Pohlad family announce they are selling the Twins

For the last four decades, the Minnesota Twins have been under the ownership of the Pohlad family. The team was passed down through three generations, with Joe Pohald taking over for his uncle Jim Pohlad back in 2022 to try and usher the team into a new era.

It will be short-lived era, though.

In a rather stunning announcement on Thursday, the Pohlad family revealed that after forty years the Twins were up for sale. Nothing is imminent and it's unclear what the next steps will be, but what does seem to be certain is that the team will be under new management in the near future.

"Our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins. As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public," Joe Pohlad said in a statement.

This announcement comes a year after the Pohlad's said that they weren't interested in selling the team, but things have clearly changed.

A dominating theme over the last few years for Minnesota Twins fans has been how frustrated everyone has been with ownership. Slashing payroll by $30 million was something that irked fans last winter and seemed to be a last straw of sorts, especially since it contributed to how poorly constructed the roster was down the stretch of the season.

Not only were things tough with the payroll, but fans were put in a bind after a bad TV deal with Bally Sports North. It was the lack of a TV deal that led to the reduction in payroll, but when Comcast dropped Bally Sports nationwide, a majority of Twins fans were left without access to the team.

All of this culminated in broken trust between fans and ownership that came to a head on Thursday.

There was a lot of rejoicing over the Pohlads finally selling the team, something fans had been calling incresingly calling for over the years. An unwillingness to invest in the team beyond what is required for a small market -- which Minneapolis is not -- eroded the relationship between fans and ownership. That being said, there were still some pretty impressive concessions, notably the $200 million contract that was approved to sign Carlos Correa back in 2023.

What news of the sale does, though, is restore hope for the future. Things were looking bleak after a season where attendance was down and fans were even more restless than usual as the team historically collapsed down the stretch of the season. A lot of factors went into this, but the one everyone seems to point at is the lack of investment over the offseason stemming from the reduction in payroll.

That will color how fans digest news that the team is being sold, even though there were some bright spots over the last forty years. Two World Series titles came to Minnesota under the Pohlads and the team avoided contraction in the early 2000s despite how grim things looked.

Like most relationships with ownership, things were dicey and not always rosy. Nothing can change what has happened, but the Pohlads cashing out and selling the team seems to be something that everyone will be happy about and perhaps can set up a peaceful transition into a prosperous new era for the Twins.

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