Twins President Derek Falvey is In Over His Head

[Matthew Taylor]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

When longtime Twins president Dave St. Peter announced his retirement, ownership made a surprising choice. Instead of replacing him with another member of his own department or conducting a talent search in other industries or organizations, they promoted Derek Falvey into a dual role as president of both baseball and business operations. It was an unusual move—one that only a handful of executives across Major League Baseball have attempted—and one that comes with enormous responsibility. Each job is a full-time challenge on its own. Expecting one man to juggle both is unrealistic, and 2025 made clear just how unsustainable the arrangement has become. The Twins stumbled to 90-plus losses for the first time since 2016, and Target Field posted its worst attendance numbers in history. That’s failure on both fronts.

Falvey’s own comments at his end-of-season press conference only underscored how shaky the structure is.

“Dave St. Peter is still around a lot, a tremendous advisor, not just to the Pohlads but to me and the whole organization. He’s played a really nice role during that transition," Falvey said Tuesday, in response to a question about his business-side role. "I haven't been told anything else in going forward and how I operate.”

That first note, that St. Peter remains very much in the mix, sounds far less like a short-term advisor and far more like someone still running the show. It’s a recipe for internal confusion. Who is actually in charge? If employees don’t know whether Falvey or St. Peter is calling the shots, accountability vanishes and messaging fractures. The supposed transition looks more like a muddled overlap, with no clear leadership on the business side at all.

On the baseball side, the expectation was that new GM Jeremy Zoll would handle more of the heavy lifting. Instead, Falvey continues to dominate every decision, every media session, every big-picture answer about roster construction, coaching hires, and trades. Zoll is essentially invisible in the public eye, and there’s no evidence Falvey has truly delegated responsibility. Even behind the scenes, his was the ubiquitous face in postgame huddles in Rocco Baldelli's office at Target Field all season. For a man tasked with leading all areas of the organization, it doesn’t work if he’s still doing everything himself. The result has been questionable roster management, strange deadline moves, and a team that collapsed beyond a previous collapse.

“I’m ultimately responsible for it all," Falvey admitted. "He didn’t perform, and I feel like I’ve let down the staff, the coaches, the fans, and everybody in here when that happens.”

Responsibility is one thing, but accountability without change just keeps the cycle spinning. Falvey paid lip service to a change that needs to be much more far-reaching and (perhaps) much less talked-about.

Meanwhile, fans have turned away. Attendance numbers cratered, and when pressed about how to win people back, Falvey fell back on a blunt truth—but a convenient one.

“We’ve got to go perform. We’ve got to go be a team that wins more games," he opined. "You can’t separate the business and the baseball side. This is a baseball team. You want the baseball team to go perform.”

He’s not wrong, but he is missing the point. The baseball side isn’t winning, and the business side hasn’t found a way to keep fans engaged while they wait. Both engines are stalling, and the man in charge has spread himself too thin to fix either one—not least, perhaps, because he sees them as so dependent on each other. His background has taught him that his spending power as the baseball operations chief determines how hard he can push to contend, and it's the business side's job to deliver money that can be spent. On the other hand, he knows that that job is almost impossible to perform without a baseline of goodwill created by fielding a competitive team. The two halves of him are each waiting for the other to give them a green light. Meanwhile, the car he's supposed to be driving is idling at an empty intersection.

The Twins need clarity. Either Falvey empowers Zoll to run the baseball operation or ownership finds a new leader on the business side. Right now, Falvey is in over his head. He holds too much responsibility and delivers too little in either arena. For the sake of the franchise’s future, the Twins need more than one overstretched executive. They need leaders who can devote their full energy to building a winning team and rebuilding trust with a dwindling fan base.

The call is simple: Twins ownership must decide if Derek Falvey is going to run baseball or business, but not both. Until they split the roles again and bring in focused leadership, the team will remain stuck in neutral, drifting away from both success on the field and support in the stands.

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What do you think? Should the Twins keep this dual-role structure, or is it time to make a change? Leave a comment below and start the conversation!

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[DJL44]

Drop the payroll to the minimum and have concerts after every game. Attendance would be best in the league and musicians are cheaper than baseball players. Who cares if the crowd arrives in the 8th inning. That will just make it more exciting when they win!

[Whitey333]

Great article.  I totally agree with it.  I would also say that Falvey needs to go.  Falvey using Baldelli as a scapegoat fir his own miscues shows where this organization is at.  Leaving Falvey in charge of hiring the next manager is a huge mistake.  Besides we will only get the leftovers or a rookie again for a manager.  It's hard to believe any experienced manager would want this job.  It's a mess.  A mess that Falvey created.

[purplesoldier4u]

DSTP is a major DB!

[In My La Z boy]

7 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Great article.  I totally agree with it.  I would also say that Falvey needs to go.  Falvey using Baldelli as a scapegoat fir his own miscues shows where this organization is at.  Leaving Falvey in charge of hiring the next manager is a huge mistake.  Besides we will only get the leftovers or a rookie again for a manager.  It's hard to believe any experienced manager would want this job.  It's a mess.  A mess that Falvey created.

100% agree! I observe and surmise Mr Falvey is a narcissist control freak perhaps? Leaders need to surround themselves with great people, and then delegate authority. Narcissists surround themselves with yes men. They want no threats to their authority. I always thought it strange how Wes Johnson left. I thought it was a bad sign when Thad Levine left, and I always felt like Rocco was Falvey's puppet. 

[mikelink45]

If Falvey has fired Baldelli before tearing the team apart or if he had not extended Baldelli at a time when it seemed like a slap in the face to fans or if he had said that they had pulled the rug out from Baldelli, but he would be given another chance to right the ship... So many ifs on a team that is the epitome of WHAT IF from selling the team to building the team.  

Maybe we should just build another stadium.  They said they needed Target Field to be able to afford a winner.  What I realize now is that they did not say they would field a winner, just that they could afford to. 

[rv78]

The call is simple: Twins ownership must decide if Derek Falvey is going to run baseball or business

If this is truly part of the problem, it just further escalates the fact that the Owners are disengaged with this organization and really don't care. In 9 years Falvey has made this team an unwatchable product. Admits he is responsible for it and the Pohlads not only don't hold him accountable, but have him doing 2 jobs. To save money is likely the only reason. Maybe since Falvey extended Rocco for the 2026 season and they have to pay his salary, they should have Falvey be the Manager as well and save any money it will take to hire his replacement. It has been widely speculated that Rocco was only doing what Falvey wanted anyway, so just put the man running the s**t show in Rocco's shoes on the field too. Extending Rocco was not only a business mistake but also a baseball mistake. He can't do either one.

 The baseball side isn’t winning, and the business side hasn’t found a way to keep fans engaged while they wait. Both engines are stalling, and the man in charge has spread himself too thin to fix either one

Being spread too thin is one thing, being totally incapable is another. 

[bunsen82]

So what is the issue Matthew?  Is it Falvey? Is it Ownership?  Is he truly in over his head or did things not work out on this version of going for it?   When you have a plan put in place, and the entire plan is thrown out by ownership by rightsizing the budget how are you supposed to pivot.  They couldn't just trade Correa then although that would have been smarter.   Attendence will crater when you are actively tanking to get a better draft pick.  There were no good answers for the short term.  I do think fans will come back if they put a better product out there.  How much financial resources will they be given is the ultimate question.  

I do think it should be 2 positions, but that is not what ownerships wants.  Things will begin to improve in 2027 after the new CBA and as the new crop of players start coming up and becoming the new faces of the franchise.   The game is always based on hope.  In reality in most cases that all it is.   But lets do another hit piece.  

We can't cover a presser with him,  but we can do another piece to go after him.  I am not saying he is the answer or there aren't questions to go after.  But if we are not offering a better solution or it won't change this article really doesn't make much sense.  

Until Ownership decided to start spending again,  or we do find 3-4 stars that can lead this team,  there will continue to be negative opinions.  Its a no win situation for anyone.  Just firing isn't necessarily the best answer just because it will make you feel good.  

[CRF]

The wrong owners...picked the wrong guy to run everything...who is picking the wrong manager...probably twice! What could go wrong?

[Riverbrian]

I have no idea on the operational structure of the Minnesota Twins.

This article paints a picture of being overwhelmed with too many responsibilities. That's what being at the top is because ultimately... all roads end up on his desk but we are not talking about one person doing everything.

If the Twins are run like almost every business in every industry. I think it's safe to assume that he has people working for him with important responsibilities.

I'd imagine that his job is making sure that he has the right people in place to handle those responsibilities... because no one can handle everything without help.

I think he has help. 

 

[Doctor Gast]

Ever since Falvey headed the Twins, everything was occult. We had no idea who was responsible for this or who was responsible for that. So Falvey could take credit for what he didn't do or not take the blame for what he did. I just discovered that Zoll was responsible for the hiring of Tanner Swanson, Wes Johnson, Maki & Drew MacPhail, which leads me to think that a lot of the right things that happened in the beginning, Falvey had nothing to do with. & after '19, I've seen Falvey taking more & more credit & control of the team. & as things start to unravel due to this process. More & more excuses he'd come up with to divert from his inadequacy. He substituted good coaches with poor ones, created bad philosophies & poor player evaluation & development. During this time, I've criticized him, in the hope he'd change.

After the '23/'24 offseason, Falvey's inability to improve the Twins & actually made them worse, I clamored for Falvey's firing, but he was not. After the '24 season, Falvey again wasn't fired but was promoted to President of Baseball Opps! How can Pohlads promote Falvey, when he couldn't handle being FO? In an interview, Doogey was asked, "Why was Falvey not fired?" He said that he was in bed with the Pohlads. The way that he said it made me wonder about the context. Nevertheless, it seems that it'd take something very drastic to happen before the Pohlads would do the right thing & fire Falvey. Under this pretense, things will get much worse before they get better.

[nicksaviking]

28 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I have no idea on the operational structure of the Minnesota Twins.

I think he has help. 

 

I agree, but I think he now has less of it. The Twins have been consolidating jobs left and right. The Twins kept Dave St. Peter on as an 'advisor', but they're still paying him, which was probably a negotiated severance. They're going to put him to work if they're paying him. And HR is probably doubling as janitors and PR is selling popcorn at the games.

But I think this POBO job speaks to how little the Pohlad's value the Twins as a business. Derek Falvey's background is of a baseball scout. How in the hell is that relevant to maximizing revenue streams, creating a vision for marketing or overseeing ballpark operations? Things that the POBO should at minimum be overseeing. And the same was true with DSP. He was a law school intern that never ever practiced law. He has never had a job outside of working for the Twins, but he was in charge of negotiating FOUR terrible TV deals? These guys aren't qualified for the jobs, they were just already in the building and happy to take a promotion.

The Twins are an afterthought at best for the Pohlads and a tool to serve their other businesses at worst.

 

 

[Coach Wheels]

Good read. In order to split Falvey's role, ownership would have to hire and spend more money. They dont want to spend money on players so what makes us think they'll spend money in management?

This is a sad product right now and the next manager needs to be experienced and a proven commodity or we're just spinning our wheels.

[tony&rodney]

I'm guessing Falvey is best suited to running the business side of a corporation, but he was given the chance to be the head of the baseball operations and quickly became enamored with that job.

How has he done? There is enough information  for an argument that he has been ok. There is also an argument that he has struggled.

The last two years the Pohlad family decided to reduce expenditures. as the ongoing Gleeman side of the story goes. The Twins still outspent, by plenty, their neighbors in Milwaukee and their ALC friends. Money seems important as an argument for many which seems fair. Budgets will always be a thing though. The identification and acquisition of talent is another thing though.

The Twins are going to continue on with the current arrangement for at least a year. Will shall see if the team can win the ALC next year. 

One important change I would like to see is how communication works between the manager and the front office. Ideally the manager suggests needs for his team and the front office listens and responds according to the ability to fill those needs. The front office should not be involved in choosing the 26 person roster, playing time, pitcher usage, or strategy; decisions related to playing baseball.

The guy in charge of baseball operations should set in motion practices to be followed by the players in all layers of the organization. The managers at each level can be evaluated at the end of each year. 

My opinion is that is is important to have baseball people in charge of the baseball departments and business people handling the business side of the business. This has seemed like a discord within the franchise. 

So it goes.

[Sparky55]

This tells me once again that the pohlads don’t care about winning. If this was going on at one of their banks they would have fired whoever was in charge. 

[mnfireman]

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/pohlads-reveal-actual-mn-twins-153728622.html

[rdehring]

16 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I'm guessing Falvey is best suited to running the business side of a corporation, but he was given the chance to be the head of the baseball operations and quickly became enamored with that job.

How has he done? There is enough information  for an argument that he has been ok. There is also an argument that he has struggled.

The last two years the Pohlad family decided to reduce expenditures. as the ongoing Gleeman side of the story goes. The Twins still outspent, by plenty, their neighbors in Milwaukee and their ALC friends. Money seems important as an argument for many which seems fair. Budgets will always be a thing though. The identification and acquisition of talent is another thing though.

The Twins are going to continue on with the current arrangement for at least a year. Will shall see if the team can win the ALC next year. 

One important change I would like to see is how communication works between the manager and the front office. Ideally the manager suggests needs for his team and the front office listens and responds according to the ability to fill those needs. The front office should not be involved in choosing the 26 person roster, playing time, pitcher usage, or strategy; decisions related to playing baseball.

The guy in charge of baseball operations should set in motion practices to be followed by the players in all layers of the organization. The managers at each level can be evaluated at the end of each year. 

My opinion is that is is important to have baseball people in charge of the baseball departments and business people handling the business side of the business. This has seemed like a discord within the franchise. 

So it goes.

Thank you for pointing out that the Twins had as much or more player payroll than several similar teams in the upper Midwest and most have performed better.  Would be great to see TD writers and the sports writers in the Twin Cities pivot to focus on what the Twins have been doing with said money.  Why are other teams getting more bang for their bucks?

Great comment in Reussie's column in the Strib this morning.  He was at the Twins press conference and after 20 minutes or so of Falvey talking he asked Zoll a question.  The reason he said was that he felt badly for Zoll sitting there for that long and not being included in the conversation.  Comment gave me a good smile over my coffee.  Also found it interesting..

[David Maro]

All the talk about this that and the other thing. Falvey has had 7 years to do things his way and failed. Who here thinks any real manager is going to come here to manage this team. The team has become a shell of a team. In the business world he would have been shown the door a long time ago. And to all of you saying it's all about payroll look around there is teams in the playoffs with low payrolls.

[tony&rodney]

1 minute ago, David Maro said:

Falvey has had 7 years

Hired in 2016.

FWIW.

[Riverbrian]

4 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I agree, but I think he now has less of it. The Twins have been consolidating jobs left and right. The Twins kept Dave St. Peter on as an 'advisor', but they're still paying him, which was probably a negotiated severance. They're going to put him to work if they're paying him. And HR is probably doubling as janitors and PR is selling popcorn at the games.

But I think this POBO job speaks to how little the Pohlad's value the Twins as a business. Derek Falvey's background is of a baseball scout. How in the hell is that relevant to maximizing revenue streams, creating a vision for marketing or overseeing ballpark operations? Things that the POBO should at minimum be overseeing. And the same was true with DSP. He was a law school intern that never ever practiced law. He has never had a job outside of working for the Twins, but he was in charge of negotiating FOUR terrible TV deals? These guys aren't qualified for the jobs, they were just already in the building and happy to take a promotion.

The Twins are an afterthought at best for the Pohlads and a tool to serve their other businesses at worst.

 

 

Again... I have no idea on the structure.

If I had to guess and it's all I can do is guess.

I think it's quite possible that the separation of the two departments is difficult because revenue is dependent on operations and operations will be dependent on revenue. You can't have these two spots butting heads because that would lead to paralysis. One person in charge of both makes sense. I'd imagine that someone out ranked the other with St. Peter and Falvey. The Falvey promotion to President removes the conflict so operations connects to revenue and revenue connects to operations. I'm really not concerned about it. St. Peter as an advisor? Is he advising 24/7 or does he pick up the phone when key questions arise. There is nothing wrong with help.   

As for his qualifications? I don't know. He graduated with a degree in economics and turned that into a baseball scout. However, he has been the President of Baseball Operations since October 3, 2016. I have to assume that he has been in every room in the building. 

He would hire a director of marketing, I have no reason to believe that he is writing ads, placing ad buys, calling GM's to try swing deals, and checking the laundry room to see if everything is packed for the trip to Kansas City.

But... I'd guess he's getting reports.

With all that said. Attendance is down noticeably, we just sold at the trade deadline, we got a lot of lottery balls for the upcoming draft. They have problems under his leadership. 

 

[TopGunn#22]

Interesting headline, as I stated on Monday night after Rocco was fired (Twins Dismiss Manager...) that Falvey was in over his head.  I have felt this way for several years but it's becoming more and more obvious the longer Falvey is in control and the more authority the Pohlad family gives him.

The common theme in all of this is the mounting financial problems the Pohlad family has.  The most public business they have is the ballclub.  Decisions they make with the Twins are widely reported on.  Decisions they make with other business enterprises are largely unknown, unless they are reported on in the "business section" of the publication you're reading.

Many of us are probably familiar with the business practice of consolidating jobs to save money.  Unless the person who was let go was completely incompetent, the usual outcome is that the person who was doing well at their primary job, starts to struggle a bit at the additional job they were assigned because it's new and they're not knowledgeable enough to positively impact the area that was suffering.  Then, things start to slide in their primary job because there's just not enough time in a day to effectively do both.  There was a reason 2 jobs existed in the first place.

It may not be a matter of the Pohlad family "not caring" enough about the Twins at all.  It's probably more likely that the brains of the Pohlad empire was Carl and when he passed away the incompetence of his "silver spoon" offspring just didn't have what it takes to run a business...or a Major League ballclub. 

Good business people hire good, competent and effective people.  Bad business people hire poorly.  The effects of poor hiring can be felt very quickly, but also sometimes takes years to be realized.  The "Primary Pohlad" in charge since Carl stepped away has been a game of musical chairs through the years, with none of the progeny seeming to rise to the occasion.  

Twins fans have been sensing this Pohlad family incompetence for quite some time now.  When good people LEAVE your organization and you PROMOTE incompetent people whose track record points to few successes and more failures, you are left with a leadership structure that leaves you convinced the people in charge are "In Over Their Heads."  

[S Bart]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Drop the payroll to the minimum and have concerts after every game. Attendance would be best in the league and musicians are cheaper than baseball players. Who cares if the crowd arrives in the 8th inning. That will just make it more exciting when they win!

The quality of the concerts makes a difference. Does Falvey sing?

[GNess]

2 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

Great article.  I totally agree with it.  I would also say that Falvey needs to go.  Falvey using Baldelli as a scapegoat fir his own miscues shows where this organization is at.  Leaving Falvey in charge of hiring the next manager is a huge mistake.  Besides we will only get the leftovers or a rookie again for a manager.  It's hard to believe any experienced manager would want this job.  It's a mess.  A mess that Falvey created.

Excellent point - Falvey is mostly responsible for the mess that the Twins have become. Why on earth should he be permitted to lead the effort to clean up the mess?

He shouldn't be, it's that simple. It's just the way things usually work in professional sports. 

[Vanimal46]

47 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/pohlads-reveal-actual-mn-twins-153728622.html

The younger Pohlads really think people are stupid enough to believe them at their word. If the average mid/small market team racks up $50+ million in debt per season* this league would seize to exist. Maybe they should pay their bills instead of financing it through their bank year after year.

* Where did the Minnesota Twins debt come from? Behind the scenes, the Pohlads claimed it was a combination of a decade-worth of over-spending on talent, lagging attendance, FanDuel Sports North fallout and losses from the 2020 COVID season.

[chpettit19]

29 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Again... I have no idea on the structure.

If I had to guess and it's all I can do is guess.

I think it's quite possible that the separation of the two departments is difficult because revenue is dependent on operations and operations will be dependent on revenue. You can't have these two spots butting heads because that would lead to paralysis. One person in charge of both makes sense. I'd imagine that someone out ranked the other with St. Peter and Falvey. The Falvey promotion to President removes the conflict so operations connects to revenue and revenue connects to operations. I'm really not concerned about it. St. Peter as an advisor? Is he advising 24/7 or does he pick up the phone when key questions arise. There is nothing wrong with help.   

As for his qualifications? I don't know. He graduated with a degree in economics and turned that into a baseball scout. However, he has been the President of Baseball Operations since October 3, 2016. I have to assume that he has been in every room in the building. 

He would hire a director of marketing, I have no reason to believe that he is writing ads, placing ad buys, calling GM's to try swing deals, and checking the laundry room to see if everything is packed for the trip to Kansas City.

But... I'd guess he's getting reports.

With all that said. Attendance is down noticeably, we just sold at the trade deadline, we got a lot of lottery balls for the upcoming draft. They have problems under his leadership. 

 

I think far more teams would have 1 person in charge if this were the case. It's exceedingly rare to have 1 person in charge of both the business and baseball operations of a major league organization. Does he have help? Of course he does. They have employees. But DSP wasn't working 20 hrs a week running the business and Falvey wasn't working 20 hrs a week running the baseball side. In fact, they were both working a pretty consistent 60+ hrs a week with help would be my bet. Now 1 person is supposed to be doing both jobs with the same or less help? 

Either they were both doing far too much work when they were both employed if Falvey can do both jobs himself now or Falvey has too much on his plate. There's a reason teams don't do this. How many other teams in any professional sport can you name that has a guy that runs both the business and "name your sport here" side? I'll be impressed if you can top 5 in all the sports combined.

DSP was awful at his job. Especially if you believe the Pohlads story of them being 500 mil in debt from the Twins alone. He got awful television deals and was seemingly surprised that the RSN model was collapsing. He didn't set a high bar. But he had a lot of responsibilities. Falvey already had a lot of responsibilities. He's not doing all the work on his own, and is mostly just getting reports, but how realistic is it to be making the best decisions based on those reports when you are split between the 2 jobs and spread so thin? Again, I think there's a reason this isn't the norm.

[karcherd]

A few random thoughts on Falvey and the structure of the organization.

It was reported when they combined the two roles that this was an exception, most teams do have one person for the baseball side and one for the business operations, which is different than most businesses.

It made sense at the time to promote Falvey if DSP truly wanted to retire,   With the team up for sale you couldn't bring somebody in with no certainty of the ownership situation.

When Zoll was promoted, Levine made a comment that he hadn't been as involved in the decisions on the baseball side for the last couple of years.  Which was kind of strange based on his position.  So one of the most experienced baseball minds in the organization was basically squeezed out.  It does lead you to wonder if Falvey just wants yes men around him.  This is the worst kind of leader you can have.

Falvey has limited baseball experience, he needs to hire better people around him.  But he thinks it is all about modeling and insists his way is the only way.  

When Joe P. was promoted to the Executive role of the Twins, it was said that he was the only Pohlad to have an office at Target Field from when he was working in the marketing department.  It sounded like he has developed a close relationship with Falvey.  Is he too close to objectively evaluate Falvey and his performance, that is my fear.  This feels like Joe's team and he has won the battle with the rest of the family because he is the one that wants to keep the team.

I am not sure anything will change unless the minority partners have some say and are not puppets and can objectively evaluate Falvey's performance.  Otherwise I don't see a way out of this mess.  Falvey is not the one to lead us out of it.

[rdehring]

39 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Again... I have no idea on the structure.

If I had to guess and it's all I can do is guess.

I think it's quite possible that the separation of the two departments is difficult because revenue is dependent on operations and operations will be dependent on revenue. You can't have these two spots butting heads because that would lead to paralysis. One person in charge of both makes sense. I'd imagine that someone out ranked the other with St. Peter and Falvey. The Falvey promotion to President removes the conflict so operations connects to revenue and revenue connects to operations. I'm really not concerned about it. St. Peter as an advisor? Is he advising 24/7 or does he pick up the phone when key questions arise. There is nothing wrong with help.   

As for his qualifications? I don't know. He graduated with a degree in economics and turned that into a baseball scout. However, he has been the President of Baseball Operations since October 3, 2016. I have to assume that he has been in every room in the building. 

He would hire a director of marketing, I have no reason to believe that he is writing ads, placing ad buys, calling GM's to try swing deals, and checking the laundry room to see if everything is packed for the trip to Kansas City.

But... I'd guess he's getting reports.

With all that said. Attendance is down noticeably, we just sold at the trade deadline, we got a lot of lottery balls for the upcoming draft. They have problems under his leadership. 

 

Interesting comment Riverbrian.  It probably does make sense that there be one person in charge.  And the owners chose Falvey.  The question we probably should be asking is how is he doing in that role?  Just as you mentioned about marketing, etc., has Falvey hired or promoted qualified people into senior management positions?  Has he given them the opportunity to manage their departments without excessive interference by him?  As for the team on the field, that person should be Jeremy Zoll.  Is Zoll making the decisions regarding the team that is on the field?  Or is he an errand boy for Falvey?  Sure seems that he is an errand boy and that is the problem.

[Riverbrian]

6 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I think far more teams would have 1 person in charge if this were the case. It's exceedingly rare to have 1 person in charge of both the business and baseball operations of a major league organization. Does he have help? Of course he does. They have employees. But DSP wasn't working 20 hrs a week running the business and Falvey wasn't working 20 hrs a week running the baseball side. In fact, they were both working a pretty consistent 60+ hrs a week with help would be my bet. Now 1 person is supposed to be doing both jobs with the same or less help? 

Either they were both doing far too much work when they were both employed if Falvey can do both jobs himself now or Falvey has too much on his plate. There's a reason teams don't do this. How many other teams in any professional sport can you name that has a guy that runs both the business and "name your sport here" side? I'll be impressed if you can top 5 in all the sports combined.

DSP was awful at his job. Especially if you believe the Pohlads story of them being 500 mil in debt from the Twins alone. He got awful television deals and was seemingly surprised that the RSN model was collapsing. He didn't set a high bar. But he had a lot of responsibilities. Falvey already had a lot of responsibilities. He's not doing all the work on his own, and is mostly just getting reports, but how realistic is it to be making the best decisions based on those reports when you are split between the 2 jobs and spread so thin? Again, I think there's a reason this isn't the norm.

I walked into 1 Twins Way once and I asked to sit down with the leaders of the department and go over operational structure.

Met with a nice persistent guy for a little while who instead of answering my questions... kept asking me to leave the conference room and the building. 

I got to say that I didn't learn much. 

I also admit that I forgot to ask him if there were any more teams that have one guy over seeing both business and operations. 

I just remember that I left a nearly full bottle of Mountain Dew on the conference table that he wouldn't let me go back and retrieve.    

[Woof Bronzer]

9 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

The younger Pohlads really think people are stupid enough to believe them at their word. If the average mid/small market team racks up $50+ million in debt per season* this league would seize to exist. Maybe they should pay their bills instead of financing it through their bank year after year.

* Where did the Minnesota Twins debt come from? Behind the scenes, the Pohlads claimed it was a combination of a decade-worth of over-spending on talent, lagging attendance, FanDuel Sports North fallout and losses from the 2020 COVID season.

I am so tired of the Pohlads just lying to fans over and over again.  Everyone associated with the ownership or FO thinks fans are idiots.  The Pohlads lie like people rich enough to know that they will never face accountability for the lies or anything else for that matter. 

What's hilarious about this is in order to "defend" themselves against the ongoing train wreck that is the Twins, the Pohlads thought the smart approach was to lie and say "we are more incompetent at business than every other owner in baseball to the tune of $50m operating deficits year over year."  When "we don't know what we're doing!" becomes your defense you might want to look inward a bit.  

And ya gotta love the shot at fans:  "Lagging attendance."  The Pohlads will never pass up an opportunity to blame fans for their incompetence. 

If they were losing $50mil/year they would have fired Falvey and St Peter a long time ago.  Any business on the planet would do so.

If they were losing $50 mil/year they would have sold the franchise for almost anything.   Certainly would have sold it for the $1.5b that was on the table.  Again - if they are telling the truth about the debt, then what they are saying is they turned down $1.5 billion dollars for a failing business losing a million dollars a week.  Perhaps the stupidest business decision in the history of capitalism.  

If they were losing $50mil/year they wouldn't have attracted investors.  If they are telling the truth about the debt than these investors are worse businesspeople than the Pohlads.

"Hey, Mr. Hedge Fund, want to pay down this business debt for us for a nice profit?"

"Sure, how are you going to make good on the loan?"

"Revenues."

"How's the business doing?"

"We're losing $50m/year."

"Sounds great, where do I sign?"

Don't believe the lies of these petty, incompetent people.  

[Riverbrian]

25 minutes ago, rdehring said:

Interesting comment Riverbrian.  It probably does make sense that there be one person in charge.  And the owners chose Falvey.  The question we probably should be asking is how is he doing in that role?  Just as you mentioned about marketing, etc., has Falvey hired or promoted qualified people into senior management positions?  Has he given them the opportunity to manage their departments without excessive interference by him?  As for the team on the field, that person should be Jeremy Zoll.  Is Zoll making the decisions regarding the team that is on the field?  Or is he an errand boy for Falvey?  Sure seems that he is an errand boy and that is the problem.

Jeremy Zoll does something. Thad Lavine did something.

Falvey has certainly been the public mouthpiece because Jeremy Zoll could walk past me in a Hy-Vee and I wouldn't recognize him but I got to assume that Jeremy Zoll does something and it's probably quite substantial.   

Has he hired the right people? No Idea but right now... they got issues from attendance to wins and losses so... they got some things to question and fix. 

The only thing that I know is this: I've seen some interesting power dynamic structures and the office adapts to it and if it doesn't... it is addressed with a different structure.