Local Insider Drops Shortlist of Billionaires with Interest in Buying the Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are up for sale. After a failed season full of budget cuts, angry fans, bad baseball and worse ownership, the Pohlad family is calling it quits. And good riddance, because nobody wanted them here anymore, anyway.
But who will swoop in and buy our favorite baseball team? That questions has yet to be answered, but there haven’t been any names reported with interest yet… until Sunday, when Charley Walters (Pioneer Press) wrote in his column that there are three local billionaires whose ears perked up when news broke of the Twins’ sale.
Three local billionaires have interest in buying the Minnesota Twins
The most recognizable name, and possibly the most shocking, is longtime 83-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves owner, Glen Taylor. The other two interested parties are local rich guys Marty Davis and Jim Hays.
The most publicly recognized local possibilities with potential to buy the Minnesota Twins are Marty Davis and Glen Taylor. But there is another understated potential suitor with the wherewithal and background who, insiders say, would be interested in the Twins. He’s Jim Hays, 67, a Minneapolis Patrick Henry High…
Charley Walters – Pioneer Press
Walters, who has a direct line to Glen Taylor, says the state’s richest person has interest in buying the Twins. How far that interest stretches will depend on whether or not he remains owner of the team right across the street at Target Center.
Glen Taylor interested in buying the Minnesota Twins?
Glen’s attorneys are currently preparing for upcoming arbitration hearings with Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore. Those hearings will decide who moves forward as the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves… and possibly the Twins.
As for Taylor’s possible interest in the Twins, the double-billionaire first wants the Wolves-Lynx ownership issue cleared up before considering. With the Timberwolves-Lynx sale arbitration hearing to begin Nov. 4, the timing of the Twins sale announcement was intriguing.
Charley Walters – Pioneer Press
This news will probably cause some Twins fans, who don’t know enough about the Timberwolves’ history under Glen Taylor, whose biggest problem has been poor decision-making. There was a time, back in the 90’s, when Taylor could have been considered “cheap”, kind of like the Pohlads. But those days are long gone.
If there is one thing we can guarantee present-day Glen Taylor would be good for, it’s his money, especially if he’s just been paid out $1.5 to $2 billion for the Wolves. As long as Glen made the right front office hires (or just keeps Falvey in place), the Twins would be much better off owned by him, than the Pohlads.
Would Taylor be a good fit for Twins?
How do we know he won’t be a tight ass with his money? Well, Taylor is scheduled to pay his Timberwolves players $200 million (cash) in 2024-25, plus a luxury tax bill of an additional $95 million (according to spotrac). That’s the second-highest luxury tax bill in the NBA. All because he wants to have a championship-caliber team.
I know the NBA makes more money than the MLB but Taylor will not turn a profit next fiscal year, at those numbers. Meanwhile, the Twins cut their payroll from $160 million to $130 million last summer, after making a deep playoff run.
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That’s how worried the Pohlads were about finishing in the red, this summer. The last thing on their list of concerns was making another playoff run. That would not be the case if the now Wolves owner decided to take over the other Target sponsored stadium in downtown Minneapolis.
Glen could bump that payroll above and beyond where it was. Hell, even if he pushed it to $200 million, he would still lose less than what he will as Timberwolves owner in 2024-25, unless they find a way to get out of that $95 million tax bill by season’s end, when it comes due.
Who is Marty Davis?
The other two local billionaires who have reported interest in buying the Minnesota Twins, according to Charley Walters, are 60-year-old Marty Davis and 67-year-old Jim Hays, who are both longtime Twins fans.
Charley names Davis as the other unsurprising potential buyer, next to Taylor. Hays, he claims, is the “understated potential suitor”. Either way, as Twins fans, both possible suitors would be no threat to ditch town. You’d also have to assume they’d make decisions based on winning, and not as much about what winning costs.
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The Davis family got rich off of butter, cheese and cream, back in the mid 1900s. Their big break came during WWII, according to the Star Tribune. That’s when the Davis’ dairy operation landed a wartime butter contract with the US government.
In 2000, as part of an effort to expand the family business, Marty convinced his brothers and father to invest heavily into the quartz countertop business. That decision became Cambria countertops, a now staple brand nationwide, and what the Davis family is now best known for.
Who is Jim Hays?
Jim Hays has enriched himself over the last two decades via the insurance brokerage business. According to his About Me page, the Hays Company “has grown from a small regional startup to the 16th-largest commercial insurance brokerage in the country, with offices in 36 cities in the U.S.”
No doubt, Hays is a Minnesota made businessman. He got his bachelor of science degree from the University of Minnesota, then graduated with his masters degree from the Carlson School of Business (U of M). According to Much Rack, he also collects clocks.
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A website called GurFocus.com estimates Hays’ NET worth “at least $168 million”, which is why Charley Walters has him in his column as the “understated” candidate of the three he listed.
Could Hays pull it off? Of course. All it takes is an investor here and a hedge fund there, boom. But we’ll see if he stands any real shot against some of the big, big timers who could show interest.
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