“For the past 40 seasons, the Minnesota Twins have been part of our family’s heart and soul. This team is woven into the fabric of our lives, and the Twins community has become an extension of our family,” Pohlad, 42, wrote in his announcement. “The staff, the players, and most importantly, you, the fans — everyone who makes up this unbelievable organization — is part of that. We’ve never taken lightly the privilege of being stewards of this franchise.”
Pohlad, who was elevated to executive chair of the team in November 2022 and became a fixture in the Target Field offices, echoed those words in February, when he declared that “we are not considering [selling]. We are in it for the long term.” He said he expected the family would still own the team a decade from now.
What changed? Pohlad didn’t say in his statement — but the decision, of course, is not his alone. His father, Bob Pohlad, and his uncles Jim and Bill are the primary owners of the team, but the family is also involved in commercial real estate, movie production and several other ventures. The Pohlad Company, for instance, developed the 37-floor RBC Gateway building in downtown Minneapolis, which opened in 2022.
Forbes magazine estimated the family’s combined worth at $3.8 billion in 2015 — nearly a decade ago. But while the value of the Twins has increased by 3300% or more since the family acquired it, that enormous profit can only be realized by selling, similar to a retiree whose entire net worth is tied up in his home.
This also may be a particularly ripe moment to maximize the sale price. Only four teams have changed hands in the past 12 years, each of them for a reported billion dollars or more — the Miami Marlins for $1.3 billion in 2018, the New York Mets for an MLB record $2.475 billion in 2020, the Kansas City Royals for $1 billion later that year, and just last June, the Baltimore Orioles for $1.725 billion.
“There’s a fair amount of pent-up demand. There have been fewer clubs on the market in baseball than there have been in the NBA or the NFL,” said a source with expertise in sports franchise values. “There is only one team on the market, the Minnesota Twins, and there are people out there who want to own baseball clubs.”