Someone Needs To Step Up and Save the Twins

The Minnesota Twins are stuck.

After a dismal stretch to begin the season, they rattled off 13 straight wins in early May. When the streak ended, the carriage turned back into a pumpkin, and they lost 15 of their past 18 games after Tuesday’s 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

When you consider that Minnesota finished last season with a 12-27 stretch over the final six weeks, most franchises would make changes. However, the Twins have gone in an opposite direction, making president of baseball operations Derek Falvey the president of business operations last November and exercising Rocco Baldelli’s option for the 2026 season.

Whatever Twins fans are left after the payroll cuts following the 2023 playoff run are furious. However, the franchise is in a tricky situation. With the Pohlad family haggling over the franchise's price, Minnesota needs somebody to step up and wake this team from its 15-month nightmare.

We should start by stating this isn’t entirely on the Pohlads. While they’ve been their worst enemy by slashing payroll, which restricts the front office, Falvey and his staff seemingly have no immediate answers.

The starting pitching pipeline is off the rails. Players like José Miranda and Edouard Julien have gone from promising prospects to major-league flameouts. The team doesn’t have an identity or a player to gravitate to except for Byron Buxton. Even then, half the fan base has braced for Buxton’s next injury, adding to another layer of frustration.

However, all of these problems ultimately trace back to the Pohlads. Even though they’ve been notoriously patient and hands-off with the front office, their decisions have held the franchise back since winning their last world championship in 1991. Fans have decided they must go, but it’s not as simple as finding Prince Charming with a briefcase.

Twins fans dream of having an owner who spends like Major League Baseball's big-market teams. While Steve Cohen signs off on a $765 million contract for Juan Soto to sign with the New York Mets and Mark Walter has approved over $1 billion in deferred money to make the Los Angeles Dodgers a juggernaut, doing the same in a mid-sized market like Minnesota could cripple the franchise.

Even if Justin Ishbia didn’t use the Twins as a pawn to get more power and create a succession plan to buy the Chicago White Sox, their ideal payroll sits somewhere between the MLB average of $170 to $180 million. That number is roughly $20 to $30 million more than Minnesota’s $145 million payroll, and would allow for simple things that would make the on-field product better.

However, there must also be an agreement with someone willing to buy the franchise. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes has reported that the Pohlads are seeking $1.7 billion in a sale for the team, but most suitors have offered $1.5 billion. Twins fans may roll their eyes at the thought of the Pohlad family haggling over the price of the franchise, but they have some solid reasoning.

Dan Rubenstein bought the Baltimore Orioles, who play in an older stadium and a similar market, for $1.7 billion before the 2024 season. The peripatetic Tampa Bay Rays are playing in the New York Yankees' spring training facility after a hurricane blew the roof off Tropicana Field last October. Still, Patrick Zalupski is reportedly on the verge of buying them for $1.7 billion.

With only 30 major league franchises and one becoming available every 10 years, the Pohlads have the right to ask, Do you want a baseball team or not?

However, prospective buyers also have several concerns.

Hayes reported in May that the Twins have over $425 million in debt ahead of their sale. While a $1.5 billion offer would cover those costs, it’s unclear who would assume that debt in the event of a sale. There’s also a chance that number could grow in the increasingly likely event that MLB has a lockout in 2026. With owners fighting each other and the players, this is an ugly situation that doesn’t have a resolution in sight.

That brings the sale process to a stalemate that hurts the egos of those vying for control of the team and the fans watching the on-field product. While the Twins could benefit by firing Baldelli or Falvey, it doesn’t make sense for the Pohlads to fire both, find their replacements, and sell to an owner who may want his own people in place.

It’s resulted in the Twins spinning their wheels like Minnesotans on the freeway in January, leaving fans waiting for someone to step up and save the franchise.