A recent Sports Illustrated article quoted a baseball executive as saying there are only four major league owners who really want to win, the owners of the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers and Angels. The suggestion was these four separate themselves from the other owners because they have a willingness to spend money.
Twins president Dave St. Peter said owner Carl Pohlad wants to win, too, and has the record to prove it. “I don’t think there’s any question that Carl Pohlad wants to win,” St. Peter said. “When you look what his track record is as a middle market owner, a team that has played with small market revenues (producing) two world championships, six division titles. I think the track record speaks for itself. When push comes to shove, the dollars have been there for us to improve our baseball team. …”
St. Peter said the recent signing of Seattle center fielder Ichiro Suzuki to a five year contract that will pay him $90 million and talk that it may cost the Twins $20 million per season to keep pitcher Johan Santana has certainly caught the franchise’s attention. “Clearly the economics of the game are always concerning for any team whether you’re (in) a big market, or a medium market, or a small market,” St. Peter said. “We look at those contracts and they certainly set the pace for the coming off-season. At the same time we try not to get distracted by those things. Every situation is a little bit different. Every player is a little bit different and every organization is a little bit different. So historically we believe we’ve been able to keep the guys that…were critical for us to keep, and we’ll make those decisions as we go forward.”
Center fielder Torii Hunter is a free agent after this season and Santana has the same status after next. St. Peter doesn’t expect Pohlad to be out front retaining the players. “I would not expect ownership to take the lead role,” he said. “That has not been their style. That really certainly hasn’t happened of late. There’s some precedent for that, I guess, back with the (Kirby) Puckett contract back in 1992. I certainly expect (general manager) Terry Ryan to play the lead on behalf of the Pohlads. …”
Sooner or later the Twins have expiring contracts to deal with for several players, including Hunter, Santana, first baseman Justin Morneau and relief pitcher Joe Nathan. How large a piece of the monetary pie will the Twins slice for them? “We’ll see,” St. Peter said. “Obviously, as I’ve said before, there are going to be difficult choices to be made. This franchise has a proven track record of being able to make good baseball decisions and I am confident that we’ll make the right decisions. It will take two to make these deals work. Even if the team wants to do it, obviously we’re going to need the player and their agent to come to the table and make these things go. I think there is an appropriate time for those discussions and I don’t know that it is now. I think it’s in the off season. …That’s been our policy and it’s served us well and I think it will continue to serve us well.”