It's hard to know exactly what lane the Minnesota Twins will be driving in this offseason. At the MLB trade deadline, after decimating their Major League roster, it seemed like the plan was for the sale of the franchise to be completed, and then the new direction would be determined once the new owner took control of the organization.
Instead, the shocking update was that the Pohlad family will remain in place as the principal owners of the team. Sure, there are limited partnership groups that will be added to the mix, but it's hard to put much stock into what Joe Pohlad is saying. Considering how drastically the plan has changed, and little of it makes sense, considering all the moves the Twins made leading up to this point.
It was a talking point for Bob Nightengale, who touched on the Twins' ownership mess during his latest roundup for USA Today.
"Now that the Pohlad family decided to hang onto the club after no one met their asking price of $1.7 billion, the baseball industry is curious to whether they’ll continue to dump payroll by trading starters Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober this winter, further infuriating the fanbase."
Twins’ future thrown into doubt after ownership drama sparks more fire sale talk
With the moves that the Twins made at the deadline, there is a path to where the team can be a surprise contender in 2026. A fire sale may not have been what fans had in mind after the team went 18-8 in May, but to give some credit to Derek Falvey, the Twins' farm system has ascended toward being one of the best in baseball following the deadline. The foundation of the next contending Twins team is possibly in place, but what's needed next is a level of financial investment the Pohlad family simply hasn't been willing to make over the last year.
Sure, there's some reason to believe that will change now that the Pohlad family knows they won't be selling the team, but this is a road Twins fans have been down before. False promises are what have defined the Twins' failures in recent seasons, and it's hard to predict anything that would change that.