About six months after saying they would sell, the Pohlad Family still owns the Minnesota Twins. And there's no sign that a change is imminent, impending or even inevitable right now.
Dan Hayes in The Athletic reported Monday that only this past week did the Pohlads re-start the process by which the Twins would be sold, about a month after Justin Ishbia told them he wasn't interested anymore in buying the team.
Not only that, but the Twins already have told one of the suitors from the "robust market" of prospective owners that their $1.5 billion bid was too low, a "non-starter," and to not bother using it as a negotiating point.
Long story short: Get out.
Further, the Pohlads are at least $425 million in debt (we know it's not from the team's payroll), and would like for the new owners, whomever they turn out to be, to cover the nut.
Oh, and Joe Pohlad would like to stick around and be executive chairman of the board of directors after the team is sold, if it was OK.
One more thing: If the Twins don't fetch a bid of at least $1.7 billion, they might not even agree to sell, and we could be doing the payroll rollback dance in no-man's land for years. There's a lot going on here, not the least of which is some major bluffing.
But there was a reason the Pohlads wanted to sell, and there was another reason it appeared Ishbia was their guy until he wasn't.
Blame the owner of the Chicago White Sox, one Jerry Reinsdorf, at least partly for a lack of a resolution to the Twins ownership transformation. The White Sox: always up to no good in the AL Central.
Reinsdorf unexpectedly changing his mind about selling the Sox, likely to Ishbia, offers us the best explanation for why the latter pulled up stakes in the Twin Cities and did a 180 for the South Side of Chicago.
Already invested in the White Sox, Ishbia reportedly purchased additional shares recently from several other minority owners, giving them an equity payout, and giving himself improved positioning to, someday, buy a controlling interest from Reinsdorf.
Someday soon? Well, it could depend on how Reinsdorf might change his mind next.
Maybe he really is just sick of his own team finally.
Concurrently, Ishbia has been building his dream house in Chicago's northern suburbs, along the shore of Lake Michigan, which is kind of a long way from Target Field. He's been planting Chicago roots for a while now, not Minnesota ones.
But he also has wanted to buy a Major League Baseball team somewhere. The White Sox, he had been told by Reinsdorf, were not available for purchase.
What has changed? Reinsdorf just turned 89 years old, and this October it's going to be 20 years since the Sox won the World Series. A.J. Pierzynski, Ozzie Guillen and the other anti-Piranhas. Twenty years, and the Sox haven't gotten too close since, with 2008 being a nominal exception that Twins fans might remember, when their team lost the AL Central in Game 163.
The Sox really haven't gotten close recently, particularly a season ago when they set an AL record with 121 losses.
The Sox figure to have a better record in 2025, but not in the sense that they'll threaten anybody near the top of the AL Central. It was just four years ago that they made the postseason for the second time in a row, something that never had happened before in the club's (now) 125-year history. It's not only Reinsdorf's fault, because he's only owned the team since 1981.
Still, that's probably long enough for anyone to endure losing as frequently as the Sox have. And with the most recent rebuild falling apart after two successful seasons (one of them being the 60-game season shortened due the to COVID-19 pandemic), and with few signs the Sox are on the verge of sitting up, it's a good time to cash out. It has been written that it might be financially advantageous for Reinsdorf's family if he waited for the next generation to inherit the Sox and sell them after the fact.
Even so, Reinsdorf finally could have sent Ishbia a signal that, when the Sox were sold, he would get the first crack. Promise!
Owning the Sox is what Ishbia preferred all along. And Reinsdorf? Six months ago, when the Chicagoans were finishing up their first year with a new general manager and the realization hit Reinsdorf the team was further adrift at sea than he had considered, he probably decided that his preferred successor (who was never going to be someone from his own family) needed to be stopped from putting into motion his purchase of another AL Central team.
"OK, Justin," he probably said. "Maybe the Sox won't be sold today or tomorrow. But get into position and wait for the inevitable, and you'll get your chance. But 'getting into position' means ditching the Twins."
Having already invested with his brother Mat as a minority owner with the NBA's Phoenix Suns, Ishbia is dreaming bigger. The White Sox would be ideal for him, considering Ishbia's ties to Chicago, and that the Cubs don't appear to be up for sale.
Owning the Twins would have been... fine. They have a lot going for them. A favorable lease in a ballpark that people love. A team that's just a few short steps from the World Series, who also have a stocked farm system and good infrastructure below ownership level. But it's a middle-market team, and a lot has to go right to win consistently.
The White Sox, while a mess, have an ongoing opportunity to be remade in a new owner's image, in the third-largest market in the U.S. It's an untapped goldmine, potentially a juggernaut in waiting. Since forever, sure.
But they are located near Ishbia's home.
Ishbia's insterest in the Twins seemingly was real enough, it just depended on Reinsdorf being intractable on selling the Sox. Well, it turns out there was a track, but the train ain't stopping in the Twin Cities.
How long it takes the Pohlads to sell now, nobody can say. And it's a bummer, especially for fans who want the Twins to have a chance to be something beyond what they are now. There's no guarantee that new owners will be better, or even anything different materially. But there are more Ishbias in the sea.
At least someone like him who has billions and wants to make the effort to win a World Series. Maybe the new owner will even be someone who already has a mansion located somewhere in Minnesota.
Dave Brown is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America who has written about MLB since 1998.