White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is open to selling his major league team, with an ownership group with ties to Nashville among those expected to pursue the club. At the same time, the Twins ownership group has hired the investment bank Allen & Company to explore a sale of Minnesota’s baseball franchise.

• Minnesota Twins attendance 2024 (ESPN): 24,094 per game (23rd in MLB)

Theoretically, the same ownership group that has been spearheading MLB expansion efforts in Nashville could also make a run at the Twins. The team is valued at $1.46 billion by Forbes, potentially making them a more affordable option than a White Sox sale which would go for $2 billion. However, Minnesota fans don’t have to worry about losing their favorite team no matter who buys it.

Related: How to Watch the Minnesota Twins in 2025

As detailed by Betsy Helfand of the St.Paul Pioneer Press about a potential sale, the Twins are only halfway through their 30-year lease with Minneapolis for Target Field. Not only is that relevant for any new ownership group’s ability to sell a team, but it’s even had an impact on a potential sale in the past.

Stadium leases have a history of keeping the Minnesota Twins in The Cities

In 1997, Carl Pohlad struck a deal to sell the Twins to a buyer trying to openly relocate the franchise to North Carolina. However, breaking the Metrodome’s stadium lease, among other costs, drove stadium building effort out east so high that voters there ended up rejecting the project. So, the Minnesota Twins lived on.

Also #OTD in #Minnesota Sports History (1997) #MnTwins owner Carl Pohlad signs a letter of intent to sell the Twins to North Carolina nursing home mogul Don Beaver. https://t.co/8CruyZPIKy pic.twitter.com/VtJ4hJEjpo

— Dan WHENESOTA (@WHENESOTA) October 3, 2024

Just a handful of years later, the Twins and Montreal Expos were essentially voted out of the MLB. The Expos were sold and moved to Washington DC, where they became the Nationals.

Taking the Twins out of Minnesota wasn’t so easy, after a judge stopped the sale, citing their lease at the Metrodome. The injunction put commissioner Bud Selig up against possible legal battles that Major League Baseball did not want any part of. So, the Minnesota Twins lived on again.

On November 6, 2001, the owners of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) voted 28–2 to eliminate two teams for the 2002 season. 

The contraction plan fell through due to a court injunction compelling the Twins to honor their lease with the Metrodome, as well as challenges by the players’ labor union, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). The Expos were later purchased by Major League Baseball. 

Wikipedia

The Twins aren’t going anywhere

In other words, we’ve been through this before. There’s no chance the team’s stadium lease will be overlooked, this time around. The last thing a new ownership group wants, after spending at least $1.4 billion on the franchise, at a time when there is very little TV revenue, is to be dealing with another source of high costs.

The stadium lease for Target Field requires a fixed rent cost of $600,000 (Marquette Law) and there’s an additional $300,000 paid out by the team for use of the ballpark. Not only is there more than a decade left on the lease, but there is also a non-relocation clause through the 2039 season.

Related: Minnesota Twins who might switch positions in 2024

At a minimum, any group that took over as Twins owners would need to keep the team in Minneapolis for the next 15 years. No city, no matter how desperate it is for a major-league franchise, would be willing to wait nearly two decades before it has a chance at getting said team. So, if the Twins are sold, the new owners will be calling Target Field home for a long time.

Breathe easy, Minnesota Twins fans. It’s okay to celebrate the Pohlads sale of the franchise. It’s okay to pray they find a buyer, too. Worry about that buyer being spend-happy, not whether or not they’ll pull the plug on your favorite baseball team.

MN sports fans are also reading: Stats to Know for Detroit Lions vs Minnesota Vikings

Who’s fault is it? Well, general manager Thad Levine was made the organization’s 2024 fall guy. So, I guess we can blame him? The rest of the top decision makers all retained their roles, including president Dave St. Peter and manager Rocco Baldelli. Rumor has it President of Baseball Operations, Derek Falvey, is in line for a promotion.

Pohlad family wants to sell the Minnesota Twins

But maybe not… because Thursday morning, Minnesota Twins fans got the news they’ve been so desperately waiting for. The Pohlad family intends to sell the storied baseball organization. Here is the full statement from Executive Chair, Joe Pohlad.

“For the past 40 seasons, the Minnesota Twins have been part of our family’s heart and soul. This team is woven into the fabric of our lives, and the Twins community has become an extension of our family. The staff, the players, and most importantly, you, the fans – everyone who makes up this unbelievable organization – is part of that. We’ve never taken lightly the privilege of being stewards of this franchise.

“However, after months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins. As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public.

“We truly respect and cherish what the Twins mean to Minneapolis, St. Paul, the great state of Minnesota, and this entire region. Our goal is to be as informative as possible with the team, staff, and you, the fans. You deserve that, because in so many ways, this team doesn’t belong to any one family – it belongs to all of you. It’s our objective to find an ownership group who all of us can be proud of and who will take care of the Minnesota Twins.

“After four decades of commitment, passion, and countless memories, we are looking toward the future with care and intention – for our family, the Twins organization, and this community we love so much.”

Statement from Joe Pohlad – Minnesota Twins Owner

Pohlad history as Twins owners is messy

The Minnesota Twins have had the same owners since Carl Pohlad bought the team from Calvin Griffith in 1984. That kicked off 40 years of a back and forth between ownership and fans, unlike anything this town has seen since.

Three years after purchasing the Twins, Pohlad won his first World Series (1987). Four years later, he and the Twins won their second (1991). But from there, fan and player relations started to go down the tube, fast.

Related: Minnesota Twins Reportedly Plan to Promote Derek Falvey

Pohlad didn’t want to give out any big contracts, so you saw players from a dominant early-90s team start departing. There’s the time Kirby Puckett famously called out Carl Pohlad for trading away Rick Aguilera in 1995.

Like father, like son, like nephew

Back in the early 2000’s, Carl tried to sell the team to Major League baseball, so they could be moved or eliminated from the planet, just like the Montreal Expos were. After Carl passed away in in 2009, his son Jim took over. He used the same tactics as his father did, in order to get the city of Minneapolis to pay for Target Field, which eventually worked.

In 2022, the job of running operations with the Twins was handed off to nephew, Joe Pohlad. After the Twins made their longest playoff run in two decades, he too proved that some things never change, cutting $30 million from the team’s payroll. That forced major depth issues inside the organization, causing an epic second half collapse that cost them a 2024 postseason birth.

Is this good news or bad news?

This is good news. The Pohlad family should have sold the Minnesota Twins a long time ago. They are not baseball people, and they do not care about winning championships. They care about turning a profit, year in and year out, which is not something a good ownership group can concern themselves with in 2024.

For most MLB franchises, you power is in your equity. The Pohlads bought the Twins for $44 million back in 1984. The Minnesota Twins are currently valued at $1.46 billion (Forbes), but don’t be surprised if it sells for closer to $2.5-$3 billion (we’ll soon find out). You are sitting on a cash cow. Investi in it, make it popular, win games. That’s good ownership. Hopefully, we’ll now find out what that is like.

Related: Minnesota Twins Officially Done with Bally Sports North

No, the Minnesota Twins are not in danger of being sold out of Minnesota. Target Field is one of the best ballparks in all of baseball and the Twin Cities market is top-15 in the country. Major League Baseball has more say in whether the Twins leave than their new owners do.

They will not approve a sale of the team, if new owners intend to move. If new owners tried to pull a fast one, they’d deny them the opportunity. If anything pro sports leagues want to expand into more lucrative markets, not take teams out of them.

Of course, there is always the chance that “grass isn’t greener on the other side” of this ownership transaction. But I’d say that’s highly unlikely, in this case. So celebrate, Twins fans. We won… or so it seems.

And that’s why fans are mad. Their $30 million decrease in player payroll last offseason was unnecessary for a business that has $2+ billion worth of equity built up. The slash talent budget actually decreased player spending to a lower level than what it was back in the Metrodome Days, relatively speaking.

2024 Minnesota Twins cheaper than Metrodome Twins

Aaron Gleeman (The Athletic), the superhero of the mainstream Twins media anti-Pohlad movement, broke it down on Thursday morning, revealing just how cheap the Pohlad family really is.

Multiple team sources with knowledge of the situation insist the Twins do not plan further payroll cuts for 2025 and that spending will remain around $130 million, but Pohlad’s refusal to say it on the record is reason for skepticism. And really, “next season’s payroll won’t drop any further” is just a positive way to spin “this season’s payroll drop is the new normal.”

During the Twins’ final five seasons at the Metrodome, their payroll was 23 percent lower than the average MLB team. Fifteen years and one taxpayer-funded ballpark later, their 2024 payroll was … 24 percent lower than MLB average. And if the 2025 payroll stays around $130 million while the league as a whole increases, they’ll actually fall below Metrodome-era spending.

Aaron Gleeman (The Athletic)

Carl Pohlad passed away in 2009, and his son Jim became the face of the family business. In 2022, Jim passed those responsibilities onto Carl’s great grandson and his nephew, Joe Pohlad. One year later, the Twins went on their longest postseason run in two decades. They swept the Blue Jays in the ALWC, before falling to the Houston Astros in the ALDS.

Related: Diamond Sports Group (Bally) Doesn’t Want to Broadcast Twins Games Anymore

Not long after their most successful season since 2002, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey announced publicly that significant cuts were coming to the Twins’ payroll. That number ended up being $30 million, which handcuffed Minnesota’s PoBO to bargain bin shopping in the offseason.

Just about every single one of those clearance aisle purchases broke before the Twins could even use them. That caused a severe lack of depth just about everywhere on the field. It’s that lack of depth which cost the Minnesota Twins a chance at the 2024 MLB playoffs. Money isn’t everything. High spending organization flop all the time.

Seriously… why don’t the Pohlads just sell?

But baseball history shows us that teams willing to spend in the top-half of the league are usually the ones that come away with the most sustained success. Since the Pohlads are worried so much about padding their pockets, why not just sell?

Why not just take your $2-3 billion, and exit the baseball ownership business. The more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Remember, Carl Pohlad spent more time trying to unload the Minnesota Twins than he did trying to win games. So why not just finish the job Jim’s dad couldn’t? Complete the sale. Bring in an owner who cares.

Also #OTD in #Minnesota Sports History (1997) #MnTwins owner Carl Pohlad signs a letter of intent to sell the Twins to North Carolina nursing home mogul Don Beaver. https://t.co/8CruyZPIKy pic.twitter.com/VtJ4hJEjpo

— Dan WHENESOTA (@WHENESOTA) October 3, 2024

Pass them off to someone willing to run the organization like it’s a multi-billion professional sports organization, not like a 1985 family-run business with an uncertain financial future.

Related: Minnesota Twins Retaining Rocco Baldelli’s Right-Hand Man

It’s beyond time, and Minnesota Twins fans wouldn’t have to worry about the team leaving. Contrary to what they Pohlads might believe, there is too much money to be made in the Twin Cities to leave. You promised more spending if we got you a stadium, so we did. Now you are failing on your end of the bargain.

Good will contract: Terminated