NEWS: Pohlad Family Will Remain Principal Owners of Twins, with New Limited Partners Coming Aboard

[Eris]

Disappointing for sure. 
 

“they've now decided to allow minority partners to soak up some of the financial burden they faced while holding onto what is still a highly profitable company”

I am trying to understand this in the context of the $400 million. Is the debt from baseball operations or from other Pohlad businesses. Based on previous threads I thought MLB had rules against transferring non baseball dept to the baseball franchise. These rules were implemented after the Mets Wilpon-Madoff disaster. The quote captured from the article and some of the comments imply the $400 million debt is not from baseball operations.

 

Google AI indicates the debt is from stadium financing and any money borrowed from the league credit fund for long term capital improvements. 

[Battle ur tail off]

2 minutes ago, howeda7 said:

I am astounded that they think this is the right move. They have already burned all goodwill they ever had. Stadium and TV revenues will only plummet further. MLB has major issues. There is a lockout pending. The value of this team is as high as it's going to be for the next several  years. The value is only going to go down.

Amazing they can be so tone deaf isn't it? The last few years have really shown how to ruin a fanbase. Like literally there may be a book written on this someday. 

Carl sucked, but at least he kept his mouth shut. This new generation of Pohlads is terrible.

[howeda7]

14 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

I realize this is very RAW and a real bummer but does anyone at TD really think new investors are going to spend a few hundred million $$ without some stipulations on how things are handled going forward???

Gotta take a few breaths. There’s obvious payroll flexibility for next season, even if they just go back to 2025 $ total.

They have probably 6 starting level guys on their roster for position players. 2-3 guys from farm system ready by June of ‘26 if not on opening day. They have 3-4 guys that are suitable for depth/platoon roles (i.e. Lee & Clemens). Need Catching replacement & DH from FA market OR via trade in offseason.

Rotation is in very good shape relative to talent & depth going forward.

PEN needs a couple FA signings……..lots of young options/arms to fill roles recently left void.

Am frustrated with partial move on a sale, big time - Team still isn’t that far away on the field.

Unless Falvey and Rocco go, returning to a $140 million payroll accomplishes nothing. They will now likely both be here for 5 more years.

[gman]

I assume this was agreed to before the trade deadline. Postponed so the new partners wouldn't get blamed for the sell off. I don't know if this is bad or worse.

[Five minute major]

They never intended to sell.  

[Musk21]

Perhaps the influx of cash from the new investors will allow Carl's 3 sons, who for years have proven to have little to no interest in the team, to get out of the baseball business entirely. To his credit, at least it seems like Joe Pohlad has an interest in the team and in being involved. Maybe Carl's 3 sons have been tying Joe's hands?

I know, not likely...Just looking for any sign of positivity in this bad news.

[Yoke]

15 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

I realize this is very RAW and a real bummer but does anyone at TD really think new investors are going to spend a few hundred million $$ without some stipulations on how things are handled going forward???

Gotta take a few breaths. There’s obvious payroll flexibility for next season, even if they just go back to 2025 $ total.

They have probably 6 starting level guys on their roster for position players. 2-3 guys from farm system ready by June of ‘26 if not on opening day. They have 3-4 guys that are suitable for depth/platoon roles (i.e. Lee & Clemens). Need Catching replacement & DH from FA market OR via trade in offseason.

Rotation is in very good shape relative to talent & depth going forward.

PEN needs a couple FA signings……..lots of young options/arms to fill roles recently left void.

Am frustrated with partial move on a sale, big time - Team still isn’t that far away on the field.

I do agree that the team has some really strong pieces, and maybe are not horribly far off from another good season.

 

But with the first paragraph, I don’t know if new owners will do any better, but I’d just like to be disappointed in new people instead of the same old disappointments. Freshen it up a bit.

[ChermesZ]

2 minutes ago, howeda7 said:

Unless Falvey and Rocco go, returning to a $140 million payroll accomplishes nothing. They will now likely both be here for 5 more years.

Ha, 140 mil payroll.

 

wishful thinking.

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, gman said:

I assume this was agreed to before the trade deadline. Postponed so the new partners wouldn't get blamed for the sell off. I don't know if this is bad or worse.

Agreed

[TwinsDr2021]

IMO, Ryan and/or Lopez are gone (one for sure, and likely both). I think Ober stays and the Twins try their whole limited innings, limited days rest with the list of starters that we all hoped would turn out.

(Festa, SWR, Matthews, Abel, Bradley and the rest)

Probably means Culpepper, Jenkins, GG will be held back to begin the year to reduce cost going forward. I feel like we will become the new Tampa Bay, bring up guys later, sell off, and if they happen to get somebody super young, try to extend like Franco. 

[howeda7]

There have been a lot of dark days for this franchise. The day the first stadium bill failed and they were moving to North Carolina. The day contraction was announced. So this isn't the worst day . But it's top 5.

[howeda7]

1 minute ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

IMO, Ryan and/or Lopez are gone (one for sure, and likely both). I think Ober stays and the Twins try their whole limited innings, limited days rest with the list of starters that we all hoped would turn out.

(Festa, SWR, Matthews, Abel, Bradley and the rest)

Probably means Culpepper, Jenkins, GG will be held back to begin the year to reduce cost going forward. I feel like we will become the new Tampa Bay, bring up guys later, sell off, and if they happen to get somebody super young, try to extend like Franco. 

Who cares? That's a 65 win team.

[jmlease1]

I can't wait to see who the limited partners are. Would love to know who thinks being partners with the Pohlads on baseball is a good plan. And definitely would like to know how much of a stake they're getting and whether any of it will be paying down the debt on the team (seems highly unlikely).

This feels entirely like a way for the Pohlad family to get a cash infusion for themselves without having to fight MLB about debt rules while retaining control over everything. There's nothing so far that suggests anything good for the franchise or fans.

One of the worst possible results I can think of. Even if Falvey and company get fired...who wants Joe Effing Pohlad hiring the next guy to run the ship? Hells bells that seems like a disaster, especially since it sounds like Joe thinks he knows what he's doing, despite sucking at everything so far.

[KirbyDome89]

Good thing they had the fire sale to create all that spending room for the impending new owners....

Falvey is a lock to stick around as long as he wants. I'm sure another Rocco extension is currently being hammered out behind the scenes. 

Such an unserious franchise; all you can do is laugh. 

[DJL44]

8 minutes ago, SteveLV said:

At this point, bring on the lockout!

Salary cap, salary floor, more revenue to younger and MiLB players, quicker FA, full revenue sharing with financial transparency.

Only then can MLB be saved.

I am wondering what this announcement says about the next CBA. We're definitely not getting full revenue sharing with financial transparency. You might get a salary cap, but no floor. Less revenue to the players overall. 2027 season is unlikely, which may be why everything is getting sold off for prospects.

[howeda7]

2 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

I can't wait to see who the limited partners are. Would love to know who thinks being partners with the Pohlads on baseball is a good plan. And definitely would like to know how much of a stake they're getting and whether any of it will be paying down the debt on the team (seems highly unlikely).

This feels entirely like a way for the Pohlad family to get a cash infusion for themselves without having to fight MLB about debt rules while retaining control over everything. There's nothing so far that suggests anything good for the franchise or fans.

One of the worst possible results I can think of. Even if Falvey and company get fired...who wants Joe Effing Pohlad hiring the next guy to run the ship? Hells bells that seems like a disaster, especially since it sounds like Joe thinks he knows what he's doing, despite sucking at everything so far.

This announcement is another example of him not knowing what he's doing. They shouldn't have said anything until they were ready to announce who the new partner's were and then played that up as much as possible even if they are keeping 50%+ of the team.

[gman]

I kinda been wondering about the Joe Mauer rumors since last spring. Was this a way for him to buy a small piece of the team? Second thought, probably not or else that announcement would have been made right out front.

[Mike Sixel]

This indicates to me that the team generates money, or they would have taken any small profit to get out from it.....

[Gamblerssoftball]

I don't know who the new limited partners are, but if they are baseball people and are given some control of running the show, it may not be a complete bust. I can't imagine any investor putting in a wad of cash, then just let the Pohlads keep doing what they're doing. 

[AceWrigley]

54 minutes ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

The best we can hope for now is that it is a situation similar to the Ishbia situation in Chicago that would facilitate a future sale at a future date by enabling an equity stake in the team to grow to controlling interest.  However, unlike Jerry Reinsdorf, the Pohlads aren't ancient and there are a lot more of them.  

Good take though I think the driving factor here would be motivation to sell rather than age if I read correctly somewhere that the Pohlad's were tired of being the Twin's owners.

[Glorybound]

48 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

Can't wait to see what the returns are for the impending Lopez and Ryan trades...

   Yes indeed. The goal for every Twins fan should be to make sure this franchise is last in the league in attendance next year.

[Peter]

1 minute ago, gman said:

I kinda been wondering about the Joe Mauer rumors since last spring. Was this a way for him to buy a small piece of the team? Second thought, probably not or else that announcement would have been made right out front.

I think one of the groups are former twins-Mauer/hunter/mornesu/hawkins/perkins/launder will be part of ownership 

[KirbyDome89]

11 minutes ago, gman said:

I assume this was agreed to before the trade deadline. Postponed so the new partners wouldn't get blamed for the sell off. I don't know if this is bad or worse.

For sure. Throw it on the pile of other F*** You that have been directed at the fans. 

[AceWrigley]

3 minutes ago, gman said:

I kinda been wondering about the Joe Mauer rumors since last spring. Was this a way for him to buy a small piece of the team? Second thought, probably not or else that announcement would have been made right out front.

Not if the "new" partners requested temporary anonymity.

[Musk21]

Joe Pohlad interview: https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-twins-sale-pohlad-family/601454378

- "It’s my job and this new ownership group’s new job to do everything we can to set this organization up for success, hopefully in the short- and long-term both.

- Pohlad declined to reveal the identity of his new partners — in both cases, they are groups of investors, not a single buyer — beyond saying that one is made up of Minnesotans, the other a family based on the East Coast.

- The trades had little to do with saving money, he said, and were not ordered by ownership. “Those were truly primarily baseball decisions,” Pohlad said. “It certainly set us up for more [financial] flexibility, but they were primarily baseball decisions.”

[Julian Bernick]

Conspiracy theory:
It seems transparently set up to drive down ticket sales and radio-tv audience and flatline the team's performance.... all in order to....  set up a situation in which they can have an excuse to move the team AND chase a NEW taxpayer funded stadium (built by somewhere else's suckers)

Returning to reality:

The July 31 tear-down was the right thing to do because this front office regime has completely failed and the core they have built has failed.  The owners don't really matter.  Many examples show us that a small market team can kick ass.  So the real question is, are they going to take steps to actually fix the front office and the failed strategy of building and running this team?  If they clear out the Front Office, I can have some hope they'll do better.  Otherwise, it's the same trying to turn every player into Joey Gallo for the next how many years?  5?  10?

[dex8425]

I assume since they're not announcing who the limited partners are the partners want to remain anonymous and thus are going to care about making $. So, lower payrolls and make decisions based on $$, not winning. Just like the trade deadline. 

[KirbyDome89]

4 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

This indicates to me that the team generates money, or they would have taken any small profit to get out from it.....

But but but.....all that debt they've incurred because of operating costs.....don't tell me that wasn't true.....

[AceWrigley]

Sure makes Manfred look like a dufus. Not that he needed more fuel for that.

[AceWrigley]

And if Joe Pohlad is "running" the Twins, why are these ownership announcements from the Pohlad family and not him?