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The Twins on Wednesday revealed the identities of their new minority owners and outlined a plan for Tom Pohlad to take over as executive chair and primary point person with MLB.
The two new “principal investors” are New York–based Glick Family Investments and George G. Hicks, cofounder and co-executive chairman of Minneapolis-based Värde Partners, an investment firm that specializes in credit deals. Craig Leipold, who is the majority owner of Minnesota Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NHL’s Wild, is joining as a third limited partner.
The new investors are buying “non-controlling, minority interests” in the team; the Pohlad family—who has owned the Twins since 1984—will retain control and oversee day-to-day operations. MLB has approved the investments. There is no path for the new partners to become controlling owners, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The deals value the Twins at about $1.75 billion, the source tells Front Office Sports.
The announcement comes roughly four months after the Pohlads decided to take the Twins off the market, and 14 months after the team was first put up for sale. In August, following a 10-month sale exploration process, the Twins switched gears and agreed to sell “substantial” stakes in order to help pay down debt, a source told FOS at the time. The team is currently in debt to the tune of roughly $500 million, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. MLB has debt service rules meant to ensure teams maintain fiscal stability, but the league has not stepped in to offer emergency financial assistance to the Twins.
In conjunction with the addition of the new minority owners, the Twins announced that existing executive chair Joe Pohlad will step down, with his older brother, Tom Pohlad, assuming that role. Pending league approval, Tom Pohlad will also succeed his uncle, Jim Pohlad, as the team’s “control person,” which means he will be the main point of contact to MLB.
The Pohlads bought the Twins for $44 million in June 1984. The patriarch, Carl Pohlad, died in 2009, at which point his son Jim took over the team. In 2022, Jim’s nephew Joe Pohlad assumed primary administrative duties, while Jim remained the controlling owner.
The Twins are coming off a turbulent season during which they undertook a fire sale at the trade deadline that included offloading star closer Jhoan Duran and shortstop Carlos Correa, and finished 70–92. They’ve made the playoffs just once in the last five years, and only 12 times in the roughly 42 years since the Pohlads bought the team. They have, however, won two World Series championships under the Pohlads, in 1987 and 1991.
