New Twins boss Tom Pohlad is a ‘go big or go home’ guy

Tom Pohlad, stepping into the lead Twins owner role Wednesday, described himself as someone who doesn’t like half measures when it comes to the way he runs things.

“Half measures are not good, and you’ll probably get to know me over time: I’m not a half-measure guy,” Pohlad said. “I’m a ‘go big or go home’ guy.”

The way the Twins are building their roster for the 2026 season, however, amounts to a middle ground. The Twins intend to keep All-Star players Joe Ryan, Pablo López and Byron Buxton, despite heavy trade interest, but their payroll will likely be at its lowest point in nine years.

Counting the one-year, $7 million agreement with free agent first baseman Josh Bell, which is pending a physical examination, the Twins’ estimated payroll for the upcoming season is $100 million.

The Twins want to add relievers, and potentially another power bat, but their payroll is still $30 million below where it was at the end of last season and down $60 million from their playoff run in 2023.

“We are certainly within reach of winning a division title,” Pohlad said. “We’ll continue to look at moves we can make that will help us accomplish that.”

Why not put more money toward the payroll to give the roster a better chance of winning in 2026?

He plans to be an active owner, but he noted he will leave baseball decisionmaking to team President Derek Falvey and General Manager Jeremy Zoll.

The Twins conducted a massive fire sale at last July’s trade deadline, parting with 10 players on their major league roster. Beyond trading pending free agents, the Twins parted with four relievers who were under team control for multiple years: Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louie Varland and Brock Stewart. Plus, they dumped Carlos Correa’s salary in a deal with Houston.

There was an expectation at the beginning of the offseason, from other teams, that the Twins would continue their roster teardown this winter.

The Twins signaled to teams at the end of November, after conversations with their new ownership structure, they plan to keep their All-Star players. It’s the “needle that we’re trying to thread,” Pohlad said, between fielding a competitive team next year while shifting to a younger core of the roster.

“There was probably an argument to tear the whole thing down, get as much value as you can for our players, and really put an emphasis on two years from now or three years from now,” said Pohlad, who assumed control of the team from his brother Joe. “On paper, yeah, maybe that makes sense. But you can’t just look at things on paper. We owe the fanbase something. We owe our veteran and star players something. We owe this organization something. And that something is hope.”

“Our north star has to be how do we put ourselves in a position to compete for a championship, and to be more successful in the playoffs than we certainly have been in the past?” Pohlad said. “But we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, right? That’s what we’re trying to do this year.”

No one outside the organization will be picking the Twins as a division favorite. They finished last season with a 70-92 record, the second-worst mark in the American League, and were one of the league’s worst teams after the trade deadline.

The Pohlad family brought in minority investors to pay down the team’s $500 million debt and putting the organization on better financial footing is a priority.

Winning, of course, can solve a lot of problems.