The Twins shocked the baseball world this past week when they announced that the team was parting ways with team president Derek Falvey in what was framed as a mutual decision between Falvey and executive chair Tom Pohlad. More details have come out in the aftermath of that announcement on the circumstances surrounding Falvey’s departure that offer additional insight into the motivations behind that decision.
The move was surprising to fans, media, and rival clubs around the game for a number of reasons. Falvey had been promoted from his seat as president of baseball operations to also handle business operations in a dual president role in November of 2024, just over a year prior to his departure from the organization. That Falvey went from so thoroughly entrenched in the Twins’ present and future plans to out the door in a matter of months was shocking to outside observers, and Dan Hayes of The Athletic suggests it was met with equal shock internally, with staffers describing the news as a “haymaker.” Even more shocking is the timing of the move, which comes just a matter of weeks before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training with the large majority of offseason maneuvering already done.
In comments following Falvey’s departure, both Falvey himself and Pohlad have indicated that there was a difference in personalities between the two that led to the change. Pohlad described himself and Falvey (as relayed by Hayes) as “two people that were suddenly thrust into working together.” Falvey’s comments offered some additional insight into those differences.
“[Former Twins executive chair] Joe [Pohlad] and I had a different plan and working dynamic,” Falvey said of his departure, as relayed by Hayes. “Tom wants to run it a little differently. … Sometimes it’s just a feel that you get where both sides kind of sit there and say, ‘OK, is this the right match for what we need going forward?’ And if you get to a place where you don’t think it (fits) perfectly, you have to have really honest conversations and dialogue about it and we did.”
Given those comments about conflicting personalities and changing plans, it’s worth zooming out to consider the larger context of the Twins organization in recent years. After breaking the club’s lengthy drought of playoff victories in 2023, ownership slashed payroll during the 2023-24 offseason. Things have gone downhill since then on the field, and after a collapse in 2024 led to an 82-80 season and missing the playoffs, the team took an even bigger step back and lost 90 games in 2025.
Entering this offseason, all signs appeared to be pointing towards a rebuild coming to Minnesota. Players like Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez, and even Byron Buxton were widely viewed as trade chips who would be available to rival teams this winter, and a tear-down of the roster had already gotten underway at the trade deadline back in July. In addition to the move to shed Carlos Correa‘s contract in a salary dump with the Astros, the Twins traded away a number of pieces, including controllable impact bullpen pieces like Louis Varland, Jhoan Duran, and Griffin Jax.
In the background of those struggles on the field, the Pohlad family looked to move on from their ownership of the Twins franchise. The team announced their exploration of a sale in October of 2024, just one month before Falvey was promoted to his dual president role. Efforts to sell the family’s majority share in the club eventually fell through, however, and they instead ended up bringing on additional minority stakeholders to help address the team’s debt, which had complicated efforts to sell. After the details of that partial sale of the club were ironed out, Tom Pohlad (who had not been involved with the Twins’ operations until the effort to sell the club began) took over the executive chair position from younger brother Joe Pohlad and became the team’s control person back in December.
Given that Falvey had launched the start of what clearly seemed to be a rebuild under Joe Pohlad, much of Tom Pohlad’s rhetoric surrounding the team and it’s near-term competitive future makes a disconnect seem somewhat clear. Hayes reports that Tom Pohlad plans to be more proactive in steering the team as compared to the more laid-back approaches of former executive chairs Joe and Jim Pohlad, who Falvey had worked under in the past. Tom Pohlad’s planned direction for the team seems to be a quick return to contention, which goes against the plan Falvey had been in the midst of putting into place when Pohlad took over as Minnesota’s control person.
That planned return to contention might come with additional financial flexibility, but it’s unclear exactly how much. Pohlad has told reporters (including Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic) that he believes there is “room for investment” in the roster between now and Opening Day, which suggests there could be at least some additional spending to come to help round out a roster with a number of noticeable holes. With that said, however, Pohlad also downplayed the importance of the team’s payroll in those same comments.
“Yes, our payroll is down from last year,” Tom Pohlad said, as relayed by Gleeman. “I think there are still some investments to be made between now and Opening Day. I’d also say, at some point, I’d love to get off this payroll thing for a second. Let’s judge the success of this year on wins and losses, and on whether we’re playing meaningful baseball in September.”
Given that the team’s new control person has indicated a desire to be more hands-on than his predecessors and push the franchise in a more aggressive direction than it was previously on while also hesitating about the importance of raising payroll, it’s not hard to see where a conflict between Pohlad and Falvey could have arisen. Had Falvey been operating under a directive to return to contention in 2026, it’s easy to imagine him handling last year’s trade deadline differently, particularly when it comes to controllable, low-cost relief arms like Varland.
A departure at this point in the calendar still registers as a surprise, but Hays reports that one source described Falvey’s decision to leave now as a way to create an opportunity for the rest of his personnel to “create [their] own history” with the new control person. It’s not hard to imagine the possibility of tension down the road between Falvey and Pohlad creating a difficult situation for lower-level personnel in the front office, and Falvey removing himself from that equation immediately could help to avoid any potential issues between ownership and the front office going forward.
” team’s debt”… the Big Lie: the Twins , by their own admission, never had a financially losing season except the COVID year… that year did not create the $425 Million the team was saddled with… No the Owners.. thru paper shuffling, put a debt on the team that they created in their ” business deals” elsewhere… which is why no one wanted to give the asking price… they didn’t want to pay off the Po’lads debt. This ” debt was contrary to the agreement the Team had made with the State that allowed the financing package for Target field… I attended that hearing at the state senate.. the promise was the money was to pay for Their Star layers and add talent to bring a winning team and culture to the team… of course that never happened… instead.. now the money goes to subsidize Po’lads other failing ventures debt.
Please…. stop the conspiracy theories about the owners are making tons of money, at the expense of the players and fans alike. The real money is made when the team, if ever, changes hands. Anyone can see reported team revenue and operating income via Forbes. You are correct in respects to all teams attempting to abuse state and local municipalities in terms of funding and tax abatements.
This is such a huge problem not only in baseball but in the whole country. Rich kids inherit an empire and haven’t ever proven anything. What conspiracy?? He’s just stating facts. These owners haven’t done anything except make money from paying fans watching talented players play in a publication funded facility… oh and other teams. Still they complain, still they want more.. and still people fall for it. Of course Tom and Joe don’t want to pay anyone!!
Why should they spend anything? Keep that gravy train coming baby!
Falvey is gone because he wanted to be sensible and stay the course they already started on until duncy big brother Tom waddled in thinking all he has to do is throw his weight around a little and Voila – winner!
As a long time Dodger fan I feel bad for Twins fans. No one wants to talk about it now but we Dodger fans suffered many years with owners that wouldn’t invest. Read up a little on Frank McCourt…
Blah, Blah, Blah, who do we call to get Joe Ryan ?
Good question, I’d say call Baltimore first.
He meant, who do we call in the Twins’ FO.
Yes bring him home!
Hmmm I doubt it comes down to the owner wanting to be more aggressive about winning and payroll than the baseball leader. “We’d like to flip the rebuild and return to contention quicker and give you more money.” “Hmm no thanks we have a difference of opinion and I’d prefer a lower budget and longer stay in oblivion.”
It probably comes down to a “I was basically in charge of everything and now I have to answer to someone and do what they tell me” kind of departure.
The road to baseball hell is often paved with over-involved owners.
I was once recruited to build a new business unit within an established company, pitched as an opportunity to build and lead and support new piece of the organization.
When we got to negotiating that new unit’s budget and staffing, the CEO self-assuredly countered my plans with his industry’s equivalent of “just develop a perennial Cy Young candidate or two internally and championships will follow.”
I rejected that CEO’s simplistic point of view and the offer, and the company was eventually sold for Pennie’s on the dollar after several down years.
I suspect Falvey may have bailed after Tom Pohlad proposed a similarly unrealistic “just build a winner quick” plan.
The direction of the team is pretty confusing. They started dismantling, they are clearly not going to contend in 2026, and they are holding Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan when they could get solid returns for them.
Actually, they cleared up the confusion here: The new control person has put the full-scale rebuild on hold and is trying to quickly retool instead.
Falvey thinks this is unfeasible, especially since they no longer have Correa or those controllable relievers they already traded away, and left (or got fired) due to his difference in opinion.
Falvey is the one who wanted to keep Ryan/Lopez/Buxton per an article on the StarTribune. I think Bobby Nightengale wrote it but not positive about who wrote it.
To put it in terms easily understandable, the ownership/front office situation is a mess.
So Pohlad wants to contend this year and in a cryptic way said they plan to invest in the roster before opening day, so who is left on the market that would make that a believable reality? Framber Valdez? If he’s thinking of an impact bat, that ship has pretty much sailed.
But his remarks cryptically suggest improving without spending, maybe relying on a ‘kumbaya’ team approach with a little more American ingenuity & elbow grease. Maybe crystals or pyramid power, too. I hope for Twins fans I’m wrong…
Pohlads keep making wrong decisions.
This Tom Pohlad is a bigger moron than Joe was. Says they’ll contend but doesn’t wanna talk payroll anymore. Thinks he can will the team to victory.
Sounds like someone I would not want to work under.
And in general, they can’t sidestep the payroll question because they haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt to do so. The Correa deal is really the only large external investment they’ve made in their team, and even that ended up being a salary dump at the deadline last year.
Until they have a track record like the Brewers, Rays, and Guardians when it comes to being consistently competitive regardless of payroll, they’ll need to pick a side. They won’t be able to have their cake and eat it too.
From where I sit, if Falvey is smart, he got paid to go abandon ship.
The conundrum for me is, if he is smart, would he have managed the mess that was the trade deadline that way?
Remember that Falvey came from the Guardians. He was raised on a formula of trading current MLB production for future talent. Guardian execs are always thinking long term.Im only guessing, but Falvey was probably comfortable with the long term plan that was instituted at last year’s deadline, while the newest Pohlad plan is not.
Now, the new plan has already been sabotaged by the old plan….kinda like an Olympic diver changing his mind half way thru a dive. This does not bode well for the Twins in either the short term or the long term.
Sell the team Tom.
Ownership matters. Twins are an example. Want more? Angels. White Sox. Both in “small market” areas. Year after year of mediocrity. Why? Just give us a cap, they say, and we win championships. Explain the Dallas Cowboys? All leagues have expanded the playoffs such that even mediocre teams have a realistic shot. NFL had a team host first round with a losing record. Yet some NFL team still can’t get there and when they do, get run fast. Why? Rays. Low revenue team, no support, but makes playoffs consistently and wins. Owner hires smart people and lets them make baseball decisions. Yet commish forces him to sell.
And to your point about consistently mediocre organizations saying “Just give us a cap… and we win,” a salary cap alone won’t fix stingy or stupid.
The Twins seemed to be in good pretty good shape until they cut payroll after the 2023 season, when they should have been adding to the their good team. I think it’s fair to attribute their collapse in 2024 to a lack of depth caused by cutting their payroll.
What do the Twins fans think?
We think yes
Perfectly summarized. The mandate to slash payroll that offseason was a turning point in what seemed to be a team on a positive trajectory.
Don’t be mad at the Dodgers or Mets spending and investing in their clubs, be mad at the other owners playing games just like the Twins. Look at his statement, “I’d love to get off this payroll thing for a second…” I bet he would. Greedy owners dividing fans and point back at the clubs actually investing heavily upsetting the Apple cart. It’s in these owners best interest to sow division and hate towards the Dodgers and Mets while pocketing as much cash as possible while pretending to care about their fan base and being competitive.
@Redstang I don’t disagree with your statement, but players don’t need 100 mil to get by. Plenty of family’s get by on 100k and less depending on where you live in the country. I don’t see players being any less greedy. Between the owners and players wanting more and more, and passing those costs onto the fans, it’s ridiculous reading commenters comments on here regarding owners being greedy and players not getting their due. The door swings both ways for the owners and players while us fans get stuck paying the bill.
I get what you mean. My point was more so directed at a team pretending to care, pretending to invest and pretending to go for it. Definitely a lot of greed on both sides with ridiculous sums of money exchanging hands all paid for by the consumer, who ultimately gets the shaft. Broken Angel fan here.
Point taken.
Not broken though, but maybe broke? I’m an old man who used to be able to take his family to the game, get some snacks and buy the occasional souvenir. Not so much anymore.
Take care RedStang.
Oldhalo,
Can’t disagree with your statement that a player doesn’t need 100 mill to get by. At the same time owners don’t need cities and states to build them new stadiums or entertainment districts on the backs of taxpayers. Why should anyone have to pay directly or indirectly for a sporting event they have no interest in? It might be a good idea to introduce a salary cap for owners. If you’re talking unfair distribution of wealth, there are plenty of groups besides players who deserve a cap. BTW, I have never paid to see an owner at a sporting event
Agreed. That “get off this payroll thing” comment really irked me. The Twins were well positioned before ownership slashed payroll.
How can the Twins start a rebuild then say they’re trying to contend?
Would like to see the Tigers pluck Buxton away from them. Not expecting it though. Luis Robert Jr was available and they did nothing there.
The team would never trade a player like Buxton to another team within the division unless he was in the last year of his contract and wanted out.
Hopefully the one who likes analytics and SABRmetrics less won out.
The “new” brother has intentions of contending in the immediate near-term. That is unreasonable and unrealistic for a number of reasons. Falvey leaving due to change in direction by team control person makes a lot of sense.
Are we living the movie Major League right now.
I would love to hear more about the comment above that the owner took on team debt to find other ventures? If that is the case, it makes sense that the owner was forced to sell minority stakes in the team to cover that debt. If true, the owner trying to decouple the payroll slashing from competitiveness would lead most competent executives to look elsewhere for a less schizophrenic-type (no offense intended for using this phrase) of opportunity.
As a Twins fan, this is just another reason to not have any hope for the season. No stability and no plan going forward. Given the state of Minneapolis, I wasn’t going to a game anyway. Carl must be rolling in his grave….
I will be more interested in watching the youth on A’s develop.