Source: Pohlad Family Reduced Payroll to End Racism

[Cody Schoenmann]

Upon the conclusion of the Minnesota Twins’ 2023 campaign, wherein the club cathartically ended its 19-year-long postseason game losing streak, President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey announced that the club would be undergoing significant spending cuts, slashing the team’s payroll by more than $30 million. Falvey’s announcement functioned as a widespread gut punch, neutering any semblance of optimism Twins Territory felt on the club’s ability to progress further into the postseason in 2024 and contend for a World Series. Yet, what if I told you some things were Bigger Than Baseball? What if the Pohlad family made a sacrifice for the greater good? And if so, would that change your outlook on them as a billionaire, ruling-class family? Let's take a look. 

Now, we here at Twins Daily don’t enjoy speculating. We don’t dabble with the unknown. In fact, we condemn the act of doing so wholeheartedly. Yet, when presented with groundbreaking but unconfirmed information, we, as licensed journalists with degrees, must report on what we are told in the name of transparency. That being the case, sources close to the Pohlad family informed Twins Daily that the wealthy family was presented the near-impossible-to-make offer to end racism at the expense of cutting payroll hours after losing the ALDS-deciding Game 4 to the Houston Astros on Oct. 11. After hours of deliberation, the family privately accepted the deal, with the stipulation that they wouldn’t be allowed to inform the public for two years. Finally, that timeframe has ended. 

Those who peruse the friendly confines of Target Field frequently may have noticed that the attention-grabbing “End Racism” sign that occupied a significant portion of the right field padding, shown below:

This message resided at this location for multiple seasons, including during the club’s celebrated 2023 run. However, the message ceased to exist the following season, with no explanation behind its removal. Reasonably, many speculated that the club elected to shy away from its corporate activism ambitions in favor of netting more profit by filling the space with advertisements. However, sources confirm the Pohlad family elected to remove the signage upon the deal’s agreement, stating that having a sign advocating for something that no longer exists to go away would be “out of touch" and “disrespectful” to fans of the club.

“The Pohlads and I are over the moon to finally make this announcement,” an anonymous spokesperson close to the family said. “I mean, before October 2023, racism was running rampant,” The enthusiastic spokesperson proclaimed. “I mean s**t, every time I opened Twitter, I saw five different slurs before I even started scrolling,” they said while noticeably shaken. “But now you go online or you walk outside and it feels like everyone is getting along. I mean, I saw a group of Black and white teenagers happily riding Lime scooters outside Target Field last night. These inclusionary acts wouldn't be happening if the Pohlad family hadn't made the near-impossible decision to end racism for $30 million two years ago.”

When asked who or what exactly made this offer to the Pohlad family, the spokesperson proclaimed, "We can't provide specifics, but just know it was a very powerful force." They continued, "This may come as a shock, but the family had just greenlit increasing the club's payroll to $200 million for 2024. But when the offer to permanently end racism for $30 million reached the family's desk, there was no way they were going to turn it down, and Derek obviously agreed with the decision. Everyone involved should be celebrated for their sacrifice, really."

"This doesn't mean payroll is going to increase anytime soon, however," the anonymous source emphasized. “Many forces, both private and public, have attempted to start racism again. That being the case, the Pohlads have been forced to continue digging deep into their pocketbooks, for the greater good, of course.” The anonymous source continued, “This is why fanbases shouldn’t jump to conclusions and be hypercritical without knowing all of the facts. Just think, Twins fans have been endlessly slandering this family for two years; meanwhile, they ended racism at a price point cheaper than Carlos Correa’s average annual value. The fanbase should be ashamed of their unjust criticism." The anonymous spokesperson concluded, "If fans want to begin the apology process, they should strongly consider investing in a MyTwins membership and purchasing 2026 season tickets."

Twins Daily would like to formally apologize to the Pohlad family for constantly attacking their character and desire to fund a winning baseball organization. Twins Daily and its writers are more than happy to watch Kody Clemens be the full-time first baseman as long as it means the people of Twins Territory are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Some things really are Bigger Than Baseball.

This article was paid for by the Pohlad Family Foundation

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[tony&rodney]

Weird.

[Craig Arko]

Reviewer #2 gives you failing marks.

[Linus]

There is one minute of my life I’ll never get back. 

[CRF]

Huh?

[Krue]

This website is much better than this article. Please take it down..

Edited October 16, 2025 by Krue
Typo

[Krue]

Bonnes - you OK with this article? Stupid nonsense!

[Craig Arko]

I’d just suggest if you want to do a piece on an actually serious subject, don’t try to hide behind a poorly written attempt at humor. Both the serious and the humorous just get undermined.

[DJL44]

Thud

[Sjoski]

Glad I read the reviews first before reading the article. 

[Major League Ready]

Ish!

[Richie the Rally Goat]

[lecroy24fan]

I echo all of the above. 

[NYCTK]

I'm not gonna excoriate someone for a bad joke, but it's especially unfunny in a week where a bunch of 20-30 something republican staffers are outed as, essentially, nazis. 

 

[Vanimal46]

Cody, give up any hope you have in a comedy writing career. Holy cow this is awful. 

[Riverbrian]

Humor is a slippery slope. 

[Rufus]

the Pohlads are not the perfect owners..BUT remember if Carl had not stepped up back in the 80's there would probably not be any MN Twins now.  MN could have owners like the Rockies or the A's.

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Humor is a slippery slope. 

Yeah, and this slope slid all the way to the dump

[BobAzar]

1 hour ago, Rufus said:

the Pohlads are not the perfect owners..BUT remember if Carl had not stepped up back in the 80's there would probably not be any MN Twins now.  MN could have owners like the Rockies or the A's.

And if Carl had his way in 2001 there wouldnt be the Twins either. 

[Rufus]

2 hours ago, BobAzar said:

And if Carl had his way in 2001 there wouldnt be the Twins either. 

He didn't...so what's your point?   Some people look for the bright side other not so much.

 

[NYCTK]

2 hours ago, Rufus said:

He didn't...so what's your point?   Some people look for the bright side other not so much.

 

Carl sucked. He was a bad person. We needn't celebrate him just because he bought an entertainment organization that we like, and that ended up making his family a billion dollars. He was way more concerned with the latter. He didn't save the Twins out of the goodness of his heart. 

[ashbury]

Satire must above all choose a worthy target.  It's not even clear what the target here is, but if it's an anodyne ballpark sign reminding us that we can do better as a society, and/or its removal, I question the choice.

[Dawgzilla]

Stupid and asinine article!  Writer should be let go!  And if article is, or was, true team must be sold now or nobody should go to any games!  Idiotic!  Racism this!!!

[Craig Arko]

And next time remember to use more exclamation points in your articles; since nothing conveys writing ability like excessive punctuation. 

[BobAzar]

21 hours ago, Rufus said:

He didn't...so what's your point?   Some people look for the bright side other not so much.

 

He was blocked by a judge from doing so. It wasnt his decision. 

[Rufus]

2 hours ago, BobAzar said:

He was blocked by a judge from doing so. It wasnt his decision. 

still it didn't happen and the Twins are still here.  Bottom line wheather or not he tried to get rid of them, he saved them in 84.  what happened in 2002 would not have happened if he had not done that.

[Kevin Urdahl]

RandBalls Stu should be the only one allowed to write satire on the site. The rest are poor imitations!

[TheLeviathan]

Who'd have thought a joke with a punchline of "Hey guys - racism is still around!" didn't work......

[ashbury]

22 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Who'd have thought a joke with a punchline of "Hey guys - racism is still around!" didn't work......

There have been worse starting points for humor.  Let's suppose the author's underlying point was that the sign itself was wimpy and ineffectual, and maybe even ultimately harmful to the cause.  If the aim is to be Swiftian about it, then come up with something that would work better than the sign - then write the article about someone from Blaine* who does the exact opposite, and write it with seeming sincerity.

* Randballs Stu's go-to, if I'm not mistaken.

[TheLeviathan]

4 hours ago, ashbury said:

There have been worse starting points for humor.  Let's suppose the author's underlying point was that the sign itself was wimpy and ineffectual, and maybe even ultimately harmful to the cause.  If the aim is to be Swiftian about it, then come up with something that would work better than the sign - then write the article about someone from Blaine* who does the exact opposite, and write it with seeming sincerity.

* Randballs Stu's go-to, if I'm not mistaken.

Absolutely, but then the punchline is on the actual people and their reaction to the sign.  This punchline appeared to be "Har Har...there's still racism".  The only takeaway is that it mocks people who don't like racism?  I think?

Maybe we're just splitting hairs on a wildly ineffective delivery of the joke though.