I can’t believe they’re actually doing it.
In a brief press release issued Thursday, the Pohlad family announced their “intent to explore a sale of the Minnesota Twins.”
That genuinely shocking news comes more than 40 years after Carl Pohlad bought the team from Calvin Griffith for $44 million in 1984, about 30 years after “cheap” became the word fans most associated with the Pohlad name and less than two years after second-generation owner Jim Pohlad handed day-to-day operations over to third-generation owner Joe Pohlad.
“We view owning the Twins as a multi-generational holding for our family,” Jim Pohlad wrote in a letter to team employees on Nov. 28, 2022. “And one we take great pride in being responsible for on behalf of our employees and fans. We’ll continue our focus to ensure effective and impactful leadership of this organization for many years to come.”
Six weeks later, the Twins stunned the baseball world by re-signing Carlos Correa to a franchise-record $200 million contract. Joe Pohlad’s first major move was the biggest in Twins history and he took something of a victory lap, talking a big game by touting his higher tolerance for risk and hinting at increased spending as an excited fan base ate it up.
Twins fans finally had reason to believe things would be different under a third generation of Pohlad ownership, and that belief kept growing during the 2023 season as a team-record $160 million payroll produced a division title and the organization’s first playoff success in two decades. Suddenly it was a great time to be a Twins fan.
And then, just as quickly, it all came to a screeching halt. Despite the fresh face and juicy quotes, it was back to business as usual for the billionaires in charge. They slashed the Twins’ payroll by $30 million at the worst possible time, wrecking fan morale and limiting the front office’s ability to improve the roster by returning to Metrodome-era spending relative to the league.
What followed was a fourth-place season that ended with the worst collapse in Twins history and a rightfully furious fan base. Moments before the final game of the season, Joe Pohlad answered questions from the media for the first time since spring training, when his “right-size the payroll” comments confirmed every fan’s worst fears about the true nature of ownership.
He began with the usual platitudes about being “angry” and “embarrassed” and needing to “look inward.” But then he evaded responsibility for his part in the mess and dodged payroll-related questions. Asked to give a message to fans, Pohlad noted he “had to make a very difficult business decision” to cut payroll and “wouldn’t make any other decision” if offered a mulligan.
Much like his spring comments, Pohlad’s season-ending interview was met with derision from fans. And then, just 11 days later, the team was offered up for sale in a press release that included far different quotes from Pohlad. This time, he talked of the team being “part of our family’s heart and soul” and “woven into the fabric of our lives” and how “it belongs to all of you.”
The Pohlad family’s statement on today’s news: pic.twitter.com/bHyTEAkLsL
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) October 10, 2024
It was hard not to read it as one final gaslighting of a fan base by a family who had 40 years to show who they really were and by a third-generation billionaire whose actions unfortunately spoke much louder than his words. Whether it was Carl or Jim or Joe, the Pohlads never ceased running their luxury item purely as a business, and claimed that business lost money.
And now they’re selling the business, with an estimated price tag in the $1.5 billion range. That would be a 3,400 percent profit on their initial $44 million investment, or about $40 million per year for 40 years, with a massive boost from the publicly funded ballpark that will be a major asset. Those potential returns are what made decades of Pohlad penny pinching so maddening.
For too long, the Pohlads acted as if they had been sentenced to owning the Twins and were crossing days off the calendar until being freed, seemingly defeating the purpose of using their unfathomable wealth to own a team to which thousands of people have an emotional attachment. They could have been beloved and rich. Instead, they chose to be loathed and slightly richer.
There are no guarantees the Twins’ next owners will be any better than the Pohlads, or any more willing to treat the team as a community asset rather than a bottom-line business. When it comes to billionaires motivated to own sports franchises, the grass isn’t always greener. Beyond that, Minnesotans know all too well the fear of relocation is a black cloud that looms over all.
But it’s time to see what’s behind Door No. 2. Let another billionaire take a crack at it. Maybe it’ll be worse. But maybe it’ll be better. And maybe it’ll be a lot better. After four decades and three generations of Pohlads at the helm and absolutely no mystery about how this family operates the team, there has to be more upside than downside in the uncertainty.
In the mid-1990s, the Pohlads tried to sell the Twins to a buyer planning to move them to North Carolina, but voters there stopped the deal by rejecting the costs of a new ballpark. In the early 2000s, the Pohlads agreed to allow the Twins to be contracted by MLB, for a reported $250 million buyout, but a Minnesota judge stopped the killing of a franchise.
And in the 23 seasons since the contraction attempt was stopped, the Twins have had a payroll above the league-wide average just twice — in 2010 and 2011, their first two seasons playing in Target Field. Overall during those 23 seasons, the Twins’ payroll was 16 percent below league average for a total shortfall of $350 million. This year’s payroll was $40 million below average.
Also #OTD in #Minnesota Sports History (1997) #MnTwins owner Carl Pohlad signs a letter of intent to sell the Twins to North Carolina nursing home mogul Don Beaver. https://t.co/8CruyZPIKy pic.twitter.com/VtJ4hJEjpo
— Dan WHENESOTA (@WHENESOTA) October 3, 2024
Decade after decade, the Pohlads failed the fans they professed to respect and cherish. And perhaps not surprisingly, the third generation’s emotional attachment to the Twins seemed minimal as they willingly dismantled the team’s momentum and the fan base’s morale to cut payroll by .075 percent of their fortune and 2 percent of the franchise’s value. That’s their legacy.
I’m sick of writing and talking about the Pohlads. I’m sick of framing every roster move in terms of what it means to the Twins’ too-limited payroll. I’m sick of knowing that, no matter how good a moment feels or the future may look for Twins fans, there’s always the threat of a billionaire family deciding it was costing them too much money and had to be stopped.
Forty years is enough.
This market will absolutely support a winning, well-funded team. And for the next owner, the beauty of replacing four decades of Pohlads is that the bar is essentially on the floor. All they have to do is spend a slightly larger amount of their immense wealth and behave as if they actually want the team to be successful rather than just not lose money.
Perhaps that will still prove to be too high a bar. It would be naive to think that’s not a possibility. But it doesn’t have to be like this, and it was never going to change with the Pohlads in charge. Let them take their nearly $1.5 billion in profit and let’s see what the next billionaires in charge have planned for an ever-appreciating luxury item with huge guaranteed revenue streams.
There are a lot of things that go into owning an MLB team, but ultimately only three really matter to fans: 1. Spend money, especially when the team is in position to contend. 2. Hire good people to fill important roles, on the field and in the front office. 3. Stay out of the way when those good people you hired are making baseball decisions. That’s it. Anything else is gravy.
Change can be tough and this particular uncertainty is especially scary, but Twins fans deserve better, or at least the possibility of better, and they were never going to get it as is. Hopefully behind Door No. 2 is a new owner who doesn’t view the team strictly as a business or, short of that, will at least be better at running it strictly as a business. The Pohlads failed at both.
(Photo of Jim Pohlad and Carl Pohlad from 2005: Jim Holt / Star Tribune via Getty Images)
