The Pohlad family won’t be selling themselves short as they explore a potential sale of the Minnesota Twins.
Britt Ghiroli, Dan Hayes, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Monday on the asking price by the Pohlads in any potential sale of the Twins. The family is reportedly seeking at least $1.7 billion for the team.
The report further adds that the Pohlads are just starting to renew the sales process and are motivated to set a higher asking price in part due to the large of amount of debt currently on the books for the Twins (over $425 million). Additionally, Twins executive chairman Joe Pohlad is believed to want to remain in control of the club, further complicating the prospects of a possible sale.
You can read The Athletic’s full report on the situation here.
Minnesota-based financier Carl Pohlad first purchased the team in 1984 for $43.5 million. When he died in 2009 at the age of 93, his family assumed ownership of the team (with son Jim taking over the day-to-day operations). Jim then handed over the day-to-day operations to Joe, his nephew, in 2022.
$1.7 billion is right around what the most recent sale of an MLB team was — the $1.725 billion sale of the Baltimore Orioles in 2023. Additionally, that $1.7 billion figure is roughly in between the two other most recent MLB team sales — the New York Mets selling in 2020 for $2.42 billion and the Kansas City Royals selling in 2019 for $1 billion.
The Twins recently had a big-name investor who was interested in purchasing the team, but he just dropped out of the running late last month in order to increase his minority share in a different MLB team. With the list of buyers narrowing, it seems unlikely that anyone will meet the $1.7 billion ask for the Twins, especially as a mid-market team with no ALCS appearances since 2002 and no blue-chip talent on the roster. But that is not stopping the Pohlad family from trying to get to that lofty number in any potential sale.
