Pohlad Family Greed Killed the 2024 Twins

Throughout the 2024 MLB season, many encouraging trends surfaced. The league-wide strikeout rate decreased, baserunning improved, and pitchers netted a significantly lower ERA than last season. Expansive rule changes implemented by the league office just two seasons ago are working. Despite the on-field product demonstrating signs of sustainable improvement, a more impactful and sobering trend further reared its ugly head: the incessant greed of MLB owners.

In theory, sports and entertainment are supposed to function as a Great Distraction from the way class struggle negatively affects working-class people every waking second of their existence. When one is unable to own the means of their production while having no real sense of ownership, autonomy, or social safety nets, it becomes vital to latch on to something that allows them a sense of stability or, at the very least, an outlet to turn their brain off and relax for a few hours. These outlets are essential when combating the big wheel of adult life that keeps on turning. Yet, many baseball fans have often been forced to confront this sobering reality, making what was supposed to be an “outlet” or method of escapism yet another cog of the machine that adds more and more weight onto their shoulders.

In the past, this emotion was reserved for fans of teams like the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, or Miami Marlins. These organizations’ front offices have been applauded for coming up with creative avenues to combat this unnecessary burden by investing their minimal resources into player development and scouting programs. This investment has provided them the unique fortune of drafting and developing prospects into serviceable MLB players while simultaneously signing or trading for players deemed “reclamation projects” or "marginal MLB players" and teaching them adjustments and approaches necessary to perform well enough to help them in the short term before shipping them off in trade or watching them walk for more money in free agency. Again, this mode of survival deserves to be applauded. Yet, like a family struggling to scrounge enough money to afford groceries or pay hospital bills, one can only live like this for so long before the walls crumble.

None of these three teams made the postseason this season, and Oakland’s fan base is being forced to mourn the loss of their once beloved franchise solely due to the greed of owner John Fisher. Since the opening of Target Field, Minnesota Twins fans have watched these organizations from a distance, finding themselves fortunate enough to never really know what it felt like to feel emotionally invested in a team whose ownership group was doing everything to work against one's best interest as a fan and community. Yet, this season, this disease surging through MLB headed north to Minnesota like a swarm of cicadas, consuming any sense of optimism left from a magical 2023 campaign that ended in the organization’s first postseason victory in 19 years.

Unsurprisingly, immense anger has manifested within Twins Territory, and those who follow the team are flocking to hold a party accountable for the organization’s rapid decline in on-field performance that began upon the conclusion of the All-Star break. Unfortunately, a significant portion of blame has been directed toward the (mostly) undeserving. Now, it is easy to look at the team's debacle playing out day over day and blame the people who are most accessible. Whenever we witnessed Zebby Matthews, David Festa, or Simeon Woods Richardson implode in the third inning, the camera panned to manager Rocco Baldelli's face. And every time Ronny Henriquez or Louie Varland surrendered another late-inning lead, we were reminded of how the front office invested its few resources into relievers like Jay Jackson, Josh Staumont, or Steven Okert. 

Directing one's anger and frustration toward Baldelli and the front office became even easier when some local media outlets relentlessly claimed that Baldelli and the front office were the reason the season fell apart. Still, for those stuck in that emotionally draining cycle, I ask you to entertain the following hypothetical. 

You live in a school district that is facing budget concerns. The district's state has a $4 billion surplus in funds, but (for whatever reason) none can be given to the district to address the lack of money. In response, the district elects to entertain a referendum in hopes of receiving the funds necessary to retain staff, invest in arts and sports programs, and make sure students and teachers have access to the supplies and resources necessary to thrive and not just survive. Unfortunately, the referendum doesn't pass, causing the school district to make tough decisions.

Art programs are cut, support staff is laid off, and administrators and teachers must pick themselves up by their bootstraps and persevere. The beginning of the school year goes well, and they even find themselves in a moment of true prosperity. Teachers are doing well, administrators are content, and students are receiving a worthwhile education. However, the second semester came along, and things began to break at the seams. The district-assigned laptops begin to wear down and break. Instead of continuing pre-planned lessons reliant on technology, teachers are forced to quickly turn to pen-and-paper, coming up with assignments on the fly. Student performance suffers as they are less inspired to come to class and perform well, have little to look forward to, and are forced to resort to archaic forms of education.

This unfortunate outcome could have been avoided if the district had received extra funding. Administrators could have invested in better, more reliable laptops. Instead, they were forced to deal with the consequences of being given inadequate resources and no social safety net. As a result, the teacher's ability to manage the classroom and provide worthwhile lessons significantly dipped, resulting in an almost unfeasible end to the school year.

When looking at this hypothetical scenario, who would you blame for the school district's unfortunate end to the school year? Would you blame the administrators and teachers who had to persevere through what was essentially an unnavigable situation? Or would you blame the state with the $4 billion surplus for not investing in the district and letting them wither away while watching from their pedestals where no one can access or critique them? The answer is simple.

It is easier to exercise understanding and forgiveness toward a struggling school district and its teachers and administrators. That said, the same sense of grace should be extended toward Baldelli and the Twins' front office. The amount of money Baldelli and Derek Falvey make in relation to the Pohlad family is comparable to how much a teacher or administrator makes in relation to the lump of cash a state in surplus sits on. The Pohlad family could have allotted the team more money to patch roster holes, just like the state could have given the district more money to avoid the loss of technology necessary for a thriving classroom in the above hypothetical scenario. Instead, the parties in charge hoarded their resources and neglected those they were supposed to support and invest in.