Scoggins: Pohlad family’s decision to sell Minnesota Twins feels necessary amid fans’ barrage of criticism

The Twins returned home for the final week of their season in late September. They were fighting for a playoff spot, still alive in the race, though by the faintest of measures.

On the final Wednesday of the month, with their playoff hopes on the line, the Twins drew fewer fans to their home ballpark than the Chicago White Sox did to theirs. The team that lost more games than any MLB team since 1900 and needed a telescope to see the rest of the division had a larger crowd that day.

Think about that.

Also, the Twins saw their season attendance decrease after re-energizing their fan base by winning a playoff series last season for the first time in a generation. They got no bounce at the gate.

That’s eye-opening, too.

The announcement by the Pohlad family last week of its intention to explore selling the team was a stunner. Upon reflection, a change at the top is the only reasonable way to heal what has become an uncomfortable and undesirable atmosphere.

Anger from fans this season had not been this loud or forceful since the threat of contraction under patriarch Carl Pohlad in 2001.

The Pohlads’ spending habits have been a sore subject for many years, but complaints this season hit different. Slashing $30 million from the payroll, Joe Pohlad’s “right-sizing the business” comment and the TV debacle with Bally Sports North fueled blowback that stretched far beyond normal fan disgruntlement.

The anger was reflected in turnstile count. The Twins finished bottom third of MLB in attendance after failing to draw 2 million fans despite being viewed as a near-lock to reach the postseason before an epic collapse the final month.

Social media often deteriorates into a venomous echo chamber, but they can reveal the mood of a fan base, and those platforms served as a nightly blowtorch session directed at the organization.

The vibe felt strange all season. Unhappiness was present even during stretches when the Twins played winning baseball, making it obvious that undoing the damage in the fan-team relationship likely will be impossible under the Pohlad leadership. Letting emotions cool this winter isn’t a solution.

The family said the decision to explore a sale was under consideration for months over the summer, which, if true, means that even the most successful part of the season did not dissuade them from pushing forward with the idea.

Only the Pohlads know all their reasons for wanting to sell after 40 years of ownership. Maybe they are just tired of being in baseball.

An ownership change brings uncertainty and perhaps even fear of the unknown, but status quo would mean to continue down an uncomfortable road. Does anyone really want a repeat of this season, when every loss is met with intense reaction about ownership’s commitment to winning? Frankly, that’s exhausting. There must be a better path.

Winning cures a lot of problems, but even a bounce-back season in 2025 is unlikely to remove deeply rooted feelings about the Pohlad stewardship.

Let us be abundantly clear again: Money is not the sole factor in determining success in Major League Baseball. Teams with smaller payrolls than the Twins made the playoffs. The calculus is never as simple as “spend more.” Assuming a sale happens, the new owners will inherit the same economic challenges related to disparities in TV revenue across the league.

“Spend less” is a dagger to the heart of hope, though, especially on the heels of a playoff breakthrough. Cutting $30 million from the payroll was unforgivable to a fan base that already questioned ownership’s commitment.

The organization reached an inflection point after the season imploded. The pushback was as intense as anything the Twins have experienced in years. That’s not enjoyable for anyone on any side of the situation.

Every day of a baseball season should not serve as a public referendum on an organization’s motivations. But that’s what this season felt like. Game after game after game.

Nobody can predict what will happen next, but something had to change. It’s time for a fresh start.