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

5 hours 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.

Tom first appeared at a press conference (with Joe) back in October.  I suspect he's been involved since the trade deadline/end of season.  

1 hour ago, The Great Hambino said:

 

I don't know how to read this in any way other than Tom being fully on board with - insisting, in fact - that Lopez and Ryan had to be retained.

If I'm wrong, then we should expect to see one or both traded before Opening Day now that Falvey is no longer there to prevent this from happening.  And I'd be very happy to be wrong on this as I've been on Team Rebuild ever since the trade deadline

As a fellow member of Team Rebuild this is where I am at.  When T3 says "we have to be good in 2026" he means they have to  make a bunch of money in 2026.  And T3 thinks a rebuild will hurt the gate.  

For Tom Polhad to say and think this roster is going to be competitive is dreaming. The defense up the middle is below average with a stone mite at 2nd and a slow to react SS in the infield. Not sure who will play corner OF positions. The SP only has 2 that should and may give you 6+ innings in Lopez and Ryan. As of now no one can say what Ober will bring. SWR,Festa and Matthew's have not shown they have the ability to go more than 5 innings. Moving to the BP which is a empty cupboard that will be asked to pitch multiple innings in game after game. And yes we haven't talked about Bradley and Abel who will be probably start the season in the BP have not shown they can throw strikes. As for the catching position with Jeffers trying to catch more games when he has shown he brakes down. This team will finish in 4th or even last place in the division.

On 2/1/2026 at 10:05 PM, 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?

about even

13 hours ago, David Maro said:

For Tom Polhad to say and think this roster is going to be competitive is dreaming. The defense up the middle is below average with a stone mite at 2nd and a slow to react SS in the infield. Not sure who will play corner OF positions. The SP only has 2 that should and may give you 6+ innings in Lopez and Ryan. As of now no one can say what Ober will bring. SWR,Festa and Matthew's have not shown they have the ability to go more than 5 innings. Moving to the BP which is a empty cupboard that will be asked to pitch multiple innings in game after game. And yes we haven't talked about Bradley and Abel who will be probably start the season in the BP have not shown they can throw strikes. As for the catching position with Jeffers trying to catch more games when he has shown he brakes down. This team will finish in 4th or even last place in the division.

Since only 20 pitchers (among those with at least 17 starts) averaged 6+ innings i'd say having two such SP would be a good thing.

20 hours ago, The Great Hambino said:

This is where I disagree.

In his initial press conference, when Gleeman pressed him on the thoughts of continuing the teardown, Tom had this to say:

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The Twins signaled to teams at the end of November, after conversations with their new ownership structure, they plan to keep their All-Star players. It’s the “needle that we’re trying to thread,” Pohlad said, between fielding a competitive team next year while shifting to a younger core of the roster.

“There was probably an argument to tear the whole thing down, get as much value as you can for our players, and really put an emphasis on two years from now or three years from now,” said Pohlad, who assumed control of the team from his brother Joe. “On paper, yeah, maybe that makes sense. But you can’t just look at things on paper. We owe the fanbase something. We owe our veteran and star players something. We owe this organization something. And that something is hope.”

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I don't know how to read this in any way other than Tom being fully on board with - insisting, in fact - that Lopez and Ryan had to be retained.

If I'm wrong, then we should expect to see one or both traded before Opening Day now that Falvey is no longer there to prevent this from happening.  And I'd be very happy to be wrong on this as I've been on Team Rebuild ever since the trade deadline

Your interpretation looks well-reasoned to me.  What I read in his statement is never mind the situation screams for a rebuild especially given the fact the team is already substantially down that path.  We need revenue now, so Joe expects/demands they be much better in 2026 in spite of making minimal investment toward that goal.  Absolutely delusional.   We should all fear for the team's future with this guy in charge.  

If you want a comparison of what a good organization does in this situation, take a look at the Cardinals.  The approach could not be more different.  Who do you trust to make the right moves to build a contender?  Is it Tom Pohlad or the Cardinals?  Their approaches are completely different.   One of them has no clue.

On 2/1/2026 at 12:32 PM, bean5302 said:

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).

I think this completely ignores the economics of baseball. A $200 Million payroll would have placed them as #15 in the league. Not ridiculous and something that would be entirely manageable in times when the team was trying to field a proper contender.

An occasional $200 Million payroll is not some ridiculous request. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners are not LARGE market teams. San Diego is not a LARGE market team. 

Now, obviously, it would be foolish for the Twins to try to live in that realm, and force that spending in a down year like 2025-2026. This sort of management has made San Diego's books a challenge. But San Diego is also selling out every game, so the fans are clearly responding.

6 hours ago, NYCTK said:

I think this completely ignores the economics of baseball. A $200 Million payroll would have placed them as #15 in the league. Not ridiculous and something that would be entirely manageable in times when the team was trying to field a proper contender.

An occasional $200 Million payroll is not some ridiculous request. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners are not LARGE market teams. San Diego is not a LARGE market team. 

Where are you getting these numbers?

15 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Where are you getting these numbers?

Spotrac. If you wanna quibble with the exact numbers, the point remains. Thinking the Twins can't possibly ever approach the top half or even top ten payrolls in the league is just non-factual. 

Of course they could. Say, after 2023 they invested instead of what they did. That's a lot of additional revenue they cost themselves. 

23 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

We must be watching different organizations and reading different reports. They claimed to have lost half a billion dollars on a franchise that set a record for consecutive playoff game losses and missed the playoffs in 4 of the 5 years in which they claim the have racked up those losses. The Pohlads themselves don't even claim to be "about even" on their own decisions.

Like I've said before.  Typical Twins fan.  Wake up scared that somebody pissed in your cereal and if nobody did you do it yourself.

On 1/31/2026 at 7:31 AM, Whitey333 said:

Great story.  Im not a Falvey fan and IMO he needed to go when Baldelli was dumped.  Anyway my guess is there was philosophical differences and in particular major payroll differences that Falvey didn't agree with.  This "mutual" parting of the ways comes at a peculiar time.  This organization keeps shooting itself in the foot.  Im guessing the payroll will stay between 100-110 This year and likely less.  I would expect the Twins to actively trade all or some of Lopez, Jeffers, Ryan, and Buxton.  We are going to become the Pittsburgh Pirates of the American league.  Maybe even the Miami Marlins.  Unbelievable.

the sky is falling the sky is falling

19 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

The Twins are projected to win anywhere from roughly 70 to 77 games this year. If living in the real world and trying to have realistic conversations about our favorite team is "pissing in our own cereal" then sure, that's what all us "typical Twins fans" are doing. Or, maybe, just maybe, we're just having honest conversations about the state of a team that just went 70-92 and didn't make any meaningful upgrades to their roster.

I didn't say anything that wasn't true and accurate in that post. If you feel I'm being negative about the Twins, and in that post the Pohlads, then maybe you need to be honest about the Twins, and in that post the Pohlads. Because all I did was state facts about the Twins, and in that post the Pohlads. That didn't ruin my day. Didn't have any impact on my day at all. I wasn't worried anyone did anything to my cereal. Didn't even eat cereal. Just provided information.

If your day is highly impacted by your personal opinion about the Minnesota Twins you may want to seek help. I'm quite positive the rest of us just enjoy having open, honest conversations about them during our free time. Sometimes our opinions are positive. Sometimes they're negative. We have this weird ability to not let that impact our lives on the whole. We aren't negative just to be negative. We aren't positive just to be positive. At least not all of us. Some of us just look at a team that went 70-92 and who's "big" additions were a 110 OPS+ DH, a backup catcher/1B/DH, and a middle reliever and think the team is likely not going to be significantly better than the previous season's 70-92 record. And none of us have told you you're not allowed to be an atypical Twins fan and believe they're going 92-70 instead. Have at it. Welcome to Twins Daily. The land of wildly varied opinions. Lay out your reasoning for why we're all being negative just to be negative and we're about to see a 20-win jump because of Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, and the return of Taylor Rogers.

No, you stated an OPINION that they haven't made meaningful upgrades.  You have no way of KNOWING.  Sometimes, things happen that you don't foresee.  Quite often I would actually guess.  Improvement is probably most likely to come from a combination of acquired players and development of folks already on the roster.  You might not believe that but those types of things DO happen in the real world.  With regularity.  Teams make improvements when it's unexpected just as often as when it's expected, in fact maybe more often. 

23 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Yes, that absolutely does happen. And it absolutely is within the realm of possibilities that the Twins are good this year. It's possible they see a 20 win bump in their record, it just isn't likely. That's why I said we were having honest and realistic discussions.

I didn't say improvements, I said additions. The additions they made weren't internal, that isn't how additions work. The internal guys can improve, that, as you state, is their hope. It was their hope last year, as well. And the year before. How'd that work out? 

You will find plenty of posters around here who have defended the idea of not blowing things up and actually building around the rotation. A number of them are starting to get frustrated with the lack of actual building, though. "Hey, guys who haven't shown they can sustainably perform at a higher level may sustainably perform at a higher level this year" is not a plan many people feel highly confident in. It has been acknowledged by most of us that it is entirely possible that it does happen, it just isn't likely. And its all about odds. That's what team building is. Improve your odds of success. Right now, as of this moment, the Twins odds of having a successful season are very low.

You are welcome to ignore those odds and focus on the tiny chance things go well. But the rest of us are free to look at things from a far more realistic view and see that this team has no bullpen, and below average offense, and no defense and say things are likely going to go pretty poorly this season.

And it's entirely possible that your outlook is entirely wrong.  It is also possible that the team actually knows what it is doing.  I know I might be wrong. I even admit.  You are certain you are not wrong.  That, in and of itself, is a formula for being wrong.