The Pohlad family decided to maintain its controlling stake in the Minnesota Twins when new investors emerged and gave the club a chance to pay down a significant amount of the team’s $500MM debt. That’s according to two members of the Pohlad family, executive chair Joe Pohlad and his brother Tom, who spoke to Bill Lukitsch of the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“That was really the driver,” Joe said, then revealing the $500MM number. Previous reporting had mentioned a debt of around $400MM or $425MM but it seems it was actually notable higher than those numbers.
The exact identities of the minority investors are currently unknown, as the Pohlads have not disclosed details, pending approval of the partnership by the league. The piece does mention that the investors are from Minnesota and the East Coast, though little is known beyond that. Once approved, Lukitsch notes that the deal will clear some of the debt and give the Pohlads more room to invest in payroll and stadium upgrades.
The family had been exploring a sale of the franchise since late last year, reportedly seeking $1.7 billion from investors. As mentioned, Joe said the debt was the main driver behind the intended sale. Tom also noted: “We never wanted to sell. But we also had to think about what’s in the best interest of the Twins, what’s in the best interest of the community.” With these minority investors, the Pohlads are going to hold majority ownership and hopefully pay down some or all of the debt.
Tom argued that the team’s middle market revenues “don’t necessarily support” a top-class stadium or a consistently high-performing team. Twins fans may not be satisfied with that explanation, although it is true that attendance at Target Field declined to roughly 1.8 million in 2025, compared to nearly 2 million in 2024. That figure was at 2.3 million in 2019 and has not fully recovered in the years following the pandemic.
Beyond ticket sales, the club’s regional sports network deal with Diamond Sports Group (now Main Street Sports) was not renewed after the 2024 season. This led Major League Baseball to manage the team’s broadcasts in 2025, a situation generally understood give clubs less revenue than a traditional RSN deal. Revenue pitfalls aside, Tom acknowledges that fans are right to be dissatisfied with the team’s performance. “It’s been 34 years since the World Series, and, up until 2023, 21 years since we had a playoff win,” he notes, “and that’s unacceptable.”
The Pohlad family has controlled the Twins since purchasing the team for around $40 million in 1984. Carl Pohlad, the family patriarch, was the original control person until his passing in 2009. He was succeeded by his sons and eventually his grandsons, the aforementioned Joe and Tom. Since the start of 1985, the team has a record of 2976-3295 (.475). The team won the World Series in 1991 but hasn’t had a ton of postseason success since then. Fans have generally criticized the Pohlads in recent years for a lack of spending in payroll as well as the lack of playoff success.
Heading into the final day of the season, the Twins have posted a record of 70-91 (.435), ranking fourth in the AL Central. The team fared better early in the season but fell out of contention by the trade deadline, leading many to expect a sell-off. However, the sell-off ended up being much more vast than anticipated. In addition to trading pending free agents like Chris Paddack, Harrison Bader, and Willi Castro, they also traded star closer Jhoan Duran to the Phillies and controllable reliever Griffin Jax to the Rays. They also shed significant payroll by sending Carlos Correa to Houston, with Minnesota responsible for $33MM of the $103.4MM remaining on his contract at the time of the swap. All told, the Twins traded away 10 big-league players and signaled the start of a rebuild for the franchise.
The decrease in spending has even extended beyond payroll cuts. Earlier this month, the club announced that they will not renew the contracts of four people on their pro scouting staff, leaving just one major league scout heading into the offseason. On the one hand, the cuts follow the trend of teams relying less on traditional scouting in favor of analytics. However, as reported by Dan Hayes of the Athletic, the team’s decision to pare back its scouting department was about cutting costs rather than analytics.
It’s currently not confirmed if the Twins plan on making further payroll cuts or if they now feel better about the financial picture. Pitching-wise, the team has Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan under control through 2027, while Byron Buxton continues to lead the offense. The club also has four Top 100 prospects according to MLB.com, with outfielders Walker Jenkins (No. 14) and Emmanuel Rodriguez (No. 67) finishing this year at AAA. The Twins could try to put another competitive team together or they could target further spending cuts by making players like Lopez or Ryan available in trades this winter.
No RSN revenue any longer equals more debt for the small markets. Not that the large markets making local TV money that pays their payroll wants to acknowledge that.
The system has been broken for a while now. The game is dying in flyover country because of it. It’s sad to see.
The system isn’t perfect, but the system isn’t the reason a team from the AL Central can’t make the playoffs. Part of the value of a regional divisional system is that it allows all the ‘flyover country’ teams to play each other and one gets a playoff spot each year, at minimum.
Cleveland is on their way to the playoffs with one and a half good hitters in their lineup. It’s not as if a central organization has to build a behemoth to contend with the Yankees or the Red Sox. The Twins have failed to put together a good team. Constant injuries to several of their building block players has obviously hindered them, but at the end of the day, their failures are on them, not the system.
I kind of agree, but you;re also not correct on some important points.
The system is workable if your definition is “can reach playoffs”. A small or medium dollar team on the coasts (TAM for example) is in very deep water, but the Centrals are both fairly winnable in most years.
But your argument about divisional play making things simpler is not nearly as true as it used to be. Here’s a summary from the last CBA in 2022:
“As a result of the adjusted schedule, teams within the same division will have 91% of their games in common, an increase from 84% under the old schedule. Schedules among teams in the same league will feature 76% of common opponents, up from 52% in an unbalanced schedule.”
When everyone gets to beat up on COL or CHW rather than just their division-mates it lessens that advantage, especially when it comes time for the vast slate of wild cards to be assigned.
The Twins had a couple major problems this year, some with injuries, some with bad situational hitting, and some serious cash flow issues with their TV deal. But yes, they had a clear shot if a couple of those things had worked out for them.
I would question the $500 million number. The article in the Star Tribune says that the Twins “are largely walled off” from the rest of the Polhad’s business but I don’t know that I believe it. If it were true, then many teams would be operating with massive debt like that because the Twins situation is not unique. We don’t have access to their financials. I don’t buy the number and I don’t buy that it’s all Twins debt. They’re business people and creative accounting rules that sector.
Good old grumpy and whiny “This one belongs to the Reds”…
I feel bad for Twins fans. Ownership is basically saying that they should expect their stadium to be mediocre and if the team contends that will be lucky not design (so expect minimal additions if any those years).
Minnesota will follow the John Fisher model but maybe not to the same extent.
Ownership knows what they can and cannot afford. They live it.
So I guess owners like John Fisher(Sacramento), Nutting (Pirates), every Marlins owner, Reinsdorf (White Sox) etc. are just that poor right?
In terms of what there baseball revenue affords them, absolutely. Comparatively speaking, they are very poor.
Keep licking owners boots then. I am sure they are telling the truth always. I guess Twins fans should just be grateful they have a MLB team.
At one time Minnesota lost their NHL team (MINNESOTA WITHOUT HOCKEY!) due to cheap ownership, so we know it can happen.
There’s nothing about this generation of Pohlads that should make anyone believe that when the profit margin weakens they have any love of the game to guard us from the best deal they can find. At least Eloise loved the games back in the 80s, None of these kids love anything.
500m in debt not the 400m that was reported earlier. That’s the reason no buyer wanted to own the Twins. I think the Pohlads just have wealth mismanagement in their family. If Cleveland, Tampa and Athletics can navigate frugal ownership, and still make playoff runs, Twins can too.
The Pohlads are up there with Reinsdorf, Nutting, Monfort and Fisher as the most tone deaf billionaires. Carl was inept but at least he found lightning in a bottle with some good hires and two WS and an ability to make money. His heritage can’t find success in the private or public sectors.
How many of the 87 and 91 Twins were already there before the Pohlads took over?
At least Puckett, Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunansky, Viola, and Gagne where all around before Carl Pohlad bought the team. Andy MacPhail also gets more credit than he deserves for ’87 and ’91. MacPhail didn’t want Reardon or Jack Morris. Bob Gephard was the reason the Twins drafted Chuck Knoblauch and had guys like Jeff Reardon and Jack Morris. MacPhail’s true colors didn’t show until he went to the Cubs.
Sounds like their goal is to alienate their fans so the team can be sold to owners who will look to relocate it. That would leave the baseball fans with just the St Paul Saints to root for and given the makeup of the Twins team and it’s declining payroll, the MLB team in Minneapolis will soon be just a glorified AAA team anyway.
I can’t imagine anyone paying the Pohlads reported asking price unless the buyer knew that they would be moving the team. Minneapolis grew enough in the 50s and 60s to become an attractive target for an expansion team. DC was becoming crime ridden and the Senators were renamed, moved and then replaced by the expansion Senators.
Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Nashville, Austin, San Antonio and Orlando are all growing much faster than Minneapolis and are bidding to pay $2.2B for a new team. The Pohlads are willing to take less, but not a lot less.
MLB expansion ALWAYS puts team relocations on the table and they ALWAYS follow. It’s quaint, but amazing, that fans of teams that are in their cities BECAUSE of the entire expansion/relocation phenomenon (like Minneapolis and Milwaukee) act like the owners of those teams owe them something and are evil if they cash in on an inevitable process when smaller and shrinking metro areas have the tables turned.
The Pohlads are going to sell the team and it will be when one of the ownership groups in a faster growing area see that (1) they can get the team for less than an expansion team and (2) MLB may not pick their bid in round 1 anyway.
The Twins will have an 70 year birthday in a handful of years. There won’t be a 75th. Bank on it.
That’s a static measure. It’s only relevant to a team moving today and I was pretty clear that Minneapolis is fine for a decade or so. Same with comparing expansion candidates.
The key is figuring out migration and growth trends when you’re looking at MLB locations a decade from now. And I named the cities I named because of those trends. But when the Pohlads offered the Twins at a discount relative to the expansion price and no one raised their hand, that’s a data point.
If you follow baseball on social media, it’s full of anticapitalist attacks on rich owners. That includes MLBTR. You can understand that frustration, but wealthy people making investments in baseball franchises can read, too. So the pointless personal attacks on the Pohlads is venting with some consequences.
That was my question. If you bought the team for 40 mil, how do you end up with 400 mil debt, or 500? Leveraging it for other deals and big family salaries seems to be the answer.
C’mon now… You can’t question the Pohlads commitment to investing in the team and brand. Joe said so himself. The lone MLB scout they have remaining also agrees.
Maybe the baseball operation has just been running at a loss.
Once again, the Pohlads are trying to make stupid excuses for why they can’t win while the Twins consistently fielded competitive teams during the later Metrodome years, not to mention that there have been plenty of other mid-market and small-market teams that have had tons of success.
It’s a family business, and family businesses are often run where the company isn’t seen as much more than a cookie jar to be raided. “There’s always money in the banana stand, and we can borrow today and pay it back when we sell for a billllion dollarrs!” Well it’s time to cash out and they are only just realizing they have to refill the cookie jar if anyone is going to give them fair value. Knuckleheads.
It would surprise NOBODY to learn that most likely the Twins’ books have been “cooked” for many years by including and increasing such things as management fees, off-field employee expenses, phantom allocated expenses and so on to maximize expenses and create a larger (and tax deductible) loss to offset the profits from the other businesses in the Pohlad Dynasty. BOO HOO, feel sorry for us !! We need a hand out !!
How did these owners accrue such enormous debt?
@Pad Fans: You always hit the nail on the head. Great analysis.
The Twinkies are way below the fifty foot of crap right now.
Somehow the Poorlads need to sell the majority stake and get out fast!
The most pfuliar thing to me was Tom’s comments about not having a top-flight stadium. Lots of small and mid markets have excellent stadiums. Maybe I am missing his point: Have never been o Target Field, yet, but it looks nice on tv and pictures.
Peculiar, not pfuliar.
I do think you misread. Target Field is a top flight stadium, but the revenue small and mid market teams get, can’t support it.
Which doesn’t really make any sense to me especially since the family, and everyone, demanded a new stadium.
He’s not a fan, so I’m not sure he knows what a nice park is like. I think he only sees the park in terms of revenue streams, and this one makes less than some others. it certainly isn’t going to cover his lost TV money, so it’s disappointing. I happen to enjoy it quite a bit when I can score cheap/free seats.
LOL,
“Twins fans deserve more, but Im too broke to give it to you and Im actively refusing to let someone who can give it a shot.”
At least Arte Moreno dosent tell you that his ego is more important than the fanbase, he just goes about being evil with the doors closed.
Arte seems to want to win but has some odd notions of how to do it. I think he’s bad at it, not cheap. Pohlads will win as much as 45% of revenue will allow, and golly I guess it just didn’t work out again this year.