NEWSLETTER
It looks innocuous enough on the surface: a long-considered smaller-market team, which sported a team-record payroll in 2023, is looking to bring that number back down a bit. It happens sometimes, whatever we think of the rationale.
But when the report comes on the heels of what is happening with the San Diego Padres – also cutting payroll from a previous record, but with a side dish of having to borrow money to cover costs – it makes you look even more closely.
Here’s the report, which might have otherwise gone unnoticed outside of Twins fans and media:
The Twins already have $125 million committed for next season before they make a single addition, and without considering that they’ve now lost Sonny Gray. You can expect them to pursue a parsimonious winter, and maybe even try to trade away a contract or two.
What is most notable about the Star-Tribune report is the stated reason for the payroll drop: the loss of the Bally Sports RSN TV contract because of the Diamond Sports bankruptcy. We’ve been talking about that bankruptcy – and, before that, its imminent approach – for a year now. Although the entity is trying to make it through the bankruptcy with those TV rights intact, it has had to shed some of them because they are viewed as out of step with market rate. Of course, the Padres were one of the most visible iterations of that process earlier this year, with MLB then stepping in to take on the duties of broadcasting Padres games and backstopping the payments owed to the Padres to the tune of 80 cents on the dollar. The league said it would do this for any team whose RSN stopped paying them, but did not say that it would go to that same 80% level in 2024. So, if you’re the Twins – or any other Bally-broadcasted team whose ratings aren’t killer – that’s a really scary thought going forward.
As with the Padres, though, I do not understand how the Twins didn’t see this coming, and allowed themselves to commit significant long-term dollars last offseason (to Carlos Correa, most importantly). I guess the thinking was that they could just go all out in 2023 and deal with the consequences later. Those consequences are here, and we didn’t hear a whiff about it until this moment.
So, you know where this is going: what about the other Bally teams? Are they all going to be in trouble? Are they all going to see payrolls drop or at least flatline? This was ALREADY a big question, but given what we’ve seen with the Padres and Twins, I’d say it’s now a really major question for this offseason.
The Bally RSN teams include the Padres, Twins, and Diamondbacks (who also saw their contract ditched by Diamond Sports), as well as the Tigers, Marlins, Guardians, Reds, Royals, Cardinals, Angels, Braves, Rays, Rangers, and Brewers.
