All Things 2025 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Since I advocated, "Blow it up. Blow it up real good", I do have to be careful in this careful what you wish for situation when double digit players who were on the 26 Man Active Roster as of Sunday are shipped out.

As a Glass Half Full type of guy, the silver lining is I won't be as sad/upset when the 2027 MLB season is either cancelled or delayed due to a labor disagreement.
 


howeda7 said:
I don't. They got about $40 - 45 million last year from Diamond and they are on virtually all the same cable and satellite systems this year. So $25 million is probably conservative.
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The cable / satellite outlets were under zero obligation to pony anything beyond pennies to carry Twins.TV.
 

Ope3 said:
The cable / satellite outlets were under zero obligation to pony anything beyond pennies to carry Twins.TV.
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If bumbling Joe Pohlad negotiated it, you might be right. MLB negotiated this for 6 teams. They didn't give it away for pennies. DirecTV charges customers $8/month for local sports fees, all the ones that carry RSNs do something similar. MLB knows that.
 

howeda7 said:
If that were true they'd be on all of them, including YouTube etc.. MLB negotiated this for 6 teams. They didn't give it away for pennies. DirecTV charges customers $8/month for local sports fees, all the ones that carry RSNs do. MLB knows that.
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If they had revenue certainty they wouldn't have ditched a half dozen players under team control in 2026.

Or perhaps that revenue is certainly meager.
 


One thing I know for certain…anyone who thinks the money pocketed today will be used, even partially, next year in free agency doesn’t understand the Pohlads and the sale of this team.

100% of this won’t see the light of day. Straight into their pockets.
 

Ope3 said:
The Major League reference obviously went above your head.
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No. I got it. But Miami often really got used as leverage for teams to get new stadiums in real life too. It was better as a threat.
 

Ope3 said:
If they had revenue certainty they wouldn't have ditched a half dozen players under team control in 2026.

Or perhaps that revenue is certainly meager.
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If they were making $10 million in local TV they would never have allowed a $140 million payroll this year to begin with. They would have traded Pablo Lopez and others in the offseason.
 

howeda7 said:
If they were making $10 million in local TV they would never have allowed a $140 million payroll this year to begin with. They would have traded Pablo Lopez and others in the offseason.
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I think that they kept Pablo with the hopes of growing the $10 million revenue by intending to put a solid product on the field. It didn't work out.

No short term growth potential for that revenue, even less than expected. Time to cut bait and slash the payroll. With an axe, not a carving knife.
 




Ope3 said:
I think that they kept Pablo with the hopes of growing the $10 million revenue by intending to put a solid product on the field. It didn't work out.

No short term growth potential for that revenue, even less than expected. Time to cut bait and slash the payroll. With an axe, not a carving knife.
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The only "growth" from having a good season would be from selling streaming subscriptions and that was always a tiny % of the total. From that specifically, sure, they might only be making $2-3 million and might have hoped for $4-5 million.

That didn't trigger this fire sale. The big $$ still comes from traditional distribution.
 

howeda7 said:
No. I got it. But Miami often really got used as leverage for teams to get new stadiums in real life too. It was better as a threat.
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Ok, got it, your LOL was genuine not sarcastic. My bad.
 

Pewterschmidt said:
One thing I know for certain…anyone who thinks the money pocketed today will be used, even partially, next year in free agency doesn’t understand the Pohlads and the sale of this team.

100% of this won’t see the light of day. Straight into their pockets.
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Given that franchise owes several hundred million dollars in debt, it's more likely service their creditors, not their pockets.
 



I don’t get what the strategy was today because it was all over the place. Some moves were to save money obviously. Some were to try to get prospects. And a few were to trade for worse current MLB players. Varland makes no sense as he is costing almost nothing and is under control for 5 more years.

I’m dumbfounded.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I don’t get what the strategy was today because it was all over the place. Some moves were to save money obviously. Some were to try to get prospects. And a few were to trade for worse current MLB players. Varland makes no sense as he is costing almost nothing and is under control for 5 more years.

I’m dumbfounded.
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Varland and Jax make little sense. They don't save $$ and could have gotten similar returns 1-2 years from now.
 

howeda7 said:
The only "growth" from having a good season would be from selling streaming subscriptions and that was always a tiny % of the total. From that specifically, sure, they might only be making $2-3 million and might have hoped for $4-5 million.

That didn't trigger this fire sale. The big $$ still comes from traditional distribution.
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I don't think it's "big $$" anymore and it continues to shrink, almost daily with cord cutters.

Just because they were paying RSNs "X" amount of dollars in 2023 doesn't mean they were willing to pony up anything like that in 2025 for just the Twins (or the other 5 teams in their respective markets).

Also there's production costs cover.

Apologies, this a rehashed argument, though indeed a diversion from the Twins current roster travails. I firmly believe they are connected though.

Like zero doubt.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I don’t get what the strategy was today because it was all over the place. Some moves were to save money obviously. Some were to try to get prospects. And a few were to trade for worse current MLB players. Varland makes no sense as he is costing almost nothing and is under control for 5 more years.

I’m dumbfounded.
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Unless they suspect Varland is tied up in something like a betting scandal, I really don't get it.

Local kid too. Bizarre.
 

Ope3 said:
I don't think it's "big $$" anymore and it continues to shrink, almost daily with cord cutters.

Just because they were paying RSNs "X" amount of dollars in 2023 doesn't mean they were willing to pony up anything like that in 2025 for just the Twins (or the other 5 teams in their respective markets).

Also there's production costs cover.

Apologies, this a rehashed argument, though indeed a diversion from the Twins current roster travails. I firmly believe they are connected though.

Like zero doubt.
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I think we're arguing degree. Going from $56 million in local TV in 2023 to $45 million in 2024 to $30 million in 2025 is still a massive decline. Traditional distribution is obviously declining. But it's still bigger than many people seem to realize and still dwarfs the # of people paying $99 to stream. The distributors aren't "obligated" to pony up anything. But sports is the #1 reason their remaining customers stay. So yes they are willing to pay something for it. YouTube and Hulu aren't so they don't have it. If they were giving it away for pennies they'd carry MLB too.

The Pohlads are in debt and trying to sell. They would not have signed up to lose the amount they would be at $10 million. MLB had enough info after last year to give them a reasonable estimate of what they could expect. I don't think there is some massive shortfall in TV $$ triggering this. They had an opportunity to dump Correa's contract and they took it.
 


Early in the 1982 HHH Dome debut season, with Twins Ownership in a world of hurt dumped a large chunk of their Opening Day roster. The carnage included Butch Wynegar, Roy Smalley & Doug Corbett, all former All Stars.

It took a few seasons to get new Owners. However, the return back from the fire sale netted key cogs in the 1987 World Series with the likes of Greg Gagne & Tom Brunansky.

Here's to better days.
 

Blowed up good! Blowed up real good!

I will never again, in this lifetime, have to listen to anybody whine about "all that money we're paying Correa".

 
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Who will be the starting shortstop going forward?

Whoever it is, I sincerely hope we're not paying him too much money. I hate it when we do that.
 

Well, at least I got to watch live as the Braves took a 3-3 game in the top of the 8th to an 11-3 lead, and then watch the Reds match those 8 runs in the bottom of the 8th.

I don’t think I’ve even seen a 16 run inning.
 

www.espn.com

MLB trade deadline winners and losers: What we loved -- and don't understand

The 2025 trade deadline has passed. Here's who hit it out of the park -- and who swung and missed.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

The big loser: Minnesota Twins ... fans​

What a sad, brutal day to be a Twins fan. Gone this deadline period: Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, Brock Stewart and Chris Paddack. That's nine players off the 26-man roster, including the back end of a championship-caliber bullpen. At least they kept Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton.

Sure, some of those guys -- Bader and Castro in particular -- were heading to free agency. It's more the messaging here: We're cheap and don't care about winning. Was that likely this season? Probably not, as the Twins are 5½ games out of the wild-card race. But it wasn't an impossible idea. One hot streak and they're right back in it. Is it likely next year? Probably not now. The Twins will need to build an entire bullpen from scratch, for starters. They have one legitimate star position player in Buxton, and he has trouble staying healthy.

Did they do well in the trades? Time will tell, but it's not like they loaded up on top-100 prospects or anything like that. Catcher Eduardo Tait is the most interesting prospect they got, but he's an 18-year-old in High-A and likely years away from making an impact. It's possible the Twins -- if they spend some of the savings on trading Correa's contract -- can reallocate their resources to build a more competitive, well-rounded team. It's also possible, with the team for sale, that the Twins are entering a Rays- or Pirates-like era of frugality, pocketing more profits while the losses pile up.

This Twins era began with a 101-win team in 2019. They signed Correa in 2022, but the Correa era will have produced just one playoff season in four years. It might be a few years before the Twins are even thinking of the playoffs again. Twins fans can only hope that assessment is wrong.
 


Unregistered User said:
www.espn.com

MLB trade deadline winners and losers: What we loved -- and don't understand

The 2025 trade deadline has passed. Here's who hit it out of the park -- and who swung and missed.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

The big loser: Minnesota Twins ... fans​

What a sad, brutal day to be a Twins fan. Gone this deadline period: Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, Brock Stewart and Chris Paddack. That's nine players off the 26-man roster, including the back end of a championship-caliber bullpen. At least they kept Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton.

Sure, some of those guys -- Bader and Castro in particular -- were heading to free agency. It's more the messaging here: We're cheap and don't care about winning. Was that likely this season? Probably not, as the Twins are 5½ games out of the wild-card race. But it wasn't an impossible idea. One hot streak and they're right back in it. Is it likely next year? Probably not now. The Twins will need to build an entire bullpen from scratch, for starters. They have one legitimate star position player in Buxton, and he has trouble staying healthy.

Did they do well in the trades? Time will tell, but it's not like they loaded up on top-100 prospects or anything like that. Catcher Eduardo Tait is the most interesting prospect they got, but he's an 18-year-old in High-A and likely years away from making an impact. It's possible the Twins -- if they spend some of the savings on trading Correa's contract -- can reallocate their resources to build a more competitive, well-rounded team. It's also possible, with the team for sale, that the Twins are entering a Rays- or Pirates-like era of frugality, pocketing more profits while the losses pile up.

This Twins era began with a 101-win team in 2019. They signed Correa in 2022, but the Correa era will have produced just one playoff season in four years. It might be a few years before the Twins are even thinking of the playoffs again. Twins fans can only hope that assessment is wrong.
Click to expand...

At least us fans don't have to pay Carlos Correa "all that money" anymore. Thank God for that!
 




Unregistered User said:
www.espn.com

MLB trade deadline winners and losers: What we loved -- and don't understand

The 2025 trade deadline has passed. Here's who hit it out of the park -- and who swung and missed.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

The big loser: Minnesota Twins ... fans​

What a sad, brutal day to be a Twins fan. Gone this deadline period: Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, Brock Stewart and Chris Paddack. That's nine players off the 26-man roster, including the back end of a championship-caliber bullpen. At least they kept Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton.

...

This Twins era began with a 101-win team in 2019. They signed Correa in 2022, but the Correa era will have produced just one playoff season in four years. It might be a few years before the Twins are even thinking of the playoffs again. Twins fans can only hope that assessment is wrong.
Click to expand...

I turn 69 years old in a few days.

But, hey... I hope the millennials and zoomers can enjoy all the future Twins successes, as they stream the games on their phones.
 

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