The Pohlad family is selling the Minnesota Twins. Below are the ideas of who might buy along with their net worth (in parentheses). As of October 10, 2024, none of these have expressed interest publicly, nor have any reports emerged that they might be privately interested.

The selling price is likely to be in the range of $1.3 billion to $2 billion. I'll update this post as things change, though one should it expect it to be a several-month process. It is also likely that any deal involve an investment group, though there is usually one party who dominates any such group.

  • Marc Lore ($2B), CEO of Wonder Group; Alex Rodriguez ($0.4B), retired baseball player and CEO of Monument Capital Management; Eric Schmidt ($32B), former CEO of Google; and Michael Bloomberg ($31B), former CEO of Bloomberg, Inc. and former mayor of New York City; together, they are the minority owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves. It is reported that this group really likes the Twin Cities market and so might be interested in pivoting to the Twins if Taylor successfully unwinds his sale of the Wolves to them.
  • Glen Taylor ($2.7B), Chairman of Taylor Corp and majority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who initially agreed to sell the Wolves to Lore/Rodriguez/Schmidt but is now trying to back out of the deal and retain the Wolves; it is thought that, even so, he may be seeking to reduce and not increase his involvement in owning sports teams.
  • Bill McGuire ($0.9B), majority owner of Minnesota United FC; may not have enough capital to become lead investor of the Twins.
  • Zygi Wilf ($1.3B), Mark Wilf, and Leonard Wilf, majority owners of the Minnesota Vikings and Orlando City SC. Also may not have enough capital to become lead investor of the Twins.
  • An unspecified private equity firm
  • Any member of a wealthy Minnesotan family not yet involved in sports, such as:
    • The Cargill-MacMillan family ($45B in aggregate), though they are known to be private people and may not want the publicity of owning a team
    • The Carlson family ($2.2B)
    • The Dayton family ($1.6B)
    • The Hubbard family ($1.6B)
    • The Rosen family ($1.3B)
    • Jeffrey Michael ($1.2B)
  • An unspecified non-local investor. It is unlikely that any such investor would seek to move the team, as the Twins' stadium is still excellent and Minnesota is a better market than any other market without a team.
    • Jeff Bezos ($204B), former CEO of Amazon; previously underbid on the Washington Commanders
  • Any individual Pohlad might decide to buy his family members out, perhaps by bringing in other investors
  • The Pohlad family ($4B) might change its mind and retain the team

17 comments

  2. With the Angels and Nationals kinda unofficially still for sale, I kinda think the Pohlads were maybe approached and have a buyer lined up.

  4. I’m intrigued by the Lore/Arod/Bloomberg group. I could easily see the appeal of owning both the Twolves (assuming that deal gets done) and the Twins. Because their seasons have little to no overlap, could you offer multi-sport ticket packages? How about hosting your own TV broadcast & signing the Wild onto it to help defray costs? I imagine you could leverage the package of 2 teams to negotiate a higher radio deal as well.

  6. Glen Taylor is 83 years old and a big reason he decided to sell the Wolves in the first place is because his kids have no interest in owning a professional sports team, at least from what I understand. There is zero chance he will buy the Twins.

  9. If I had $32 billion in the bank I would absolutely buy a baseball team and throw ridiculous amounts of money at it to flex on the other rich guys. Hopefully someone thinks like me

  12. I’m a suns fan also and I would love if Mat Ishbia bought the team, he would be able to re-energize the fanbase. I know he was interested in buying an nfl team and I have no idea if he’s even interested in an MLB team

  13. I think the potential buyer pool for this team is going to be very broad. Our Twins are probably one of the best value propositions of teams that have gone on sale in a long time. $1.5b is a chunk but considering the Royals sold for a bill 5 years ago, it’s not bad.

    We also have a ton going for us:

    -a modern stadium with an insanely cheap yearly lease

    -local labor costs for the majority of support staff is pretty low

    -low costs of utilities

    -favorable local government

    -metro area that continues to explode

    -only MLB team in surrounding states (Iowa, ND, SD, Nebraska)

    -loyal fanbase and strong ticket sales

    -favorable local taxes

    -great new broadcast deal with MLB.tv

    I mean the closest comparison is the Royals but they split Missouri with the Cards and the MSP metro is *significantly* larger than the KC metro. Not to mention the night and day difference between Target Field and the K.

  14. This reeks of a scam to retain season ticket holders who are fleeing the team like rats from a burning ship.
    The Pohlads are bad actors and can, like Glen Taylor, be expected to do whats best for their bottom line, but especially if it involves fucking over the unwashed lowlifes they prey upon. (Thats you, reader. And me.)

  15. Why does the new owner have to be tied locally at all? Who cares. Find a billionaire that wants to win

  16. I wiukd add Joe Lacob. He owns the Golden State Warriors and was often brought up as a potential savior for the Oakland A’s. With that now out of the question, if he is still interested in baseball, the twins could be a fit. I really don’t think there is any chance baseball expands back into Oakland in at least the next decade.

  17. i’m super tired and i thought this post said “Who will buy the Twins? A Trucker” and got super confused

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