RandBall: Watching Twins games will be different this year. Here’s what you need to know.

There exists within many of us a natural skepticism toward change. Even if an old method of doing something is unsatisfactory, at least we know the ways in which it irks us and can therefore adjust accordingly.

Something new has the potential to be the proverbial devil we don’t know.

I’ve seen a fair amount of that in my email inbox since the calendar turned to 2025. Local baseball fans — eager to imagine green grass, sunshine and short sleeves instead of gray skies, jackets and shovels — began in earnest to unpack the reality of the Twins changing how their games are distributed and shown for the upcoming season.

Gone is (fill in the blank: Fox, Bally, FanDuel) Sports North, the regional sports network that had shown Twins games for nearly two decades.

In is a broadcast partnership with Major League Baseball.

To me, this seems like an overwhelmingly positive change for viewers. But it also comes at a financial price for the Twins and also invites skepticism specifically because it is new.

As a means of clarifying what the change means, as the Twins open camp and prepare for their first spring training game Feb. 22, I chatted with the Star Tribune’s Phil Miller on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

Here are some of the things you should know:

The biggest change is that Twins games are now available as a standalone product. You can buy a subscription to Twins.TV for $99.99 (or $19.99 a month) and have access to the full season of games even if you live in Minnesota. For another $100, you can also have access to virtually every other MLB game over the course of the season.

This is a huge deal for “cord cutters” who don’t have traditional cable or satellite subscriptions (including some who do have cheaper monthly streaming bundles like YouTube TV or Hulu that don’t include FanDuel Sports North).

There should be no more complaining about access to games this year. This access is a big win for fans at what I consider a reasonable price.

The biggest question I still get from Twins fans is whether they will still be able to watch the games via more traditional means like cable or satellite. The answer is yes, but it will still require a smidgen of patience as the details are worked out.

As Miller notes on the podcast, the Twins have been imploring media members to communicate to fans that they will be available on all the cable and satellite providers they were on in 2024. That includes DirecTV. That also includes Comcast, the largest cable TV carrier in Minnesota, which had a monthslong dispute with the Twins' RSN last season that kept games off the air.

Because the games are being distributed by MLB, they are the ones negotiating those terms. And each team will need to be assigned a specific channel to show games.

“[MLB] and the Twins are both very confident that it’s almost done,” Miller said, noting that it is understandable to be skeptical because of all that has transpired with the Twins on TV in recent years. “Those announcements are coming.”

The biggest question is how all this change is impacting the on-field product. Teams that have switched to the MLB model, and even those who have stuck with regional sports networks, have found their local TV revenue considerably diminished from where they used to be. That has impacted the free agent market and decisions for a lot of teams, including the Twins.

Miller on the podcast said he talked to a Twins official after the team signed accomplished veteran Ty France to a one-year, $1 million nonguaranteed deal this week. The official told him: “You know, people act like this TV thing isn’t real. But it’s not just us, it’s leaguewide.”