Souhan: Only one way for the Pohlads to gain the respect and trust of the fan base

There is good news to be found in the wake of the Pohlads announcing that they will retain ownership of the Twins.

Even in this economy, sales of pitchforks, tar and feathers are sure to increase.

In the eyes of almost all Twins fans, the Pohlads have committed the unforgivable sin of the sports world — not appearing to care about winning.

We’ve seen violent criminals cheered in America’s sporting venues. Fail to run out a ground ball, you’re a pariah.

Similarly, the Pohlads have lately run a stable franchise, but have done nothing to indicate that they care more about making the playoffs than making profits.

There are two legitimate ways to view the current state of Pohlad ownership.

One resonates with those who work in higher rungs of the organization, and those who cover the team with some level of depth.

The Twins have maintained Target Field as one of America’s best sporting venues. Their spring training facilities are first-rate. They have a very good farm system, and have invested heavily in the business of internally-generated analytics.

The Pohlads’ problem is that most fans care only about the second view of the franchise — that every Twins’ on-field failure can be linked to a lack of spending.

Both views are legitimate. The Twins are a sound organization damaged by the reputation earned by their owners.

The past two regular seasons have been marked by late-summer collapses, as the Twins’ younger players failed to meet the moment.

The Twins front office has made a number of excellent trades — for Nelson Cruz, Joe Ryan, Pablo López, Jhoan Duran, Sonny Gray and others — but has not signed a big-money free agent from outside the organization other than Carlos Correa, and both of his signings with the Twins were the result of other teams viewing Correa as a risk.

Twins chairman Joe Pohlad said that the team’s historic sell-off at the trade deadline was a front office decision not tied to payroll.

That might be technically true, but it masks a deeper truth: Because the front office knows it will not be allowed to spend big money in free agency, it is playing the lower-revenue franchise game of constantly seeking maximum value, rather than simply trying to win now.

Many of the Twins’ deadline deals were of the routine variety. The trading of valuable, in-their-prime, hardly-expensive players like Duran, Griffin Jax, Willi Castro and Louie Varland was the result of the front office knowing that, to remake the roster for 2026 and beyond, the team needed greater financial flexibility under the current payroll restraints.

Team president Derek Falvey said the trades were made for baseball reasons, but if he had a $180 million payroll, would he have traded an All-Star caliber closer? I don’t think so.

If the Pohlads care about their family name and reputation, if they want to receive credit for running a stable organization, they have one obvious move to make:

Otherwise, this fan base will blame every loss, perhaps even every strikeout, on ownership.

Well, there is one other move the Pohlads could make to save their reputation. They could organize a coalition of lower-revenue teams, and force baseball to adopt a salary cap.

The players would strike, there would be tremendous short-term pain, and then baseball would become a much better sport.