Sports

RandBall: Why aren’t the Twins sharing their 2026 plan yet?

The Twins’ plan for next season is still unclear even as the offseason gets into full swing.

By Michael Rand

The Minnesota Star Tribune

November 14, 2025 at 6:23PM

Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey speaks at a news conference in late September. (Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

If it feels like the Twins are moving the goalposts when it comes to sharing details of their offseason plan and path forward, you aren’t wrong.

In an exclusive Star Tribune interview in mid-August after it was announced the Twins were taking on limited partners instead of selling the team, chairman Joe Pohlad said those partners would be revealed in a few weeks. He said that there would be payroll discussion after the end of the season and that “we’ll have a new process by then with our new limited partners involved.”

Shortly after the season ended, Twins President Derek Falvey talked about the big picture of the franchise in the wake of firing manager Rocco Baldelli. Those budget meetings and 2026 payroll discussion hadn’t happened yet.

“There will be some limited partners that are coming in and involved in some of the discussions around how we operate going forward,” Falvey said at the time. “Those have not yet happened. Those are likely to happen in, hopefully, the weeks to come.”

So, maybe late October? Well, it’s mid-November and here is what Falvey said at the GM meetings this week while indicating to the public and interested teams that the budget is still a wait-and-see proposition.

“I do hope and anticipate that as we get into December,” Falvey said, ”we’ll have a lot more clarity on the voices and who is around the process.”

So it’s been three months since the Pohlads pulled the plug on selling the team and we still don’t know who the limited partners are or what the payroll will be.

This was a main topic of discussion on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast with Aaron Gleeman.

Let’s dive into the possible reasons why we don’t know the plan yet at the start of today’s 10 things to know.

The Twins honestly have no idea. This seems unlikely, which is good because it also seems like the worst possible explanation. It’s almost impossible that the new limited partners, whoever they are, haven’t been briefed and included on at least the concept of a plan. It also stands to reason that the partners could be approved as soon as next week at MLB owners’ meetings.
The Twins have an idea of what the payroll and path forward will be, but it’s not finalized yet. This is quite possible, though it is frustrating that it’s mid-November and we’re still at this point.
The Twins know for sure what the plan is, but they don’t want to tell us because it’s bad news. This wouldn’t surprise me. Falvey was honest at the GM meetings two years ago and said the Twins were going to cut payroll. Joe Pohlad followed up in a February 2024 radio interview with talk that they had to “right-size” the payroll. It was a public relations disaster.
My take on what is going to happen: After carrying payrolls that allowed them to be competitive in the AL Central but ultimately falling short in recent years, the Twins will bottom out in 2026. It would hardly be surprising to see one or more of Pablo López, Joe Ryan or Byron Buxton traded. The payroll could wind up at less than $100 million as they try to regroup as an organization and wait to see what might happen in a new collective bargaining agreement that will come at the end of next year.
If that sounds too pessimistic, Jim Souhan found the glass-is-half-full approach to the Twins and MLB in his recent column.
In non-Twins news, Major League Soccer made a major schedule change. I opened up with that on today’s podcast.
Justin Jefferson is in a bit of a funk and is trying to get back to his 2022 level. This quote from Jefferson when asked why things feel different on the field was interesting: “Um, life. Just different things going on in my life and just wanting to get back to that kid phase of loving — I still love football, but overly loving football and overly loving just being out there on Sundays.”
Dillon Brooks as Suns savior AND Peter Griffin meme?

View post on X

Are you ready for the deluge of sports? The Gophers football team and Wolves play Friday night. The Wolves and Wild play Saturday. The Wild and Vikings play Sunday.
Expect a postgame Vikings podcast Sunday and then all of those big games and more on Monday with Patrick Reusse.

about the writer

Michael Rand

Columnist / Reporter

Michael Rand is the Minnesota Star Tribune's Digital Sports Senior Writer and host/creator of the Daily Delivery podcast. In 25 years covering Minnesota sports at the Minnesota Star Tribune, he has seen just about everything (except, of course, a Vikings Super Bowl).