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A real ownership-based version of the notes column today. Back in mid-October, it was reported that the Minnesota Twins were looking to sell, finally freeing the league from the Pohlads, a family that at one time was the wealthiest in the league — yes, even wealthier than George Steinbrenner back when he owned the Yankees — and has spent its decades in the game pretending that’s not true.
It’s just a few months later, but hey look at that, the Twins might even be sold by Opening Day in 2025, according to Dan Hayes at The Athletic. There’s a “robust market” per that report, so there are no concerns a deal can’t be put in place in the next few months. Which is funny, since if you ask a bunch of MLB owners about the business of owning a team, they’ll tell you that it’s not a good investment and not a place to make money. Famously, the wealthiest people around love to spend money on things that won’t make them a profit, so this is a confusing turn of events for those of us without critical thinking skills or a shred of skepticism to cling to.
Now, losing the Pohlads is neat as far as the chances of the team operating differently in the future going up, but as baseball fans should understand as well as anyone else, a change in probability doesn’t mean it’s actually going to happen. Check out the last decade of the Marlins, for one. The Orioles shed their incredibly cheap and frustrating owner, John Angelos, in 2024, and have now spent the offseason not looking as different as fans hoped compared to when they still had John Angelos refusing to spend any money to improve the roster. Their payroll is up above the embarrassing levels it was at when they were doing an impression of the Rays, at least, but a projected $136 million is still way less than this team is capable of doing, and they’re perilously close to about $100 million below the first luxury tax threshold. What’s the rush, you might ask, this is Rubenstein’s first full year without the Angelos’ hanging around, but remember: the Orioles were built with prospects turned quality MLB players, who are now arbitration-eligible MLB players who haven’t been locked up to long-term deals yet. That clock is ticking.
Which is to say that a change in ownership could be an improvement for Minnesota, but we could also just have someone approved to buy the Twins who agrees to continue to treat them as the Pohlads did for decades. As if they’re a team with paltry resources to pull from, even though the fan base is energized and attendance is up whenever the organization isn’t mired in long stretches of mediocrity.
As Neil deMause explained at Field of Schemes, it’s difficult to tell whether the Rays are trying to have their demands for a stadium and roof repairs met, or are trying to antagonize politicians into doing the opposite. Co-president Matt Silverman has written yet another letter, this time about the Tropicana Field roof and who’s responsible for paying to repair it, with the added bonus of somehow not seeming to understand St. Peterburg’s actual responsibilities toward that task.
There’s a battle going on between the Seidlers left behind in San Diego following the death of Peter Seidler in late-2023. His widow, Sheel Seidler, is claiming that he had meant for her to be the control person for the team — she has the largest ownership stake, and was his wife, so that all makes a basic sense — but Seidler’s many brothers dispute this.
There’s a lawsuit filed by Sheel Seidler, and Alden Gonzalez has the details on the latest in this story at ESPN:
In a complaint filed in Texas probate court Monday, Sheel Seidler, who was married and had three children with Peter Seidler, accused Matt and Robert Seidler, also known as Bob, of “fiduciary breaches of trust, fraud, conversion and egregious acts of self-dealing” in their roles as trustees and executors of Peter Seidler’s estate, while also claiming that her late husband wished to make her the Padres’ control person. Sheel Seidler also claimed that Matt Seidler’s efforts to name the eldest brother, John, as control person “may well be part of his efforts to sell, and perhaps relocate, the team.”
Matt Seidler, one of Peter’s brothers, laughed off the idea that relocation has ever come up, and pointed out in his own letter that Peter Seidler had the chance many times to, in writing, make Sheel the control person following his death, if that had been his intention. There’s a whole lot of he said, she said to this story, but given how the Padres already dropped payroll by a considerable amount following the death of Peter Seidler, it’s worth paying attention to how this lawsuit shakes out.
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