ATLANTA — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred stressed patience, but he is confident a sale of the Minnesota Twins will be completed.
Manfred said Tuesday morning that a process that began last October when the Pohlad family announced it would explore a sale is making good progress after initially losing steam when potential buyer Justin Ishbia, the “leader in the clubhouse,” opted to increase his ownership stake in the Chicago White Sox.
Speaking at the annual Baseball Writers Association of America press conference before the All-Star Game, Manfred suggested it’s not a matter of if a deal for the Twins can be struck, but when. The statement was made one day after The Athletic reported the Tampa Bay Rays would be sold for $1.7 billion.
“I know some things that you don’t know,” Manfred said. “I can tell you with a lot of confidence that there will be a transaction there, and it will be consistent with the kind of pricing that has taken place. There will be a transaction. We just need to be patient while they rework.”
The Pohlad family, currently in its third generation of owning the Twins, is believed to be asking for $1.7 billion for a club purchased by grandfather Carl Pohlad in 1984 for $44 million. In March, a source close to the sale process said the Twins rejected a $1.5 billion valuation for the club.
Sportico values the Twins’ worth at $1.7 billion even though the club is carrying $425 million worth of debt, one of the higher amounts among MLB’s 30 teams.
Back in January, Ishbia was determined to be the front-runner in the Twins’ sale process, which the source suggested could be agreed upon by Opening Day. However, in late January, the White Sox reached out to Ishbia and gauged his interest in increasing his minority stake in the club with the possibility of one day purchasing it from current owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
Ishbia, who lives in the Chicago area, moved on from the Twins and increased his stake in the White Sox from 5 percent to 35 percent. The Twins were forced to regroup, a process that has shown progress but taken time.
“You know this is a small business, right?” Manfred said. “All those bankers that are out there, there ain’t that many of them, they all talk to each other. When it becomes clear that you have a leader in the clubhouse, everybody else kind of backs away, right? Because they kind of get a feel for price. And unless they’re prepared to top, they’re going to move on and do something else. So a big part of the delay in Minnesota was associated with the leader in the clubhouse made a decision to do something else.”
When the deal for Tampa Bay is complete, it would be the second consecutive sale of an MLB team in which the price reached $1.7 billion. Last year, the Baltimore Orioles sold for $1.725 billion.
(Photo: Adam Bettcher / Getty Images)