Pohlads Preach Patience While Fans Question Commitment

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of TwinsCentric, LLC

Minnesota Twins fans are no strangers to patience. They’ve endured rebuilds, payroll freezes, postseason collapses, and front-office overhauls. But as the franchise stumbles through another disappointing stretch, ownership has stepped forward with a series of public comments meant to reassure. For many, those words feel like echoes of the past.

“The Sun’s Going to Come Up Tomorrow”
Joe Pohlad compared the current state of the franchise to parenting: “When your kid’s having a hard time, you try not to have them focus on the moment itself but realize the sun’s going to come up tomorrow.”

It’s an optimistic, human response, but for fans, the problem is that tomorrow keeps looking like yesterday. The Twins have missed the playoffs in consecutive years and lost 92 games this season. A fan base that hasn’t seen a World Series title since 1991 is tired of hearing that “things will get better.” The sun always rises, but so far, the horizon doesn’t look much different.

Confidence in the “Right Pieces”
Pohlad doubled down on his optimism: “I am overwhelmingly confident about Twins baseball. I’m confident because we have got all the right [pieces] … And we have the resources that we’re ready to invest when needed.”

Fans have heard versions of this before. Every ownership group in sports claims they’ll spend when the time is right, yet Minnesota continues to hover around the middle of the pack in payroll. “The right pieces” are hard to identify on a roster riddled with injuries, regression, and depth concerns. Until ownership matches words with aggressive action, confidence will remain a tough sell.

“The Goal is Not to Compete. The Goal is to Win a World Series.”
This is the line fans want to hear most. But for a franchise that hasn’t advanced past the ALDS since 2002, there’s a gulf between intention and execution. Competing has been the organizational mantra for years: stay relevant, fight for a division title, and hope to catch fire in October. That model has yielded plenty of division banners but little else.

The Pohlads say they’re aiming higher, but fans wonder if their definition of “winning a World Series” is the same as theirs. Building “a true winner” requires risks, and Minnesota has often played it safe.

Owning the Frustration
“At some point you gotta look at yourself and be like, ‘You know what? We’ve gotta try something different,’” Pohlad admitted. That acknowledgment might be the most important quote of all. Fans are already living in frustration. Ownership openly admitting that the same old approach won’t cut it anymore could signal change.

The trade deadline sell-off this summer was one such pivot, moving veterans to restock the farm system. Firing Rocco Baldelli signals another major change, but the current roster might be the bigger problem. While ownership pointed to long-term stability, many fans saw it as waving the white flag. Patience, once again, was the ask.

Terry Ryan’s Perspective
Even Terry Ryan, the former GM, weighed in: “A year and a half or two years ago, they were darn near a model franchise … But it wasn’t working. They turned around and did something good [at the trade deadline]. They might have gone further than fans hoped they would. But that attitude might change here in the next 12 months.”

Ryan’s comments frame the Twins as a team at a crossroads. The club is still respected around baseball, but struggling to maintain credibility with their own fan base. His suggestion that attitudes may shift next year is hopeful, though it relies heavily on trust, something in short supply right now.

“Totally Justified” Fan Frustration
Tom Pohlad was more direct than Joe: “It’s been 34 years since the World Series … That’s unacceptable. The fans are totally justified to think it’s unacceptable.”

That admission resonates. Ownership rarely calls out its own failures so bluntly. But it also begs the obvious question: If everyone agrees the results are unacceptable, what will actually change? Fans don’t want apologies—they want a plan.

Where Words Meet Action
At their core, the Pohlads’ comments sound like the right things: accountability, optimism, and a commitment to winning. But Twins fans have learned that rhetoric rarely translates to trophies. The next 12 months will determine if this is another chapter of “wait and see” or if the franchise truly embraces risk and ambition. Until then, frustration will linger, even if ownership insists the sun will rise tomorrow.

The Twins are entering a critical stretch. With the roster in transition, a new manager coming in, and resources allegedly ready to be deployed, ownership’s actions this offseason will speak louder than any press conference. If Joe and Tom Pohlad want to convince a skeptical fan base, they’ll need to pair their words with bold moves: investing in the roster, extending young talent, and showing urgency instead of waiting for things to click.

Because while fans may understand that building a champion takes time, 34 years of waiting has drained nearly all the patience left in Twins Territory. 2026 won’t just be another season because it will be the litmus test of whether the Pohlads’ vision is more than just talk.

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How do you view the recent comments by Twins ownership? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

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[rdehring]

Thanks for posting this, Cody.

There actually were two separate articles in this morning's Strib.  What may be most interesting is that both were in the Business section and written by Business reporters.  

Thought both articles brought us more insight into what has been happening the past year.  Also believe they deliver some hope that things may be better sooner than many fear.  At least that was my take on it.

[Blyleven2011]

They are just telling fans what fans want to hear , not what needs to be heard ...

They say we are on the right track , I hope it isn't on a track with another train wreck heading straight for us ...

Yes our patience is thin and the games are barely watchable , but I catch every game on radio or streaming  ...

I look forward to next season with a new manager that can instill some life in his players with the proper honing of skills  , we can't live on hope that the players will have career years  ...

Im not having any twins baseball withdrawals and I'm glad our crummy season is over , I also see the team moving on from Lopez and Ryan and I don't blame them if they request a trade  , if they request or demand a trade it only shows how poorly run this team has been , if we lose the 2 starting pitchers would buxton follow  , I wouldn't blame him either ....

I stated in Rocco's 2nd year as manager that I could not play for him or the plan that the falvine wiz kids implemented , the reason I didn't state this in his 1st year as manager was because he didn't have to manage that year because his players had career years  , it was our last fun year of Twins consistency ...

[Dave Borton]

Quote

The club is still respected around baseball.

Based on whose voice besides Ryan's? In reading, in listening to podcasts, I do not come to the same conclusion.

Second, without a doubt, this has to be the most tone deaf professional franchise I have ever followed. There is not a voice within the Twins organization I believe. All of the narrative is packed with cliche and empty hope. I just don't see it.

Further, I have grave doubts that the system in place to develop future talent is able to accomplish their task.. Glad to follow them from a distance but until I see proof in the pudding, you won't see my butt in a seat.

[rv78]

Since the firing of Rocco the Pohlads have mentioned that changes need to be made. Falvey has admitted that he has failed to deliver. Sounds like both are holding themselves somewhat accountable. Falvey has also said that he expects both Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez to be pitching for the Twins in 2026. Will we see actual change? Will Falvey keep his word and keep Ryan and Lopez on the roster? Will the Pohlads spend when the time is right like they say or is it just more corporate BS? Only time will tell.

[Nshore]

Let's attend to the important things first.  The Twins don't have a theme song for fans to sing.  The Red Sox have "Sweet Caroline"  - the Twins - nada.  Next, the team color.  Watch a Dodger home game and you see a sea of blue.  The Twins have a different uniform for every game of the season.  Baseball fundamentals!

 

[The Great Hambino]

23 minutes ago, Nshore said:

Let's attend to the important things first.  The Twins don't have a theme song for fans to sing.  The Red Sox have "Sweet Caroline"  - the Twins - nada.  Next, the team color.  Watch a Dodger home game and you see a sea of blue.  The Twins have a different uniform for every game of the season.  Baseball fundamentals!

 

I can think of an appropriate theme song for them.  Should pair well with the in-stadium experience next year

[tony&rodney]

While I remain hopeful for the next few years, that hope is not based on the current collection of players but in a potential for 4-7 trades and/or signings to change the course of the team. When someone suggests all the pieces are in place now, that sounds exactly like the rhetoric from the last two years.

[Doctor Gast]

I haven't seen anyone so drunk on Falvey's Kool-Aid. They are so oblivious to reality. They don't have the pieces; they had the pieces that did well in the postseason in '23, but they failed to build off that core & allowed the core to fracture. That failure had to have a devastating effect on club culture. What makes them think that they can make anything out of the unproven pieces they have now when they couldn't with a proven one? They have a terrible player evaluation & are not able to develop their players to their full potential. So how can they believe that the sell-off return of redundant & undeveloped players & not really filling any real needs, be able to produce anything satisfactory?

They had a plan, it didn't work. They don't care about coming up with a plan that works; they want to keep the same plan & be able to spin a plan that they'll try to sell to the fanbase again. IMO, that won't fly for most intelligent fans. They constantly say one thing & do the opposite. Falvey said he takes full personal responsibility. Great! That means resign, not fire anybody. Tom Pohlad was more direct than Joe: “It’s been 34 years since the World Series … That’s unacceptable. The fans are totally justified to think it’s unacceptable.” Great! If it's unacceptable. Then the teardown needed to be managerial from top to bottom not the roster. The only thing the Pohlads understand is money, So until the attendance becomes so bad & they understand that no cosmetic move, won't move the needle. They have to face the real problem that they & Falvey have no idea what they are doing. Carl didn't know anything about baseball but he had the instinct of knowing who knew what they were talking about, & those who didn't. IMO, Carl would not have hired Falvey.

[Rufus]

Oh for gosh sakes relax ... you could be an Athletics fan

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, Nshore said:

Let's attend to the important things first.  The Twins don't have a theme song for fans to sing.  The Red Sox have "Sweet Caroline"  - the Twins - nada.  

 

Something as good as the U of M Rouser, specific to the locale, would be ideal.

Sweet Caroline was organic to Fenway - it just caught on without anyone visibly trying - so trying to create something like that won't be easy.

[rdehring]

1 hour ago, The Great Hambino said:

I can think of an appropriate theme song for them.  Should pair well with the in-stadium experience next year

Absolutely love that song, thanks.

[Nshore]

34 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Something as good as the U of M Rouser, specific to the locale, would be ideal.

Sweet Caroline was organic to Fenway - it just caught on without anyone visibly trying - so trying to create something like that won't be easy.

"What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong was Kirby's theme song I think.  That'd be perfect.

[Sjoski]

Hmmmm......Blue Jay's bats are shredding Yankees pitchers for the 2nd game in a row as I type.

Hey Joe!!! Just an idea, I know it's over the top....but....

The Twins should hire away the Jay's hitting coach.

 

 

[Blyleven2011]

32 minutes ago, Sjoski said:

Hmmmm......Blue Jay's bats are shredding Yankees pitchers for the 2nd game in a row as I type.

Hey Joe!!! Just an idea, I know it's over the top....but....

The Twins should hire away the Jay's hitting coach.

 

 

Announcers are giving him alot of credit for Toronto's turn around on the hitting department  ...

[Dave Borton]

39 minutes ago, Sjoski said:

Hmmmm......Blue Jay's bats are shredding Yankees pitchers for the 2nd game in a row as I type....

I have Yanks radio booth on. Dave Sims is so overwhelmed he got the score incorrect, followed immediately by calling the count wrong.

[Hrbowski]

48 minutes ago, Sjoski said:

Hmmmm......Blue Jay's bats are shredding Yankees pitchers for the 2nd game in a row as I type.

Hey Joe!!! Just an idea, I know it's over the top....but....

The Twins should hire away the Jay's hitting coach.

 

 

Too bad they fired him last year!

[notoriousgod71]

1 hour ago, Dave Borton said:

I have Yanks radio booth on. Dave Sims is so overwhelmed he got the score incorrect, followed immediately by calling the count wrong.

Sims is something else. He's like a pleasant rich waltz.

[T.O.]

5 hours ago, Nshore said:

Let's attend to the important things first.  The Twins don't have a theme song for fans to sing.  The Red Sox have "Sweet Caroline"  - the Twins - nada.  Next, the team color.  Watch a Dodger home game and you see a sea of blue.  The Twins have a different uniform for every game of the season.  Baseball fundamentals!

 

We used to have a theme song but I'm not sure if the fans sang it.

 

[BH67]

Irony (n.) -- 1. The Pohlad Companies holding hostage for solvency purposes an asset that the company patriarch was happy to dispense with in 2002 at one-tenth its current market value.

[Western SD Fan]

13 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

The only thing the Pohlads understand is money, So until the attendance becomes so bad & they understand that no cosmetic move, won't move the needle.

I'm going to surmise that the Pohlads finally received reports about season-ticket and corporate sponsor cancellations, which has prompted the press releases and trying to take ownership for the year that was.

Various rumors have been floated that the new minority stake owners, when approved by MLB, will have real say in how the roster is constructed and the payroll.  That may be part of the approach that Falvey is taking by stating that he expects Lopez, Ryan, and Buxton to be on the roster next season, but of course, like all of us fans, are in a wait and see game to see what actually happens in the offseason.

As for the theme song, it has to be "Closing Time" by Minnesota's own Semisonic.  They can play the song when they release the fans out into to the world to their own devices.

[Kevin]

1 hour ago, Western SD Fan said:

I'm going to surmise that the Pohlads finally received reports about season-ticket and corporate sponsor cancellations, which has prompted the press releases and trying to take ownership for the year that was.

Various rumors have been floated that the new minority stake owners, when approved by MLB, will have real say in how the roster is constructed and the payroll.  That may be part of the approach that Falvey is taking by stating that he expects Lopez, Ryan, and Buxton to be on the roster next season, but of course, like all of us fans, are in a wait and see game to see what actually happens in the offseason.

As for the theme song, it has to be "Closing Time" by Minnesota's own Semisonic.  They can play the song when they release the fans out into to the world to their own devices.

Desolation Row-- Bob Dylan

[theBOMisthebomb]

17 hours ago, Nshore said:

Let's attend to the important things first.  The Twins don't have a theme song for fans to sing.  The Red Sox have "Sweet Caroline"  - the Twins - nada.  Next, the team color.  Watch a Dodger home game and you see a sea of blue.  The Twins have a different uniform for every game of the season.  Baseball fundamentals!

 

I'm taking it as a lighthearted comment. You are not off base in many respects. I mean, I probably have about 50 years left on this earth... and I'm guessing that my four favorite men's professional sports teams (Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings, Wild) will not win a championship during that time. I could either give up following those teams or sit back and enjoy the experience of the games detached from outcome. 

What about bringing the "We're gonna win Twins" song to Target Field? I remember it at the Metrodome. 

I'm with you on the multiple uniforms and team colors. You could pick a hundred Twins fans at a Twins home game and not a one of them would match. 

[Jeff K]

18 hours ago, rv78 said:

Since the firing of Rocco the Pohlads have mentioned that changes need to be made. Falvey has admitted that he has failed to deliver. Sounds like both are holding themselves somewhat accountable. Falvey has also said that he expects both Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez to be pitching for the Twins in 2026. Will we see actual change? Will Falvey keep his word and keep Ryan and Lopez on the roster? Will the Pohlads spend when the time is right like they say or is it just more corporate BS? Only time will tell.

I read that as well; however, it could easily be a signal to the league that they will have to pay up to pry either of those guys away.

[Otaknam]

Pohlad: “I am overwhelmingly confident about Twins baseball. I’m confident because we have got all the right [pieces] … And we have the resources that we’re ready to invest when needed.” I’m not sure what Pohlad is drinking, but the team is heading in the opposite direction. If the “right pieces” means the current roster, that is complete nonsense. Aside from Buxton, Keaschall, Jeffers, and a couple of other bench players, the majority of the roster has underperformed, starting with Larnach, Wallner, and Lewis. The defense is terrible, as is the base running. If they don’t trade Ryan’s and Lopez, the starting pitching should be solid IF Ober bounces back and a couple of young staters show significant improvement. But my guess is they trade either Ryan or Lopez or both, if not this offseason, then at the trade deadline. The bullpen is a disaster after the fire sale. That can be rebuilt quickly if you only need a couple of pieces, but they need 4-5 new arms, so that will be an issue in 2026. What resources are they ready to invest, something they rarely do?  The only thing that gives me a morsel of optimism is their minor league system is highly rated. Essentially they are in an almost total rebuild mode. 

[Original_JB]

Let's be honest, the only reason they are actually pretending to 'connect' with the public is because (finally) people saw through a the BS they sling, and stopped buying tickets.  Face it, when they "sell" 24,000 tickets to a game and only 9-10k show up, sure they got paid for those tickets, but when more than half of the people who bought decide to basically just throw their tickets away in disgust and not attend, that is not a good look, and certainly not a path to good things.

[bean5302]

The Twins are not the source of the $500MM in debt. The Twins franchise is the collateral for it as the Pohlads borrowed against the value of the Twins to support their other failed business ventures. The Pohlads cannot sell the Twins without wiping the debt clear. Once they don't own the Twins, they can't borrow against the team, either.

Their cash / liquid asset reserves are undoubtedly insufficient to repay the debt, and by the time they get done with tax gain on selling the franchise, they're probably less liquid selling the team at like $1.2B than they would have been just keeping the team. There's marginal value selling unless they can get the buyer to pay off the giant debt. 

It would be a good idea for MLB to change rules in regard to allowing owners to borrow against their teams to support other business ventures.

[farmerguychris]

22 hours ago, Rufus said:

Oh for gosh sakes relax ... you could be an Athletics fan

I think there's a reasonable chance the Athletics have a higher payroll next year.

[farmerguychris]

21 hours ago, Sjoski said:

Hmmmm......Blue Jay's bats are shredding Yankees pitchers for the 2nd game in a row as I type.

Hey Joe!!! Just an idea, I know it's over the top....but....

The Twins should hire away the Jay's hitting coach.

 

 

Do you think our Front Office is telling our coaches how to coach?  

Example - Popkins.

With the Dodgers - Success

With the Twins - Failure

With the Blue Jays - Success

 

I hope this isn't the case, but I see this F.O. micromanaging so much, I expect they have a certain way they feel the players should be taught to hit - regardless of what the hitting coaches feel.  

If so, it doesn't appear to be working.

[Sjoski]

7 hours ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

I'm with you on the multiple uniforms and team colors. You could pick a hundred Twins fans at a Twins home game and not a one of them would match. 

Totally agree here.  It's nitpicking and minor, and I've mentioned i work in advertising....but...there’s actually a defined “DodgerBlue” color in HTML/CSS (#1E90FF), which shows how iconic that shade is.