Whoa!

When the Minnesota Twins' once promising 2024 season collapsed like Tim Walz's national credibility, the morale of the fan base was approaching apathy not seen since 1993 to 2000 when the team endured eight consecutive losing seasons. 

Given there's stiff competition for the Twin Cities sports dollar with the Vikings as the perpetual #1 in this town as well as a championship caliber Timberwolves team, the Twins were is serious danger of becoming persona non grata if they entered the offseason signaling they'd be going with the status quo. Sorry, but firing assistant coaches isn't going to motivate an already dwindling fan base to return to Target Field. 

Admittedly, the organization made a step in the right direction earlier this week when they announced an online streaming option to view Twins games. This move ensured fans would no longer have to endure blackouts of games. This is especially crucial when you consider that while the Twins were in the midst of a 12-game win streak on May 1, they suddenly were no longer available to Comcast/Xfinity cable subscribers. So despite the fact the Twins had one of the best stretches of play from late April to mid August, very few fans were plugged in. 

So is a new and more convenient viewing option a cure all for a frustrated (and, in some cases, downright pissed off) fan base? Of course not. And short of going on an offseason spending spree to augment the roster (something which has been said, off the record of course, will not happen), what is the only other scenario which could placate fans? The overwhelming response is for the ownership group comprised of the Pohlad family to sell the team. And while I agreed that would be a good thing, I never got a sense if/when that would ever happen. 

Then I saw this via Twitter  "X."

The Pohlad family’s statement on today’s news: pic.twitter.com/bHyTEAkLsL

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) October 10, 2024

I don't believe it's hyperbolic to say that the immediate reaction of Twins fans (myself included) was ecstasy on par with the team signing Aaron Judge as a free agent. The difference being that this won't necessarily translate to additional season ticket sales (or even full retention) like a major on-field acquisition. But since the team still has a solid core of players on the MLB roster in addition to a top 5 prospect pool, the future suddenly doesn't look at all hopeless. 

The question now is how quickly can the team be sold? While it's en vogue to own an NFL or NBA franchise, MLB's business model (unless you're in NYC or L.A.) doesn't exactly whet the appetite of wealthy business people who look for ways to enhance their fortunes. In an ideal world, the new Twins owner would be someone who actually has a passion for baseball which the Pohlads clearly did not. As such, this would be a forward thinking person who would be OK to take an operating loss for the first few seasons knowing that the team has a promising on-field future. And if that success comes to fruition, this will entice fans to come to back to the ballpark in addition to ponying up for a TwinsTV subscription, thus generating significantly higher revenues. 

I honestly have no insight as to whom would even have tacit interest in buying the Twins, but there's one scenario which has me curious. The sale of the Timberwolves is slated for arbitration after current owner Glen Taylor took the transaction off the table when he contended that prospective buyers Marc Lore et al didn't meet certain requirements. While Lore's group may prevail, any sale would still have to be approved by the NBA Board of Governors. Let's say the sale is *not* approved for whatever reason. Any chance Lore and business partner Alex Rodriguez (who just happens to be a former MLB superstar) swoop in and make a bid for the Twins???? Something to keep an eye on. 

At the end of the day, this is a positive development. Let's all hope for a drama-free process.

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