According to longtime Twin Cities sports columnist and radio personality Patrick Reusse, it wasn’t Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey who got this week’s shocking Carlos Correa trade over the finish line. No, this was handled at an ownership level, Reusse claims.
“It’s gospel that (Astros owner) Jim Crane called and made it happen, apparently,” he said on SKOR North’s Reusse Unchained. “He called Jim Pohlad. He did not call Joe (Pohlad). He called Jim Pohlad and they negotiated the money.”
“So literally the adults above Falvey decided to work this deal out and told young Derek you’re gonna (sit this one out)?” Judd Zulgad asked.
“Yes,” Reusse replied. “Jim called them up. They wanted $50 (million) apparently, they wanted half. And he got them down to a third, basically, $33 million. And then they had to take a body to go with it.”
The Twins’ trade that sent Correa back to the Astros was nothing more than a salary dump. They got out of two-thirds of the remainder of his expensive contract by eating a chunk of money and sending Correa to the only team for whom he would waive his no-trade clause. They technically got a player back in return, but it was a 26-year-old High-A reliever with a career ERA above 6 — a guy who seems likely to be out of baseball soon.
The idea that the Twins’ ownership group, ostensibly in the midst of selling the team, stepped in to help facilitate a salary dump of the most expensive player on the roster is…interesting, to say the least.
Jim Pohlad has been with the Twins for 42 years, dating back to his family’s purchase of the franchise in 1984. He ceded day-to-day operations of the club to his nephew Joe in 2022, but Jim remains involved behind the scenes. The Pohlads announced last October that they were exploring a sale, but no deal has been reached as of this point.
