What will it take.

[Major League Ready]

I didn't want to hijack the Joe Pohlad thread, but it would be very interesting to hear from TD participants what specifically the team needs to do to win back trust.  Spend more is always popular but they were spending more than other teams in the division and got absolutely nothing done.  They signed "higher profile" free agents like Correa and Donaldson and that got us nowhere.  Point being we would all like them to spend as much as possible but that would never close the talent gap the team has had for a decade.  Regardless of past success, spending as much as possible is a popular practice.

Is Joe Pohlad going to make a difference in how we develop?  Will he help make the right trades.  I doubt it.  The most important thing Tom Pohlad and the ownership group will influence is the current practice of filling in a flawed roster and hoping to compete.  That necessitates one of two directives.  They can commit to a full scale rebuild or they need to really shake up the current roster and add several established above average players and a couple difference makers.  We only have one elite player (Buxton) and one above average player (Jeffers) who of course is a FA next year.  One or even two trades are not going to make us immediate contenders.  They already filled one hole (1B) with an average player at best.  This means replacing most of the position players and most of the BP. 

Here is the catch.  These are two polar opposite approaches.  I think it's fair to say half of us that post here believe a rebuild is the most likely road to success and the other half want to build around this "core".  Obviously, the team can win back trust eventually if they are very successful with one approach or the other but how in the world do they satisfy more than half of Twins fans when we want two very opposite directions?

[LakesPibble]

MLB is broken financially.  All I want is a team that is fun to watch and competes hard.  We're not going to win the Series, and I'll be happy with a fun team like the Piranhas back in the day, makes the playoffs, gives me a little hope.

[amjgt]

I think ultimately what I want to see is something that resembles a plan. 

As was stated, there are different directions that this team could go at this moment, and I may not like the decisions they make, but if it looks like a plan and they articulate it, then I can support it.

I'm going to go back to the trade deadline. It actually felt like they were enacting a plan. You could quibble with individual trade packages and decisions, but I felt like I could see a grand plan. Then the last hour before the deadline happened and it felt like Falvey got trade-drunk and was like "eff it... why not? This is fun" 

That last hour felt off script and I still worry that it did long term damage not only on the field, but off the field as well. Falvey was looking at each potential deal in a silo and got caught up in the wave of trades he was making. He had no regard for the overall message it was sending players and fans

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

Obviously, the team can win back trust eventually if they are very successful with one approach or the other but how in the world do they satisfy more than half of Twins fans when we want two very opposite directions?

This is what stops most conversations on Twins Daily. Half want change, half are pretty content with nearly all of the roster. Many people choose to blame the Pohlads. The Pohlads cannot satisfy Twins fans until they win and they cannot win when the club's objective is to be mediocre.

9 minutes ago, LakesPibble said:

All I want is a team that is fun to watch and competes hard. 

This is a very fair statement. I can accept good entertainment from a team. The Athletics were fun to watch last year. The Twins were fun in 1977, for just a local example.

The really discouraging news from Tom Pohlad was his informing us that he has been, basically, in charge since last season ended. So .... Eric Orze, Alex Jackson, Josh Bell, and Falvey is still handling baseball decisions. Good luck with that.

Where to start? Remove Falvey from all baseball decisions of any kind or type. Hire a baseball man and let them work.

I'm in that bottom half of the split as shown by a series of fairly even polls concerning the direction the Twins should take. My preference is for guys who can hit, run, catch, and throw. There is a fresh post today asking about how the Twins can acquire Coby Mayo, a player the 53% prefer. The Twins clearly are run by the same baseball philosophies as the 53% of people polled on Twins Daily. That suggests the Twins carry on with their current practices and hope for a different result. Thus, the Pohlads are doing what many of the fans want. They have just bungled public relations, which as one comment suggested would heal over if there is ever continual quiet from ownership.

While my preferences might be different and there may be many who agree with me, the court of public opinion still favors the status quo. There will not be significant change at this time. It's just a reality.

[jctwins]

2 minutes ago, amjgt said:

I think ultimately what I want to see is something that resembles a plan. 

As was stated, there are different directions that this team could go at this moment, and I may not like the decisions they make, but if it looks like a plan and they articulate it, then I can support it.

I'm going to go back to the trade deadline. It actually felt like they were enacting a plan. You could quibble with individual trade packages and decisions, but I felt like I could see a grand plan. Then the last hour before the deadline happened and it felt like Falvey got trade-drunk and was like "eff it... why not? This is fun" 

That last hour felt off script and I still worry that it did long term damage not only on the field, but off the field as well. Falvey was looking at each potential deal in a silo and got caught up in the wave of trades he was making. He had no regard for the overall message it was sending players and fans

This is spot on. 

Communicating honestly would go a long way as well. Tom appears to be making an effort to do this, but he'll need to sustain that through an entire season to actually have credibility. 

Falvey needs to learn to communicate honestly too.

[The Great Hambino]

25 minutes ago, amjgt said:

I think ultimately what I want to see is something that resembles a plan. 

As was stated, there are different directions that this team could go at this moment, and I may not like the decisions they make, but if it looks like a plan and they articulate it, then I can support it.

I'm going to go back to the trade deadline. It actually felt like they were enacting a plan. You could quibble with individual trade packages and decisions, but I felt like I could see a grand plan. Then the last hour before the deadline happened and it felt like Falvey got trade-drunk and was like "eff it... why not? This is fun" 

That last hour felt off script and I still worry that it did long term damage not only on the field, but off the field as well. Falvey was looking at each potential deal in a silo and got caught up in the wave of trades he was making. He had no regard for the overall message it was sending players and fans

Very well said.  In the first of what somehow turned into several embarrassing open letters to the fans coming from Twins leadership, Falvey tried to sell us on how the returns from the trades were going to deliver an immediate impact.  As we enter 2026, that "immediate impact" at the major league level appears to be a couple of backup outfielders and two young starters that very well may be competing with each other for the final rotation slot.   But they're still operating as if they plan on competing this year.  It's hard to be honest with your fanbase when you can't even be honest with yourselves.

So what will it take to win back trust?   Time.  The organization is fundamentally broken and there are no quick fixes.  If they really want this to work in the long-term, they're going to have to be willing to endure some more tough times to build this thing back up.  I'm not sure they can damage fan morale any more than they have already, so I don't think that would make things much worse on that front.  Then, once they've actually built a sustainable core, follow through on your promises and do what it takes to push that core over the top.   Nothing short of a World Series will get the fans' trust back, so plan and act accordingly.

And no more excuses.  I don't want to hear the word COVID from a Pohlad's or a Pohlad lackey's mouth ever again.  No other MLB teams racked up that much debt because of it.  No other Minnesota sports teams racked up that much debt because of it.  The failure was yours, full stop.

Want to regain fan support quickly?  Sell the team.

 

[DocBauer]

I've gone over some various thoughts and ideas since I read the opening post by @Major League Ready. You can agree with my various thoughts, or disagree, and that's fine. But I see some thibgs that actually can be done to win fans back over again. And these are not in any particular order.

1] Treat the fan base as intelligent, informed human beings and stop the BS of incredibly insincere and poorly written statements or foot-in-mouth public statements. So far so good 1st day on the job.

2] I agree with MAKE A PLAN ideas, and I've been screaming that for months now. I want to see a PLAN in place. Tom talks about accountability and making changes as necessary. OK. I am NOT asking for someone's head on a platter. It's too early for that at this point, a hopeful begining of change. But accountability, in this scenario, begins from the head of baseball on down. That means Falvey down to Zoll, and coaches, and instructors within the system. 

I'M of the belief the team actually has a really solid core that has underperformed, but possesses real talent and potential. And I see reservoir of young talent that has JUST debuted, or is ready to in 2026. DO WE SEE improvement? If not, Falvey should probably be moved to the business side only and bring someone else in with a different vision that will trickle down to Zoll, and coaches, and instructors, etc. PROVE you want accountability.

3] DON'T sell off your talent at the deadline unless it is CLEARLY a baseball decision to do so because the team is floundering. I DON'T expect this to be a lousy team, but there is a difference between playing hard, hanging around .500-ish, and just being BAD.

4] If the 2026 version of the Twins hits the deadline around .500-ish, don't SQUASH opportunity if a move or two might make a difference to raise the bar for a shot at making the playoffs. (Similar to not selling for the sake of selling).

5] I actually agree with Tom Pohlad that just throwing $50-60M more to the payroll TODAY doesn't make sense. First of all, it's already a little late to do so. But ALSO, 2026 is really about taking underperforming talent and getting it PERFORMING better. SECOND, rookies, and near rookies, are poised to be a part of this team, or make their debuts. 

I am NOT saying rookies and near rookies will suddenly look like stars overnight, but depending on WHAT LIST of prospects, or recent graduates, you want to look at, universally, Rodriguez, Jenkins, Gonzalez, K-Pepper, Abel, Prielipp, and Morris are ALL in the top 10-12 and should be part of 2026 at some point. And there might even be a surprise or two. Roden is basically a rookie. Lee was damn near rookie status entering 2025. 

BUT...don't be CHEAP about 2026...which leads me to...

6] I can see a $115 payroll. But I can also see a $120M payroll with a little Falvey push. And I'm not saying that's great. But ever $M helps. There's an honest idea that Larnach is moved in a package for SOMETHING, that we all hope is a decent, young BP arm of some value. It makes sense. If they CAN’T find a package deal, I'd hope they just cut losses and save his projected $4.7M and free up the $ for someone else.

Bell's BAT plays. HOPEFULLY they can mitigate his defense. But he should only be the start. Between the various smart ideas already laid out by posters and TD employees, a Larnach removal either ADDS another BP option, or his complete removal just adds to the $ to spend on FA. But this also adds to....

7] IF Larnach is moved in a deal for a RP, that's great. If not, frankly, he should be simply let go and let his $ pay forward. Even with a limited payroll, there are intriguing options for the pen. Grab Rogers for $5-6M. Find the best RH arm available for $6-7M. I'm not naming names because there ARE options. 

The numbers aren't that hard. Even though part of Bell's contract is tied to a buyout in 2027, we can still call it as $7M if we want. Larnach gone, we are STILL only adding $12-13M for the pen. And we're still only in the $105-107M if my math is even close to correct. So don't blink if the FO wants to another bat or BP option. You want to PROVE you have commitment, then don't balk if $115M is pushed to $120M from your FO to make a couple adds that make sense.

8] Extend Jeffers. Maybe others as well. But for example, the Twins have NOTHING beyond Jeffers for the next 2-3 years as a quality catcher. You really want to dip in to FA in 2027 for a catcher option? Why not keep what you have? 

I'm just offering a LOT of examples of what what Tom Pohlad, the NEW MAN IN CHARGE could do to build a team, but also bring the fan base back.

Are the 8 points I brought up hard? Not really. They are consecutive with everything he spoke about. It's up to HIM to actually make these things a reality.