ATLANTA ‐ More than nine months have passed since the Pohlad family announced its intention to explore a sale of the Minnesota Twins, but the delay in finding a buyer, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said on Tuesday, does not mean there are no bidders willing to meet the Pohlads’ price.
In fact, the commissioner 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” in other franchise sales.
Given that Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg agreed just this month to accept $1.7 billion for his franchise, one plagued by stadium issues, that means the Twins figure to fetch at least that much in any sale.
“I know some things you don’t know” about progress towards a Twins sale, Manfred said at a morning question-and-answer session with members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. “There will be a transaction there.”
Manfred declined to offer a timeline for the buyer to be revealed, saying, “We just need to be patient while they work.”
The three Pohlad brothers who own the team, originally purchased in 1984 by their father, Carl, for $44 million, announced in a statement on Oct. 10 that they would explore a sale, and expectations were that a buyer would be identified by Opening Day. But those plans were delayed, Manfred said, because “there was a leader in the clubhouse there,” an apparent reference to Phoenix Suns co-owner Justin Ishbia.
“This is a small business, right? All those bankers out there — there ain’t that many of them, and they all talk to each other,” Manfred said. “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 the price, and unless they’re prepared to top it, they’re going to move on and do something else.”
But in June, Ishbia reached an agreement with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf to increase his minority stake in that team instead, with the long-term intention of becoming the principal owner of the franchise.
