After years of apathy, this past season captured the imagination of Minnesota Twins fans.
They had legitimate superstars in Carlos Correa and Pablo López. They had a young nucleus featuring Royce Lewis, Edouard Julien, and Matt Wallner. New Twins television voice Cory Provus mentioned that a new TV deal would feature “a world without TV blackouts,” and a competitive team was at the forefront.
But the mood has changed as the Twins report for spring training. Minnesota slashed its payroll to $123 million and returned to Bally’s on a one-year deal. They traded favorite Jorge Polanco to the Seattle Mariners. Outside of adding to the bullpen, there wasn’t much for Twins fans to get excited about.
While these can be dismissed as logistical problems, they could become a focus in a hurry and put some unexpected pressure on the Twins as they head into the 2024 season.
The frustration of Twins fans comes in several layers, including their television deal. The Twins have been airing their games on cable since 1989 and gained exclusive rights in 2011. While the channel has had several names (MSG, FOX Sports North), it became Bally Sports North as part of a merger with Diamond Sports Group in 2017.
While the new channel was available on streaming services that became popular in the mid-to-late 2010s, Diamond started pulling the regional sports networks (or RSNs) off of services like YouTube TV and required fans to pay struggling cable companies to watch their favorite team.
NBA and NHL teams have adopted the new technology as Bally’s offers a streaming service to watch the games for $20 a month. But baseball has been one step behind, brainstorming ways to fix the problem until Diamond Sports declared bankruptcy last spring.
The Twins were one of several teams affected by Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy, going to court to claim their $54 million in rights fees. When their contract expired, fans saw the streaming option MLB created for the San Diego Padres in the middle of the season and thought Minnesota could do the same thing.
While there was optimism at the beginning of the offseason, it slowly deteriorated. There was no official announcement heading into the new calendar year, and Amazon’s $115 million investment in Diamond Sports offered hope they could offer a streaming option – just not right away.
That left the Twins with a pair of options. They could become one of MLB’s test subjects and have their games streamed like the Arizona Diamondbacks, who offer their games for $100 per season. Or they could sign a bridge deal with Bally’s, get a guaranteed cut, and see what Amazon has in mind for streaming rights in 2025.
The Twins took the guaranteed money, and fans were not happy. Even Twins president Dave St. Peter acknowledged the fans’ angst when the deal was announced earlier this month.
“We’re sensitive to the fact that some of our fans are finding it difficult to watch our games, and we want to rectify that as soon as we can,” St. Peter told the Star Tribune. “We’re already working on 2025. We’ve had many different conversations about the future of Twins television, and those conversations will continue.”
The Twins are probably working on a streaming option. But that’s not a consolation prize for a fan base that includes a new wave of fans who just want to watch their games on TV. Perhaps spending to improve the best Twins team in two decades would be enough of a band-aid, but that didn’t happen either.
Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda left Minnesota early in free agency. Several big names came off the board, and others like Emilio Pagán and Joey Gallo followed suit. The payroll continued to decline, and the Polanco trade served as the Twins’ first big move of the winter outside of signing a handful of relievers to minor league contracts.
Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey tried to jump in front of this during MLB’s GM Meetings last November, but it remained a persistent theme of the offseason.
When the new television deal was announced, Twins fans picked up on the 15 percent decrease in revenue the Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers took in their new deals. An approximate $8 million in lost revenue wouldn’t be enough to rule them out of one big free agent signing, and “The Boras Four” of Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, and Jordan Montgomery were Twins fans’ favorite targets.
Twins Executive Chair Joe Pohlad tried to jump in front of the situation. But in an effort to be transparent, he wound up angering the fan base even more. He ruled out a top free agent signing and pledged to “right-size” his business with his comments to WCCO’s Jason DeRusha.
“I think in today’s game, you can see there are a number of different ways to win,” Pohlad said. “You see that both with the Tampa Bay Rays and with the Baltimore Orioles having lower payrolls, turning out very successful products on the field but also investing in other areas of the business. That is something that we are doing. But without a question, the television situation is having an impact on our business. But beyond that, we’re just trying to right-size our business. That goes into it as well.”
In a vacuum, Pohlad didn’t say anything wrong. The Twins lost revenue on their new TV deal, and many teams are trying to emulate what the Orioles and Rays did after winning a combined 200 games last season. But it’s the emotional trigger that has Twins fans upset.
Orioles fans are in a similar situation as they deal with the final months of the Peter Angelos era. Angelos put his wallet in front of a winning product on the field, and the Orioles had to go through years of tanking before building a core that includes Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 overall prospect, Jackson Holliday.
But even the Orioles were aggressive in building their roster. They signed Craig Kimbrel to shore up the bullpen and made a trade to acquire Corbin Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers. If anything has Twins fans upset, it’s the mention of the Rays, who have become a modern version of the Twins in the 2000s.
Those teams had a Hall of Famer in Joe Mauer and an elite cornerstone in Justin Morneau. Still, they also had several fan favorites leave due to payroll restrictions, including Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. These scars run deeper when you consider that Carl Pohlad, grandfather to Joe Pohlad, tried to have the Twins contracted for “economic reasons” following the 2001 season.
It’s why Twins fans don’t think of the five straight playoff appearances – including a World Series appearance – the Rays have made entering this season. They think of trading Tyler Glasnow to the Los Angeles Dodgers because he costs $32 million a year or the prospect of not paying some of their young stars in the name of profit margins.
Combine this with Minnesota’s television snafu, and many people are angry at a time when optimism rules the headlines. Could it bleed over to the players on the field? The Twins are a good team, and they should be able to compete regardless of their payroll. But there are certain areas that fans can see going wrong.
Byron Buxton is convinced he’s back to his All-Star form in center field. But if the injury bug returns, the Twins would currently be relying on Willi Castro or Austin Martin in Buxton’s place, putting a huge dent at the plate and in the field.
First base is another uncertainty. Alex Kirilloff has battled injuries, and Carlos Santana will turn 38 on April 8. Even if José Miranda regains his 2021 form, there’s not a lot of depth here that could lead to fans wondering why they didn’t sign Rhys Hoskins.
Then there’s the starting rotation, which lost just under 285 innings with Gray and Maeda’s departures. While Chris Paddack is expected to have no innings limit, he’s also coming off his second Tommy John surgery and not a sure thing in the minds of Twins fans.
If any of these areas falter, it could lead to another wave of anger – especially if the Twins get off to a slow start. With fan angst rising, the Twins need to win, and they need to do it immediately. Otherwise, they risk losing the fan base they had recaptured back in October.
