Twins owner Jim Pohlad discussed his team’s surprisingly strong performance and trade deadline approach in a brief but interesting chat with Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Though he’s obviously not heavily involved in day-to-day baseball operations, Pohlad ultimately holds the purse strings for the organization.
So, will financial considerations limit the Minnesota organization from considering certain players? Not so, says Pohlad:
“I don’t really think, especially in these trade deadline deals, that money is the issue. It’s what you have to give up, really, and it’s not what you have to give up in terms of money, it’s what you have to give up in terms of players.”
Some may question whether the Twins owner will really be as free with the organizational wallet as that quote may indicate. In all likelihood, he doesn’t mean that chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine have free rein to spend. It’s more that, with only a relatively small portion of the season left to play, labor cost takes on a different tone. For one thing, most of a given player’s annual salary has already been paid out by his original team. For another, with a good sense of the competitive situation, teams have much more confidence in their assessment of the financial risk and reward of further payroll investment.
In the Twins’ case, too, there’s good reason to think that the organization has ample cash to work with. Many expected a bit more in the way of offseason outlay than actually took place. The team sat just under $120MM in Opening Day payroll, nearly ten million shy of the club’s high-water mark from 2018. But that’s still not a particularly hefty set of commitments, especially for a team that is in full-blown contention. More important still is the fact that Falvey and Levine have jealously guarded the club’s future payroll space. While they finally tied up a small amount in a pair of extensions (which have looked great to this point) and the signing of Marwin Gonzalez (which is also paying dividends), the books are still largely clear past 2019.
Given that financial picture and a start to the season that Pohlad characterizes as a pleasant surprise, it stands to reason that he has a good bit of confidence in the “Falvine” front office duo. He suggested that he’ll continue to entrust decisionmaking to the personnel he hired for the task, noting that “they certainly don’t ask my opinion on specific players.” Falvey and Levine “are just assembling the right team,” said the owner, running from their baseball ops department to the dugout and onto the MLB roster.
It’s promising for the Minnesota faithful to hear of such organizational harmony, though that’s to be expected when things are going as smoothly as they have thus far in 2019 for the Twins. It remains unclear precisely how the club will attack the deadline, in terms of targets, though it stands to reason that upgrades to the pitching staff will have top priority. As Pohlad says, that’s not really his bailiwick. But his comments do given insight into the organizational approach to structuring deals. It seems there’s some appetite and capacity for absorbing money, along with a clear desire not to part with the team’s best internal talent. That’ll surely impact which rival organizations line up best as trade partners — and, ultimately, which of the major deadline targets end up in Minnesota.
that’s what his dad always said too. actions speak louder than words.
Paul Dolan- be more like this guy.
something Big is going to happen today. Something involving a guy nobody is talking to much about
Jung Ho Kang to the Dodgers for a replica Kershaw jersey autographed by an assistant equipment manager?
Wow! You were right. I never saw Kris Bryant to the Twins coming! How did you know?
I hope you’re right, the Twins bullpen could really use Vazquez.
David Ortiz will come out of retirement to play for the Yankees?
Yankees don’t need Ortiz but they could use Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez
That’s not funny considering Ortiz is in the hospital. Plus he would never shave!
No, it was still funny.
Not sure who is coming in but Sano might be on the way out ???
Sano is basically worthless, at this point. Who are they going to get for an injury-prone, strikeou-prone slugger who lost his ability to recognize pitches?
Yeah! Who would want a 3B/1B/DH hitting 7th in the order with a .882 OPS, on an 11-game hitting streak, anyways??!
Evan Longoria, coming right up.
Agree , but I sure hope they try to trade him in some type of package . Or, at least keep him off 3rd base ..
Wouldn’t be nice if the Twins could lose that albatross?
This is the right attitude to have. You need to be ready to spend and improve if you are in contention. The 5-10 million you pay out for the upgrades could go a long way in raising the confidence of your team and fans. Not to mention extending your playoff runs increases the teams postseason cut of revenue.
Who cares about fan confidence. Literally nobody.
Problem is, it can easily become a “stone soup” situation. A team trades for a good starter, at a cost of $5m, and then the conversation becomes “now, we only need a top closer. Management has to go all-in, or they are insulting the fans and they don’t want to win. Boy, are they cheap.” Then it becomes “having come this far, how can you not spend on middle relief? And on another middle-of-the-order bat? And on a better set-up man”? There comes a point where it is up to the players, and spending is no longer the solution.
That’s pretty obvious. It’s up to the players no matter what. The FO is in charge of making sure the right players are there to get the job done.
Throwing Mony at every problem or weakness does not always solve the problem .. Just sayin!
Wish they would do something soon before all the good free agents are gone
Trout isn’t from another country, he’s from another planet.
Those of us who live in Minnesota are well aware of Jim Pohlad’s oenchant for big talk but little action. The Twins have well earned their reputation for being cheap despite their promise to spend once they got Target Field (said reputation goes all the way back to Calvin Griffith). So he can talk all he wants … the fans ain’t buying until he starts putting his money where his mouth is. Add in the fact that he talked to Sid Hartman who writes nothing but fluff about the Twins and you can take it with two grains of salt.
If that is true then they will probably make a nice addition or two because often times money is the driving force for selling teams at the deadline. Especially for veteran players and those on expiring contracts. Getting back pieces with more than one year of control will definitely be priced high in terms of players. Twins need to FINALLY look to add an arm for both the short and the long term. They have needed a dependable staff ace-type arm for over a decade.
Just restating from a prior comment. It makes little sense to deal quality prospects for a few post-season games. The Twins are routinely drawing 30,000+ fans. And with TV revenues where they are, we are building a foundation for 10 years of greatness. That is worth a LOT more to the team and to most fans than a single post-season run. I know that’s an unpopular view. But management is on top of this thinking. The Twins will make smart moves. We’ll get some pitching help but without trading away quality future prospects…the Buxton- and Kepler-like players in our minor league system that will help us draw 30,000 fans 3-5 years from now. Go Twins.
with History as our guide; pohlad has long held that spending wasn’t the answer and now he has taken the same bent as most owners is that prospects are the answer. That means wait till next year ( when 3/5 of the rotation is gone) The tickets are selling now, why would the ticket sales driven Pohlad change things when they are going so well. The Minnesota mediocrity mentality will prevail is my guess. They will add a bull pen arm or maybe 2…. when they need a ACE #1 starter and a TOP closer type at the Minimum to have a legitimate shot at the championship, because it is Pitching that tends to win championships; that and some luck and some timing.. so are they in it for the championship or just to sell tickets: the next couple of weeks will tell. After all all we heard from the Dynamic Duo last offseason was they are waiting to be the pre season favorites and then they will make their move.. That is of course a foolish stance… opportunity only comes when it comes.. ask the 1965 Twins about that. That powerhouse only got 1 shot..
Don’t believe one word that come our of this guys mouth, world class spin doctor
And very cheap.
Jim Pohlad isn’t even much of a fan of baseball. Hard to listen to him.
The Twins will, however, make some trades soon. I suspect they will be relatively small additions (useful, but not as big as I would like). Their plan has to be “These are the guys we can’t protect,” so let’s cobble together the Rule-5-draft-boys and turn them into a #3-ish starter with one more year left of control—and pry away a rental relief pitcher who can help out the back end of the pen.” Twins will eat a little cash if it means trading lesser prospects.
If the Twins don’t want to trade their prospects, why not cut bait on Buxton and Sano.
No need to mention Sano’s downsides, and Buxton is good for a week or two at a time between stupid injuries.
Get Buxton out of town before he ends his career due to injury!
Sano is warming up. And nobody fields like Bux. Baldelli, Cruz and Marwin are spreading their pro mojo on them, I’d hold for now rather than sell them. Twins drafted a lot of middle infielders in recent years. I’d dump one or two of them (Levi M, Nick G, et al) in a package of some sort with a nice pitching prospect (we’ve never been able to develop pitchers – sell – Kohl Stewart?? Fernando Romero??) for a battle tested pitcher who might spank the Yanks. Grienke, Thor come to mind…why not acquire the Norwegian flamethrower to pitch in Minnesota? Sounds like a match…
At this point, I hope the Twins bring in some pitching. The articles keep suggesting prospects we’d give up but what about trading Sano. He’s a blob. He doesn’t run the bases well. He seems very lackadaisical in his approach. He strikes out too often. He doesn’t seem to adjust his approach at the plate to match the situation. He always seems to swing for the fences. He also doesn’t stay healthy.