Dave St. Peter, Derek Falvey and Jeremy Zoll Take New Jobs in Huge Twins Leadership Change

[Seth Stohs]

With a tweet, Twins President Dave St. Peter announced that after 22 years in the organization, he is stepping down as team president and taking on an advisory role. The chain reaction will shift key responsibilities on the baseball side, too.

Image courtesy of Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

A lot is happening in the Twins offices already this offseason. First, after a disappointing final six weeks, the team fired four of their MLB coaches. Next, it was announced that GM Thad Levine would not be back and is seeking other professional opportunities. Soon after that, the Pohlad family announced that they have started the process of selling the team. They have owned the franchise since 1984. 

And now, Dave St. Peter, the long-time team president, is stepping down after 22 seasons. 

St. Peter has been very active with the Twins and in the community. He actually began working for the Twins 35 years ago. In 1990, he started as an intern. He held jobs such as Pro Shop Manager, Communications Manager, VP of Corporate Communications, and Senior VP of Business Affairs.

As president, he has been involved in the work to make Target Field a reality, to make it continue to be a stadium admired around the league for the fan experience, but also for its benefits to the environment. 

A native of North Dakota, he graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1989. 

New Roles For Falvey and Zoll
St. Peter will transition to a Strategic Advisor role in the organization. Derek Falvey, who has served as President, Baseball Operations, will now be President, Baseball & Business Operations. Jeremy Zoll has been promoted from Vice President, Assistant General Manager to the role of Senior Vice President, General Manager. These moves are effective immediately. 

“Twins fans, players, staff and certainly our family are better for the 35 years that Dave St. Peter has brought his truly one-of-a-kind leadership to our team and community," wrote team chairman Joe Pohlad, in the family's statement. "I have had the good fortune to work alongside Dave for the past 18 years and experience firsthand how he leads with integrity, compassion and an unmatched dedication to our organization and fans. I will always admire Dave’s commitment to do right by the Twins."

"Dave St. Peter is a very special person, friend and leader," said Jim Pohlad. "Our family and the Minnesota Twins would not be where we are without Dave's skill and lifelong commitment." 

Their praise was met by the same tone from the (essentially) demoted St. Peter, whose side of the organization has been mired in turmoil for multiple years recently. Amid a mishandled TV rights transition and multiple years of missed attendance targets, poor community engagement and frustration with the team's communication with its fans, this move might have been foreseeable, but St. Peter and the Pohlads have always seemed to operate as a unified front. That didn't change Tuesday.

"I look forward to shifting into an advisory role for the family in the months to come, while I am equally excited about partnering with Joe and Derek Falvey to move our business forward and ensure a seamless transition," St. Peter said. "Derek has universal respect across our organization and industry, he is ready for this additional challenge and can help push the Twins to new heights. He is the right leader at the right time."

The Pohlads and St. Peter were breathless in their expressed admiration for one another, and for Falvey, who becomes one of the few executives in baseball with top-level authority in both business and baseball decision-making. Ditto for Zoll, who came to the Twins organization seven years ago as the Director of Player Development after being part of the Dodgers organization.

"I am tremendously excited to elevate Jeremy Zoll to the position of Senior Vice President, General Manager to help me lead our baseball operation,” said Falvey. “Jeremy has been an invaluable part of our leadership team, helping shape a player development system that is widely respected across the league. His relationships with our players and staff, from the majors through our minor league clubs, speak to his commitment to the Minnesota Twins organization and our people."

Needless to say, this is a big change, even though the most salient fact for many fans—that Falvey is the top baseball decision-maker—will remain the same. The timing of the move seems conspicuous, amid the possible change in ownership and with St. Peter having been so safely ensconced in the job as recently as the announcement of the family's intention to sell. Now, at least, the team has clarity about its leadership structure heading into the hot stove season. Zoll is a promising front office luminary whose promotion will make it easier to keep him around, and Falvey's consolidated powers might give him more control over his own payroll budget in future seasons. In the meantime, this move underscores the extent to which a new era is afoot for the entire organization.

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[Patzky]

Hoping for more than Menards' Deck Chair sale. Really St Peter's removal by one step from decision making is probably the best thing to take from today's announcement.

[Mike Sixel]

Good luck to all of them in their endeavor to make the billionaires more money!

[nicksaviking]

Regardless how people felt about Falvey's work thus far, it always seemed odd how deadset he was to stick with a club that only promised lower payrolls. If he knew he was going to get a promotion though, that would make sense.

I wanted someone with a background that included marketing wizardry or productive television negations for this role. I don't think Falvey is it, but I'm happy to try someone new I guess. These didn't seem to be St. Peter's forte in any sense.

[DocBauer]

No new blood, but new roles. Change for the sake of change doesn't do much. But with all due respect to past work and accomplishments, DSP has seen the world move quickly by him the last few seasons.

Falvey more completely in charge is a good thing. And he's got a new #2 officially in place in Zoll who's a bit of a man behind the curtain mystery, but whom nuggets of positivity have been dropped at different times.

This seems like a positive change.

[CRF]

It's probably too early to know if this is going to make any kind of difference down the road, but removing DSP out of any decision making process has to be a good thing...right?

[tony&rodney]

The last few years it has seemed like the Twins team/roster was exactly what Falvey saw as an ideal. Yesterday, I hopelessly posited whether Levine actually had a role in the player talent collection. Alas, the announcement tells us that the Twins are Falvey's toy. 

For those who see Falvey as the cog, this is wonderful news. I simply sighed. At least the words directed towards ownership should be reduced as we now all can see who directs the franchise. I wish us all good luck.

[nicksaviking]

7 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

No new blood, but new roles. Change for the sake of change doesn't do much. But with all due respect to past work and accomplishments, DSP has seen the world move quickly by him the last few seasons.

Falvey more completely in charge is a good thing. And he's got a new #2 officially in place in Zoll who's a bit of a man behind the curtain mystery, but whom nuggets of positivity have been dropped at different times.

This seems like a positive change.

I'll wait to decide on that, but I will say that if Falvey was given the green light for a higher payroll in 2023, but blindsided by the payroll yank of 2024 and beyond, yes, it's better to have someone making these decisions who is in control of the full picture.

[bean5302]

This is huge, but cronyism is obviously a major component in these moves. Falvey strikes me as the type of communicator who is more careful with his words than a guy like St. Peter, but I question whether or not Falvey has the communication style and savvy to run the whole show. That said, it's pretty obvious Falvey is an excitable, younger guy who may be better equipped to understand the problems with the fan experience moving forward. I suspect the move is largely cost cutting from an administrative measure by the Pohlads; they've given up on the Twins' potential revenue streams increasing from attendance, and I believe they're in full sell mode. Falvey probably sees this as a huge opportunity to pad his resume.

Dave St. Peter's contributions to the Twins have been numerous over the years, but he's not the leader the Twins needed, and his failure to adapt to the changing times led to this outcome. I hope he's able to enjoy the additional flexibility afforded by the changed role.

[chpettit19]

I'm curious who the other execs in baseball are that have full control of both the business and baseball ops departments. I'm not sure how excited we should be about this. Doesn't feel like a best possible hire type situation. There isn't anybody else out there that could have been hired to run the business side of things than a guy who's dedicated his life to baseball for the last 17 years? Nobody else you could bring in who would be better suited to getting the most out of the Minnesota/Twin Cities market? I obviously want Derek to do incredibly well in this position, but I find it hard to believe he's the best option available for maximizing marketing and fan engagement as they move into this new broadcast world. My guess would be that this is a short lived position if/when a new owner takes over, but maybe Derek is a marketing genius.

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I'm curious who the other execs in baseball are that have full control of both the business and baseball ops departments. I'm not sure how excited we should be about this. Doesn't feel like a best possible hire type situation. There isn't anybody else out there that could have been hired to run the business side of things than a guy who's dedicated his life to baseball for the last 17 years? Nobody else you could bring in who would be better suited to getting the most out of the Minnesota/Twin Cities market? I obviously want Derek to do incredibly well in this position, but I find it hard to believe he's the best option available for maximizing marketing and fan engagement as they move into this new broadcast world. My guess would be that this is a short lived position if/when a new owner takes over, but maybe Derek is a marketing genius.

Almost impossible to hire someone long term in this situation. Falvey knows the strengths and weaknesses of the org, I'd guess. That should help, if he's free to make real change, which he might not be. 

It's also possible most people keep their jobs and roles, since they might be replaced in a year.... And Falvey and team want to keep them paid until then. Which isn't a bad thing. 

[jorgenswest]

They have gone from four salaries to two salaries in the top end management of the club. I wonder if they also have thinned the rest of the workforce supporting Twins baseball. 

[bean5302]

14 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I'm curious who the other execs in baseball are that have full control of both the business and baseball ops departments. I'm not sure how excited we should be about this. Doesn't feel like a best possible hire type situation. There isn't anybody else out there that could have been hired to run the business side of things than a guy who's dedicated his life to baseball for the last 17 years? Nobody else you could bring in who would be better suited to getting the most out of the Minnesota/Twin Cities market? I obviously want Derek to do incredibly well in this position, but I find it hard to believe he's the best option available for maximizing marketing and fan engagement as they move into this new broadcast world. My guess would be that this is a short lived position if/when a new owner takes over, but maybe Derek is a marketing genius.

Unfortunately, the Twins' marketing genius is Joe Pohlad, EVP Brand Strategy & Growth. It's clear Pohlad got his position through extreme nepotism. While St. Peter had a marketing and communications background from the 90s, where his skillset probably shined, he at least moved up through the ranks normally. Pohlad's constant foot-in-mouth antics along with poor instincts on the rebranding make it clear his skillset needed polishing.

I get the feeling there was probably a lot of disagreement between St. Peter, Pohlad and Meka White Morris who became the Chicago Bears' EVP and Chief Revenue Officer. Nepotism and cronyism is a problem for the Pohlads.

[Vanimal46]

15 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I'm curious who the other execs in baseball are that have full control of both the business and baseball ops departments. I'm not sure how excited we should be about this. Doesn't feel like a best possible hire type situation. There isn't anybody else out there that could have been hired to run the business side of things than a guy who's dedicated his life to baseball for the last 17 years? Nobody else you could bring in who would be better suited to getting the most out of the Minnesota/Twin Cities market? I obviously want Derek to do incredibly well in this position, but I find it hard to believe he's the best option available for maximizing marketing and fan engagement as they move into this new broadcast world. My guess would be that this is a short lived position if/when a new owner takes over, but maybe Derek is a marketing genius.

The decisions being made right now are specifically to improve the bottom line for a sale. Nothing more or less. I’ve been a part of a company prepping to be sold to a larger company, and saw pretty much the same things happening in the corporate world. 

[LewFordLives]

This seems like a lot for Falvey to take on. Can he oversee the entire baseball side of things and negotiate with beer distributors at the same time?

[Rosterman]

I'm curious to see what Vice Presidents are ann ounced to help the new GM, as well as other business aspects for the new President.

[chpettit19]

31 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Almost impossible to hire someone long term in this situation. Falvey knows the strengths and weaknesses of the org, I'd guess. That should help, if he's free to make real change, which he might not be. 

It's also possible most people keep their jobs and roles, since they might be replaced in a year.... And Falvey and team want to keep them paid until then. Which isn't a bad thing. 

 

15 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

The decisions being made right now are specifically to improve the bottom line for a sale. Nothing more or less. I’ve been a part of a company prepping to be sold to a larger company, and saw pretty much the same things happening in the corporate world. 

And what if that sale doesn't happen? There have been 2 MLB teams up for sale in the last couple years that didn't sell. The White Sox have announced they're open to be sold as well. I have no idea how realistic that concern may be. Maybe the Pohlads are desperate for cash and are happy taking "just" 1 billion and getting out. But isn't it possible that finding somebody to buy them for 1.5+ will take a little while (as in a few years) as folks wait to see how this new broadcast situation plays out? And now you've promoted a less than ideal candidate who's going to hurt your bottom line because he may actually be even worse than St Peter at getting the most out of this market because baseball is what he's specialized in for the last 15+ years of his life.

I get it. I don't disagree with what they're clearly trying to do. And maybe they're in the red zone on a sale and are just really, really good at keeping it a secret. Or maybe billionaires just really aren't worried at all about the switch to the subscription based model and MLB is able to convince prospective buyers that revenue isn't a concern so franchise values shouldn't be viewed any differently. Or they sell expansion as a certainty so fees are coming a new owners way shortly and that'll make up for things. Or whatever it is. I don't know. Just playing devil's advocate.

The sale isn't imminent. And I don't like that this org has already been so terrible at maximizing this market. So I'm not a big fan of them half-assing this situation, especially as they move into a time when their revenue will be even more dependent on fan engagement year to year. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Falvey has his finger on the pulse of the Twin Cities and will be able to light a fire in the fanbase. I highly doubt it considering he was the one who originally broke the payroll news just over a year ago that completely tanked fan engagement after the playoff run, but maybe he's learned his lesson. I just want the org to be better at this stuff so they can get more revenue and build a better team. This move doesn't give me confidence that they're moving in that direction. Hopefully a sale happens relatively quickly and 2026 and beyond can get us moving in that direction.

[Schmoeman5]

We won't get fooled again. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Tell me exactly how this helps? Other than preventing St. Peter from inserting foot in mouth. Of course Falvey talks on the phone a lot. But he doesn't make any moves because he's handcuffed. It looks like the Twins are rolling 2 jobs into 1.

[jmlease1]

Not sure how impactful this really is; St. Peter was already on the way out, and no one knows what new ownership will do if the team is sold. Falvey is now a traditional Team President, with theoretical control over the entire organization on a day to day basis (it remains "theoretical" so long as any members of the Pohlad Family are on staff, really). Maybe he'll do better in terms of arranging business opportunities and negotiating rights deals (or empowering the professional staff below him in VP roles) if he's in a position where new revenues generated can be applied to additional payroll flexibility.

St. Peter is a nice guy and did a good job in navigating the franchise through the stadium development process, which was...fraught. That was a massive success: huge windfall for the Pohlads, but also gave fans a far better baseball experience and ensured that the team stayed here. But it's unclear if we did as well in terms of marketing, ticket sales, sponsorships, etc as we could have under his leadership. The TV rights were acceptable when the RSNs were raking, but the attempt to try and create their own network was bungled and collapsed and they've done a terrible job in getting to the forefront of streaming.

I think overall Falvey has done a good job under the constraints that ownership has place upon him. he seems capable of handling the addition to his portfolio as someone who seems to know how to hire talented people and deploy them effectively. But I doubt it'll make all that much impact in the short-term, and a new ownership could do almost anything.

[Mike Sixel]

9 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

 

And what if that sale doesn't happen? There have been 2 MLB teams up for sale in the last couple years that didn't sell. The White Sox have announced they're open to be sold as well. I have no idea how realistic that concern may be. Maybe the Pohlads are desperate for cash and are happy taking "just" 1 billion and getting out. But isn't it possible that finding somebody to buy them for 1.5+ will take a little while (as in a few years) as folks wait to see how this new broadcast situation plays out? And now you've promoted a less than ideal candidate who's going to hurt your bottom line because he may actually be even worse than St Peter at getting the most out of this market because baseball is what he's specialized in for the last 15+ years of his life.

I get it. I don't disagree with what they're clearly trying to do. And maybe they're in the red zone on a sale and are just really, really good at keeping it a secret. Or maybe billionaires just really aren't worried at all about the switch to the subscription based model and MLB is able to convince prospective buyers that revenue isn't a concern so franchise values shouldn't be viewed any differently. Or they sell expansion as a certainty so fees are coming a new owners way shortly and that'll make up for things. Or whatever it is. I don't know. Just playing devil's advocate.

The sale isn't imminent. And I don't like that this org has already been so terrible at maximizing this market. So I'm not a big fan of them half-assing this situation, especially as they move into a time when their revenue will be even more dependent on fan engagement year to year. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Falvey has his finger on the pulse of the Twin Cities and will be able to light a fire in the fanbase. I highly doubt it considering he was the one who originally broke the payroll news just over a year ago that completely tanked fan engagement after the playoff run, but maybe he's learned his lesson. I just want the org to be better at this stuff so they can get more revenue and build a better team. This move doesn't give me confidence that they're moving in that direction. Hopefully a sale happens relatively quickly and 2026 and beyond can get us moving in that direction.

As Vanimal points out, you plan and prep for sale when selling.....that's how the world works. If it doesn't happen, did they really lose anything by moving on from DSP? Likely not at this point in his career. They'll know in a year if it is sold. If not, and if they don't like what Falvey did, they move on. It literally has zero impact on the Pohlads at this point. They could lose half their fortune and not have anything bad happen (in reality, but they'd be sad). 

[Vanimal46]

7 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

 

And what if that sale doesn't happen? There have been 2 MLB teams up for sale in the last couple years that didn't sell. The White Sox have announced they're open to be sold as well. I have no idea how realistic that concern may be. Maybe the Pohlads are desperate for cash and are happy taking "just" 1 billion and getting out. But isn't it possible that finding somebody to buy them for 1.5+ will take a little while (as in a few years) as folks wait to see how this new broadcast situation plays out? And now you've promoted a less than ideal candidate who's going to hurt your bottom line because he may actually be even worse than St Peter at getting the most out of this market because baseball is what he's specialized in for the last 15+ years of his life.

I get it. I don't disagree with what they're clearly trying to do. And maybe they're in the red zone on a sale and are just really, really good at keeping it a secret. Or maybe billionaires just really aren't worried at all about the switch to the subscription based model and MLB is able to convince prospective buyers that revenue isn't a concern so franchise values shouldn't be viewed any differently. Or they sell expansion as a certainty so fees are coming a new owners way shortly and that'll make up for things. Or whatever it is. I don't know. Just playing devil's advocate.

The sale isn't imminent. And I don't like that this org has already been so terrible at maximizing this market. So I'm not a big fan of them half-assing this situation, especially as they move into a time when their revenue will be even more dependent on fan engagement year to year. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Falvey has his finger on the pulse of the Twin Cities and will be able to light a fire in the fanbase. I highly doubt it considering he was the one who originally broke the payroll news just over a year ago that completely tanked fan engagement after the playoff run, but maybe he's learned his lesson. I just want the org to be better at this stuff so they can get more revenue and build a better team. This move doesn't give me confidence that they're moving in that direction. Hopefully a sale happens relatively quickly and 2026 and beyond can get us moving in that direction.

I don’t think they’d be making these type of personnel decisions if an acquisition wasn’t close… Just in my experience, the Chief Revenue Officer was selected to lead the organization through the acquisition. Department heads were consolidated and everyone started reporting into him. Middle management was next to leave. So in less than 3 months, I went from reporting into a Regional Sales Manager to the CRO and so did everyone else. The sales team shrunk from 50+ to 20 and we operated like a skeleton crew. 

[Mike Sixel]

I love that DSP announced this with a Tweet, for so many reasons. 

[rdehring]

Interesting, Seth.  Also, puzzling.

Does Falvey have any experience qualifying him to run the business side?  Are any of the recent departures being replaced with new blood?  If not, seems the executive level payroll is going down.  Perhaps, a lot.  Is that all part of touching up the Twins paint job prior to sale?  Or is it possible that the Twins have actually lost money going as far back as the pandemic year and they are trying to bring it to break-even or profitable before a sale?   

   

[DJL44]

I can't imagine Falvey will be able to spend much time on the baseball side if the business side is working on selling the team. The offseason roster construction is Zoll's responsibility. This is his chance to audition for his next job. They're all short-timers; the new ownership will replace all of these guys.

[DJL44]

3 minutes ago, rdehring said:

Does Falvey have any experience qualifying him to run the business side? 

He has a degree in economics from Trinity college and pretty extensive managerial experience. If he's a smart manager, he will lean on his org as he learns this part of the business.

[Doctor Gast]

St. Peter had nothing to do with the operations of how to run the Twins. That was my hope that Falvey's promotion would entail. Falvey's less involvement with the decisions of operations of the Twins, would vastly help the Twins. But your quote: "that Falvey is the top baseball decision-maker—will remain the same." Has further my distaste for the Pohlads. To be fair Falvey has done a good job of eventually establishing a pitching pipeline, a job that he was hired to do. But IMO after the Bomba Squad '19 Falvey got a lot of acclaim & it went to his head & he started to take over areas that he wasn't capable of doing. He has no vision beyond pitching in how to run the other end of the game. He developed the "all or nothing" hitting philosophy after the juiceball ended. Where HRs were everything- hitting, defense & baserunning were counted as nothing, Falvey had terrible player evaluations of putting players where they didn't belong, picking up players that had obvious injury problems. Never admitting mistakes but always doubling down on them hoping to get out of it. that never worked out but hurt the Twins. But worst of all Falvey knows only how to make bad trades & can't initiate essential ones. If Zoll has better player evaluations & negotiating skills or they can bring someone in who has these skills then I'd be OK with it, But if it's another ego trip for Falvey, then we have failed.

[nicksaviking]

47 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

The last few years it has seemed like the Twins team/roster was exactly what Falvey saw as an ideal. Yesterday, I hopelessly posited whether Levine actually had a role in the player talent collection. Alas, the announcement tells us that the Twins are Falvey's toy. 

For those who see Falvey as the cog, this is wonderful news. I simply sighed. At least the words directed towards ownership should be reduced as we now all can see who directs the franchise. I wish us all good luck.

Letting Sonny Gray walk and not having the means to replace him is what Falvey wanted? Count me skeptical about that. 
 

If nothing else, now we’ll know for sure that the baseball side knows what the operation side is doing.

[bean5302]

40 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

This seems like a lot for Falvey to take on. Can he oversee the entire baseball side of things and negotiate with beer distributors at the same time?

The Twins don't negotiate with beer distributors. The Twins would negotiate with stadium concessions management companies like Delaware North, Aramark and Levy. Delaware North signed a long-term contract with the Twins back in 2017. Not sure what "long-term" means, though. It'd be pretty shocking if anything got shaken up in general operations, though. It's a lot less stressful to run things "business as usual" than to try and reinvent or grow the brand. Stamp "Approved" on the form.

[Mike Sixel]

I'm also fascinated that you chose a picture with Terry Ryan in it....

[DJL44]

Quote

Jeremy Zoll, who was promoted to Vice President in November of 2021, begins his fifth season as an Assistant General Manager and seventh overall with the Twins, after previously serving as Director of Minor League Operations from 2018-19. In his role, Zoll partners with Dr. Chris Camp to oversee the organization’s performance team and drives developmental initiatives in the minor leagues.

Zoll’s professional experience began with a summer internship with the Cincinnati Reds in 2011, which was followed by a video internship in 2012 for Toronto’s minor league affiliate in Vancouver. In 2013, he started working for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, where he coordinated the organization’s efforts in advance scouting.

After spending three years with the Angels, Zoll worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers, serving as their Assistant Director of Player Development for two seasons (2016-17). While with the Dodgers, he worked on a variety of organizational initiatives ranging from developmental player plans to experimental programs with the Research and Development department.

Zoll grew up in Ridgewood, NJ, and earned his Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies with a minor in Economics from Haverford College, while also catching and serving as a captain in his senior season for the Fords baseball team.

Jeremy Zoll - Vice President, Assistant General Manager | Minnesota Twins

Does Daniel Adler (the other Assistant GM) stay or look for a new team?