In baseball, timing is everything. Yet, the Minnesota Twins front office has displayed some of the worst timing for news in the last 18 months, and they have let fan morale reach new lows because of it.

On Monday, just a mere three days before the start of the 2025 season - the 41st full season under the ownership of the Pohlad estate – word got out that the Twins owners were looking for at least $200 million more than the $1.5 billion valuation/offers they were getting over the winter from prospective buyers to help offset a debt over $400 million that the team has incurred since 2020.

While it appears there is still interest in the club, the prospect of the team being sold any time soon has gotten lower. As a result, the Pohlads might just slink back into the owner’s box that they were looking to get out of just six months ago when they announced they were exploring a sale of the ball club their father Carl bought in 1984 for $40 million.

The thought of that happening is very unsettling to a large sum of the Twins fan base. There’s good reason for it. The fans have recently let their frustration show, as 2024 saw attendance decrease following a 2023 season in which they won a playoff game and playoff series for the first time since 2002.

Part of that decrease was a dreadful collapse in the season’s final six weeks. But another, and larger, part of that attendance dive was from Twins chair Joe Pohlad saying the payroll had to be “right-sized” when spring training was getting underway and the roster still had some holes.

Saying that part aloud, across radio dials of the upper Midwest, sent the message to the fans that the front office was not going to be able to provide modest improvements to a ballclub that looked to be on the doorstep of being an actual American League pennant contender.

Then at the trade deadline, the Twins sat 6.5 games atop the AL Central, and their front office did nothing to improve the team. No reason was given other than the usual jargon (nothing piqued our interest, etc.), but it seemed the Twins could not take on any additional payroll in the season.

The wheels fell off. The Twins turned into dust faster than half the Avengers at the end of ‘Avengers:Infinity War’. Fan morale sank to lows not seen since the likes of Scott Diamond and Samuel Deduno were getting regular starts for the team.

After the Twins were long eliminated, in late September, the Pohlads announced they were exploring a sale of the club. Morale slightly improved, as the thought of a new owner looked promising. Someone that could maybe invest in the on-field product and try and give Minnesota a consistent winner.

Things appeared to be heading in the direction of the Twins being sold to Chicago billionaire and White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia, whos brother Matt also owns the Phoenix Suns. But the White Sox offered to up Ishbia’s stake in the team, and his bid for the Twins was off.

Ishbia’s lost bid was leaked at the time spring training was getting underway, just as you started to feel the warm and fuzzies about the boys of summer taking the field. Royce Lewis didn’t even have a chance to get hurt again this news was leaked so quick in spring training.

Now here we are, days from the start of the season, and the news has leaked the Twins might not even get sold.

So what happens if there’s no sale and the Twins get pulled from the market (just like the Nationals did a few years ago)?

Fan morale will get further crushed into oblivion. This is fine dot gif.

Just look at where morale is right now. The team can barely give away tickets to their home opener on April 3, as prices to just get in the door go lower and lower as gameday approaches. Hell, a carton of eggs will be more expensive by next week.

The objective for the Pohlads should be crystal clear in this scenario of pulling the team off the selling market: They have to go out and earn back fan trust. No, it will not come easily or cheaply for them either.

The 2025 Twins could easily win the AL Central. It’s a weak division, and the Twins are projected to have one of the best top to bottom pitching staffs in baseball. But attendance will likely decline again, as no one is rushing to buy tickets as the season begins.

This is what has to be addressed from the owner’s box.

Here’s how you try and do this:

Start with an apology. A statement of knowing that you royally screwed the pooch in the last 18 months. Then you follow it up with a declaration of how you are going to right the wrong.

Giveaway more tickets. Offer way cheaper (or even in some cases free) concessions. Discount the merchandise (especially at a time when simple groceries are tough for families that you want coming to the ballpark). Show some free trials of your new TwinsTV network, which casual people aren’t exactly willing to fork out for right now.

Then you get an actual willingness to invest more in the ballclub’s on-field product. Let the front office make a trade or two which makes the ball club better (aka adding salary). Show you can be flexible when there is an opportunity to make a meaningful fall run. Don’t give the fans any more B.S. about payroll, revenue, et. Al. Put a few more bucks into the team, right-sizing the payroll be dammed.

Buying back that fan trust will not come cheap. But when you are $400M in the hole, what’s a few more million on top of that? Start buying that trust back, and eventually people will come back and spend their money on your product again.

This is what the Pohlads will have to do should they retain the club. Simply relying on the baseball team to bring the fans back won’t work this time. It wasn’t working last year when they were sitting nearly seven games clear of second place after 108 games.

Otherwise, they might be yearning for the days when their franchise was getting valued at $1.5 billion and they said, “no thanks.”

Header photo via Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images

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