Tom Pohlad Has a Differing Vision for the Twins. That Might Be the Problem.

[Squirrel]

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

I don't give ownership a pass. 

But that doesn’t mean Falvey was anything but a colossal failure. Look at the state of the roster. 

Never said he wasn’t. But then why didn’t ownership get rid of him sooner? You were chastising posters, or Nick, for blaming Tom for the state of the Twins. You seem to be blaming Falvey. I’m just saying, ownership could have corrected that sooner and didn’t. The buck stops with ownership no matter how bad we think their employees were.

[Dman]

This whole situation is a double edged sword, catch 22.  Tom needs to generate revenue via ticket sales and the fans feelings about ownership and the team is at an all time low.  He needs to give season ticket holders something to believe in and selling a rebuild for the next two or three or four years isn't going to work.  No matter the odds he needs to try to keep things afloat financially.

The other side of this is as things stand we are rolling out less talent on this team than last years team. We don't even have one dominant bullpen arm.  This whole thing also rests on all young bats improving which is unlikely.  Yes you can catch lightening in a bottle in baseball every now and then, but the odds of everything working out are incredibly low even with the Twins being in the worst division in baseball.

Just as many fans were ready to slough off the Falvey baggage the one thing that would have fixed a lot of this would have been the Pohlad's selling the team.  That would have generated some excitement that things would change and the pretext to start an actual rebuild, but here we are in impossible land.

I get both sides of the argument but this team is headed down a tough road no matter which direction they take. Trade assets and give up on this season and lose even more fans and ticket holders?  Or Sell hope and go against the odds and try and win on a low budget with significant holes at multiple positions? We'll see how this shakes out, but it looks like my favorite team is in really big trouble no matter what.

[mark sills]

3 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Tom Pohlad certainly has a flawed vision of the Twins chances in 2026. But he's been in the picture for what? A few weeks?

At the risk of repeating myself, let's look at the POBO's resume:

9 years into Falvey's tenure, the Twins have

- 2 above average position players: Buxton and a part timer in Jeffers. Only one of those came to the Twins during Falvey's time. The other is aging and a constant injury risk. That's it. Question marks or outright failures everywhere else

- zero bullpen assets. Zero. 4 or 5 mediocrities or worse, then squadoosh. For what many people here like to refer to as "the easiest thing to build" (those many people are way wrong, of course, but I read that often.) How do you get to a position where not one, single solitary reliever in an 8 man pen isn't someone you can depend on??

- 2 good starters, neither of which were developed under Falvey

- 1, maybe as many as 3, prospects that have a realistic chance at being above average MLBers some day. Whoop-de-doo. That and 5 bucks will get you a coffee. 

- a team that, if we're honest, has no chance of being cocompetitive in several years

 

No matter who owned the team, Falvey was a failure, by the standards he himself set when hired.  

They weren't perpetually competitive. Just the opposite. One strong team (2019) that he gets partial credit for, and a couple teams only in contention for the weak ALC. 9 years in, we're objectively terrible. 

Somehow blaming Tom Pohlad for the state of our favorite baseball team is...wells let's just say missing the Forrest for a few trees. 

 

 

I think your discounting are prospects. I believe we have a great core for the future

[bunsen82]

23 minutes ago, Dman said:

 

I get both sides of the argument but this team is headed down a tough road no matter which direction they take. Trade assets and give up on this season and lose even more fans and ticket holders?  Sell hope and go against the odds and try and win on a low budget with significant holes at multiple positions? We'll see how this shakes out, but it looks like my favorite team is in really big trouble no matter what.

You burn it to the ground,  run a 60 million salary,  replenish with prospects and get a good draft 2026 and good draft 2027.  Put more money into the draft and evaluating players.    With minority owners having paid the debt that should have resolved a majority of the interest payment and the income statement should be fine. Just look at the Pirates, 1 of 2 orgs making a profit.   Do a multi year rebuild similar to Baltimore and Houston,  and hope come out better on the other side.  Now we get 2 more years of Ryan and Lopez and you better hope they don't get injured.      You have 2 more chances to trade them,  deadline and after this year.  After that its effectively pointless, and both will get you a compensation pick most likely.  

You had already burned the fanbase,  there were only a few like myself who thought they could still pull of a decent rebuild,  but still preferred the full tear down.  Fan morale was/is in the dumpster,  not trading them hasn't changed it much,  just go look at X posts and the response.  F the pohlads,  you suck,  sell the team,  my grandma would be better than you.   I have no confidence that Tom can pull off a similar performance to Falveys 2019.   Remember they spend some on that year on free agents back in 2019.   

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6593081/2025/09/05/twins-fan-survey-pohlad-falvey-resulst/

98.5% of fans wanted the Pohlads to sell the team,  and they messed that up,  so here we are.   

I can understand why Falvey and Tom didn't agree on the vision.    

[sweetmusicviola16]

Had they done this right they would have had the assets of Lopez and Ryan to assist in the rebuild. You hold onto them for the season to compete and you could lose much of the value. You may not even have to lower the talent greatly either. Bassit and Littel are both still looking for a job. They would keep you near the levels that Lopez and Ryan have you and both could also be traded in July. For the hope of  4 or 5 thousand more that attend a game when they pitch. Buxton still has NTC so no guarantee he gets traded and would be harder to replace. 

[TheLeviathan]

People keep citing the bullpen....that isn't even my top concern.

How do you expect to be competitive with a lineup that isn't even above average offensively while also being below average defensively as a group?

Our regular 9 is just not good enough.  If we're going to be "competitive"...why on earth is Josh Bell and Victor Caratini the best we could muster?

[bunsen82]

30 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

People keep citing the bullpen....that isn't even my top concern.

How do you expect to be competitive with a lineup that isn't even above average offensively while also being below average defensively as a group?

Our regular 9 is just not good enough.  If we're going to be "competitive"...why on earth is Josh Bell and Victor Caratini the best we could muster?

In theory the bullpen should be the easiest to fix.  

I think your assessment of the players as constructed currently is fair.   The future depends highly on Lewis becoming a star and maybe he can follow a Buxton Path,  I just don't see it.  If he does,  you could have 

Lewis, Culpepper, Keaschall,    1st,  Buxton, Jenkins, Rodriguez, and Caratini  

Yes its counting on 4 prospects and Lewis becoming a star,   that is still has some high upside potential for 2027.    

[rv78]

6 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Isn’t the deadline “fire sale” overblown, relative to the effect on the 26-man Roster?

Correa is about 50% washed, with up & down effectiveness at the plate - inability to play “well” at SS and being hurt routinely…….why, after taking a big swing with his signing (3.5 seasons later), would any reasonable FO not move off $25M/yr ……. assuming “some” of the funds would become available to help replace/rebuild the Roster?

Coulombe - Bader - Castro - Paddack were all going to be FA’s & gone in ‘26 OR they would need to negotiate a new deal. Get some returns if at all possible IF Team has decided they aren’t competing in ‘25…….what’s the problem?

Dobnack ……. good to get out from under.

Stewart ……. in his best year he threw 37 innings for Team (1 inning every 4.4 games) and he threw 3 1/3 innings for Dodgers after July 31, 2025 - out for the year - hurt again! He was not a mainstay - he was very effective in short bursts - no real long-term loss with the continued lack of availability.

That’s 7 of the guys that were moved……. Duran, Jax, & Varland are all missed on some level.

Tait & Abel for Duran ……. we’ll see. Not terrible thing if EITHER of these guys develops into expectations. Never fun to see a high performer leave. Not long ago, traded Arraez after winning the batting title with fingers crossed.

Bradley……big potential to start after JAX has previously washed as a starter ……can always consider Taj in the PEN. Griffin’s stuff was lights out most nights (fun to watch) but he was too often like a “wound too tight spring” with pitch mix issues……at least in ‘25. His ERA in ‘25 was 4.23 & he was 1-7. His 5 year career he has a 4.04 ERA and a record of 23-31. We didn’t trade Nolan Ryan.

Varland had a 4.94 ERA for the Blue Jays in last  2 months of the season. He’s a horse & a competitor and he can be lights out some days. …….. I’ve said many times, if Louie was from Kenosha, the trade would be viewed differently………Rojas has a real shot at being a rotation guy after this year - this was the basis for the trade - Roden was another guy that has “a shot” but essentially a throw in guy.

I’m sure many will not like this take but I just don’t see the moves being a bad thing for the organization’s future. There was a lot of drama and media buzz and surprise with the concentration of the moves, but not necessarily bad moves, from my viewpoint.

 

 

Of the 10 players that were part of the fire sale, how many were connected to Falvey either through the draft or some sort of acquisition by him? I didn't look it up but I'm guessing all 10. What's sad is that none of them were worth keeping. That alone, in a nutshell, tells you how good Falvey was at his job.

[rv78]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

This whole situation is a double edged sword, catch 22.  Tom needs to generate revenue via ticket sales and the fans feelings about ownership and the team is at an all time low.  He needs to give season ticket holders something to believe in and selling a rebuild for the next two or three or four years isn't going to work.  No matter the odds he needs to try to keep things afloat financially.

The other side of this is as things stand we are rolling out less talent on this team than last years team. We don't even have one dominant bullpen arm.  This whole thing also rests on all young bats improving which is unlikely.  Yes you can catch lightening in a bottle in baseball every now and then, but the odds of everything working out are incredibly low even with the Twins being in the worst division in baseball.

Just as many fans were ready to slough off the Falvey baggage the one thing that would have fixed a lot of this would have been the Pohlad's selling the team.  That would have generated some excitement that things would change and the pretext to start an actual rebuild, but here we are in impossible land.

I get both sides of the argument but this team is headed down a tough road no matter which direction they take. Trade assets and give up on this season and lose even more fans and ticket holders?  Sell hope and go against the odds and try and win on a low budget with significant holes at multiple positions? We'll see how this shakes out, but it looks like my favorite team is in really big trouble no matter what.

It's never a good thing when you reach the point of, damned if you do AND damned if you don't.

[Twins63]

Do you think we need to also look deeper into the development, scouting philosophy of team closer. For all the naysayers....if everything is in such turmoil, how did we get former players such as Hawkins, Sizemore and Pressley to join ? Surely they should know with there experience a dumpster fire when they see one? 

[old nurse]

Nobody takes the simple, easy solution. If the disarray on the plate side of things bothered the Pohlads Falvey would have been fired at the end of the season.  The financial disaster was to be blamed on anyone other than a Pohlad, which is was because they removed Jim and Joe, the financial executives would be gone. The personalities of Tom Pohlad and Falvey might be like oil and water and it took a month to figure that out. 

[Western SD Fan]

If we look at this situation as cynically as possible, this may be a possible reason for the whole thing.  (cue the rampant speculation music) We have all speculated that when the Pohlad family took the team off the market and took on investors that these investors were brought in to clear the debts, make the books look better, and make a quick return on their investment.  Many of us are also expecting a lengthy stoppage in 2027 as it seems that many owners are entrenched in the belief that their only way out is with a salary cap.  If you take all of this into account, it makes perfect sense what Tom is doing since he took over as CEO of the Twins.  With sports franchises, their biggest value comes in brand reputation and exclusivity.  The brand reputation of the Twins is about the lowest it has ever been since they have moved to Minnesota.  I remember the 90's Twins, but I'm not old enough to remember the early 80's Twins so I am going off my knowledge.  I do believe that Joe and Falvey had a plan to do a more complete teardown and shoot for 2028.  While that have made sense from a baseball standpoint, it didn't make sense from a business standpoint if your goal is to boost brand reputation and juice the value of the team for an eventual sale.  Tom came in and wants the facade that the Twins will be competitive.  This means that they need to spend just enough money to make it look good (congrats!) and keep what little reputation they have left to get through the next CBA negotiations and cash out.

If this entire exercise was to raise the value of the Twins so that the Pohlads could get the price they want and sell, then I'll take whatever pain I need to suffer to make it happen.

[Lasorda_This_Out]

21 hours ago, Post-Concussive Blues said:

This is the explanation for Falvey’s departure that makes the most sense to me.

81 wins would be fantastic in 2026...

[ziggy]

This article and all of the comments are missing the biggest point of all.

Tom's vision might be the problem but more importanty  let's hope it's also the solution.

[mikelink45]

Falvey was going to be gone.  Reading TD all these years he went from hope to bust in fan perspectives. What happened to Levine?  

In the end we traded Joe for Tom  -  does anyone see that as a 10 game improvement?

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

Falvey was going to be gone.  Reading TD all these years he went from hope to bust in fan perspectives. What happened to Levine?  

In the end we traded Joe for Tom  -  does anyone see that as a 10 game improvement?

Levine's role is largely unknown, but I think it's clear at this point he was about to be supplanted by Jeremy Zoll and decided to leave. Levine hadn't impressed other franchises in regard to either his role or philosophy as he was interviewed and immediately dismissed as a candidate by Boston and while Levine's name came up several times in other GM type searches, he ultimated landed as a an assistant in the Brewers organization.

From early on, Levine seemed to have a clashing strategy with Falvey. It felt like Levine wanted to be more aggressive in the competitive window "boot to the throat" comment, etc. Falvey seemed to fit best with the Pohlad family's historical perspective of goals.
3/5 = Play competitive ball (.500ish)
4/5 = make playoffs
5/5 = win the division.

I'm quite concerned that Zoll is "Falvey's Guy" and he'll be a Falvey-type GM.

[bean5302]

The Pohlad family is "toxic?" Seems like a pretty wild perpective to me. It feels to me there's been a bit of a power struggle inside the family in terms of what to do with the Twins. I think they've been poor owners in regard to what seems like extreme nepotism and the unwillingness to hold high ranking positions accountable.

It's clear the Pohlad family wanted to bury the bad debt they'd accumulated through other business transactions in a sale, but other buyers wouldn't bit. Now the Pohlads are also trying to pretend they invested in the team to accumulate that debt, but I think that's a bad strategy because it's dishonest.

I've gotten the impression that Joe Pohlad became very buddy-buddy with Falvey. It wouldn't even surprise me if there was some brownnosing going on Pohlad to Falvey since Falvey is clearly the guy who started speaking to the public because Joe and Dave St. Peter were incompetent in that regard. FWIW, Joe was never in charge of ownership decisions. He was a spokesman.

From the comments Tom has made, he seems like a much more demanding, and he has the authority to make ownership style decisions. This is awesome. His move to fire Falvey after Derek once again rolled out the status quo stay pat and add some quad-A types to block talent and keep the floor better than 100 losses, on the surface, it's reasonable to expect Tom had enough. Given the opportunity to support ownership's philosophy of non-half measures, Falvey failed, and likely the future strategy he presented was a failure. 

The Pohlad family (or new ownership) will not turn the Minnesota Twins into a large market franchise with annual $200MM+ payrolls. There's reason to believe an ownership group willing to tank/rebuild would be able to stretch payroll to $160-180MM in the best of seasons, but I really can't see a responsible owner in the Twin cities pushing higher in the near future. The Twins ran a $155MM payroll in 2023. They opened 2025 with $143MM. About one big name signing away from the absolute max (if people actually went to the games).

[Jacksson]

Would be interesting to know who wanted a full rebuild (Derek?) and who wanted to continue the POHLAD path of APPEARING to be in contention (Tom?) for sure.  Could be that by the 2026 trade deadline, the Twinkies will be so far out of it that Tom gives the order to Zoll to undertake the full rebuild.  Perhaps that is the TOM plan all along - once the MONEY for season ticket sales and renewals are in the Pohlad Treasure Chest to strip the team down to the bare walls at the 2026 trade deadline for the balance of 2026 and for 2027 when a lockout may take place.  Better to only have a minimal payroll in the event of a work stoppage, then come back as optimistic heroes for 2028.  Meddling by Tom would help to explain the haphazard roster building in the offseason by Flavey that has taken place since Joe got booted out.  A PLAN wasn't at all clear.

I still believe that the 2025 mid-season sell off took place to have the dumping of Correa be of ZERO cash impact on the P & L.  That is the way it worked out.  After the disposal of high marquee players is taken off the table due to the negative fan impact, the next option to trim away the 30MM cost of dumping Correa, was to deal away from the strength of the bullpen.  Back at that time, the goal of the organization was to make a buck, or. at least not to lose 30MM on a guy who doesn't even play for you anymore.  Even though Joe was "in charge" at that time, it is logical to conclude that older brother Tom was influencing Joe's decisions by  exerting some level of string pulling on "little brother" back then, and, perhaps all along.  You know how big brothers can be.

[nova_twins]

It's not a good sign that Tom Pohlad thinks vibes can be worth 10 wins. Just from an intelligence and baseball preparation perspective. 

[Eris]

The problem with a total rebuild is the Twins position players are so bad that trading Ryan and Lopez—even if they were to hit a home run on both trades would not make the Twins a competitive team.  To be playoff competitive, a team needs to have about 25-30 WAR from their position players (the Blue Jays had about 34 fWAR for the 2025 season).  On the Twins only Buxton had more than 3 fWAR.  Jeffers was second with 2.1 fWAR.  When you start doing the math it hard to get to 25 fWAR unless Lewis, Keaschall, Wallner, Martin and Lee average about 3 WAR.

From that perspective it seems reasonable to give fans something to excited about which is tuning in watch Ryan and Lopez pitch.  

 

[Major League Ready]

13 minutes ago, Eris said:

The problem with a total rebuild is the Twins position players are so bad that trading Ryan and Lopez—even if they were to hit a home run on both trades would not make the Twins a competitive team.  To be playoff competitive, a team needs to have about 25-30 WAR from their position players (the Blue Jays had about 34 fWAR for the 2025 season).  On the Twins only Buxton had more than 3 fWAR.  Jeffers was second with 2.1 fWAR.  When you start doing the math it hard to get to 25 fWAR unless Lewis, Keaschall, Wallner, Martin and Lee average about 3 WAR.

From that perspective it seems reasonable to give fans something to excited about which is tuning in watch Ryan and Lopez pitch.  

 

This makes no sense to me.  You are suggesting they should not rebuild because their position players are not good enough to make them competitive.  Isn't that why you rebuild? Isn't the idea to trade Ryan and Lopez to get players that can help us build a contender?   

A rebuild means transitioning out all the 0-2 WAR players you mentioned.   They have Keaschall / Martin and perhaps Lewis along with a host of other position player prospects that are close.  Add the 3rd pick next year to what they could get for Ryan and Lopez and you at least have a lot better chance of putting together a contender.  That group might fail too but at least there is a decent chance of building a contender.  This current group with the minimal level of investment made so far has no chance.  

[Linus]

Actually a differing vision might be the solution. None of us know what happened behind the scenes other than the net result of the Joe Pohlad era has been confusing and rudderless. Joe is gone which is probably a good thing. Falvey leaving is potentially a very good thing. From a baseball perspective he was mediocre at best. He wasn’t horrible as some suggest but the bad decision pile was clearly bigger than the good decision pile. He was dogmatic in his baseball principles even when they didn’t work. From the business side he had no prior experience running a franchise so it’s probably a really good idea for Tom to bring in an experienced business person to take care of that half of the franchise exclusively. They sure could use some improvement. Regarding Zoll, I have no idea but the bar to clear to equal Falvey is t that high. Not much to lose here and potentially lots to gain if he turns out to be a sharp baseball mind who can better blend analytics with better organizational planning and good old baseball common sense. So while it looks like a clown show right now, these moves just might give this organization better footing and a clearer idea of which direction to head. Like others Toms messaging is concerning but I think it’s just smoke and mirrors to try and turn a negative PR tide. 

[dxpavelka]

On 1/31/2026 at 11:43 AM, chpettit19 said:

I don't see too many people complaining that Falvey is gone. The vast majority of comments are praising that particular "lane change." But, yes, complaints will continue as long as every signal coming out of 1 Twins Way is that their current plan has every indication it is leading our favorite team straight to disaster. 

I'm not sure why it's confusing that fans are complaining that the new executive chair is claiming that the 2026 MN Twins roster is setup for success and the future of the MN Twins depends on the 2026 MN Twins roster being successful. Jumping from 1 dumpster that's on fire into the dumpster next to it that is also on fire doesn't automatically earn praise simply because we moved to a different dumpster.

If I had a nickel for every time the assessment of management regarding the team was closer than that of the fan base I'd have a lot of nickels.  

[chpettit19]

3 hours ago, dxpavelka said:

If I had a nickel for every time the assessment of management regarding the team was closer than that of the fan base I'd have a lot of nickels.  

Well "management" (Falvey), according to every report out there, believed the 2026 team is going to be bad and wanted to do a rebuild. "Ownership" is what thinks its going to be good. And HAS to be good. 

How many nickels would you have for the Pohlads being right about things?

[Riverbrian]

8 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Well "management" (Falvey), according to every report out there, believed the 2026 team is going to be bad and wanted to do a rebuild. "Ownership" is what thinks its going to be good. And HAS to be good. 

How many nickels would you have for the Pohlads being right about things?

If true and I'm starting to think it might be true. This places Tom in the building before the December 18 announcement of Tom in the building. 

Falvey was talking about Ryan, Lopez and Buxton going nowhere prior to Tom.

[chpettit19]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

If true and I'm starting to think it might be true. This places Tom in the building before the December 18 announcement of Tom in the building. 

Falvey was talking about Ryan, Lopez and Buxton going nowhere prior to Tom.

I'd watch a multi-episode documentary on the inner working of the Minnesota Twins from October 2023 until late January 2026. It'd be absolutely fascinating. The episode on the 2025 season into the 2025/2026 offseason would be interesting to track the narratives. Because there were plenty of rumors about Ryan, Lopez, and Buxton in the early offseason, right? There were plenty of discussions around here about Buxton possibly changing his mind on his no trade. 

Is that evidence of Joe still being in charge and Tom not being in the building yet? Falvey and Joe still looking to move Ryan and Lopez at that point, as the reports are suggesting now? In charge, but not in charge enough to actually make big moves? Dan Hayes wrote about Buxton (possibly?) being open to waiving his no trade on November 12th. There were rumors flying around everywhere in the baseball world about Lopez and Ryan being on the block. Discussions were happening daily on Twins Daily about what people would want in return for those guys and whether or not we should trade Buxton, Lewis, Jeffers, etc. as well. Blowing it all up was all we were talking about at that point. Falvey was telling everybody he couldn't even get a payroll number from ownership so he didn't really know what direction the team was going. (In hindsight, we should've been making a very big deal out of this)

Then, on December 5th, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Twins were "keeping their stars." They weren't trading Lopez or Ryan or Buxton. They were "building around them." December 7 Hayes and Gleeman write an article reporting the same thing. December 9 Hayes writes a separate article analyzing the decision and stating they're going to "build." We've seen what "building" looks like. Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, Taylor Rogers, and some waiver claims I can't even name off the top of my head.

I don't think it'd be the most unreasonable stance we've had on this site to say Tom entered the building in early December. And I'd guess it was family drama with Falvey in the middle of it for months leading up to that which lead to a freeze on any real baseball moves at the beginning of the offseason. Ownership wouldn't be signing off on the trades of their most prized possessions while they're fighting over which nepo-baby is in charge.

[Riverbrian]

36 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I'd watch a multi-episode documentary on the inner working of the Minnesota Twins from October 2023 until late January 2026. It'd be absolutely fascinating. The episode on the 2025 season into the 2025/2026 offseason would be interesting to track the narratives. Because there were plenty of rumors about Ryan, Lopez, and Buxton in the early offseason, right? There were plenty of discussions around here about Buxton possibly changing his mind on his no trade. 

Is that evidence of Joe still being in charge and Tom not being in the building yet? Falvey and Joe still looking to move Ryan and Lopez at that point, as the reports are suggesting now? In charge, but not in charge enough to actually make big moves? Dan Hayes wrote about Buxton (possibly?) being open to waiving his no trade on November 12th. There were rumors flying around everywhere in the baseball world about Lopez and Ryan being on the block. Discussions were happening daily on Twins Daily about what people would want in return for those guys and whether or not we should trade Buxton, Lewis, Jeffers, etc. as well. Blowing it all up was all we were talking about at that point. Falvey was telling everybody he couldn't even get a payroll number from ownership so he didn't really know what direction the team was going. (In hindsight, we should've been making a very big deal out of this)

Then, on December 5th, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Twins were "keeping their stars." They weren't trading Lopez or Ryan or Buxton. They were "building around them." December 7 Hayes and Gleeman write an article reporting the same thing. December 9 Hayes writes a separate article analyzing the decision and stating they're going to "build." We've seen what "building" looks like. Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, Taylor Rogers, and some waiver claims I can't even name off the top of my head.

I don't think it'd be the most unreasonable stance we've had on this site to say Tom entered the building in early December. And I'd guess it was family drama with Falvey in the middle of it for months leading up to that which lead to a freeze on any real baseball moves at the beginning of the offseason. Ownership wouldn't be signing off on the trades of their most prized possessions while they're fighting over which nepo-baby is in charge.

Your timeline matches up with what I've been noticing all along. Never knew what direction the winds were blowing from but the winds were blowing with contradictory statements. 

I was wondering what changed when Shelton arrived saying that they were going to develop young players to Early December when he started talking about the jump from AAA to Majors being a difficult thing and announcements of keeping Ryan, Lopez and Buxton coming around that same time.   

Both statements might be what Shelton believes but these two statements can represent a change in direction. 

Yes... I would watch that documentary if it existed. Probably watch it 10 times like it's Forest Gump or something.    

 

It's why I'm tending to believe that this might be Tom Pohlad in charge and setting 

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

I'd watch a multi-episode documentary on the inner working of the Minnesota Twins from October 2023 until late January 2026. It'd be absolutely fascinating. The episode on the 2025 season into the 2025/2026 offseason would be interesting to track the narratives. Because there were plenty of rumors about Ryan, Lopez, and Buxton in the early offseason, right? There were plenty of discussions around here about Buxton possibly changing his mind on his no trade. 

Is that evidence of Joe still being in charge and Tom not being in the building yet? Falvey and Joe still looking to move Ryan and Lopez at that point, as the reports are suggesting now? In charge, but not in charge enough to actually make big moves? Dan Hayes wrote about Buxton (possibly?) being open to waiving his no trade on November 12th. There were rumors flying around everywhere in the baseball world about Lopez and Ryan being on the block. Discussions were happening daily on Twins Daily about what people would want in return for those guys and whether or not we should trade Buxton, Lewis, Jeffers, etc. as well. Blowing it all up was all we were talking about at that point. Falvey was telling everybody he couldn't even get a payroll number from ownership so he didn't really know what direction the team was going. (In hindsight, we should've been making a very big deal out of this)

Then, on December 5th, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Twins were "keeping their stars." They weren't trading Lopez or Ryan or Buxton. They were "building around them." December 7 Hayes and Gleeman write an article reporting the same thing. December 9 Hayes writes a separate article analyzing the decision and stating they're going to "build." We've seen what "building" looks like. Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, Taylor Rogers, and some waiver claims I can't even name off the top of my head.

I don't think it'd be the most unreasonable stance we've had on this site to say Tom entered the building in early December. And I'd guess it was family drama with Falvey in the middle of it for months leading up to that which lead to a freeze on any real baseball moves at the beginning of the offseason. Ownership wouldn't be signing off on the trades of their most prized possessions while they're fighting over which nepo-baby is in charge.

Complete fantasy.

[chpettit19]

16 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Complete fantasy.

I provided exact dates of legitimate articles. I don't know what else you want me to do when setting a timeline 🤷‍♂️ Can't win them all, I guess.

I say repeatedly that I wanted Falvey gone and I'm glad that happened, but I don't say it the way you want, or didn't say it as early as you wanted me to, or something, so I guess it doesn't count. Or, you're just so incredibly blinded by your hate for him that you can't even discuss anything else that may be going on around the organization. Maybe that's a possibility? No. Definitely not a possibility. Thanks for your input. Always helpful.

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

I'd watch a multi-episode documentary on the inner working of the Minnesota Twins from October 2023 until late January 2026. It'd be absolutely fascinating. The episode on the 2025 season into the 2025/2026 offseason would be interesting to track the narratives. Because there were plenty of rumors about Ryan, Lopez, and Buxton in the early offseason, right? There were plenty of discussions around here about Buxton possibly changing his mind on his no trade. 

Is that evidence of Joe still being in charge and Tom not being in the building yet? Falvey and Joe still looking to move Ryan and Lopez at that point, as the reports are suggesting now? In charge, but not in charge enough to actually make big moves? Dan Hayes wrote about Buxton (possibly?) being open to waiving his no trade on November 12th. There were rumors flying around everywhere in the baseball world about Lopez and Ryan being on the block. Discussions were happening daily on Twins Daily about what people would want in return for those guys and whether or not we should trade Buxton, Lewis, Jeffers, etc. as well. Blowing it all up was all we were talking about at that point. Falvey was telling everybody he couldn't even get a payroll number from ownership so he didn't really know what direction the team was going. (In hindsight, we should've been making a very big deal out of this)

Then, on December 5th, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Twins were "keeping their stars." They weren't trading Lopez or Ryan or Buxton. They were "building around them." December 7 Hayes and Gleeman write an article reporting the same thing. December 9 Hayes writes a separate article analyzing the decision and stating they're going to "build." We've seen what "building" looks like. Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, Taylor Rogers, and some waiver claims I can't even name off the top of my head.

I don't think it'd be the most unreasonable stance we've had on this site to say Tom entered the building in early December. And I'd guess it was family drama with Falvey in the middle of it for months leading up to that which lead to a freeze on any real baseball moves at the beginning of the offseason. Ownership wouldn't be signing off on the trades of their most prized possessions while they're fighting over which nepo-baby is in charge.

I was wondering about the timing.  I appreciate you taking the time to chronical the exact dates of relevant statements and articles.  It's a lot more informative than just declaring something fantasy while providing no useful information.