Manfred on Twins sale, media rights, potential for Bay Area expansion

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to the media ahead of Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, touching on various topics, including the sale of the Twins, the ongoing media rights situation and the possibility of the Bay Area getting a future expansion franchise.

The Twins have been on the block for almost a year now, as it was back in October that the Pohlad family announced it would be exploring a sale. Per Dan Hayes and Evan Drellich of The Athletic as well as Phil Miller of the Star Tribune, Manfred chalked up the ongoing delay to the Justin Ishbia situation.

Justin Ishbia and his brother Mat were connected to the Twins early in the sale process. However, Justin abandoned his pursuit of the Twins and doubled down on his connection with the White Sox. Justin was already a minority owner of the Sox and, by early June, had a deal in place to become the eventual owner of that franchise.

The way Manfred frames it, Ishbia was initially viewed as such a frontrunner for the Twins that other potential bidders backed off. “You know this is a small business, right?” Manfred said. “All those bankers that are out there, there ain’t that many of them, they all talk to each other. When it becomes clear that you have a leader in the clubhouse, everybody else kind of backs away, right? Because they kind of get a feel for price. And unless they’re prepared to top, they’re going to move on and do something else. So a big part of the delay in Minnesota was associated with the leader in the clubhouse made a decision to do something else.”

However, interest has supposedly ramped up since Ishbia pivoted to the Sox. “I know some things that you don’t know,” Manfred said. “I can tell you with a lot of confidence that there will be a transaction there, and it will be consistent with the kind of pricing that has taken place. There will be a transaction. We just need to be patient while they rework.”

It has been reported since March that the Pohlad family is hoping to get $1.7 billion for the Twins. A $1.5 billion number which was floated by one potential bidder was considered “a non-starter.” Last year, the Angelos family sold the Orioles for $1.725M. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg reportedly has an agreement in principle to sell the Rays for $1.7 billion this year. Perhaps the market has been set in a way which will allow the Pohlad family to get their asking price, though today’s piece from The Athletic notes that the Twins are carrying a fairly high debt load of $42M .

Manfred also addressed the league’s media rights situation, per Drellich. Manfred previously noted that he hoped to have something to announce before the All-Star game in relation to the collapsed ESPN deal but it appears nothing is across the finish line yet. He said today that progress is being made but he didn’t specify a new target date for getting something done.

It was reported back in February that ESPN opted out of their deal with MLB for the 2026 through 2028 seasons. That deal included broadcast rights for Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and the Wild Card round of the playoffs. ESPN still has the rights for the current season but those products are still up for grabs after 2025.

ESPN’s deal would have seen them pay $550M annually, had they not opted out. They were reportedly willing to go as high as $200M in order to keep the rights but MLB balked at that price. NBC reportedly made some kind of offer in May but it’s unknown what kind of number was floated, apart from it being “much less” than $550M. Last month, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported that MLB and ESPN had renewed talks and that Apple and Fox had also been connected to the package, in addition to NBC.

On another note, Manfred left the door open for a future expansion franchise coming to the Bay Area, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and John Shea of the San Francisco Standard. “In terms of expansion,” he said, “open book. You know what? People who want baseball should participate in the expansion process when we start that process, and I think by being wide open, with no predeterminations as to where it’s going, we’re going to end up with the best locations if we want to expand.”

The Bay Area still has the Giants but recently lost the Athletics, who are in the process of moving from Oakland to Las Vegas. Manfred cited recent changes in government as increasing the odds of a new franchise coming back to Oakland. “I don’t have any problem with any government official in Oakland,” Manfred said. “I thought Mayor [Sheng] Thao was not particularly helpful when we got down to brass tacks, but I don’t think I’m going to have to deal with her going forward.”

Thao was mayor of Oakland in 2023 and 2024 but was ousted in a recall election in November. Various reports have indicated that the relationships between Thao, A’s owner John Fisher and Manfred were not especially rosy. Slusser reports that Manfred previously swore off Oakland due to the unsuccessful negotiations, so his more neutral tone today is perhaps noteworthy. Both Slusser and Shea float San Jose as another possibility for the area, even if Oakland isn’t viable.

For the theoretical possibility to become a reality, a viable group would have to emerge and enter the bidding. Over the years, various groups have formed with the hopes of getting expansion franchises in places like Nashville, Salt Lake City, Orlando and Portland.

Manfred has consistently said expansion won’t be on the table until the A’s and Rays have new homes figured out. The A’s are scheduled to open their new stadium in Vegas in 2028. The Rays had a deal which fell apart in the wake of hurricane damage to The Trop, which then led to the aforementioned in-process sale. It expected that the Rays’ new ownership group will eventually pursue a new stadium in Tampa proper, as opposed to the club’s previous home in St. Petersburg.