Team owner Tom Pohlad signaled that the Minnesota Twins will push their payroll past recent years when the 2027 season begins, pointing toward an offseason of necessary investment after third- and fourth-place finishes in the American League Central.
The Spending Question After a Sliding Finish
The Twins finished the season 77-85 after fading down the stretch, sliding into 22nd place in Major League Baseball payroll rankings. That placement put them between the Tampa Bay Rays, who ranked 28th, and the World Series champion Milwaukee Brewers at 19th, according to FanGraphs data. Both Milwaukee and Tampa Bay offset modest player spending with elite defensive metrics, top-tier pitching staffs, strong base-running, and heavy investments in scouting and analytics departments that outsize Minnesota’s operations.
The franchise reached its peak payroll in 2023 with a $167 million payroll tracked by Cot’s Baseball Contracts, a season that brought the organization more playoff success than it had had in decades. Payroll dropped by roughly $30 million initially in the seasons that followed. Entering last season, opening payroll sat just north of $100 million before climbing via trade-deadline acquisitions, per Cot’s.
That baseline is no longer acceptable to ownership. I have said over and over that a $100 million payroll or anything close to that is not sufficient to be consistently competitive and in the playoffs and so we intend to take the offseason and meaningfully invest,
Pohlad told reporters at his end-of-season press conference.
Roster Gaps and the Looming December 1 Lockout
General manager Jeremy Zoll will have financial backing from ownership to reshape a roster featuring a reliable starting rotation anchored by All-Stars Pablo López and Joe Ryan. Behind them sits a young positional core making near-league minimum salaries. That group requires outside supplementation to offset expected departures, including anticipated losses from Josh Bell and Ryan Jeffers. The bullpen stands as an obvious target for added funds, though the front office has historically avoided handing out lucrative deals to relievers.
Time is short for front-office maneuvering. The Twins will have a month of offseason shopping before the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires. A lockout is expected to begin on Dec. 1, casting uncertainty over the sport this offseason. Major League Baseball has proposed a salary cap and floor system that is expected to be a non-starter for players, leaving the ultimate framework of player economics for 2027 dependent on the result of those negotiations.
Our goal this offseason is to field a roster next spring where making the playoffs isn’t a hope, it’s the expectation,
Pohlad said in September. Ownership understands that ambition demands capital. You can take some comfort in the fact that, with payroll, wherever we land … it will be commensurate with what we’re trying to accomplish.
