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Rival MLB Owner Talked Pohlads Into MN Twins Deadline Fire Sale
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- Rival MLB Owner Talked Pohlads Into MN Twins Deadline Fire Sale
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The Minnesota Twins went full-scale fire sale at the MLB trade deadline, trading away most of their bullpen, Willi Castro and Carlos Correa and Chris Paddack , among others. In total, 10 players on the 26-man roster were sent to other teams.
The individual returns Minnesota got for gutting its big league roster were mostly on the light side, and thanks to Bob Nightengale (USA Today) , we now know why. For weeks, the Twins front office had a plan that was well-known around the league.
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Minnesota Twins did not plan their trade deadline fire sale
Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images
Team president Derek Falvey's message was clear. Minnesota was going to deal away expiring contracts (Castro, Paddack, Coulombe , etc), along with one or two back-end relievers, then get ready for another run at the playoffs in 2026.
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In fact, when the Houston Astros first called on Correa (demanding the Twins pay most of his salary and include another big leaguer), Falvey laughed and hung up the phone. So did Carlos Correa's agent, Scott Boras.
Astros GM Dana Brown telephone the Twins to inquire if they would be willing to trade Correa and one of their outfielders to the Astros. Oh, and could they pick up about $50 million of the remaining $103 million on Correa's contract, too? The Twins laughed, and hung up.
When USA TODAY Sports contacted Correa's agent Scott Boras to inquire whether Correa would waive his no-trade clause, he laughed, too. Correa loved Minnesota, he said. The Twins loved him. Besides, there was no way, he said, the Astros would take on that kind of money.
Given the troubling season Correa was having with the Twins (.267/.319/.386), offloading him back to Houston isn't the worst idea, even for an organization that cares about winning. Of course, we found out pretty quickly that winning anytime in the near future was not on the Pohlads' radar.
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Everything changed for MN Twins after the Carlos Correa trade
Because once they dealt Correa, everything about the Minnesota Twins deadline plans changed. Whether players wanted to be traded or not, Falvey started accepting cents on the dollar for some of the organization's most expensive assets.
"[The Twins] said they were going to just trade players on expiring contracts. They were going to re-visit the other stuff in the winter. Then, they started selling off everyone."
The GM spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity in order to freely analyze the trade deadline.
Related: Minnesota Twins Sale Reportedly Gaining Steam… with Some Doubters
But what changed in the hours between Falvey laughing and hanging hung up on Astros GM Dana Brown and the Correa deal officially being consummated? Well, Nightengale has that answer too.
We found out over the weekend that it was Jim Pohlad and Houston's owner Jim Crane who handled the final Correa negotiations directly . In the end, the Minnesota Twins agreed to pay down $30 million of the $90 million remaining on Correa's contract, along with 26-year-old single-A pitching prospect Matt Mikulski.
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Astros owner Jim Crane convinced Pohlads to give everything away
According to Nightengale , however, Crane's involvement in the Twins' 2025 fire sale went way beyond finalizing the Carlos Correa deal. Instead, he seems to be the sole person who convinced the Pohlads into their deadline actions last week.
The Astros owner reportedly called up Jim Pohlad and used the impending sale of the franchise as a way to convinced him that selling off as many salary assets as possible was the best way forward for the Pohlad family and the future owners,
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane…perhaps lit the first match in the fire sale in a casual conversation at the Leatherstocking Golf Course. He mentioned that they might try to pursue All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa, and with the Twins so deep in debt – about $440 million – that Minnesota may have no choice but to dump him.
While some were dismissive of the idea, Crane refused to blink. He wanted to make sure the Twins understood the severity of their financial woes. The Twins are deep in debt. They are trying to sell the team for $1.7 billion. The team will be more attractive to every suitor, Crane said in talks with the Pohlad family, if their payroll was slashed. Correa's contract happened to be the biggest financial commitment.
The Pohlad family got back to Derek Falvey, Twins president of baseball operations. They suddenly were curious. Correa, who left the game early Tuesday with a migraine, suddenly felt good enough to sit down with Falvey, himself. If the Twins indeed are rebuilding, he said, he'd gladly waive his no-trade clause for a chance to get back to Houston.
How incredible is that? The Pohlad family strikes again, allowing a rival owner obviously trying to pry talent away on the cheap, talk them into one of the worst baseball business decisions in Minnesota Twins history, and that is saying something.
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Again, it's not that difficult to convince a Twins fan that it was time to end the Carlos Correa experiment. Had they deadline selling ended there, nobody would be mad.
Related: Byron Buxton is the Leader Carlos Correa Couldn't Be
But in the hours between the Correa trade and the 5 pm deadline on July 31, Minnesota proceeded to give away Brock Stewart , Griffin Jax and Louie Varland for incredibly questionable returns, which shocked opposing front offices, as executives lined up for the Twins' garage sale.
And now, the big league cupboards are bare and everyone in baseball is laughing at the Pohlads yet again.
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