Front Office Sports: There is 'momentum' towards a sale of the Minnesota Twins, could be just weeks away

[S Bart]

6 minutes ago, twinstalker said:

Well, he didn't.  Calvin was coerced into moving into the Metrodome. 

Coerced...well he still did it...the Griffith family brought the team to Minnesota..at least the warts and BS were visible with Cal...

[Buschleaguer22]

Canceled my season ticket renewal for next year. I'm not spending major league level money to watch Minor Leaguers playing at Target Field. If I want to do that I'll buy season tickets to the St. Paul Saints or the Rochester Honkers and get my fill of college level and minor league level talent for literally a fraction of the price. Heck, I could sponsor the hot dog races at the Saints game and get my kid and his buddies free tickets to get into the game and sit in the dugout with the players that will be playing at Target Field later this week. 

[jctwins]

I'd like to think if I were on the verge of buying a team, enough that the sellers are talking to me, I'd probably have spoken with a few GM candidates to get their take on what I should buy. The pre-deadline "on the cusp" roster, or a "clear the decks" roster. It's feasible to think a GM candidate said he or she would rather build their own core than try to work with someone else's regardless, and a buyer went with that.

Or the above is all wishful thinking and Falvey doesn't know what the hell he's doing, which is equally plausible.

[S Bart]

9 minutes ago, jctwins said:

I'd like to think if I were on the verge of buying a team, enough that the sellers are talking to me, I'd probably have spoken with a few GM candidates to get their take on what I should buy. The pre-deadline "on the cusp" roster, or a "clear the decks" roster. It's feasible to think a GM candidate said he or she would rather build their own core than try to work with someone else's regardless, and a buyer went with that.

Or the above is all wishful thinking and Falvey doesn't know what the hell he's doing, which is equally plausible.

Well...he renewed Rocco's contract...that should definitely tell you that he doesn't know

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Some things that fans may want to consider.

Correa was an absolute drag on the team. His salary/performance was brutal. 
Although selling our 3 best RP’s among other assets stung, they are replaceable in time. 
The sale is definitely going to happen and it doesn’t matter if the new owners gave consent to the fire sale or not. It’s not there team yet. My assumption is that they want to field a competitive team and rebrand the organization as one of the best in MLB. That will be a gigantic undertaking no matter where the starting point is.

Our minor league talent is now top 3 in all of MLB and has superstar studs ready to make MLB impact in ‘26/27. 
Total payroll doesn’t exactly matter much if you don’t pay $35M to a guy that is injured alot and can’t swing the he bat. Falvey is 0-2 in signing Donaldson/C4. He is 2-0 on dumping them early. Thats a wash. 
Its time to move on. Wish your favorite Twins that got traded the best of luck and wait for the next chapter in Twins lore. 
Good bye to the Pohlads and their wrong sized business acumen. 

How can I say goodbye to the Pohlad's when they won't leave.

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Fatbat said:

Yes, he did some nice things as a Twin. Most notably in their playoff run but I stand by my statement. Its nice to see him in an Astros uniform again. 
Not spending $35M/season for the next 3 years on him can help the team more than he could. 

Gotta factor in they are still paying 10 mil a year for 3 more years

[S Bart]

How did you get a picture of the total fan attendance for the opening 2026 game in 2025?

[tony&rodney]

14 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Gotta factor in they are still paying 10 mil a year for 3 more years

Actually $11.333.333.33 per year by Fangraphs and other sites. But it saved money for someone which is what many believe is important in whatever way. Always good to have different viewpoints.

[USAFChief]

2 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Our minor league talent is now top 3 in all of MLB and has superstar studs ready to make MLB impact in ‘26/27. 
 

Dreamy!

[Pykkman]

Is the tear down complete?  The new ownership must have had some input on this past week.    Pablo, Ryan, Ober, Larnach, Jeffers, etc to be traded in the off season?   Hard to see competitiveness during thier contracts?

[Larry Janisewski]

On 8/2/2025 at 1:38 PM, The_No_Lifer said:

Good chance that there is a tentative agreement in place, and the buyers are just working on financing.

I doubt that anyone who buys the team would spend less than the current owners, and highly likely would be more.  Teams are worth more as billionaire trophy assets rather than profit-making businesses--which is why the Pohlads are selling.

The real problem isn't the Pohlad's wouldn't spend money but in how and who they invested it in. The Tigers payroll is about $400,000 more than the Twins and the Brewers payroll is about $27 million LESS than the Twins----and the Brewers have the best record in baseball as of August 1.

[dxpavelka]

On 8/2/2025 at 12:06 PM, FlyingFinn said:

As long as it wasn't the new owners telling the Pohlads to downsize payroll (so they don't look bad), I'm ready for new owners, management and manager.

don't hold your breath

 

[dxpavelka]

Yippee.  Spending like drunken sailors.  Signing EVERY free agent available.  Rings every year.  Yippee Kay-Ay mother ****.

[chpettit19]

17 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

If this rumor that the sale is imminent, there is no way this sell-off happens without the consent of the new buyer.  What's the total savings? It's under $30M this year.  The Pohlad's get virtually none of the cost savings benefit if the team is sold before the start of next season.  You think they would risk alienating the new buyer for $30M?  Not a chance.  If the rumors are true, the new buyer endorsed this sell-off.  

There are two possibilities.  One, they are purely profit motivated.  Two, like most of us here, they looked at the current roster as needing several upgrades.  They looked at selling out the future to take a shot with this roster and decided the better chance at success, especially sustained success was to rebuild.

I agree with the general premise here, but still question the sale of controllable assets by the current regime. If new ownership is coming, isn't the assumption that they'll bring in a new FO? They don't have to be Twins super fans to know the state of the team and who's responsible for it. And if you're bringing in your own people, wouldn't you want them to be the ones selling off the high value controllable assets? At least Varland, Stewart, and one of Jax or Duran?

You can decide a rebuild is the right move without letting the lame duck FO responsible for needing the rebuild make meaningful trades that result in you now having the great and mighty James Outman for your rebuild.

I guess that'd mean I'm leaning more towards the signs pointing towards them being profit motivated and they just want this thing down to a minimal payroll to start.

[howeda7]

On 8/2/2025 at 1:29 PM, Brandon27 said:

If former timberwolves owner glenn taylor buys the twins I am done watching the twins 

Glen's 84 in poor health. There is almost no way he's the primary new owner. If he's part of any group buying he won't be the majority owner. 

[Mike Sixel]

8 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Some things that fans may want to consider.

Correa was an absolute drag on the team. His salary/performance was brutal. 
Although selling our 3 best RP’s among other assets stung, they are replaceable in time. 
The sale is definitely going to happen and it doesn’t matter if the new owners gave consent to the fire sale or not. It’s not there team yet. My assumption is that they want to field a competitive team and rebrand the organization as one of the best in MLB. That will be a gigantic undertaking no matter where the starting point is.

Our minor league talent is now top 3 in all of MLB and has superstar studs ready to make MLB impact in ‘26/27. 
Total payroll doesn’t exactly matter much if you don’t pay $35M to a guy that is injured alot and can’t swing the he bat. Falvey is 0-2 in signing Donaldson/C4. He is 2-0 on dumping them early. Thats a wash. 
Its time to move on. Wish your favorite Twins that got traded the best of luck and wait for the next chapter in Twins lore. 
Good bye to the Pohlads and their wrong sized business acumen. 

The farm system isn't top three. Most of the value of the farm is in quantity, not quality. Which superstars are ready to start next year? 

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

I agree with the general premise here, but still question the sale of controllable assets by the current regime. If new ownership is coming, isn't the assumption that they'll bring in a new FO? They don't have to be Twins super fans to know the state of the team and who's responsible for it. And if you're bringing in your own people, wouldn't you want them to be the ones selling off the high value controllable assets? At least Varland, Stewart, and one of Jax or Duran?

You can decide a rebuild is the right move without letting the lame duck FO responsible for needing the rebuild make meaningful trades that result in you now having the great and mighty James Outman for your rebuild.

I guess that'd mean I'm leaning more towards the signs pointing towards them being profit motivated and they just want this thing down to a minimal payroll to start.

Falvey actually has a pretty good track record selling at the deadline so I am not sure I would read a lot into them allowing him to make these deals.  The only one that really throws me is Varland.  The return for the guys with 2 1/2 years remaining (Duran/Jax) is likely as high as it's going to get.  They also negate the risk associated with injury.  

Varland threw me but I think I understand where they are going.  The big 3 all expire at the end of 2027.  They are not going to hold on to them hoping 2027 will be competitive.  Not after selling off in this magnitude.  They want to make sure they can sell off Lopez/Ryan and still have a very good rotation by 2027.  Let's say they keep Ober.  That gives them Ober / Matthews / Abel / Rojas / Festa / Bradley / SWR that have made it to the ML level and Rojas / Prielipp / Morris ready soon.  By 2027 they should have Soto / Hill and Quick on the verge.

I don't like Outman for Stewart but I think very highly of Stewart and might be overvaluing him.  I see the potential value in Outman and hope I am dead wrong.

[chpettit19]

26 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Falvey actually has a pretty good track record selling at the deadline so I am not sure I would read a lot into them allowing him to make these deals.  The only one that really throws me is Varland.  The return for the guys with 2 1/2 years remaining (Duran/Jax) is likely as high as it's going to get.  They also negate the risk associated with injury.  

Varland threw me but I think I understand where they are going.  The big 3 all expire at the end of 2027.  They are not going to hold on to them hoping 2027 will be competitive.  Not after selling off in this magnitude.  They want to make sure they can sell off Lopez/Ryan and still have a very good rotation by 2027.  Let's say they keep Ober.  That gives them Ober / Matthews / Abel / Rojas / Festa / Bradley / SWR that have made it to the ML level and Rojas / Prielipp / Morris ready soon.  By 2027 they should have Soto / Hill and Quick on the verge.

I don't like Outman for Stewart but I think very highly of Stewart and might be overvaluing him.  I see the potential value in Outman and hope I am dead wrong.

That's all fine. But if you're buying this thing before next season and putting your own guys in place you just let a walking dead man sell off multiple valuable pieces for parts you don't know your guys will like. There's no redo if your new guys come in and say "Bradley has 350 innings of entirely underwhelming major league performance in over 60 starts with some of the best pitching development power behind him, we don't think he's a useful piece at all. We wouldn't have traded Jax for just Bradley and don't want that piece." Or Outman (complete disaster of a trade in my view). Tait and Abel is very reasonable value for Duran, but if they aren't pieces the new FO wants you don't get to do that trade over and go to Seattle and get the pieces they were offering instead.

There's risk in every decision. Keeping them until new guys are in place absolutely has it's own risk. My point is just that if this was simply about the new owners (again, assuming the rumors are true and a sale is imminent) wanting a rebuild instead of trying to win with the former core, they didn't have to sign off on selling controllable assets with a lame duck front office. It feels more financial to me. Which then points to new ownership being profit driven.

I've been on the record as anti-Pohlad for a long time. And still am. I think they've run the business side of the Twins horribly. But I've also been very realistic that we need to be careful what we wish for. Claims that the Pohlads are even close to the worst owners in baseball history are laughable. The more recent generations are getting worse and worse as business people. But there's been far worse team owners. There's far worse owners currently. And there's far more profit driven people who could be buying this thing.

[Hubie29]

If I was the one working on buying the Twins, (ya right), I would have wanted Falvey to do exactly what he did. I would have given him my blessing to dump as many of the jokers on the roster he could for high rated prospects. I would rather start over with a new roster than the over paid primadanas that were traded. 

[Hubie29]

21 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

If this rumor that the sale is imminent, there is no way this sell-off happens without the consent of the new buyer.  What's the total savings? It's under $30M this year.  The Pohlad's get virtually none of the cost savings benefit if the team is sold before the start of next season.  You think they would risk alienating the new buyer for $30M?  Not a chance.  If the rumors are true, the new buyer endorsed this sell-off.  

There are two possibilities.  One, they are purely profit motivated.  Two, like most of us here, they looked at the current roster as needing several upgrades.  They looked at selling out the future to take a shot with this roster and decided the better chance at success, especially sustained success was to rebuild.

If i was buying this team, I would have given the green light to trade everyone on the team. Time to start over fresh. New owner, new GM, new manager, new roster. 

[cmoss84]

Is it AROID??? Does he have enough gummies for everyone???

[Whitey333]

The Pohlads have made a mess of the franchise.  At last check however they were 19 out of 30 in payroll.  That's before the purge.  There's several teams below them.  Falvey has done a bad job of budgeting the payroll dollars given him.  He built this team that he tore down.  Perhaps if they had drafted better, traded better, scouted better, managed the team better, and if players like Correa had performed near or above expectations they wouldn't have been in this spot.  Both Falvey and Baldelli must go.

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

That's all fine. But if you're buying this thing before next season and putting your own guys in place you just let a walking dead man sell off multiple valuable pieces for parts you don't know your guys will like. There's no redo if your new guys come in and say "Bradley has 350 innings of entirely underwhelming major league performance in over 60 starts with some of the best pitching development power behind him, we don't think he's a useful piece at all. We wouldn't have traded Jax for just Bradley and don't want that piece." Or Outman (complete disaster of a trade in my view). Tait and Abel is very reasonable value for Duran, but if they aren't pieces the new FO wants you don't get to do that trade over and go to Seattle and get the pieces they were offering instead.

There's risk in every decision. Keeping them until new guys are in place absolutely has it's own risk. My point is just that if this was simply about the new owners (again, assuming the rumors are true and a sale is imminent) wanting a rebuild instead of trying to win with the former core, they didn't have to sign off on selling controllable assets with a lame duck front office. It feels more financial to me. Which then points to new ownership being profit driven.

I've been on the record as anti-Pohlad for a long time. And still am. I think they've run the business side of the Twins horribly. But I've also been very realistic that we need to be careful what we wish for. Claims that the Pohlads are even close to the worst owners in baseball history are laughable. The more recent generations are getting worse and worse as business people. But there's been far worse team owners. There's far worse owners currently. And there's far more profit driven people who could be buying this thing.

You definitely have a point.  This could be a new profit driven owner ceasing the opportunity to cut payroll for the next few years.  This could be a new owner implementing a Tampa Bay operating model and spending level despite having more revenue.   

Being an optimist, I see the slightly more likely explanation being they did not see a realistic path to a strong contender without a pretty major rework of the roster and this was the most effective path. 

[Parfigliano]

5 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

The Pohlads have made a mess of the franchise.  At last check however they were 19 out of 30 in payroll.  That's before the purge.  There's several teams below them.  Falvey has done a bad job of budgeting the payroll dollars given him.  He built this team that he tore down.  Perhaps if they had drafted better, traded better, scouted better, managed the team better, and if players like Correa had performed near or above expectations they wouldn't have been in this spot.  Both Falvey and Baldelli must go.

I can't see any new owner keeping Falvey or Baldelli.

[tony&rodney]

16 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

The Pohlads have made a mess of the franchise.  At last check however they were 19 out of 30 in payroll.  That's before the purge.  There's several teams below them.  Falvey has done a bad job of budgeting the payroll dollars given him.  He built this team that he tore down.  Perhaps if they had drafted better, traded better, scouted better, managed the team better, and if players like Correa had performed near or above expectations they wouldn't have been in this spot.  Both Falvey and Baldelli must go.

This the reality in the franchise.

Some have stated that a new owner could have directed the recent sell off. That just seems so remote. A new owner would want to have their own people make decisions.

While there is no way to know if there is any progress towards a sale or even any interest in the club, we will continue to hear rumors. Meanwhile we wait patiently, for a new era of Twins baseball. 

[chpettit19]

1 hour ago, Hubie29 said:

If i was buying this team, I would have given the green light to trade everyone on the team. Time to start over fresh. New owner, new GM, new manager, new roster. 

If you're going to replace the GM (I assume you actually mean Falvey who is the president, not GM. That is Zoll) why would you give him permission to make decisions with long lasting effects on the roster? Why would you give the guy you're about to fire the green light to trade guys with control instead of waiting to replace him and have your new guy do it?

"Hey, I think you're bad at your job so I'm going to fire you, but go ahead and completely and totally reshape my franchise and make every big move we have before I take over so my new guy has no real levers to pull once he gets in there" is a weird strategy to me.

[Ghost of Kirby Puckett]

On 8/2/2025 at 3:34 PM, Rod Carews Birthday said:

So you’re not old enough to remember Calvin Griffith, eh?

I am not, but my Dad is, so I am familiar, lol. I also know he has an equally deep hatred for Lou Holtz, Norm Green and Mariah Carey. So he really didn't like Calvin.

[DocBauer]

I'm with a couple others that I've never even heard of FRONT OFFICE SPORTS until this OP. A couple quick internet searches didn't really reveal much other than they seem to be an independent group who is trying to have their finger on the pulse od sports. OK. @Brock Beauchamphas information they are reliable. So I'll run with that idea. 

Whether you like Manfred...at all or even a little...or believe anything he says...at all or even a little....he is the ML commissioner and pretty well plugged in to the happenings of MLB. So I don't think he's blowing smoke that there is new owner interest, or that FOS is wrong.

What we DON'T know is how close a final deal might be. NOR do we know that there isn't more than 1 bidder. In the meantime, the Pohlad's are still in charge, and the Falvey/Zoll FO are still running things. Is it possible a potential bidder was part of the fire sale? Yes. But they still aren't in control, even if there is only ONE potential buyer at this time. One could argue that IF they were part of the firesale, they could have asked for a lower and cleaner payroll before they take over in the next few weeks/months. Further, it's possible they are no more interested in spending than the Pohlads. 

HOWEVER, IF there was ONE buyer ready to move forward, you'd also expect them to realize the TV deal structure and losses, as well as the collapse of 2024 and the disappointment of 2025. I know that if I were the new buyer, I'd not oy be aware, but I probably would have met with Falvey to get a feel of "where my new team was at" in a competitive framework. Falvey himself may have stated that some sort of more aggressive re-work/re-tool was needed at this time.

So even IF a potential new owner WAS part of the decision making process, it DOESN'T mean they have a "Pohlar miserly" approach to being the new owners. And I think that's important to consider.

And to be clear, I wasn't against many of the trades made. I don't think they didn't bring back some talent in return. I DON'T believe they got enough for Jax. And I DON'T like trading a pair of inexpensive and controlled pair of arms like Stewart for Outman, (angry tremble), and Varland for. And if we really want to believe it ONLY/MOSTLY came down to cutting payroll and saving $, well, you save mere pennies by moving those 2.

I don't believe the Pohlads are even near the worst owners in sports. They've done some good things over the years. But as a UNIT, I don't believe anyone...save 1 or 2 members...actually care about the Twins. I believe their other assets have been a major issue for them, they've borrowed against the Twins, and are looking to cash in. And I have to seriously question their ability as business people to do so...if that's accurate...as well as raising the payroll consecutively, agreeing to the Correa signing, seeming to have ZERO clue how to grow interest and the fan base, and have ZERO premonition as to the massive pending changes that were coming for revenue across the sport. FURTHER, I have a hard time believing an ownership that suddenly cuts the legs out of those actually running the team when success has happened greater than has been seen in years, and a desperate fan base suddenly growing almost rabid in optimism, and calling them "good business people".

I think the Pohlads are pretty desperate to sell and will. Probably soon. I think it's misguided to believe they won't run the team differently and better. I also think it's a bit misguided to believe they may have had a backroom agreement to cut costs simply because they might be cheap. Again, IF they were part of ANY of the deadline clearings, it may be part of a new start.

Many new owners will keep the structure of management in place initially as they "get their hands" on the business and see the day to day operations up close. I wouldn't be shocked to see Falvey kept on as the head of the business side of things. Maybe he's gone, but wouldn't be shocked if he stayed. But I wouldn't be surprised if someone new was brought in to run the baseball side of things, either immediately, or after a 1yr reveal.

 

[Fatbat]

7 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

The farm system isn't top three. Most of the value of the farm is in quantity, not quality. Which superstars are ready to start next year? 

MLB impact, doesn’t mean starting opening day ‘26.  The names tho are Keaschall, K Culpepper, G Gonzalez W Jenkins…. Maybe Erod.  At least 2 of them will hit their ceiling during their career and be considered superstars. There are others younger and they WILL be right behind them. 
On the pitching side, I don’t think anyone will be a massive contributor before mid season’26 but Preillipp could be the next Frank Viola type lefty that will impact the rotation next season at some point. I don’t know enough about the new kids from the trade so I wont say include them. you are correct when you say its in the quantity but its also quality. Plenty of quality in the system to make the Twins competitive in the next 2 years. 
The biggest holes to fill on the team are 1B ,SS and the bullpen.  1B will have to be filled externally thru a trade, probably take a Lopez or Ryan to get a young star quality 1B. Or use our first round draft pick in ‘26 to get a Nick Kurtz type college 1B kid. 
The larger point is, there is a clean slate and plenty of payroll available to build a winning team and probably quicker than some fans realize. 

[Hubie29]

10 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

If you're going to replace the GM (I assume you actually mean Falvey who is the president, not GM. That is Zoll) why would you give him permission to make decisions with long lasting effects on the roster? Why would you give the guy you're about to fire the green light to trade guys with control instead of waiting to replace him and have your new guy do it?

"Hey, I think you're bad at your job so I'm going to fire you, but go ahead and completely and totally reshape my franchise and make every big move we have before I take over so my new guy has no real levers to pull once he gets in there" is a weird strategy to 

 

I see your point. I guess I was just so happy that they gutted this roster.  I don't know if another GM could or would have done any different or better at the trade deadline. I'm not saying Falvey is even the number one reason for failure. The owner and Baldelli would be my first choices, then Falvey.