Nearly a half-decade ago, Taylor agreed to sell the Wolves and Lynx to Lore and A-Rod at a price that, not long after, he realized was substantially below market value. Throw in the sky-rocketing prices of professional sports franchises in the time since a deal was consummated, and the logic behind Glen’s buyer’s remorse is easy to find.

Fortunately for Lore, Rodriguez and MN Timberwolves fans, the purchasing group never stepped outside of the parameters set by the ironclad original contract, so Taylor had no way to nullify the deal.

So while it years longer and millions of dollars (in legal fees) more than it should have, but eventually the owner of 30 years was forced to hand over the keys to Target Center.

Glen Taylor tried to mean girl his way into keeping the MN Timberwolves

But as the arbitration hearings were happening, Glen Taylor made one final (desperate) attempt to keep the Minnesota Timberwolves under his control by digging up dirt on Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez that he felt would make the NBA refuse the sale.

His big master plan? According to NBA and NFL insider Pablo Torre (Pablo Torre Finds Out), Taylor had some of his aides created a 77-point Mean Girls style Burn Book list that he was hoping to present publicly and to the league, to turn everyone against the soon-to-be majority owners.

Then, right before the owners ratified the deal via vote, Glen took over their Zoom call to beg for courtside seats to Wolves games for the next decade, in order for the deal to go through. believed were reasons why the league and public should irrelevant information as to why the new owners weren’t qualified.

.@PabloTorre reports that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor created a 77-item, Mean Girls-style "burn book" in a "baffling" effort to kill the franchise sale to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore. pic.twitter.com/7pu1MKwIv4

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) October 21, 2025

“Glen Taylor’s legal strategy, was quote, baffling…Glen Taylor, in the months during this push and pull, had two executives create what amounts to a Burn Book. As in, a Mean Girls style list, a list that has been described to me as number and 77 items long. This list of 77 things, Glen Taylor slash the Timberwolves, hate about Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, was communicating to the NBA and to anyone who would listen, you can’t approve these guys.

Some items on this are: Marc Lore had dinner with Kevin Garnett and never told me. Alex Rodriguez did steroids. A-Rod is a liar. A-Rod is a cheat. A-Rod had the largest suspension in MLB history. They get to 77 things, but it’s all along the lines of, does he remember that this is a hearing related to arbitration about a legal contract. None of this has anything to do with anything.”

Pablo Torre

The level of hilarity that must have ensued for all involved here must have been unprecedented. Glen Taylor’s strategy comes across as a 12-year-old negotiating with a lawyer over why he shouldn’t be grounded.

Torre went on to reveal (also in the video above) that, also on Glen’s list was Rodriguez’s interview with Katie Couric nearly two decades ago, in which he denied the steroid use that we all eventually found out he did. But again, none of this has any bearing on their arbitration process.

MN Timberwolves pay Glen Taylor one last favor

When he took over the NBA owners’ Zoom vote, Pablo reports that Taylor was on mute and didn’t know it, then had trouble figuring out how to unmute himself. In fact, Lore and A-Rod had to help him troubleshoot the technological “problem”. But hey, at least he got his same courtside seats out of the deal…

“What Glen Taylor negotiates at the finish line, is to have Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez purchase for him, for the next decade, four courtside seats next to the team bench.”

Pablo Torre

Someday, Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez will have a new arena built. You know what won’t be on the terrace? A statue of Glen Taylor. Thanks for saving the team back in 1994, Glen, but don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

Worse yet, they announced the team was no longer for sale, after about 10 months of shopping the MLB organization the late Carl Pohlad purchased back in 1982.

Instead, the Pohlads decided to retain their majority stake. To fix their short-term cash-flow problems, they sold a minority share to two different investor groups, one local and the other from out east, according to reports.

And while we don’t yet know the identities of these new limited partners, we are starting to get a better grasp of how much ownership pie they bought.

Twenty percent of Minnesota Twins trades hands

Prior to Tuesday, the number being floated around was 20%. Yesterday, though, The Athletic’s Dan Hayes was able to confirm that percentage, along with a more detailed debt number, “in excess of $430 million.”

Sources confirmed that those limited partnerships are purchasing at least 20 percent of the club, moves that should help the team reduce accrued debt in excess of $430 million.

Dan Hayes – The Athletic

Selling a minority stake of the Minnesota Twins will help the Pohlads generate additional cash flow, as they will no longer have to make interest payments on their debt, which at that number, was becoming a serious problem.

Trading Carlos Correa (along with $30 million in cash) to Houston at the deadline allowed the Twins to unload $70 million in future salary. Ownership also fired nearly all of its pro scouting department on Tuesday, a move that likely saves something like $400,000, or roughly 2% of the bottom line.

Related: MN Twins Axe Scouting Department

How big of a voice these minority partners will get in franchise altering decisions, remains to be seen. Despite the addition of these new owners and additional cash-flow, fans and media alike continue to brace for more payroll cuts in the offseason.

It’s a sad state of affairs for the franchise, and everything is entirely self inflicted. The Pohlads pulled the plug following the 2023 season rather than pouring gas on what was a burning fire. Now they are just watching it all go up in flames.

Fast forward a few unfortunate injuries and some really bad baseball later, their postseason dreams were already dead and, instead of being buyers at the MLB trade deadline, they were the league’s most active sellers.

Not only did the front office ship out 40% of the active roster roster, in the days leading up to the July 31 deadline, but the headlining departures went far beyond expiring contracts.

MN Twins president Derek Falvey and the Pohlads dealt Carlos Correa and all of their up-and-coming bullpen assets, no matter how much team control they had remaining. When it was all said and done, the only sliver of hope remaining for fans was the ongoing sale of the organization, after it was put up for sale in October, 2024.

Then, of course, the Pohlad family took the Minnesota Twins off the market, instead swindling two new minority investment partners into buying off their debt, in exchange for their small share in the flailing baseball franchise. In the weeks that have followed, fans have responded in kind.

Hatred for Pohlads loud and clear in recent fan poll

Not only has Target Field struggled to get more than 10,000 physical fans in the stands, but a recent poll ran by The Athletic allowed them another outlet to voice their frustration with the Twins, as an organization.

Of course, fans mostly used it as another way to show the Pohlads that they are more disliked in this town currently, than possibly ever before… and that is saying something.

Of nearly 6,000 respondents, 98.5% voted that the Pohlads should sell the team. That means that just 87 of 6000 voters for them to keep the team they’ve owned for over 40 years.

It’s difficult to get 98.5 percent of people to agree on pretty much anything, but the idea of the Pohlads no longer owning the Twins carries an approval rating that’s probably on par with “pizza tastes good” and “dogs are cute.” And as the responses to other questions show, it’s part of a larger theme.

Aaron Gleeman – The Athletic

It’s curious why those 87 respondents would want the Pohlad family to stick around. Then again, as Aaron points out, it’s impossible to get 6000 people to agree unanimously on anything, and 98.5% is an extremely high number, no matter what vote is taking place.

Pohlads participating in the poll…?

Also, let’s remember that Pohlad friends and family members have access to the internet, too, and there is some inconclusive evidence suggesting that there may have been some Pohlad participation within these votes.

Longtime Twins fan, reporter and analyst, Aaron Gleeman — who’s been one of the media members in town most publicly critical of the Pohlads — draws some interesting hypotheticals from the results a question further down The Athletic’s poll, asking what grade fans are currently giving the MN Twins owners .

This largely matches the results from the survey’s first question, with 98.2 percent of voters giving the Pohlads a D or F grade, compared to 98.5 percent wanting them to sell the team. And that includes 89.5 percent assigning the owners a failing grade, four times the front office and manager combined.

Since you’re probably curious: 0.2 percent assigning ownership an A grade equals a total of nine responses out of nearly 6,000. For some context, there are coincidentally also nine people with the last name “Pohlad” or “Falvey” listed on the leadership page of the family’s business website.

Aaron Gleeman – The Athletic

Related: KFAN Host Goes Nuclear on Minnesota Twins Owners

One thing we know for sure from the results from The Athletic’s poll: Minnesota Twins fans hate the Pohlads. It’s a fair take, given what one cheapskate family has done to try and destroy summer for baseball fans in the state.

Even prior to the current iteration of Pohlads, it was their grandfather — arguably the only successful business person in family history — who just 20 years ago tried to sell what is now a multibillion dollar asset back to the league for a measly $250 million.

Before then, he spent the 90s tearing down one of the greatest professional sports teams ever assembled in Minnesota sports history, after the Twins won two World Series in four years from 1987 to 1991.

Thus, it’s extremely unlikely the family will ever be forgiven, and they have done themselves no favors moving forward either. Not after Joe Pohlad & Co. decided to “right size the business,” following one of the greatest seasons in the past two decades, then tore it down to its studs at the trade deadline.

MN Twins can thrive despite Pohlad grip…?

If there is hope for the future, it is in that the on-field product has plenty of youth to supplement the big league roster. Of course that requires the front office to put the right development pieces in place. They have accomplished that on the mound to a certain extent, but the hitting development has alluded them.

Any front office would be better able to operate with more resources at their disposal. For Derek Falvey and Jeremy Zoll, that’s simply not going to happen in Minnesota. If they want to get the team back on track, it will take looking internally and winning on the fringes.

Related: Report: Minnesota Twins Owners Still Plan to Sell

There is a path forward even if the Pohlads remain head honchos. For now that’s the path Minnesota must navigate. Maybe the long term view of a sale isn’t dead either, and that’s a hope we can all dream on.

What’s one more losing season if it meant getting rid of the Pohlads, right? Wrong. Instead of moving forward with a majority sale, the Pohlads found a couple minority partners to be named later, a sweetheart deal that’s believed to have paid off most, if not all of their $400+ million in debt.

Once the minority investor deal was unofficially wrapped up, the Pohlads took the rest of their shares off the market, and announced their intentions to move forward as Twins majority owners… at least for now.

The Pohlads’ decision to keep the Major League Baseball team they have owned since June 22, 1984 has not gone over very well around Twins Territory, where fans would cheer a billionaire paper sack, if it meant they didn’t have to deal with the Pohlad family any longer.

Rob Manfred mad at Pohlads for not selling Minnesota Twins

But according to Charley Walters (Pioneer Press), fans weren’t the only ones mad at the Pohlads for being bamboozled. Interested purchasing parties were caught off-guard, too, as was the MLB commissioner himself.

In fact, “a little birdie” tells Walters that, not only was Manfred surprised when he found out the Twins were being pulled off the market, but he’s “not happy” about it either.

A little birdie says baseball commissioner Rob Manfred wasn’t happy with the Pohlad family’s announcement two weeks ago that it had decided to retain ownership of the Twins after exploring a sale for nearly 10 months.

At least one member of the prospective buyer’s group was taken by surprise at the Pohlads’ reversal to sell and immediately called Manfred’s office, seeking explanation. Manfred also was taken by surprise — he had indicated to a group in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the recent Hall of Fame inductions that a Twins sale would soon be announced.

Charley Walters – Pioneer Press

Related: Twins’ New Ownership Groups May Include Familiar Billionaires

We knew the Pohlads surprised a lot of people a couple of weeks ago, when they decided to keep the Minnesota Twins. Still, it is surprising to find out that Manfred was appalled by their decision-making process, just like fans were. Even more surprising was that he seemingly had no idea it was about to happen.

I figured, if there was one person Joe and Jim Pohlad would have called before voiding their sale and bringing on two minority partners would have been Manfred. But, that’s not at all what it sounds like Charley’s sources are telling him.

Ultimately, they pulled back on the planned sale after a couple investor groups offered a cash infusion , in exchange for a minority stake in the team, that allowed the Pohlads to pay off the mountain of debt they’ve compiled in recent years.

But who are these new minority partners? The public has not been made privy to that information yet. But we do know that there is a local angle to one of the groups. The other is from the east coast. One familiar billionaire family who would fit both categories — the Wilfs, who own the Minnesota Vikings.

Minnesota Vikings owners eyeing up the Minnesota Twins?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the Mark and/or Zygi Wilf are in on either of the Twins’ new ownership groups. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be buying into the local nine down the road. According to Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press , he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the Wilfs “consider becoming limited partners.”

Does that mean, by the time this is over, there will be a third investor group announced… or, could the Wilfs’ interest be focused toward 2027, when Walters believes the Twins could go back up for sale? Is it possible they are part of the two that haven’t been announced, even? The longtime local insider doesn’t say…

Also, some smart people wouldn’t be surprised if Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, who have built a real estate empire in Eagan and operate out of New Jersey, consider becoming limited partners in the Twins.

Pioneer Press

If we were playing the opposite game, the Wilf family would be the perfect opposite for the Pohlads. While the Wilf’s spending is capped in the NFL. It would not be in the MLB… at least not yet. What does that mean? As minority investors, probably nothing.

The biggest problem for Joe Pohlad and his family, during their selling window, was the imminent 2026-27 lockout that is looming over the league. Major League Baseball’s financial model is struggling, in part due to its lack of a salary cap or revenue sharing structure with players. Next winter, it’s expected to force a lockout.

If owners get what they want, we could see the first soft salary cap or worthy luxury tax system in MLB history. For decades, owners have failed to make the MLBPA flinch on introducing any sort of salary cap to Major League Baseball. Thus, critics remain skeptical that they’ll succeed this time around.

More local billionaires who may be involved in Twins sale

The Wilf’s aren’t the only local rich family eyeing up the Minnesota Twins. Another is Marty Davis, president of Cambria, a Minnesota company. He’s a huge Twins fan. While he’s assured Charley that he’s not buying the team… Walters suggests there’s no way he’d miss out on the opportunity to purchase a smaller chunk.

Cambria president Marty Davis, who is a substantial name, image and likeness (NIL) Gophers athletics financial booster, is telling people he’s not interested in buying the Twins. But Davis, a Twins Champions Club member whose family’s worth has been estimated at nearly $2 billion by Forbes, loves baseball, and it would be surprising if he doesn’t get involved in an ownership transaction.

Pioneer Press

Related: Report: Minnesota Twins Owners Still Plan to Sell

Marty Davis, along with Mark and Zygi Wilf, have all proven themselves as in the business world. The Wilf’s have poured money into the Vikings and paired that financial investment with fine-tuned operation, to churn out success both on the field and on the balance sheets

While Davis isn’t the same prominent figurehead, his desire as a fan combined with his financial wherewithal, could prove to be fruitful as well. At any rate, it doesn’t matter who, because anyone would be better than the Pohlads.

Instead of new majority owners, we got two new minority investor groups, both of which were brought on to pay down/off their reported $400+ million in self-inflicted debt.

The Pohlad family opted against selling their majority stake in the Minnesota Twins, but not for a lack of interest. It’s been widely reported that there was at least one group whose bid was getting increasingly competitive.

But really, Joe Pohlad — who was named the new face of ownership back in 2022 — never wanted to sell, no matter how much some of his family members wanted to cash out. In other words, nothing has changed in Twins Territory… at least for now.

The Pohlads will continue to operate as normal, as they have for going on 42 years. But according to former Minnesota Twins pitcher-turned longtime local sports columnist, Charley “Shooter” Walters (Pioneer Press), the Pohlad reign at Target Field may not make it through its 43rd year.

Pohlads still planning to sell the Minnesota Twins?

In the article he wrote for Sunday’s paper, Shooter reveals that the Pohlad family is still expected to put the MN Twins back up for sale. Their hope is to bring the team back to market next offseason, where they believe they’ll get better offers than what they did over the past year.

Unfortunately, Major League Baseball is facing an imminent lockout after 2026. Commissioner Rob Manfred and the billionaires he represents plan to make their biggest push yet for a historic league-wide salary cap and revenue sharing program between owners and players, which could put a wrench in the Pohlads’ plan.

The Pohlads are expected to wait until baseball’s labor agreement is settled after next season, then hope to get the price they want. But a lockout seems likely, because baseball’s owners are hell-bent on getting a salary cap.

Charley Walters – Pioneer Press

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on December 1, 2026. We lost part of the offseason the last time owners and players got together to negotiate what wound up being a temporary CBA fix back in 2022.

As a result of that funky offseason, Minnesota was able to land what was supposed to be a one-and-done contract with then superstar Carlos Correa. Negotiations this time around, however, are expected to lead to a lockout.

Why? Because both the owners and MLBPA are determined to fight to the death on whether or not Major League Baseball will adopt a salary cap and revenue sharing program. That means the MLB is in severe jeopardy of missing regular season games in 2027.

New minority partners may have path to majority ownership after all…

We were told a few weeks ago that neither of the new minority ownership groups have a path to majority ownership built into their minority partner agreement. While technically, that may be true. Walters reports that they may have “right to first refusal” if/when the Pohlads attempt to put their majority shares back up for sale.

The Pioneer Press last month reported the Twins had a buyer in place who was in the process of securing financing for a purchase in the $1.7 billion range.

That abruptly changed when the Twins instead of a sale announced early in the morning that the club would take on two limited partners, who will assist in paying down a reported $400 million debt.

Speculation is that the partners will spend about $200 million apiece to be part of the deal, which could include a right of first refusal to eventually buy controlling interest.

Charley Walters – Pioneer Press

This latest generation of Pohlads do not have the same business acumen as earlier ones, a decline not that surprising for a family lacking baseball interest/knowledge, not to mention one that’s in its third generation of inherited wealth,

Selling the MN Twins may be easier in new landscape

There are multiple ways that CBA negotiations could help the Pohlads mission to sell the Minnesota Twins. The most obvious one has already been explained in this article. It be easier for the family to offload their multi-billion dollar asset without an imminent lockout looming.

On top of that, however, it’s also possible — should talks break the right way — that a salary cap and fresh revenue sharing program between owners themselves, along with the MLBPA would immediately make the business of baseball more profitable for small and mid-market teams like the Twins.

Related: MN Vikings Backup Puts on a Show to End Preseason

There’s no denying that nothing about this process has gone according to plan. So don’t hold your breath waiting for the Pohlad family to come through. If there is one thing we can depend on with these billionaires, it’s that they will almost always disappoint you.

But wouldn’t it be nice, just once, if this family collectively figured out how to keep their head out of their proverbial sphincter long enough to pull through for the first time since the early 90s? Hey, we can dream right?

After confidently selling down to the roster bones at the deadline, the Pohlad’s decided to do the opposite with their sale of the Minnesota Twins organization, taking the team completely off the market and instead opting to fix their financial troubles by taking on minority investors for the first time since 2002.

Of course, the Pohlads and their propaganda president, Derek Falvey, spun their recent roster teardown and ownership decision in a positive light. But in reality, if it looked more like a short-term cash grab by financially desperate owners, well… that’s because it was.

Minnesota Twins could have sold, but Pohlads chose $500 million instead?

When the MN Twins went on the market last October there was much rejoicing. Without knowing who the next owner could be, the hope was that another owner… no matter who, couldn’t be as bad as the Pohlad family or the questionable $400 million they racked up in family debt since 2020.

The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman didn’t hold back in his criticism of the Minnesota Twins’ longstanding ownership group, during a recent episode of Gleeman and the Geek.

There, the longtime Twins fan and now beat-style insider/reporter estimates that the Pohlads received as much as $500 million from their new minority partners, uncoincidentally just enough to cover their $400+ million in reported debt.

“It’s more clear than ever to me that the could have sold it. They didn’t consider them good enough offers. But they received, or would have received lets say, what would have been considered by the rest of baseball, market rate offers. $1.4, $1.5B something like that.

Joe Pohlad didn’t want to give up the team. This was a better scenario because they can get $500M without giving control of the team…They absolutely chose this path of chunks of minority ownership to get money to pay down the debt over selling the team. It wasn’t a situation where they could not get $1.5B for they team and so they pivoted. It’s a situation where they chose this path actively over that”

Aaron Gleeman

We can debate whether or not $1.5 billion should have been enough to make a deal work. Major League Baseball probably would have preferred to avoid that. The goal is to always have the water level raising. The Tampa Bay Rays are selling for $1.7 billion, and recent valuations had them below Minnesota.

Pohlad quest to fix their money problems

Since the Twins went up for sale, we’ve known the Pohlads’ magic number to be $1.7 billion. Given the Rays got that amount, theoretically they should have too. However, the Rays (at least not according to any reports) weren’t carrying massive amounts of debt either.

Dan Hayes and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reported that the minority shares sold by the Pohlad’s were completed at a higher valuation than $1.7 billion. That is much more feasible though when it’s coming in at a significantly smaller chunk of the franchise.

Ultimately though, this continues to boil down to a worst case scenario. The Pohlad family put the Twins up for sale. They couldn’t find a buyer and their ask was too rich. Rather than pivot, they just found a pair of entities willing to buy their debt in exchange for a seat at the table.

Related: Rocco Baldelli Takes Responsibility Minnesota Twins Bosses Won’t

Unless the two new parties are going to be both publicly identified, and actively interacting with the operation, there’s little reason to believe the future will be more than status quo. Joe Pohlad and Derek Falvey want you to believe this is all a good thing.

Guess what? It’s not.

Fast forward a year and that same family, weeks after gutting the organization’s major league roster, changed course and announced they’re keeping the MLB franchise they’ve owned since 1982, leaving MN Twins fans disappointed yet again.

Back in 2016, Jim Pohlad — the family’s former face of ownership — called the result of an extremely disappointing season a “total system failure.” Unfortunately, we haven’t heard that type of accountability from anywhere inside the Minnesota Twins organization, from owners on down.

The only non-player I’ve heard shoulder any of the blame, whether it be for their disappointing 2025 season, the deadline roster deconstruction or the cancelled sale… is manager Rocco Baldelli, and it came Monday, in an article posted at The Athletic by Aaron Gleeman.

MN Twins have unwavering support of Rocco Baldelli

“Frankly, we just have to play better. That’s really the only way I can look at it. I look in the mirror every day and always will take full responsibility for our team, even more so when we don’t play well. And we just frankly have not performed the way that we have to perform.”

Rocco Baldelli – The Athletic

Listen, it’s not shocking that Rocco Baldelli would stick out his neck for a general manager that has since extended him, or an ownership group that cuts his checks. The unfortunate part is he shouldn’t be the only one.

Nothing Baldelli said in those four sentences is incorrect. The team needs to play better, and he manages the team. That said, he is not on the field and as much as he’d like to, he can’t turn back time or reincarnate himself back into the top prospect and promising big leaguer he once was.

Related: Top Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Promoted

The goal of a manager is to create a level of synchrony between the front office and those between the lines. For that, he has been exceptional. It’s why he remains around, and why he was tabbed to take over for Paul Molitor, despite his predecessor having recently won a Manager of the Year award.

What Baldelli has little control over is the Minnesota Twins’ long term direction, at either the executive or ownership levels. All he can do is work with the 26-man roster he is afforded.

When does anyone else take responsibility?

Just like Baldelli did from the dugout, Derek Falvey watched the team he constructed collapse last season. How did he respond? He did nothing. That has become a common reality for the president of baseball operations.

Instead of being on the hotseat, however, he was elevated to president of business operations while retaining his former title too, making him quite literally the most powerful front office executive in the sport.

In recent seasons, his power has resulted in missing the playoffs four of the past five seasons, in part because he failed to supplement quality teams at the trade deadline. And the ones he did make mostly failed. In 2024, Falvey swung a trade for Trevor Richards, who had more wild pitches (7) than runs allowed (6) in his 13 innings of work. That’s it.

Still, Falvey remains, along with his consistent utterings of meaningless gobbledegook, which has grown more tiresome than the squad he’s put together. At this point, Falvey is nothing more than a mouthpiece for terrible owners.

Let's talk about the MN Twins' PROPAGANDA President… pic.twitter.com/axDLbbqeJk

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) August 7, 2025

Of course, we can’t expect Falvey to come down harshly on the people writing his paychecks, but he has no problems pointing the finger elsewhere, when needed. We’ve seen his GM Thad Levine get the axe, along with multiple assistant coaches. At what point do we admit that the team president is part of the problem?

“We have some areas where we’ve come up short relative to what we’ve projected. There have been a few position players that, if you ask them, they’d say, ‘I’m not performing quite to my abilities.’”

Derek Falvey – The Athletic

Of course, Falvey enjoyed the 2019 Bomba Squad that blasted a bouncy baseball to smithereens. Since then, he’s struggled to adjust to a game that’s continued to favor better pitching. And the teams he has built on slugging… haven’t been slugging.

The Twins are 18th in slugging percentage this season and their 144 homers rank 14th. They are also slow (24th in stolen bases and 25th in baserunning above average) and minus to bad defenders at a lot of positions. Those are all self-inflicted choices made by the president.

Only the Pohlad’s trump Falvey’s culpability for MN Twins

The Pohlad family will never get it. Falvey would need to build up decades of horrible decision-making before reaching that level.

These are real quotes from the Minnesota Twins’ current chairman, from his first public interview since cancelling the team sale. If you’re looking for accountability, you might want to look elsewhere.

“And I would say to those fans: It’s my job and this new ownership group’s new job to do everything we can to set this organization up for success, hopefully in the short- and long-term both. I look forward to it.”

“I don’t think we could have imagined a better outcome than where we landed.”

“Our fans are passionate. Our fans want to win. We have that in common — we want to win, too.”

Joe Pohlad – Star Tribune

Related: KFAN Host Goes Nuclear on Minnesota Twins Owners

Until those above Rocco Baldelli decide to hold themselves accountable, it doesn’t matter what he does or how he manages. The man responsible for putting this failed team together earned a promotion. Think about that.

At the end of the day it will always be the manager that gets fired. Someone has to take the fall. While he’s being criticized, and even sometimes rightly for moves on a nightly basis, it would be great for someone else at the executive or ownership levels to step up too.

It was a shocking change in direction, even for the Pohlads, and went against what MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told us one month ago. Instead of selling, the Pohlads will welcome two new minority investors, who are being brought in to help pay down the $400+ million the Twins have accrued in debt.

For months, the Minnesota Twins have sought a party willing to match their $1.7 billion asking price, even though their latest Forbes valuation says they’re only worth $1.5 billion. Still, the word around insider baseball streets was that a deal was imminent.

While that is above recent Forbes valuations, there was momentum to suggest someone may emerge. They took on minority owners instead. The team was pulled off the market, and interested parties were left flabbergasted. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes and Britt Ghiroli have more.

Potential Minnesota Twins buyer shocked by Pohlads’ decision

That’s why it wasn’t just fans who were shocked by yesterday’s announcement. According to a report co-written at The Athletic by Dan Hayes and Britt Ghiroli, a potential buyer, who met as recently as last week to brainstorm ways to raise more capital, was “blindsided” by the Pohlads’ decision to keep control of the Minnesota Twins.

The embattled Pohlad family reversed course on a nearly yearlong effort to sell the Minnesota Twins and declared themselves the right people to keep control of the debt-ridden franchise — a swift pivot in the face of festering fan discontent that sources said left one interested buyer “blindsided” as they worked to secure financing for the believed asking price of $1.7 billion.

It’s unclear if that group, or any potential bidder, came even remotely close to meeting the family’s asking price. But sources said the group had met as recently as Wednesday morning in their effort to raise capital. A few hours later, the Pohlads announced that not only would they retain control of the club

The Athletic

Revealed: Why Pohlads Cancelled MN Twins Sale + Details on New Investors

Rather than part ways with the team, the Pohlad family sold more than 20-percent of the franchise. Given that figure, it certainly seems like a family struggling to find competency in their business dealings took on investors willing to clear their $425 million or more in debt for an ownership stake.

Joe Pohlad made the rounds amongst different media outlets on Wednesday and tripped over himself at every opportunity. He told The Athletic, “We’ve owned this franchise for 40 years. It’s a really difficult thing to part with. We feel we’re the right people to lead this organization, to own this franchise.”

Earlier in the day Wednesday, Pohlad went on record with the Star Tribune saying, “I don’t think we could have imagined a better outcome than where we landed.”

It’s genuinely infuriating, but entirely predictable, that the Pohlad family would fail to close this deal, then act like that’s what they wanted the entire time. “Business savvy” isn’t exactly their middle name, after all.

Pohlad’s clueless regarding perception of Twins sale

Ultimately it’s the fans that lose in this entire situation because the status quo remains intact. Contrary to what Joe Pohlad is trying to sell on us, his family keeping control of the MN Twins is the worst possible outcome out of this < one year long sales process.

It doesn’t help that Joe Pohlad can’t talk his way out of a paper bag. He is the byproduct of inherited wealth putting people into positions they never earned. Many businesses have the same nepotism problem, but not all of them crash and burn publicly like Joe has since he took control of daily operations back in 2022.

When speaking with Miller at the Star Tribune about the Twins’ massive debt, Pohlad reminded us just how unqualified he is for the very important job he holds. Everyone knows that $400+ million was a huge problem during this process. Yet, Joe gaslit the conversation anyway.

“As far as I’m aware, that debt was not a hindrance in this process, But with this transaction, we’re going to be paying that debt down.”

Joe Pohlad – Star Tribune

Related: MN Twins Ready to Move on From Former 1st Round Pick?

Hours after this quote went public, The Athletic reported that, “Two sources involved in the process from different interested groups said the Twins’ finances were a significant cause for concern.” I mean, does he think we are that stupid?

The front office went through an ownership-mandated selloff just two weeks ago. They traded top free agent acquisition Carlos Correa for nothing. The depths they went to in crushing the roster was unprecedented.

Then again, Joe Pohlad made it clear in his original statement yesterday morning that Minnesota Twins owners were not the ones who ordered any of that. Apparently he thinks we are gullible enough to believe that too.

All we got when the news broke this morning was a bunch of word salad about how this is a turning point in the organization’s history. They did not name the new minority partners or what their specific purpose within the ownership dynamic is, nor did it state any sort of direction for the Twins’ baseball future, either in the short or long-term.

Thankfully, Phil Miller (Star Tribune) was able to get Joe Pohlad on the record for a quick question/answer interview that shed a little bit more light on the ownership’s thinking.

Pohlads reveal SOME details behind new Minnesota Twins investor group

According to what Joe told Miller, the new investor groups — one of which was formed locally, the other out East — will remain anonymous for at least a couple more weeks. It doesn’t sound like we’ll ever find out how much of the team they own or what they paid for it either.

Pohlad declined to reveal the identity of his new partners — in both cases, they are groups of investors, not a single buyer — beyond saying that one is made up of Minnesotans, the other a family based on the East Coast. He also did not disclose what percentage of the franchise those partnership groups will own, nor how much they paid for their shares of a team whose estimated worth has been valued at $1.7 billion or more.

But the Pohlads will retain a controlling interest in the team, he confirmed. The transaction does not include a path toward the new partners expanding their stakes or becoming the controlling owners…Each partnership group will have a seat on the team’s board of directors, so their “input, fresh ideas and long-term vision,” Pohlad said, will be heard there.

Phil Miller – Star Tribune

From a straight business standpoint, adding minority investors should immediately raise the valuation of the Minnesota Twins. So let’s start with that. We know the Pohlads believe their latest valuations are low. In theory, this move immediately moves that needle in the correct direction.

New investors helping to pay down Minnesota Twins debt

On top of that, Phil Miller’s interview with Pohlad revealed that the money coming in will, in part, be used to pay down the reported $400+ million the organization is currently holding in debts.

Previous reports out of The Athletic claim that the Twins’ colossal-size debt was racked up by a combination of the shortened 2020 COVID season, baseball operations, the end of their TV partnership with Bally Sports North. Joe Pohlad added “investments in the fan experience” to that list, while talking to the Star Tribune.

Pohlad acknowledged that the team has accumulated significant debt since the summer of 2020…That red ink totals as much as $400 million, according to a report published by The Athletic, through baseball operations, the expiration of their $54 million-a-year TV deal with Diamond Sports Group and “investments in the fan experience” at Target Field, Pohlad said.

“As far as I’m aware, that debt was not a hindrance in this process,” Pohlad said. “But with this transaction, we’re going to be paying that debt down.”

Star Tribune

Related: MN Twins Nearly Land Top Spot in Prospect Rankings

In a perfect world, it is logical to assume that these new minority investors will help the MN Twins push their player payroll back up, after the Pohlads slashed it by $30 million two years ago.

Unfortunately, we do not know that to be the case. Certainly, we cannot assume the Pohlads will spend more money just because of this. Nothing they have done over their 40+ years of control lend us to make such assumptions.

Joe Pohlad won’t reveal how new ownership structure will impact MN Twins’ player budget

If that is their plan, they need to verbalize it. If this shift in ownership structure really is as groundbreaking as Joe Pohlad wants us to believe, and about more than just paying down organizational debt, then why wouldn’t they reveal more details behind their plan going forward?

Minnesota Twins fans need optimism, and a sense that brighter days are ahead. Instead (of course), when pressed by Phil on whether or not the payroll budget has increased, Joe refused to answer the question.

So will the payroll rise next year? Those are discussions that will take place with team President Derek Falvey and General Manager Jeremy Zoll once the current season ends, as usual, Pohlad said. But “we’ll have a new process by then with our new limited partners involved,” he added.

Not to mention, a much smaller debt load.

Phil Miller – Star Tribune

Related: MN Twins Ready to Move on From Former 1st Round Pick?

But that’s not what happened with today’s announcement. Even though the Pohlads knew pulling the Twins off the market would upset fans — something Joe admitted to Miller — they went ahead and did it anyway, without any plan to blunt the immediate blow.

Had they followed up their rug-pulling news with a commitment to spend more money during this new era of Pohlad ownership, then at least the portion of the fanbase that still holds some trust, would’ve treated Wednesday’s announcement with much less hostility hostility.

That wouldn’t be the Pohlad way, however.