Tom Pohlad

Him being good is a very big part of that.

And so for him just to see that start, just to see that he can do it, for himself that's huge, and for the Twins as well, just to see that, because if they want their competitive window to be open in 2027, which I think it is, which Twins Head of ownership Tom Pohlad said it was.

He says 2027 playoffs are the expectation for this team.

And so Walker Jenkins being good and being not necessarily your best player next season, but one of your better hitters in 2027 is going to be a huge reason why.

And so what Charlie Walters is, I think, implying is they're looking to expand their percentage of the team to maybe get to 51% or something like that.

Uh, that's certainly not impossible, and, you know, there's part of me that very much hopes that's the case, uh, because while I think Tom Pohlad has been an improvement over previous Poh lads in terms of his messaging and saying the right things, I've said this for the last couple years, I'm at the point where I will take, uh, door number two.

Uh, I will take a non-Pohlad in any form.

But what I would caution here is you can't sell to Varde Partners as a sort of conglomerate, because you can't sell to private equity more than, I think, 15 or 20% or something like that, which I'm assuming they almost already have.

I mean, I th- I think it's possible where in a different, in a different search, situation that maybe they would've tried to done a little bit of both, where it's like, "Okay, we'll trade Jeffers and maybe trade Joe Ryan at the time, and also get Jeff Hoffman back, where he's under control for an extra year, and a Dean Kramer." And it's like, okay, try to do a little bit more instead of just being, "We're gonna only buy and that's it, just because we owe the fan base something because we're just trying to get fans to come back to the ballpark." Um, I, you know, and I, I think in hindsight it's easier to say that.

But I, I do think th- Tom Pohlad, uh, y- you know, he's the owner of the team.

He runs the business side.

He knows what attendance is.

I know there are a lot of people that don't, uh...

You know, it's Pohlad's this, Pohlad's that.

There can be a lot of negative connotations.

Yep.

Well, let me tell you, I'm just gonna tell folks, 'cause this is the truth.

I worked for the Pohlad family for, you know, about four, five, six years.

My wife has worked for the Pohlad's for over 20 years, and there are not better people to work for.

Yep.

Now, I know that his contract's incentive based, but if the, he plays well and hits all of his incentives, the Twins are happy to pay that, 'cause it usually means they're good.

And for the Twins, if they wanna make the playoffs, which is what Tom Pohlad said going into this presser.

He set the bar.

I talked about it on Monday's show.

Yes.

Uh, now we've talked about this at the time and since, the notion of, hey, Tom Pohlad didn't take over until mid-December, and it took him a while to kind of get situated.

Sure.

What were we supposed to do? We couldn't make moves.

You're paying him 23 million.

Well, yeah, that's a premium, right? But you're gonna pay a premium on a one-year deal because it allows you not to have to commit to a 30-year-old catcher for four years.

But then also, how does that hurt them, really? If you're giving him, quote-unquote, "an extra four or five million dollars" on top of what you would sort of like to slot him in for, the payroll, according to Tom Pohlad, sh- should be such that an extra four or five million is not gonna completely hamstring what they're doing.

Mm.

Aaron Gleeman, someone we've had on the show many times, asked whether fans should expect them to significantly increase the payroll above 100 million to significantly strengthen the roster, potentially returning to 2023 spending levels, and whether ownership should set clear payroll expectations for fans.

Here was Tom Pohlad's response, KB.

I'll let you react after

In a vacuum, I'd love to level set, you know, set expectations for the fan base.

[lip smacks] Uh, I, I-- You know what he sounded like? David Stern yesterday when he was talking about a cap to the lower trajectory of our team, and I didn't put a cap on the trajectory, and I-- Wha-huh, wha-huh? It's a lot of words.

He's saying-

Basically what Tom Pohlad said is no, but he made it sound way more intelligent than just saying, "No, we're not gonna spend any money.

And Twins fans, keep coming out and showing up for your team, and let's hope we can figure out in a bad AL Central." That's basically what he said.

Twins had a end of season news conference on, uh, on Tuesday as well.

Owner Tom Pohlad vowing to spend more money.

Uh, GM Jeremy Zoll talking about maybe dealing away some starting pitching to add in other areas.

It is going to be a fascinating off-season in baseball overall.