Aaron Gleeman recently analyzed the relationship between Minnesota Twins ownership and the team’s fan base.
The Minnesota Twins’ offseason has once again brought the team’s ownership into sharp focus, with familiar frustrations resurfacing among fans. Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic recently broke down the decades-long cycle of messaging from the Pohlad family, who own the franchise, noting how history seems to repeat itself with each new generation at the helm.
“During the late ’90s and early 2000s, the messaging was we’re spending rock bottom. We’re still losing money, we’re going to move the team, we’re going to contract the team, we’re going to do whatever,” Gleeman recalled. At the time, the Metrodome was described as a bad place to watch baseball, and ownership insisted that a new ballpark was the only solution.
That ballpark eventually came, built with immense public financing. Yet 15 years into playing there, the Twins’ ownership has returned to the same familiar strategy. The narrative has shifted from claiming losses of around $60 million in the early 2000s to citing figures closer to $500 million today, but the underlying message remains unchanged: payroll must be cut, and the team is expected to operate near the bottom of the league in spending.
This repetition is what fuels distrust among the fan base. “This is part of why we talk about the Pohlads in the way that we do,” Gleeman explained. “There is this decades-long history of history repeating itself and them saying the same things and their actions saying the same things.”
The startling part, he added, is how little has changed over time. “Thirty years ago, the second generation said this, and then 30 years later, the third generation essentially is saying the identical thing — except just the scale of money has gone up tenfold.”
For fans, the frustration is not just about numbers but about trust. “If people wonder why are Twins fans the way they are and why is there so much distrust of the Pohlads and why is there so much interest in them selling the team… it’s because every 20 years, you guys do the same thing with a different Pohlad at the helm.”
As the Twins prepare for the 2026 season, the tension between ownership’s financial messaging and the fans’ desire for a competitive roster remains unresolved. Minnesota still boasts young talent and a core capable of contending in the AL Central, but questions about payroll cuts loom large. For many, the offseason feels less about roster construction and more about whether ownership will finally break the cycle that has defined the franchise for decades.