
Are the economics of baseball both broken and designed to favor big market teams?
Well, let’s see…
Every time a non-large market team goes on the market, it’s fans PRAY that a VERY rich guy will buy the team and pour their own money into it so they can kinda sorta almost be in the neighborhood of competing with the Dodgers and Yankees.
So…yes. The answer is yes.
CKinSTL
If only teams would all spend more money. Then they’d all win the World Series each year…
tigerdoc616
Twins are a low payroll team because they are a low revenue team. So unless the new owner of the Twins is a Stephen Cohen clone payroll isn’t likely to increase much. Especially since they likely took a hit on their TV deal with MLB vs what they had earned with Bally.
ForDoingNothing
Twins were 15 in revenue this year with fans tuning out the last 2 months
This coming after decades of 0 playoff wins.
This market is top 12 revenue with an owner who cares
For Love of the Game
I bid $1.25 billion. Could someone please lend me $1.25 billion?
Canuckleball
Spoken like a true billionaire. Why spend your money when you can spend someone elses.
RockinRobin
Just post date your check.
mbreslow77
A-Rod pivot coming
Cleon Jones
Elon Musk needs something to ruin after destroying twitter.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
He’s already got the middle class square in his bullseye.
ohyeadam
If they’re going to sell I’m praying Mark Cuban buys. He’s wanted into the league for a while now and he’s a great owner. He’s got plenty of his own money to spend if he wants too
TerryTurnbuckle
Best case scenario is Stanley Hubbard has interest. Could solve the tv side of it with a stroke of a pen. Although he is 91 so maybe he’ll have to blow into a tube to sign
RunDMC
Thanks for the chuckle.
alcameron
I know if my team went on such a slide and had the Tigs roar by them to get in the playoffs I’d look to get the hell out of there too!!
Go Tigs! Punching their ticket to the ALCS tonight and let the magic keep rolling all the way to the series!
Old York
Anyone here willing to combine some income and buy the team with me?
RockinRobin
Go Fund Me?
ckc12537
I really wish that the author would have taken 5 seconds to convert $44 million in 1984 to an inflation-adjusted $133 million purchase price in 2024 dollars. I’m guessing they can get at least $1.6 billion now.
Mikenmn
Chances are there will be no significant FA signings this offseason, because new owners would like as clean a slate as possible to make their own player and financial decisions. The next question would be whether the new owners would look to extract $ from state and local government. Target Field is only about 15 years old.
dclivejazz
I thought such major announcements were supposed to be kept under wraps until after the World Series concludes. I guess if you are an owner who wants to get out, you don’t care. Or maybe they sensed there may be other owners who are also looking to unload and want to be the first to draw the interest of potential buyers.
wkkortas
“What is this ‘hope’ you speak of?”
–Pirates fans
beckmt
Scary thing for me is could a group from Nashville offer like $2 billion to move the club. And what would baseball do with that.
ckc12537
I doubt they would move from MSP. That’s a top 5 ballpark there.
Old York
@ckc12537
Then you could move the stadium to Oakland and they’ll have a new stadium. Problem solved!
Tom the ray fan
Wonder if Bob dylan likes baseball