The Twins are now for sale, a move that could bring an end to one of MLB’s longest-tenured ownership groups and one that will provide a new look into franchise values amid unprecedented local-media uncertainty.

The Pohlad family, which has owned the club for four decades, informed employees Thursday morning it has begun efforts to sell the franchise. The Twins have retained major investment bank Allen & Co. to lead those sale efforts. Family patriarch Carl Pohlad initially purchased the Twins in 1984 for about $44 million, and for many years was an influential owner, winning two World Series titles and serving as a close confidante of former commissioner Bud Selig. 

Later, Pohlad’s son, Jim, and grandson, Joe, took over team leadership, and the elder Pohlad died in 2009. The family holds the fourth-longest ownership tenure in the league behind groups leading the Yankees, White Sox, and Phillies. 

“For the past 40 seasons, the Minnesota Twins have been a part of our family’s heart and soul,” the Pohlads said in a statement. “The team is woven into the fabric of our lives, and the Twins community has become an extension of our family. The staff, the players, and most importantly, you, the fans—everyone who makes up this unbelievable organization—is part of that. We’ve never taken that lightly.

“However, after months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins. As we enter the next phase of the process, the time is right to make this decision public,” the family said.

Earlier this year, the Twins were estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.46 billion, 21st in MLB. More recently, though, the Orioles were sold for $1.725 billion, and operate in a smaller media market. The well-regarded Target Field, the Twins’ home ballpark, and a team-friendly lease with a minimum of 15 years remaining will likely boost the appeal of the franchise to potential buyers.

Time of Change

The Pohlads’ decision to sell also arrives as the Twins this week elected to have MLB produce and distribute its locally broadcast games during the 2025 season, veering away from a prior relationship with the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group. The Twins are just one of many clubs across the league dealing with significant turbulence surrounding their local media rights.

After reaching the playoffs three times between 2017 and 2023, the Twins faded down the stretch this year, and now compete in a strengthened American League Central that includes not only the division champion Guardians but also a resurgent Tigers and Royals. 

As the Twins’ ownership explores a sale of the franchise, there is still no guarantee a deal will take place. Ownership groups for the Nationals and Angels have made similar pronouncements in recent years and later elected to retain the clubs.

​​NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended the increasingly controversial second apron of the league’s salary cap, saying it has helped promote broader competitive balance.

Speaking Thursday at the Columbia University Sports Management Conference in New York, Silver said the measure—a key feature of a collective bargaining agreement struck last year with the National Basketball Players Association—has shown strong early results. The commissioner in particular cited an ongoing run in which the last six NBA seasons have yielded six different champions. 

“The goal, in essence, is that every team, regardless of market size, has a roughly equal chance to compete, and to run a rational business,” Silver said. “It seems to be working so far.”

The second apron, in the NBA salary cap context, is a dollar limit that teams are penalized for exceeding. For the 2024–2025 season, it’s set at $188.9 million. Draft pick penalties and heavy restrictions on roster movement are levied on teams spending above that level. Already, the defending champion Celtics are grappling with the implications of the rules. Team GMs recently voted the apron as the league rule that most needs to change. Additionally, those rules have been increasingly seen as a potential impediment to dynasties. Silver said that might prove true, but added it could also promote a new kind of dynasty.

“For fans, the goal is certainly not to stop dynasties, but by drafting well, potentially by trading well, is there a different type of dynasty that’s created?” he posited.

In other matters addressed by the commissioner:

• Franchise values: Silver said he sees no bubble in NBA team values that last year reached an average of $3.85 billion, calling the ongoing growth something of a “high-class problem” and something advancing the notion of pro teams as a new asset class. That said, Silver acknowledged the role of institutional investors, something the league has allowed for several years, and said that at some point, franchise values could outstrip the wealth of even the richest individuals.
• Media: Silver said the league’s new national media deals are not a panacea to ongoing turbulence in the regional sports network business, highlighted by the ongoing bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group. The new agreements with ESPN, NBC Sports, and Amazon, however, will help smooth out some market differences among clubs, he said. 
• International: After a long period of turbulence with China, particularly in the wake of a pro–Hong Kong tweet posted in 2019 by now-76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, Silver said, “I think we will bring games back to China at some point. We had a well-known incident there pre-pandemic with a tweet and China’s government took us off the air for a period of time. We accepted that. We stood by our values.”

Standing Up to Hate

Silver and the NBA, meanwhile, are part of a new anti-hate advocacy effort led by Robert Kraft, owner of the NFL’s Patriots. The Kraft-led Foundation to Combat Antisemitism is starting a new campaign entitled “Timeout Against Hate,” which will seek to raise awareness of hate levied against a wide variety of groups and ethnicities. 

Debuting tonight on Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football, “Timeout Against Hate” will involve every major U.S. pro sports league, and features many major sports figures including Billie Jean King, Shaquille O’Neal, Jim Harbaugh, and Joe Torre, among many others.

Representing a significant expansion of Kraft’s existing work in this area over the past five years, the campaign seeks to lean in to sports’ role as one of the last great unifiers in society. 

“It’s important to understand that even if the hate isn’t directed at you or the group that you’re a member of, it’s corrosive to all of society and really the underpinning of our democracy,” Silver said earlier Thursday on CNBC.

The second member of tennis’s iconic Big Three is hanging it up.

Rafael Nadal announced Thursday through a clip posted on social media that he will retire from professional tennis following the Davis Cup Finals in November. He will finish his 23-year career with 22 Grand Slam titles, the second most in men’s tennis history behind Novak Djokovic and ahead of Roger Federer, who retired in 2022. He also sits between the two in all-time career earnings at $134.95 million.

“I think it’s an appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined,” Nadal said in Spanish.

The announcement from Nadal, 38, did not come as a major surprise as over the last two years, the Spaniard has struggled to stay on the court. In 2024, he missed three of the four Grand Slam tournaments due to injury—and was ousted in the first round at Roland-Garros, where he won a record 14 titles and has a statue built outside the stadium.

“The reality is it has been some difficult years, these last two especially. I don’t think I have been able to play without limitations,” Nadal said.

Lasting Legacy

For all of Nadal’s star power and earnings on the court, he also created a legacy off it.

Nadal has earned an estimated $425 million in earnings from endorsements and appearances. His most iconic endorsement deal is with Nike, with whom he signed when he was just 13. In 2013, the Swoosh cemented Nadal’s status as a top endorser of the brand by unveiling his famous raging bull logo. Nadal, who spent 209 weeks at world No. 1, reportedly earned as much as $10 million a year from Nike during his prime.

Other endorsements he’s secured over the years include Babolat, Kita, and Richard Mille.

Nadal is also the most accomplished Spanish tennis player in history. Rising star Carlos Alcaraz, currently world No. 2, credited Nadal for his decision to go pro. 

“It is a really difficult thing, really difficult news for everybody, and even tougher for me. [Nadal] has been my idol since I start playing tennis. I look up to him. Proudly, thanks to him, I really wanted to become [a] professional tennis player,” Alcaraz told reporters in Shanghai on Thursday.