The Joe Pohlad Era is Over, Before It Ever Got Its Footing

[Peter Labuza]

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

During his opening press conference, Tom Pohlad explained over and over that he understood that part of his job was to be pummeled: by the media, by fans, and by curious onlookers to baseball.

“The Twins community has lost trust in us as owners,” the new boss admitted.

So begins the transition, then, with older brother Tom taking over from younger brother Joe. Tom will be the fourth Pohlad to run the Minnesota Twins, but it seems worthwhile to take stock of what happened with Joe, whose tenure was cut short after just over three years. 

While the team's recent stumbles will color any memory, when he first got started, the younger brother was an emblem of hope. Joe Pohlad clearly wanted to change the ownership style of the team. But something happened along the way that put a quick end to those hopes and set the franchise on a pathway to disaster.

Joe Pohlad leaves the position, perhaps, even more hated than Carl was. How? 

Compared to some owners, Joe provided a somewhat fresh look for the Twins in November 2022, taking over control and operation of the team at the age of 40. While his father discussed his plan for the team as remaining outside the spotlight, Joe seemed to initially relish it. He wore nice suits and had a million-dollar smile. He was the first Pohlad to take an office in Target Field, where he said his plan was to collaborate more than enforce.

But Pohlad didn’t waste time in trying to make a statement about how he expected the team to operate. He immediately authorized a pursuit of Carlos Correa, and eventually, the front office converted the one-year pit stop into a monster contract. The Twins’ initial pursuit of Correa fell short, but their final offer at $285 million over 10 years far eclipsed the $92-million signing of Josh Donaldson and the extensions for Joe Mauer and Byron Buxton. You can say the Twins still underbid for the highest-priced item on the market, but it suggested they wanted to shop at the Dior Store. So when luck and bad medicals put Correa back on the menu, Pohlad still pulled the trigger to bring him into a long-term relationship.

Pohlad beamed during the press conference as Correa put on his new uniform (which had debuted a few months prior), declaring “Fashion Show 2.0.”

It was one of many offseason investments in the team blessed by Pohlad. The Luis Arráez-Pablo López trade was certainly controversial, but few would take it back now—and the team eventually offered a substantial extension to make López a franchise face. The rest of the offseason included notable (if unglamorous) free agents, including Joey Gallo, Christian Vázquez, Donovan Solano. They traded for Michael A. Taylor. In total, the payroll jumped over $40 million from the 2021 season. Rocco Baldelli also received an extension through the 2025 season.

Pohlad pushed the product to bring it up to the rising big-league standards. That included changes at Target Field that totaled around $30 million, including the new scoreboard and the diamond ball. Pohlad also expanded the “Family Value” section, where the price of a hot dog remained $3.99. In fact, going into 2023, Twins Daily’s Theodore Tollefson took an optimistic view of ownership.

“In an era of Major League Baseball where the reputations of team owners usually bring negative connotations to their franchises, Joe Pohlad may be the outlier,” Tollefson wrote. At that moment, that didn't seem crazy.

All of that change paid off. The gate receipts for Target Field jumped to (an estimated) $92 million, the highest since 2011, alongside $19 million in profit and a $70-million jump in valuation, at least according to Forbes. The curse was broken, leaving fans hungry for more.

There were high expectations that Pohlad set for 2024. Though the sudden removal of Dick Bremer may have shocked some fans, the promotion of Cory Provus felt like the right move. More importantly, Pohlad and Dave St. Peter gave Provus the green light to announce that blackouts would end in 2024 and that a streaming product was on its way.

But by the Winter Meetings, a new narrative emerged. Payrolls had gotten too high, and required cutting. For most of the offseason, Joe remained quiet on exactly what was going on. Then, an unfortunate WCCO interview officially ended the honeymoon. Business was the key word. Those $30-million players were luxuries they could not afford. There was a reasonable case for why the Twins felt no need to replace Sonny Gray, but Pohlad failed to articulate it.

The team also backtracked on those blackouts, taking a one-year deal with Bally Sports. One could have expected that the reunion might mean more money to put toward payroll, but that never did come. The decision backfired when Bally’s parent company began a three-month dispute with Comcast and kept the Twins off most televisions for almost half the season. Twins.TV would debut in 2025, but too little, too late.

Even when it was clear the Twins needed to add at the deadline, it became apparent from reporting from Jeff Passan that "if the opportunity to acquire a higher-salary player presents itself, they would need to offload salary from their major-league roster in that deal or another to cancel out the expense." Never mind that at most, this would cost a low seven-figure sum to play out the rest of the season. It will be up to history whether the implosion that followed was a result, but fans knew exactly how to draw the line. 

Pohlad finally stepped up to the mic once more at the end of the season. Defending his decision, he explained himself.

“We were headed down a great direction and I had to make a very difficult business decision, but that’s just the reality of my work," he said. "I have a business to run, and it comes with tough decisions, and that’s what I had to do. I wouldn’t make any other decision.”

No one wanted to hear it. Only a few weeks later, the family announced the sale. 

It will never be clear if Joe was fighting a battle with one arm tied behind his back. He probably expected a longer tenure than under two years before he announced the intention to sell. There are seven other Pohlads in his generation (who likely saw things differently all along), though, and he couldn't hold onto control.

Even the sale effort, which was Tom's job, didn’t work. The only major buyer eventually locked up a shinier object. No other full-scale suitor emerged. At a time when the team was at its worst, Joe had to announce a new plan to bring on limited partners instead. As Tom suggested, only in the last month was it clear that he would take the reins. As Dan Hayes reported, the sale may just be pushed down the road, as owners hope for a salary cap in order to increase their valuations. Whatever conversation that ends up being, Joe will remain on the advisory board, rather than in the driver seat.

In the meeting Wednesday, Tom described an employee town hall wherein Joe announced the end of his tenure through tears, clearly a bittersweet moment for someone who expected any other outcome than this. The younger brother skipped the press conference. His story—as far as the Twins are concerned—ends here.

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[Cris E]

The pull-back after 2023 is the whole story of Twins ownership in a nutshell. It led to everything that followed, and the recent coup is just the last gasp of the Joe era, old family cookie jar business model. Now we find out if they think it can be run as a business for real or if they are just straightening the books for a sale. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

11 minutes ago, Cris E said:

The pull-back after 2023 is the whole story of Twins ownership in a nutshell. It led to everything that followed, and the recent coup is just the last gasp of the Joe era, old family cookie jar business model. Now we find out if they think it can be run as a business for real or if they are just straightening the books for a sale. 

Preach. Ownership has a shot here to create a new narrative. It won't be easy, and it won't be cheap, but it has to be done. Better not blow it because there may not be another chance any time soon. 

[gman]

Obviously Joe wanted a different model than most of the other family members. I expect the team to follow the don't spend don't really try to compete model. Give the money to the poor owners.

[LastOnePicked]

21 minutes ago, gman said:

Obviously Joe wanted a different model than most of the other family members. I expect the team to follow the don't spend don't really try to compete model. Give the money to the poor owners.

This is where the fans can have an impact. If we close our wallets to revenue streams, the valuation won't recover and the partners will apply pressure. 

Or, fuller revenue sharing in a new CBA, expansion kickbacks and new MLB streaming deals will make ticket sales completely obsolete ... and no one in ownership will ever have to care.

[CRF]

I blinked...did I miss something? Joe was in charge?

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

Preach. Ownership has a shot here to create a new narrative. It won't be easy, and it won't be cheap, but it has to be done. Better not blow it because there may not be another chance any time soon. 

Giving an unearned second chance to a wealthy nepo baby real estate business family famous for ruining their other businesses. What could go wrong? 

[HerbieFan]

People with the kind of wealth the Pohlads possess tend to be tone deaf to what 99.9% of the population thinks, feels, experiences.  Little Joe seemed to take that "tone deafness" to an entirely new level.

[NJM]

I'm glad it's changing but it never should've gotten to this point, if the ownership didn't pull back on the payroll after 2023 things could be a whole lot different right now. But I am interested to see what Tom does to reestablish the fans and the ownerships bond. Hopefully the new partial ownership groups will also help this team and steer them back in the right direction for winning baseball. 

[farmerguychris]

I had high hopes for Joe and he immediately got credit from me for signing big names like Correa.  

While I do hope Tom can lead us to greener pastures, I almost feel a bit sorry for Joe.  (As much as I can feel sorry for a billionaire anyway)

I don't know the distribution of responsibility, but could the $500M in debts the Twins have actually come from the team's inept management?  Or, as I would venture to guess, were these debts from other ventures and because of the interest on the loan, Joe was in a no-win situation.  Since Tom was in charge of the other Pohlad ventures, is he the one who actually placed some of that debt onto the Twins to cover for debts he accrued with their other investments?

Tom is saying all the right things, hopefully (for fans) Joe really was bad at his job and putting Tom in this role is really a step forward towards producing a winning team on the field in the near future.  But, he has to show us, not tell us about it.

 

[Vanimal46]

Joe was woefully unqualified for the role as family spokesman. He looked uncomfortable in front of a camera, and when he did speak, he said a lot of bone headed things. 

Speaking of woefully unqualified for the role, do we know if Tom is taking over the business side for the Twins? Because Derek Falvey should not be responsible for that anymore. 

They have a chance to improve some things internally within the organization, but that’s all things that don’t impact the fans. I’m not taking the bait that the Pohlads are going to change their ways on building a championship caliber baseball team. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

46 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

Giving an unearned second chance to a wealthy nepo baby real estate business family famous for ruining their other businesses. What could go wrong? 

Pretty much everything. 

[Parfigliano]

Another nepo baby.   Sure this time it will be different.   

[Pat]

Every team "wants" to win the World Series but how many are willing to do what it takes?  Signing Correa was a big deal but the real failure was not surrounding him with other talented [more expensive] players to consolidate the roster,  Instead, we end up with the Manny Margots of the world. 

[weitz41]

1 hour ago, farmerguychris said:

I had high hopes for Joe and he immediately got credit from me for signing big names like Correa.  

While I do hope Tom can lead us to greener pastures, I almost feel a bit sorry for Joe.  (As much as I can feel sorry for a billionaire anyway)

I don't know the distribution of responsibility, but could the $500M in debts the Twins have actually come from the team's inept management?  Or, as I would venture to guess, were these debts from other ventures and because of the interest on the loan, Joe was in a no-win situation.  Since Tom was in charge of the other Pohlad ventures, is he the one who actually placed some of that debt onto the Twins to cover for debts he accrued with their other investments?

Tom is saying all the right things, hopefully (for fans) Joe really was bad at his job and putting Tom in this role is really a step forward towards producing a winning team on the field in the near future.  But, he has to show us, not tell us about it.

 

I believe the baseball ownership bylaws explicitly say any debt attached to a team can only be baseball related. Not that a slippery accountant can't work around that.

 

I'll give Joe and Jim credit for signing big free agents and the rightsizing after that. Covid and the collapse of TV revenue was beyond their control. 

Hopefully Tom will be more of a steady hand. Not cheap, but willing to spend big to get over the hump to deep playoff runs.

I don't think we'll find out which for a couple seasons.

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, CRF said:

I blinked...did I miss something? Joe was in charge?

Not the way this article implies. Joe was the spokesman for ownership and he had a major input into the branding (new logo/uniforms). All the more reason to remove him as he damaged the ownership's reputation and that Minnesota Mariners/Seattle Twins logo... oofff. 

[SteveLV]

Who?

[jmlease1]

4 hours ago, CRF said:

I blinked...did I miss something? Joe was in charge?

yeah, I think that's certainly an issue. Joe was put out as the forward face of the family and certainly has attempting to influence the baseball decisions, and had increased authority and responsibility on the business side...but at the end of the day, Jim was still the real final decision-maker for the family, and the fact that Tom is now getting that official role with MLB that Joe did not says some things.

I don't think Joe had the requisite experience to really drive the train, he definitely didn't have the gift for being the public face (which was definitely what the family seemed to want from him), but we'll never really know if Joe was the one that sold the idea of the payroll increase and then pulled it back or if it was Falvey who sold Jim on the payroll increase with Joe cheerleading and then Jim & the family (which was probably driven by Bob but also might have included Tom) pulled it back because of how the losses were piling up.

Joe wanted to be in charge, wanted to be "the owner", but never really had the power. Tom will still have to answer to the family/board, but has much more power as a decider than Joe did. 

I'm not sure I care that much. Show me some competence in the business ops, that you actually know how to raise the profile and revenue of the team without just cranking ticket prices. develop some plans to get fans in the stands. (and no, "just win" isn't enough: good teams don't always fill their stadiums, and bad teams can still draw. The effing Rockies stink and still sell tickets; they've been at 30K per season for the last 4 seasons. Tampa has frequently been good and in the mix, including a WS run and hasn't broken 20K attendance since 2011)

[1985Fan]

Glad he’s gone. I think he was just a puppet for the family, but he was clearly out of his element. I hope this means that the family realizes who’s really at fault for this roster and that Falvey is on a very short leash. I think Joe was too gullible and fell under Falvey’s spell. Falvey needs someone to challenge his baseball decisions and hold him accountable. Twins payroll was often the highest in the ALC, which coincided with not making the playoffs. 
As another poster has already said; Falvey needs to be relieved of his duties on the business side. Stick to baseball operations, even though he’s a failure on that side of things as well. 

[tony&rodney]

35 minutes ago, 1985Fan said:

As another poster has already said; Falvey needs to be relieved of his duties on the business side. Stick to baseball operations, even though he’s a failure on that side of things as well. 

Don't have a clue what Falvey has to do with the business side but he is clearly way over his head on the baseball side. I cannot imagine that he has less numerical sense than he has baseball knowledge. The style of play, the unbalanced, awkward roster construction, and his inability to evaluate are simply a matter of record. Does he have a few successes? Yes, but he rode the previous admin players all the way down to Buxton with the largest budgets among all AL Central Division clubs and still struggled. The last three years of indecision have just been painful. Let Falvey run the business side. Don't let him have any say whatsoever in anything baseball related. 

[1985Fan]

3 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Don't have a clue what Falvey has to do with the business side but he is clearly way over his head on the baseball side. I cannot imagine that he has less numerical sense than he has baseball knowledge. The style of play, the unbalanced, awkward roster construction, and his inability to evaluate are simply a matter of record. Does he have a few successes? Yes, but he rode the previous admin players all the way down to Buxton with the largest budgets among all AL Central Division clubs and still struggled. The last three years of indecision have just been painful. Let Falvey run the business side. Don't let him have any say whatsoever in anything baseball related. 

Falvey was appointed head of the business operations when St. Peter “retired”. I agree he is terrible at the baseball side, as you’ve noted. I don’t understand why he is still employed at all. As I said, I think Joe was under Falvey’s spell. 

[The Great Hambino]

In hindsight, maybe it should've been more telling that the Astros went to Jim and not Joe to get the Correa trade going

[Jeff K]

22 hours ago, NYCTK said:

Giving an unearned second chance to a wealthy nepo baby real estate business family famous for ruining their other businesses. What could go wrong? 

This is so true.  The guy did not learn things the most of us learn them; by having to earn your way up.  He lacked the skills AND experience requisite to hold a high end job.  But he did learn some quality corporate BS, so he's got that going for him...which is nice.  My sympathy meter is registering at Zero!

[David Maro]

Who cares,he's still a Polhad and Falvey is still in the organization as well. And he replaced the manager with a Rocco discipline. 

[TwinsBagOverHead]

Pass it off to another Pohlad. Was Carl married to his sister or something? All these kids seem to be missing several chromosomes. Sell the team! FTP!

[Permanent Twins Fan]

So turns out you can fire an owner. Who knew?

[ashbury]

27 minutes ago, Permanent Twins Fan said:

So turns out you can fire an owner. Who knew?

It's like in a video game.  Just when you think the nemesis has been vanquished, there's always the Final Boss, followed in short order by the True Final Boss.