The Minnesota Twins announced on Thursday that the club would be put up for sale, and will begin accepting bids beginning later this month.
The Pohlad family, who purchased the franchise in 1984 for $44M, are expected to receive somewhere in the neighbourhood of $1.5-2B for the Minneapolis based team. Originally bought by Carl Pohlad, he kept the team in the family by passing it along to his son Jim, who then ceded control over to Carl’s grandson Joe.
The Pohlads are the 4th longest tenured ownership group in Major League Baseball, trailing only the Yankees, White Sox and Phillies.
“After months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins,” the team said in a statement. “As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public.”
The most recent sale of an MLB club was the Baltimore Orioles who fetched $1.725B on the open market, eventually being purchased by David Rubenstein. Minnesota has won two World Series titles under the Pohlad ownership group, and has reached the playoffs in 10 of the last 25 seasons.
That being said, since 2002, the team has failed to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs. With the uncertain nature of Minnesota’s regional broadcasting deal, how the sale process plays out will be a development that other clubs such as the Los Angeles Angels will be closely monitoring.
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