Twins Owner Tom Pohlad Declares 'We Will Be Competitive in 2026'

Despite trading away a big chunk of the roster at least year's trade deadline and operating with a meager payroll, Twins owner and executive chair Tom Pohlad doesn't believe this is going to be a rebuilding year for the franchise. He made that clear during a virtual press conference with Twins reporters after Friday's surprising news that the club was mutually parting ways with president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey.

"Can a team that is cutting payroll and going through a reset have that sense of urgency and expect to be competitive in 2026?" a media member asked.

"We will be competitive in 2026," Pohlad replied. "Yes. I expect that. But the sense of urgency is about making sure that we start, right this second, getting after what the long-term plan is for this organization. And I've talked a lot recently about finding a way to build a business that can support a level of investment in the team, two or three years from now, that can be playing competitive baseball for a string of seasons in a row. That's what we're trying to build. And I think 2026 is critical to that success."

The people who are in the business of projecting results in Major League Baseball don't necessarily agree with that sentiment. The Twins' over/under win total in Vegas is 73.5 games, which is the seventh-lowest mark among the league's 30 teams. Fangraphs' projections are only slightly more bullish, as they have Minnesota going 77-85. That would be an improvement over a 2025 season that saw the Twins win 70 games and post a 44-72 record from May 18 onwards.

An optimistic case can be made for the Twins being successful this year, but it requires a lot of uncertain things working out. They'll need Byron Buxton and their other top players to stay healthy, they'll need to get big bounce-back years from players like Royce Lewis and Bailey Ober, and they'll need a bunch of young players to emerge as key contributors. This is a team with some solid starting pitching and a handful of impact bats. It's also a team that lacks proven depth and, until otherwise, might have the worst bullpen in all of baseball.

Byron Buxton | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The Twins' payroll currently sits at around $105 million, which is down significantly from where it was last year and even more significantly from where it sat in 2023, when the franchise won a playoff series for the first time in 21 years. Pohlad would like the conversation to stop being about payroll.

"Yes, our payroll is down from last year," he said. "I think there's still investments to be made between now and Opening Day. And I'd also say that, at some point I'd love to get off this 'payroll' thing for a second and let's get halfway through the year, to the end of the year, and let's judge the success of this year on wins and losses, on whether we're playing meaningful baseball in September. And if we're doing that, I think we're gonna be in position to grow payroll the following year, and the following year. That's what I hope we can start focusing on."

That's a good plan in theory. The issue is that things don't always work that way. A higher payroll doesn't automatically lead to more wins, but there is a correlation between the two. And what happens if the Twins don't exceed expectations this year? Does that mean payroll won't increase in the future? Spending money is sometimes needed as a first step to generate desired results.

We'll see what happens this year. But for now, Twins fans have little reason to believe Tom Pohlad when he says they're going to be competitive in 2026.

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