A year ago, the Minnesota Twins provided hope that the eternal damnation that is Pohlad family ownership was finally coming to an end. Of course, we all know how that played out.
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.
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.
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.
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?
