The Minnesota Twins are among several MLB teams that could undergo a major financial overhaul under a newly proposed collective bargaining agreement.
The Minnesota Twins have long operated near the bottom half of the MLB's spending landscape. A proposed new collective bargaining agreement could make that approach impossible to sustain.
Minnesota currently ranks 22nd in MLB payroll, at $105.2 million in 2026, per Spotrac. On Thursday, MLB submitted its first CBA counterproposal to the MLB Players Association, which included a salary cap of $245.3 million and a hard salary floor of $171.2 million beginning in 2027. That would leave the Twins $66 million short of the proposed minimum. The Twins wouldn’t be alone in this. 14 other teams fall short of the salary floor.
The proposal comes one day after the MLBPA made its own opening offer, which called for a softer "competitive integrity tax" that would apply to any team spending below $150 million. That figure still sits roughly $45 million above Minnesota's current standing. Either way, the Twins would have to make a dramatic shift in their spending on the Pohlad family’s dime. It's the same ownership that dealt 11 players in the 2025 trade deadline to shed some payroll.
The Twins' two largest contracts illustrate just how far the roster rebuild would have to go. Pablo Lopez carries the largest contract on the roster at $21.75 million, while Byron Buxton follows at $15 million as part of a seven-year, $100 million extension that runs through 2028. Those two contracts combined account for less than a quarter of the proposed salary floor.
To put that $66 million in perspective, that number would cover roughly two mid-tier free agent starting pitchers in today’s market. Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, who entered his walk year as arguably the best pitcher in baseball, is projected to get the largest pitching contract in MLB history this coming offseason. A deal for Skubal would nearly consume the entire gap that Minnesota would need to close.
The highest ever payroll for the Twins was set in 2023 at $156 million, a figure that would still fall $15 million short. Reaching $171.2 million would not just be a new record; it would, of course, require a sustained ownership commitment that has never been seen in Minnesota.
The current CBA expires after the 2026 season, with the two sides already far apart as negotiations enter the early stages. It has long been questioned whether there would be a work stoppage in 2027, but if the sides can't make it work, it's hard to imagine baseball being played at all after 2026.
