Another MLB Team On The Market

About a week ago, there were reports that the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays might close as soon as September of this year.  Now there are reports that the Twins are also for sale and that there could be action on that front in the near future.  The Twins’ owners – the Pohlad family – said last Fall that they would be interested in selling the team.  There were negotiations with Justin Ishbia as a potential buyer, but that activity went by the wayside when Ishbia increased his minority ownership of the White Sox and took an option to buy out Jerry Reinsdorf’s controlling interest in the White Sox somewhere in the future.

• [Aside:  Justin Ishbia is the brother of Mat Ishbia who is the owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.]

Nonetheless, MLB Commissioner, Rob Manfred, had a press event last week and said this regarding the Twins’ situation:

“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 phrase “consistent with the kind of pricing that has taken place” probably refers to the Rays’ reported price of $1.7B and/or the $2B evaluation of the White Sox implied by Justin Ishbia’s recent buy-in to the club.  It could also refer to the sale of the Orioles last year, which had a closing value reported to be $1.725B.  Manfred did not hint at who is sitting on the other end of the negotiations with the Twins’ current owners and I have not found any rumors on that subject by anyone with reasonable baseball reporting credentials.

Moving on …  As the NFL teams begin to report to Training Camp, the order of the day here in Curmudgeon Central is to start to think about the NFL regular season in broad strokes.  Where are the interesting focal points going to be in 2025.  My first level ruminations lead me to think that there are three of the eight divisions that could be more interesting than the others and here is my synoptic view as of the start of Training Camp”

1. AFC West:  The Chiefs have won this division 9 consecutive times; I am not sure they are the best team in the division for 2025.  I think the Chargers are as good and maybe better; I think the Broncos are clearly on an upward trajectory and I think the Raiders will be better in 2025 than they were last year even though I don’t see the Raiders as a playoff team.  I don’t think the Chiefs are going to collapse and contend for the overall #1 pick in next  year’s Draft, but I wonder if they can defy the “Super Bowl loser jinx” and win the division for the 10^th  season in a row.  I have my eyes on the Chargers.
2.  NFC East:  I expect both the Eagles and the Commanders to take a step back this year.  Saquon Barkley is not going to rush for 2000 yards again in 2025 and the Commanders are not going to go 8-1 in one-score games again in 2025.  Neither team will implode, but they are not going to run away with the division because I think the Cowboys’ offense will be significantly better this year than last year.  The Giants are going to improve a bit too simply because Russell Wilson will be a better QB than any of the Giants’ starters from last year – – Daniel Jones, Drew Lock and/or Tommy “Cutlets” DeVito.
3. NFC North:  Last year, this division had three excellent teams and one also-ran.  The Lions won the division and then lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs.  When that happened to the Eagles recently, they went from a Super Bowl level team to a wild card team that exited the playoffs unceremoniously.  Oh, and the Lions’ offensive coordinator from last year now coaches the division also-ran.  The Vikes were also excellent last year, and they lost the QB that took them to the playoffs with a 14-3 record.  Sam Darnold will ply his trade in Seattle this year and the Vikes will go with rookie JJ McCarthy  under center.  The only team without some sort of major change is the Packers, and so …?

Finally, I’ll close today with this observation by Will Rogers:

“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………