Gleeman & The Geek, Ep 548: Twins' Payroll Decisions

[John Bonnes]

Aaron and John set the stage for the offseason with a 360-degree discussion of  the Twins' payroll: how high their budget should be, the arbitration and contract decisions they need to make, trade candidates that could free up more money, and how much fans can expect them to spend this offseason. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. 

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[lake_guy]

You guys ever look into a transcription service?  Lots of interesting content but honestly I don't have the time to listen to the whole thing.  I suspect in transcript form you would get more engagement from the users on this site too.  It will have some transcriptions errors here and there but might be worthwhile to look into it.

[Major League Ready]

I thought parts of your financial discussion were quite reasonable.  However, the discussion about “why do baseball teams need to make a profit” is a horribly flawed concept because the assumption is our financial disadvantage would go away if teams just did not need to make a profit.  The reality is the Twins would be at an even greater financial disadvantage because the team with more revenue also have more profit.  Therefore, spending at break-even for example would widen the disparity in available payroll available to those teams to sign free agents.  

The appreciation in value logic is also flawed.  Company valuations are a product of profitability.  If profitability goes away, so does appreciation in value.  If the norm became break-even, baseball teams would have very little value.

Finally, if an owner is willing to basically donate normal earnings or go so far as to take money out of their pocket, I sure hope they would donate that money to a cause much more worthy than a couple extra wins.  I think the money would be far better used to feed or shelter the homeless, shelter battered women or cure disease. 
 

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

Finally, if an owner is willing to basically donate normal earnings or go so far as to take money out of their pocket, I sure hope they would donate that money to a cause much more worthy than a couple extra wins.  I think the money would be far better used to feed or shelter the homeless, shelter battered women or cure disease. 

Makes good sense if it ever happens and I suppose it does happen actually. The Pohlad family, by most accounts, have been terrific community members and this is laudable.

What we should remember is that the club of MLB owners is by invitation only. If you had $10 billion and wanted to pay $2 billion cash for the Twins, the sale would need to be approved and those not deemed worthy are not allowed at the table. So I am fine with owners making profits because it is none of my business, but I'm not worried about their welfare. I mean I want any normal business to make money so the employees get paid and money cycles through the economy. This doesn't apply to baseball because there are a ton of people to bail out any team. 

The final call on what to do with payroll is strictly with Jim Pohlad and how that budget gets used is on Falvine.