The Sky Is Not Falling: The Pohlads Retaining Ownership of Minnesota Twins Has Silver Linings

Okay. I’m gonna start this piece with some real talk, because I think it’s important to be very clear about a few things.

Wednesday’s news that the Pohlad family was taking the Twins off the market in favor of taking on minority investors was a gut punch. If you are feeling a certain way, I totally get it. My Twins fandom runs deep, and has for decades. I was excited about the possibility of new ownership coming in, opening their pocketbooks, and helping the Twins field a playoff roster through spending at levels commensurate with market size. You know, having at least an average payroll. My emotional reaction to the news was bordering on despair. This jeremiad rang true to me.

I went through the five stages of grief yesterday, much like many of you. Reactions on social media have been overwhelmingly negative. Reading through posts and comments on Bluesky and Reddit, there are calls for boycotting the team and organizing stunts to try to force a sale. And you know what? I get all that, too. The news is frustrating. Disheartening. Disappointing. It can portend more of the same letdown we have all experienced over the past 21 months, since the 2023 playoff series win.

And yet, having prefaced all that, it may not make sense to be pre-miserable about reverting back to the status quo, for several reasons. Firstly, this is not the status quo. Bringing on two “significant minority partners” does change things. To what degree things change remains to be seen, but there are at least a few things to consider that can be seen as harbingers of hope.

The last thing I will tell you is that I am not a Pohlad family apologist—far from it. I have rarely been accused of being Pollyanna in my adult life, and consider myself more of a realist than an optimist. That said, the realist in me sees five aspects of the news that do provide some hope that things can be different, sooner rather than later.

1. With a cash infusion, ownership may not have quite the same payroll limitations
This is the biggest one. It’s been well-documented over the past several months that the Twins have taken on over $425 million in (likely leveraged) debt. The Pohlads (probably) borrowed against the team to have more flexibility in their moribund real estate empire. This debt, and the interest payments, have probably taken something in the ballpark of $40 million a year right off the Twins' bottom line. With declining TV revenues and reduced gate sales at Target Field, and without a surfeit of positive cash flow from their other businesses, the Pohlads (by all accounts) have been struggling with cash to fund an appropriate team payroll.

The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reported that the two minority investors, whose identities will be revealed once approved by MLB, acquired more than 20% of the club, at a higher valuation than the $1.7 billion the Pohlads were seeking in the sale. To look at some rough numbers, let’s be a bit conservative here. Let’s say the investors acquired 24% of the team, at a $1.8 billion valuation, both of which shouldn’t be too far off the mark. That works out to be $432 million. Worst-case scenario, that should clear out the debt in its entirety, which gives the Pohlads a clean slate to work with.

It’s possible (and I mean possible), that this will result in the immediate flexibility to add the $40 million debt payments directly back to the payroll. If they sold more than 24%, or at a higher valuation, there could even be surplus cash. Time will tell what Joe Pohlad does with this.

2. Joe Pohlad actually seems interested in running the team
Did you hear that one of the conditions of sale that the Pohlads were pitching to potential ownership groups was that Joe Pohlad wanted to stay involved in the team? Me, too. All indications (including his own words) are that he is a baseball fan, and a Twins fan, specifically. He claims to want to win. The other Pohlads? That’s a little fuzzier. One of the many things we don’t know is how the ownership structure is shared among the various Pohlads. Another thing we don’t know is how many of the Pohlads have wanted to get out from owning a baseball team. It’s possible (again, possible) that the new minority owners will actually also be buying out specific Pohlads' stakes in the team. If team shares are divided among people who are passionate about the team, that can also change the calculus around how winning, the fan experience, and payroll are prioritized in relation to the other family business.

3. With 20%+ sold, it may be easier to sell the rest, down the line
Look, even for a billionaire, raising $1.7 billion while maintaining enough cash on hand to still be solvent is a tall order. Most ownership groups would need to work through various minority ownership stakes and financing in order to raise the necessary capital without mortgaging or liquidating other assets. But what about raising 76% of that capital? That’s a little bit easier. It’s possible (yes, once again, possible) that there are future prospective owners who would be all-in on offering $1.3 billion for a 76% stake in a Major League Baseball team. So, it could be easier to sell a couple of years from now, should the Pohlads once again find themselves in need of a significant cash infusion without taking on significant debt. It’s also possible that now that they have broken the seal, it’ll be easier or more palatable to sell off additional slices of the team to the same groups or new ones.

4. The minority owners could bring fresh perspective and new ideas
The Pohlads have done a remarkable job of alienating the Twins fanbase over the past few years (and let’s be honest, probably for a lot longer than that). What if the minority owners bring more of a fan or team focus? What if they can help the Pohlads avoid some of the ill-advised and tone-deaf comments, statements and press releases they have given recently? What if they are marketing savants who find ways to make it more attractive to attend games? What if there are clauses in their purchase agreements that stipulate certain payroll levels? To be clear, this is all purely speculation, and could be wishful thinking. But there are real possibilities here, and it’s important to at least consider them. At the very least, hopefully, we won't see more things like this.

5. Byron Buxton is glad to hear the news
Byron Buxton went on record saying he is glad the Pohlad family is retaining ownership:

“Everybody knows I want to be a Twin. It's good to know that the people that signed me are still in charge. To be able to move forward, it’s exciting,” Buxton said. “Going forward, that makes the conversations a little bit easier knowing that my whole tenure here, I’ve worked under the Pohlads. Just knowing the family a little bit, that’s the special part of being able to have those conversations down the road.”

For what it’s worth, Rocco Baldelli also expressed happiness. Now, this could be a case of comfortability and the devil you know being better than the devil you don't know. But, it’s fair to assume that Buxton and Baldelli have at least a bit of information that we are not privy to.

Will these hopeful notes come to fruition? I’m not going to pretend to know the answer to that. However, I do think it’s fair to give Joe Pohlad and his new minority partners a fair shake to live up to the claims that he cares, wants to win, and stands with the fans. It’s fair to give the benefit of the doubt that a huge cash infusion will allow him to make different decisions, freed from the constraints of being cash-poor and leveraged to the eyeballs. It’s fair to hope. It’s fair to give the Pohlad family the opportunity to prove our worst assumptions and fears correct. And, it’s fair to allow them to prove us wrong. It’s fair to hope that the Twins still have a bright future. There are few alternatives to explore, as fans, anyway.

Your move, Joe.