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

[ashbury]

Wow, this is actually promising.  Expectations haven't been met.  Change is called for, expertise moreso than loyalty is my preference at this time.

DSP has a seat on the board of directors, so this news raises the likelihood of a sale of the club, in my own mind anyway and lacking insider information.  New owners will bring in their own board.

More than ever this is Falvey s team.  The buck stops with him.

[tony&rodney]

3 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

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.

We might differ here. My take is that Falvey has always 100% known what budgets he has to work with on every occasion. Walking away from Sonny Gray was a Falvey baseball business decision. The Twins had the means to replace him via trade but chose to roll back their youngins. The Twins are likely to roll it back again in 2025. While I'm not opposed to the Twins running payrolls of $150-200M, that didn't ever seem like much of a reality.

I get that some believe that the Pohlads crunched opportunities for the Twins, I look at the type of players and teams that the Twins put on the field year after year and the transactions they make as a Falvey thing. I would add that Correa was an outlier of unknown origin, perhaps BAM money. 

[chpettit19]

33 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

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). 

I'm not complaining about moving on from DSP. I've been asking for that for years. It's just weird timing and I'm just not excited about Falvey being the replacement. Even if the replacement is internal I'd prefer someone who's had (theoretically) more time invested in the business side of things. I'm also not worried about the impact on the Pohlads. Don't believe I've mentioned any impact on the Pohlads at all.

I've mentioned the impact on the Twins. I want the Twins to improve. The easiest way to improve in major league baseball is to be able to spend more money. The easiest way to be able to spend more money is to have more money to spend. Having your baseball ops guy running your business ops doesn't feel like the best way to maximize your revenue. That is my complaint. In a year if Falvey has been bad at running the business ops side of things, and the Pohlads haven't sold, my concern isn't the impact on the Pohlads and their fortune it's on the Twins payroll. That's why I don't like this. Because that has an impact on me. And you. And all of us on these boards. If Falvey is worse than St Peter at running the business side of things it means the Pohlads spend even less money on Twins player payroll and the team gets worse. That is my concern. Not anything to do with the Pohlads or their fortune. I've never even mentioned that.

[DJL44]

New Twins farm director Jeremy Zoll has impressed every step of the way - The Athletic

Quote

Several springs ago, Zoll, a four-year catcher at Haverford College, suggested the Dodgers bring all of their minor-league catchers to camp early. After working alongside Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais in the baseball operations department of the Los Angeles Angels, Zoll had a sense that so much is thrown at catchers early in spring training that he wanted to hold a mini-camp for them to refine other skills. That resulted in Byrnes bringing Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren and current catcher Yasmani Grandal over for what amounted to a catching seminar.

A chat with Minnesota Twins Director of Minor League Operations Jeremy Zoll | The Gazette

Quote

Q: It used to be that all minor league coaches were guys that played pro ball, whether in the minor leagues or major leagues. But you have hired guys straight out of college and junior college to be coaches for you. Assistant coaches out of college, actually. Can you tell me about your reasons for doing that? What do they bring that you feel will benefit the organization?

A: A number of the new staff members that we've brought in, while they might be coming from college, have spent a lot of time working to refine their craft as coaches. Really digging into the science behind coaching, the art of leadership. They've had a number of years under their belt to where they get to experiment and utilize trial and error and learning. We have found some really curious people, people who are really looking at staying on the cutting edge.

 

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I'm not complaining about moving on from DSP. I've been asking for that for years. It's just weird timing and I'm just not excited about Falvey being the replacement. Even if the replacement is internal I'd prefer someone who's had (theoretically) more time invested in the business side of things. I'm also not worried about the impact on the Pohlads. Don't believe I've mentioned any impact on the Pohlads at all.

I've mentioned the impact on the Twins. I want the Twins to improve. The easiest way to improve in major league baseball is to be able to spend more money. The easiest way to be able to spend more money is to have more money to spend. Having your baseball ops guy running your business ops doesn't feel like the best way to maximize your revenue. That is my complaint. In a year if Falvey has been bad at running the business ops side of things, and the Pohlads haven't sold, my concern isn't the impact on the Pohlads and their fortune it's on the Twins payroll. That's why I don't like this. Because that has an impact on me. And you. And all of us on these boards. If Falvey is worse than St Peter at running the business side of things it means the Pohlads spend even less money on Twins player payroll and the team gets worse. That is my concern. Not anything to do with the Pohlads or their fortune. I've never even mentioned that.

They aren't making major investments this year. They aren't. They are for sale. None of that last paragraph matters to the team this year at all. 

[chpettit19]

41 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

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. 

Hey, I hope it's close. But it's not often you get a sale of an American professional sports team without anybody being aware of any rumors about who may be interested or anything. I haven't heard a peep about anything, but maybe I've just missed it. The Orioles sale went quite quickly so it's entirely possible. And I'm not predicting the sale won't happen or anything, just playing devil's advocate, and am generally not a fan of putting Falvey in charge of the business and baseball side of things.

Glad DSP is gone, wish it would've happened years ago. Hope we have a new owner soon and they bring in somebody with a far better feel for modern broadcast situations and that person can get the fan engagement moving in the right direction.

[chpettit19]

2 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

They aren't making major investments this year. They aren't. They are for sale. None of that last paragraph matters to the team this year at all. 

Never said that either. We were talking about the possibility of the Pohlads not being able to sell the team and then being upset with how Falvey ran things so making a change in a year and you brought up that the Pohlads fortune would be fine so I explained I wasn't at all concerned about that and gave you what my concern was.

We're just talking past each other at this point so it's time to move on.

[DJL44]

Is Zoll the youngest GM in baseball?

[SenatorsGuy]

In that I blame DSP with the total destruction of this true baseball fan's game day experience - I cannot see this as anything but good news. 

[Major League Ready]

31 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

They aren't making major investments this year. They aren't. They are for sale. None of that last paragraph matters to the team this year at all. 

I could not disagree more.  Making changes that a buyer sees as likely to improve revenue is very helpful in selling a company.  Lowering operating cost is more certain to improve bottom line but improving revenue has considerably greater potential upside. 

We also don't know the whole plan.  What if they intend to hire a marketing genius under Falvey.   Putting someone in place to lead business operations is not the same skillset as leading the organization.   They could also use a marketing consultant to form strategy and then hire someone to execute that strategy.   I am with Chpettit on this one.  It would be very advantageous for this organization to improve their ability to maximize this market.

[Jocko87]

1 hour ago, jorgenswest said:

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. 

They could fire the entire front office including all the minors league staff and save less than mediocre DH money.  It just doesn't really move the needle.

1 hour 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?

Assuming this is a bit tongue in cheek but I'm continuously fascinated by the things we think they do that they obviously do not.

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

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

And that that tweet had an out of focus picture of a letter was just....chefs kiss. Perfection 👌

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

I could not disagree more.  Making changes that a buyer sees as likely to improve revenue is very helpful in selling a company.  Lowering operating cost is more certain to improve bottom line but improving revenue has considerably greater potential upside.  I am with Chpettit on this one.

You think they are investing in the roster? Because that's what chpetti thinks will  happen if they increase revenues....that's what I was talking about. It's not happening this year, they are not increasing payroll, and it will drop if they can make it happen. 

[Major League Ready]

Just now, Mike Sixel said:

You think they are investing in the roster? Because that's what chpetti thinks will  happen if they increase revenues....that's what I was talking about. It's not happening this year, they are not increasing payroll, and it will drop if they can make it happen. 

No.  maybe I misunderstood you.  I was responding to when you said chpettit's last paragraph was not going to happen because they were not going to invest this year.  I may have misunderstood because his last paragraph was about them improving their sales and marketing.  You might have meant in the roster.  No, I don't think you will see significant spending, especially long-term contracts.  I think a new buyer would want to make any such decisions.  That same principle might drive trading Correa if they could find a trade partner.

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

No.  maybe I misunderstood you.  I was responding to when you said chpettit's last paragraph was not going to happen because they were not going to invest this year.  I may have misunderstood because his last paragraph was about them improving their sales and marketing.  You might have meant in the roster.  No, I don't think you will see significant spending, especially long-term contracts.  I think a new buyer would want to make any such decisions.  That same principle might drive trading Correa if they could find a trade partner.

My reading of their post was that they wanted that to happen so the team would get more investment....my point was, and I did NOT make it clearly, they can increase revenue all they want this year, they aren't expanding payroll this year. They might or might not next year, but that's likely up to the new owner. So, ya, my bad there.

I agree on that last part, I think. I THINK a new owner would be ok with CC being gone, so they could direct the POBO and GM on payroll. OTOH, maybe the new owner is like Cohen (not likely) and is good with spending it all. 

[nicksaviking]

37 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

We might differ here. My take is that Falvey has always 100% known what budgets he has to work with on every occasion. Walking away from Sonny Gray was a Falvey baseball business decision. The Twins had the means to replace him via trade but chose to roll back their youngins. The Twins are likely to roll it back again in 2025. While I'm not opposed to the Twins running payrolls of $150-200M, that didn't ever seem like much of a reality.

I get that some believe that the Pohlads crunched opportunities for the Twins, I look at the type of players and teams that the Twins put on the field year after year and the transactions they make as a Falvey thing. I would add that Correa was an outlier of unknown origin, perhaps BAM money. 

I don't see how anybody on the baseball side would think extending Buxton, Lopez and signing Correa to long term deals a year before dropping payroll is a good idea.

It seems significantly more likely that the operations side was out of touch and oblivious to the actual future the organization was headed. They shouldn't have been, but that seems to be by far the most likely explanation after cutting payroll despite having the most competitive roster in a quarter century.

[Major League Ready]

12 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

My reading of their post was that they wanted that to happen so the team would get more investment....my point was, and I did NOT make it clearly, they can increase revenue all they want this year, they aren't expanding payroll this year. They might or might not next year, but that's likely up to the new owner. So, ya, my bad there.

I agree on that last part, I think. I THINK a new owner would be ok with CC being gone, so they could direct the POBO and GM on payroll. OTOH, maybe the new owner is like Cohen (not likely) and is good with spending it all. 

I missed the mark on where you were going with that thought.  I interpreted it as they would not do the things Chpettit was saying because of the sale.   It made no sense so I should have figured out that was not what you meant.  My bad.

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

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. 

With revenues dropping across the league this may not be a bad thing.  Also the Twins are well positioned for the next several seasons where most of their reinforcements will come from within so development and health is more important so as long as those areas remain fully staffed is what I see as vital moving forward.  And to continue this trend the drafting and scouting department needs to be fully staffed and prepared as well.  

[Teflon]

Will Falvey as team president have any responsibilities in the process of selling the team or will that be entirely up to the Pohlads / a 3rd-party representative of the Pohlads? 

Also wondering... With it looking like Minneapolis will shut down the HERC, if that parcel adjacent to Target Field would have any development potential - perhaps as a Twins-owned parking garage. That would seem to be a potential money-maker for the team if the city can be urged to clear and sell the land.

[TheLeviathan]

In all seriousness, does anyone know what these titles mean in terms of decision making?  I've lost track of the role of the GM in this organization.  Falvey is now acquiring talent and running things like media?

I realize it's all part of the selling process, just trying to figure out what to actually expect that people are doing/not doing with all the title jargon.

I am sure of one thing: DSP is gone 20 years too late.  Can't be anything but excited about that.

[chpettit19]

43 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

You think they are investing in the roster? Because that's what chpetti thinks will  happen if they increase revenues....that's what I was talking about. It's not happening this year, they are not increasing payroll, and it will drop if they can make it happen. 

 

31 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

My reading of their post was that they wanted that to happen so the team would get more investment....my point was, and I did NOT make it clearly, they can increase revenue all they want this year, they aren't expanding payroll this year. They might or might not next year, but that's likely up to the new owner. So, ya, my bad there.

I agree on that last part, I think. I THINK a new owner would be ok with CC being gone, so they could direct the POBO and GM on payroll. OTOH, maybe the new owner is like Cohen (not likely) and is good with spending it all. 

I think if they increase revenue and still own the team in the future they will have higher payrolls, yes. Nothing I have said has been about spending more on this year's team. Nothing. Not one thing.

You said: "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)."

I bolded the key "in a year" part. I haven't said a single thing about them investing in this year's roster. Not once. I directly refuted your claim that I was talking about them investing in this year's roster. The paragraph you claimed didn't mean anything was about the future because it was in direct response to your paragraph about the future. It matters if Falvey is terrible at this job. If he tanks their revenue for a year it effects the 2026 Twins if the Pohlad's still own them, and possibly if somebody else does. I care about that team, too. Not just the 2025 Twins. That's why I care about this move.

I don't know why it's controversial to suggest Derek Falvey being bad at driving revenue is bad for the Twins. Unless the Twins sell before he has the chance to take over this job it is bad for the Pohlads trying to sell and it is bad for team building. He may not be bad at it, but if he is it is bad all around. Not sure why that's a controversial thing to say.

[nicksaviking]

15 minutes ago, Teflon said:

Will Falvey as team president have any responsibilities in the process of selling the team or will that be entirely up to the Pohlads / a 3rd-party representative of the Pohlads? 

Also wondering... With it looking like Minneapolis will shut down the HERC, if that parcel adjacent to Target Field would have any development potential - perhaps as a Twins-owned parking garage. That would seem to be a potential money-maker for the team if the city can be urged to clear and sell the land.

I'm not sure about parking specifically, after all Ramp B is right against the CF wall and Ramps A and C are right there and skywalk accessible. Could have a ramp feature, but I'd guess the developers (possibly future Twins-owner included) would drool over more mixed use high rise stuff like they just completed across from fifth street. Available North Loop properties might be the most desirable real estate to develop in the Midwest outside of Chicago.

[Mike Sixel]

8 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

 

I think if they increase revenue and still own the team in the future they will have higher payrolls, yes. Nothing I have said has been about spending more on this year's team. Nothing. Not one thing.

You said: "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)."

I bolded the key "in a year" part. I haven't said a single thing about them investing in this year's roster. Not once. I directly refuted your claim that I was talking about them investing in this year's roster. The paragraph you claimed didn't mean anything was about the future because it was in direct response to your paragraph about the future. It matters if Falvey is terrible at this job. If he tanks their revenue for a year it effects the 2026 Twins if the Pohlad's still own them, and possibly if somebody else does. I care about that team, too. Not just the 2025 Twins. That's why I care about this move.

I don't know why it's controversial to suggest Derek Falvey being bad at driving revenue is bad for the Twins. Unless the Twins sell before he has the chance to take over this job it is bad for the Pohlads trying to sell and it is bad for team building. He may not be bad at it, but if he is it is bad all around. Not sure why that's a controversial thing to say.

Sorry I misunderstood you? 

[Mike Sixel]

Do we really think anything Falvey does will dramatically change revenue this year? The TV deal is done. The payroll is going down a bit or a lot. I'm not sure what he could even do to change revenue much this year.

[Vanimal46]

3 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Do we really think anything Falvey does will dramatically change revenue this year? The TV deal is done. The payroll is going down a bit or a lot. I'm not sure what he could even do to change revenue much this year.

Almost nothing is my guess… Maybe salvaging a season ticket buyer or two? How far in advance are promotion days set? 

[chpettit19]

8 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Do we really think anything Falvey does will dramatically change revenue this year? The TV deal is done. The payroll is going down a bit or a lot. I'm not sure what he could even do to change revenue much this year.

 

4 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Almost nothing is my guess… Maybe salvaging a season ticket buyer or two? How far in advance are promotion days set? 

Isn't the vast majority of non-revenue sharing revenue now based on fan engagement? Ticket sales/game day revenue and streaming/TV subscriptions? I'd think that means the Twins, and thus the person in charge of the business department, has a lot of impact on revenue. The TV deal being done doesn't mean the same thing it used to. Now it means the team needs to get to work. The check isn't in the mail like it used to be. They have to go earn their money now.

[DocBauer]

On the one hand, while I'm sure the Pohlad's would be grateful for any extra revenue generated for 2025, I believe they are determined to sell the team if possible. So I'm not sure if they even care if Falvey is good at his new responsibilities or not. But why hire someone else for what might be a lame duck position?

On the other hand, Falvey doesn't actually to have RUN anything on this side of things. The title tells me that he's now in charge of placing people there of HIS choice to run those areas. New VP/GM of marketing? Whoever Falvey wants to put in charge of it. 

I agree that anything run poorly can affect 2026. But until I hear/read some more, I'm under the impression Falvey gets to have more control over the entire franchise's operation, on the field and off. But again, I think that likely means placing his own hand picked people in charge.

[old nurse]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

I could not disagree more.  Making changes that a buyer sees as likely to improve revenue is very helpful in selling a company.  Lowering operating cost is more certain to improve bottom line but improving revenue has considerably greater potential upside. 

We also don't know the whole plan.  What if they intend to hire a marketing genius under Falvey.   Putting someone in place to lead business operations is not the same skillset as leading the organization.   They could also use a marketing consultant to form strategy and then hire someone to execute that strategy.   I am with Chpettit on this one.  It would be very advantageous for this organization to improve their ability to maximize this market.

They need a marketing guru? Do they first fire everyone in the 12 listed members of the brand marking department, the 15 listed members of the brand partnership  department, the 41 listed members of the ticket sales and marketing department? What haven’t they done to maximize the market? 

[sweetmusicviola16]

I see this as just moving known prices around. I don't see it hurting the team, but really don't see it as making much of any difference. I suspect the moves this winter will mirror this one. Internal promotions. 

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Teflon said:

Will Falvey as team president have any responsibilities in the process of selling the team or will that be entirely up to the Pohlads / a 3rd-party representative of the Pohlads? 

I am sure he will be called into a lot of meetings. Any potential new owner is going to want to know the state of the organization and that's Falvey.

[nicksaviking]

27 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

 

Isn't the vast majority of non-revenue sharing revenue now based on fan engagement? Ticket sales/game day revenue and streaming/TV subscriptions? I'd think that means the Twins, and thus the person in charge of the business department, has a lot of impact on revenue. The TV deal being done doesn't mean the same thing it used to. Now it means the team needs to get to work. The check isn't in the mail like it used to be. They have to go earn their money now.

I'm not sure about the vast majority, but I'd agree fan engagement isn't helping revenue currently. They've needed someone better at this for about two decades now. They've been marketing to Grandma and Grandpa in Grand Rapids for far too long, even though those two no longer make a yearly trip to Minneapolis and struggle to figure out how to work the Roku.

I kind of assumed better fan engagment meant they needed someone with a marketing background. Or a college dropout with 10M followers on TikTok.

So I'm suspicious about the efficacy of this move and think it's more about being a good soldier, slimming expenses and doing the dirty work ownership wants to make the club more attractive to a future buyer. Because I think lower expenses is more attractive to future buyers than current year-to-year revenue, because billionaires are likely only buying sports teams for their future valuation.