The Twins shocked the baseball world last week when they announced that the team was parting ways with club president Derek Falvey in a decision that was considered to be between Falvey and executive chairman Tom Pohlad. More details emerged after that announcement about the circumstances surrounding Falvey’s departure that provide more insight into the motivations behind that decision.
This move surprised the fans, media, and rival clubs in the game for many reasons. Falvey was promoted from his position as president of baseball to handle business operations in a dual-presidential role in November 2024, more than a year before he left the organization. That Falvey went from focusing on the Twins’ current and future plans to walking out the door in a matter of months shocked outside observers, and The Athletic’s Dan Hayes suggests a similar shock was experienced internally, with the staff breaking the news as a team. “Haymaker.” Even more shocking is the timing of the move, which comes just weeks before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training with plenty of offseason adjustments already made.
In comments following Falvey’s departure, both Falvey and Pohlad indicated that there was a difference in personality between the two that led to the change. Pohlad described himself and Falvey (as relayed by Hayes) as “Two people who are just forced to work together.” Falvey’s comments provided more insight into that difference.
“[Former Twins executive chair] Joe [Pohlad] and I had a different plan and stronger performance,” Falvey said of his departure, as conveyed by Hayes. “Tom wants to run it the other way… Sometimes it feels like you get to where both sides are sitting and you say, ‘Okay, is this the right play for what we need going forward?’ And if you get to a place where you don’t think it’s (a) good fit, you have to have honest discussions and conversations about it and that’s what we’re doing.”
Given those comments about conflicting personalities and changing systems, it’s worth stepping back to consider the larger context of the Twins movement in recent years. After ending the club’s long drought of finals victory in 2023, the ownership reduced the wages for the 2023-24 season. Things have gone downhill since then on the field, and after a slump in 2024 resulted in an 82-80 season and missing the playoffs, the team took a huge step back and lost 90 games in 2025.
Entering this offseason, all signs seemed to point to a rebuild coming to Minnesota. Players love it Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopezand even Byron Buxton were widely viewed as trade chips to be acquired from rival teams this winter, and the dismantling of the system had already begun at the July trade deadline. In addition to moving to the area Carlos CorreaContracted in the salary dump with the Astros, the Twins traded a number of pieces, including manageable bullpen pieces such as Louis Varland, John Duranagain Griffin Jax.
After those struggles on the field, the Pohlad family looks to continue their ownership of the Twins franchise. The team announced its sales review in October 2024, one month before Falvey was promoted to his dual role as president. Attempts to sell the majority of the family to the club ultimately failed, but instead they ended up bringing in a few other stakeholders to help solve the club’s debt, which had a difficult sale. After the details of that partial sale of the team were released, Tom Pohlad (who was not involved in the operation of the Twins until the attempt to sell the team began) took over the position of executive chairman from his younger brother Joe Pohlad and became the controlling person of the team back in December.
Given that Falvey ushered in the beginning of what appeared to be a rebuild under Joe Pohlad, many of Tom Pohlad’s comments surrounding the team and its near-competitive future made the disconnect seem somewhat clear. Hayes reports that Tom Pohlad plans to be proactive in directing the team compared to the hands-off approach of former CEOs Joe and Jim Pohlad, under whom Falvey worked in the past. Tom Pohlad’s planned direction of the team appears to be quickly returning to contention, as opposed to the plan Falvey was in the middle of putting in place when Pohlad took over as Minnesota’s managing director.
That planned return to contention may also come with more financial flexibility, but it’s unclear exactly how much. Pohlad told reporters (including Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic) that he believes there is “investment room” on the roster between now and Opening Day, suggesting that there could be some extra cash to help patch up a roster with a lot of visible holes. As mentioned, however, Pohlad also downplayed the importance of team pay in those same comments.
“Yes, our salary has decreased since last year,” Tom Pohlad said, as relayed by Gleeman. “I think there’s still an investment to be made between now and Opening Day. I would say again, at some point, I’d like to get out of this lead thing for a second. Let’s judge this year’s success by wins and losses, and whether we’re playing meaningful baseball in September.”
Given that the team’s new executive has shown a desire to work harder than his predecessors and push the franchise more aggressively than ever while questioning the importance of a pay raise, it’s not hard to see where the conflict between Pohlad and Falvey could come from. If Falvey was working under an order to return to contention in 2026, it’s easy to imagine him handling last year’s trade deadline differently, especially when it comes to controllable, low-cost relief weapons like Varland.
Departures at this point in the calendar are still surprising, but Hays reports that one source described Falvey’s decision to leave now as a way to create an opportunity for the rest of his staff. “create [their] your history” and a new control person. It’s not hard to imagine that there could be friction down the road between Falvey and Pohlad creating a difficult situation for the lower-level staff in the front office, and Falvey removing himself from that equation immediately could help avoid any potential problems between ownership and the front office going forward.
