MLB team put up for sale by billionaire owners
The Minnesota Twins are on the auction block.
According to Sportico, the American League Central division team has engaged investment bank Allen & Company to explore a sale of the franchise.
The Pohlad family, owners of the team, informed their employees this morning.
In a statement, the team said: “After months of consideration, our family made a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins.
“As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public.”
The Minnesota Twins are now up for sale by the family that has owned them for forty years
The Pohlad family has owned the Twins for four decades – currently the fourth-longest tenure of any ownership group behind the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.
According to Sportico’s most recent valuations, the Twins are the 19th most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball at $1.7 billion.
Carl Pohlad, a financier, bought the Twins in 1984 for $44 million and was baseball’s richest owner at the time of his death in 2009.
His three children inherited the team, with son Jim Pohlad serving as controlling owner.
There have only been five sales of MLB teams with controlling interests in the past decade: John Stanton’s purchase of the Seattle Mariners in 2016, Bruce Sherman’s purchase of the Florida Marlins in 2017, John Sherman’s purchase of the Kansas City Royals in 2019, Steve Cohen’s purchase of MLB teams. purchase of the New York Mets in 2020, and David Rubenstein’s purchase of the Baltimore Orioles in 2023.
In 2022, the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Angels hired banks to explore selling their teams. Angels owner Arte Moreno publicly announced that he was taking the team off the market in January 2023. but admitted he is open to offers.
The Pohlad’s have owned the team since the 1980s, with Jim Pohlad currently serving as controlling owner
The Twins have been in Minnesota for over sixty years since moving from Washington, DC
The Twins have been in Minnesota since 1961 after the first incarnation of the Washington Senators moved to the Gopher State.
Minnesota won World Series titles in 1987 and 1991 – both within Pohlad’s first decade of ownership – but then failed to make the playoffs until 2002.
Since 2000, the team has won the AL Central division nine times, but has only made it to the AL Championship Series once, falling to the eventual World Series champion Angels in 2002.
Minnesota’s payroll has been in the bottom half of the league for the past 12 seasons.