In October, Twins owner Joe Pohlad announced that his family was exploring a sale of the franchise. The Pohlad family has owned the Twins for 40 years, so the sale process set the stage for a monumental change for the organization. That could seemingly move quickly.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that there’s robust interest from potential buyers. Hayes suggests that a sale agreement could be in place as soon as Opening Day. He notes that MLB has already begun vetting interested parties and will drill down on certain candidates as the process nears its conclusion.
The identities of most of those suitors are unknown. Bloomberg reported last month that Justin and Mat Ishbia, owners of the Phoenix franchises in the NBA and WNBA, were interested in the Twins. While Mat Ishbia is the majority owner of the basketball teams, Justin Ishbia would get the bulk of the ownership stake in the Twins if the family submits the winning bid.
They’re clearly facing some level of competition. One family that does not seem to be in the mix: the Wilfs, owners of the NFL’s Vikings. Mark Wilf tells Ben Goessling of the Minnesota Star-Tribune that they “have (their) hands full with the Vikings, in a good way.” Wilf acknowledged that he’d “always discuss those things” when an opportunity like the Twins presented itself but downplayed the idea of getting involved in the bidding.
In any case, Hayes reports that the Pohlads are planning to sell the franchise in full to whomever ends up as the purchaser. A new ownership group would assume control as soon as the sale is approved by Major League Baseball, which requires a 75% vote from the league’s other ownership groups. That should eventually impact the spending capacity available to the front office, but it’s not likely to affect this offseason. Minnesota has done nothing in free agency and has signaled that they’re working with little financial margin unless they shed money in trade.
The most recent franchise to be sold was the Orioles, which a David Rubenstein-led group bought from the Angelos family for $1.725 billion last January. Forbes valued the Twins at $1.46 billion last year. The Pohlad family paid $44 million to purchase the franchise in 1984.
Cue Ode to Joy
The primary Owners of the Cardinals ( The DeWitts), really needs to sell the Cardinals organization to Individuals who —- #1. wants to keep the Franchise in St. Louis and #2. can afford to acquire top Free Agents (If Needed), —- just as the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Yankees etc., do when needs be.
The Cardinals need an Ownership who understand the benefits of having a productive Minor league system with a strong, influential coaching in place and a major league training staff to back them up and to be able to produce there occasional super stars such as they were capable of doing with players such as Musial, Pujols, Gibson, Molina, Wainwright etc. etc.
Along with an ownership who are capable of “realistically being financially capable” of making legitimate Top contract offers to top Quality Free Agents when those type of Top Quality players are needed to keep the Cardinals as Contenders for a National League Pennant.
The DeWitts have built up the surrounding areas of Busch Stadium to be Family oriented.
However —- as the old saying goes—- Now a days, the DeWitts just can’t keep up with the Jones as far as the ability to acquire Top Players plus have the ability to pay the Top Contracted Salaries.
(They have to get away from the “Low Hanging Fruit” philosophy).
When it comes to the current owners spending power of the other franchise owners, of clubs, such as the teams mentioned above, The DeWitts seemingly can not compete.
Think those buyers are interested in buying the Cardinals???
That explains the lack of spending during this present off-season.
What’s the Braves excuse?! lol….I guess that could be asked of several competitive teams minus 4 or 5. Definitely a top heavy Free Agent spending season.
With the way a couple teams drove up salaries, you are going to see this on an annual basis in this fouled up system.
In the meantime, Robby the robot will keep fiddling.
Boohoo
“What’s the Braves excuse?!”
The Braves already have a payroll approaching $200 million. They don’t have a lot of room to maneuver if they want to stay under the CBT. That’s what happens when you lock in half of your team on long term deals (it’s a good thing).
With revenue of $581 million why would the Braves have to stay under the CBT?
Take a business 100/course. Revenue is meaningless without expenses. I’m sure Sears/Kmart had huge revenues as they went under.
Kudos to Braves ownership for approving increasing spending year in and out here recently. Yep. Looks like owner wants to stay below CBT. Strategy this year? Start season at 200 +/- and based on team performance up to trade deadline, spend additional bucks on pieces as needed.
braveshomer
What’s the Braves excuse?! lol….
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I thought the Braves had the #4 payroll last year?
Maybe, the team is already spending to capacity. Maybe, a change in ownership won’t affect the teams budget. Maybe after spending to buy the team, the new owners won’t want to kick in from their own pockets and operate like a business, one with a massive mortgage.
Maybe, articles like these shouldn’t speculate about whether the new owners will increase spending on team payroll, when they acknowledge they don’t know who is even bidding on the team.
The ishbias would at least let the franchise be near the luxury tax
If that happened they could compete for a World Series
Depends on the revenues coming in. They have to deal with the Bally’s mess.
Revenue without local rights already exceeds expenses through national media ticket sales merchandise etc. Local fee are just the icing on the billionaires cake.
Not a given. See O’s.
Meh, World Series are like so 1991
“If that happened they could compete for a World Series”
They’ve been spending like crazy on the Suns, and we see how that’s working out. For the Twins, they would need to keep the organizational infrastructure in place and spend wisely, which they have not done thus far in Phoenix.
But throwing money at Kyle Tucker and vlad Guerrero would be better than not throwing any money
The suns threw money at old players like Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal
Right, like I said, “spend wisely”. Durant is still excellent, imo, but I’m with you on Beal. That deal he has is insane.
The Suns also traded away a ton of talent and picks, too. A 1st for Royce O’Neale. Four 1sts, Mikal Bridges, and Cam Johnson for Durant. Four 1st round pick swaps, five 2nds, and players for Beal.
Which is why I say they should keep the infrastructure in place. Twins don’t make wild moves like that, nor should they. Keep things the way they are and occasionally make a big splash like you’re suggesting (Tucker or Vlad).
No one’s expecting the Twins to be maxed out, totally all-in every year. However a consistent theme of the Pohlad ownership has been a refusal to ever push their chips in and say this group has a chance, we’re going for it.
Milwaukee does this every time they have a chance, and they have roughly the same market and spending constraints. There is no excuse for never doing it. The Pohlads and St. Peter just wanted to hoard prospects because it’s cheap labor. They have good business acumen but insisted on running the Twins only like another one of their businesses. Sometimes (again, not always) you have to remember why a sports franchise exists and run it like a fan.
They routinely fall just short of being able to achieve more, it’s not crazy at all to suggest they might be able to be a serious contender once in a while if they actually try .Even still, if you’re going to fail regardless I’d rather fail while trying than fail because you were too scared to try .
It’s commonplace for small/mid-market teams to go all-in and push their payrolls to the max while the window is open. The Pohlads are outliers in that regard. They really do seem to run the team more conservatively. Always looking to compete, never looking to excel.
The Twins have never been anywhere to the CBT# EVER, the highest that # has been is 177M in 2023 and they are currently hovering just 141M for 2025.
Could mean a fire sale
Why a fire sale?
It would’ve happened already.
Exactly. When you spend big to buy something, sometimes you cut cut expenses for a while to recover. See Jeter and Miami.
Not at all. New owners don’t like massive changes. They want to buy the product they’ve been bidding for.
$44 million in 1984 is worth $133.2 million today with inflation.
Or less than 1/10 the Forbes estimate. All without notable postseason success since Kirby Puckett played.
That rate of inflation is about 300%. That is the official inflation rate so a boldfaced lie. This equates to about 3% yearly.
Another good indicator of true inflation is gold price. In 1984 it averaged $360 an ounce. It is sitting at about $2650 today. That is a 736% change, or 5.5% yearly. That would make the team worth $323m which is still a drop in the bucket of $1.4b. Good investment. That comes to 12.7% yearly.
Teams only appreciate that when sold. My house has tripled in value, but that just makes for higher assessments, and allows me to borrow against it (get in debt). I’m only richer on paper.
It’s a sad, sad situation if “investments” don’t add any value, LOL.
Oh man, I can just feel my hopes skyrocketing. Please let the new owners be good people that are willing to invest in the team.
I hear you HTF! I’m more guarded for more disappointment as a MN sports fan though. Ugh
If only the Lerners would sell the Nationals.
Does this mean all the injury prone prospects won’t be on the Twins anymore?
Hahahahahahaha twit
Make sure you get it all in writing before your wives sue for ownership ‘perks’.
New owners doesn’t mean big spending. Look at the Orioles
O’s up to $143MM payroll today with rumors circulating that they’re still in the market for another starter.
$143MM is significantly higher than anything the Angelos’ were going to run out there. Money doesn’t need to spent all at once.
Typically spend spend spend because the new owner comes in doesn’t work out too well. Twins ought to be happy with Ishbia over Pohlad.
That’s a nice story, but they haven’t signed a single impact starter or reliever. They replaced Santander with his equivalent or worse. They haven’t extended any young blossoming superstar. You my friend are stuck with the old Orioles. Don’t look at total payroll. It’s called inflation. The price for every player on the team is up. Look at who they have signed since new ownership. So far, nothing of consequence.
Orioles pushed payroll to like $170MM when they were in their window. They spend like other mid/small market franchises. When they can win, they spend.
I hope the eventual sale of MY Padres can be this quick
They should bequeath the team to a 12 year old boy…. Ala little big league. Interesting fact: the actress who plays the mom in that movie is Pete Crow-Armstrong’s actual mom.
Do the Ishbia’s know it’s very cold in Minnesota? Blizzards and snowstorms don’t seem common in Arizona.
Yeah I wonder if it ever snowed in Michigan when they grew up?
I’d like to buy the Twins…and defer the payments for 20 years….
Pete Alonso to the … Twins?!?
Yeah! He’s likely to still be looking for a team when the sales completed!
New owners seeking to sign Chris Davis #2! Yes, I like it!
Usually, when a business owner tries to sell their business, they’ll try to pretty things up and make things look better. It says a lot about what the Pohlads think makes a team look better that they cut payroll coming into putting the team up for sale.
$44M to @$1.75B plus distributions over the years….not bad.
That’s similar to the return on the S&P 500.
I first read this as “Sale to Twins” and about spit out my coffee.
Good morning everyone.
Lots of MBAs in these comments.
I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE TIGERS BACK IN 2000, but PAUL KINGS’ SON dropped pills on me, his friend pointed a gun at me, threatened to kill my parents and told me to say,”no”.
That’s what a lousy excuse for human beings the King family and their people are.
TRUE STORY.
NYC CPWest/72nd
Someone or a Group who likes having 3,000,000+ Fans a year in exchange for a team with Quality Players—-
who compete yearly for a National League Pennant ——
Needs to Buy the Historic St. Louis Cardinals!!!!!
It’s really exciting to see the potential for new ownership for the Twins.
I’m not on board with the Pohlad rage as I think they’ve been pretty good owners, overall. Carl Pohlad brought Minnesota the only championships for the 4 major sports in state history, and saved the Twins from being moved to Florida. His sons took over with the Target Field era, and the team has been solid enough since. From 2009 on (Jim Pohlad’s) teams have been a lot better off than many other MLB franchises in terms of playoff appearances and general performance like the White Sox, Orioles, Pirates, Mariners, Angels, Rockies, Padres, Blue Jays, Athletics,
That said, the Pohlads were never willing to go all-in and try to win a championship. Ever. That’s not in their nature, and I think the 1987 team, especially, has a lot to do with it. The idea a mediocre team can win it all has predicated itself through the franchise. It’s theoretically possible, but very unlikely.
Sell, sell,sell… zero dollars spent this offseason.
I want a billionaire to make this hers or his team where there is a huge money dump to get chips and a huge trophy case. Large media market with a lot of money, that’s why arod and lore bought the wolves.