The Minnesota Twins are already struggling with depth in 2024, after Royce Lewis suffered a quad injury on Opening Day that will keep him out of the lineup for at least a month and they failed to add anybody of significance to a starting rotation that lost Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda.
Why? Because we were told early on in the offseason that the Twins were slashing payroll by $25-$30 million, in part because they did not know how much TV revenue they would make, after their contract with Bally Sports North expired following the 2023 season.
Even after that got figured out, though, Joe Pohlad made it clear the Twins were not going to go out and spend that TV revenue on new players, something he may or may not have gotten in trouble with the MLBPA for saying (but that’s for another article).
2024 Minnesota Twins worth $1.46 Billion
The point here is that the Minnesota Twins were slashing payroll this season, ‘to right their financial books’, no matter what good fortune they ran into or who Scott Boras tried to land in their lap.
With that type of desperation to cut down player salary, the Twins’ books must have been really upside-down, right? On Wednesday, thanks to Forbes, we found out that is not the case at all. In fact, quite the opposite.
According to Forbes’ valuation the Minnesota Twins are worth $1.46 billion, which is $70 million more than what they were valued at in 2023. Even with a record payroll (paid out $187 million after bonuses), the Pohlads pocketed $20 million (of a total $342 million) in operating revenue in 2023.
| Forbes Valuation | $1.46 Billion (No. 21 in MLB) |
| Owners | Carl R. Pohlad Family |
| Championships | 3 |
| Year Purchased | 1984 |
| Price Paid | $44 Million |
| Revenue (2023) | $342 Million |
| Operating Income (2023) | $19 Million |
| Total Player Expenses (2023) | $187 Million |
So was it possible that the Twins stood to break money…. possibly even break even in 2024, had they not sliced $30 million from the starting payroll? Yes, it is quite possible, depending on how much they end up paying out in salary bonuses and how much of the $60 million their new 1-year deal with Bally Sports is paying them.
But if you think the Minnesota Twins had no choice but to cut down payroll, due to their inability to make money with they payroll as high as it was, then you are falling prisoner to the Pohlad’s propaganda.
If they cared about this baseball team as much as staying out of the red (even for one year), the Twins could have a World Series caliber roster. Instead, we might be lucky to make it out of the Central.
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