Twins swap lead owner from one Pohlad to another as new partners join push for on-field improvement

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — After a long exploration of selling the Minnesota Twins, the Pohlad family emerged with a reinforced desire to keep the team — and some uncomfortable conclusions that strained their relationships.

An already dissatisfied fan base was further disappointed to find out the only new owners coming on board would have non-controlling stakes, and improving the recent results on the field was going to require significant change.

The Twins announced Wednesday a plan to make Tom Pohlad the controlling owner in place of his younger brother, Joe Pohlad, as part of a new executive leadership structure coinciding with the purchase of portions of the franchise by three different investors.

“When we took a hard look at things. It’s undeniable that we haven’t won enough baseball games, the financial health of the club has been put in jeopardy, and we’ve got a fan base that has lost trust in us as owners and, as a result, this organization and the direction it’s headed,” Tom Pohlad said at a news conference at Target Field. "Now is the time to put new leadership in place and to have a renewed sense of energy, a renewed sense of focus, a different level of accountability, and ultimately a clear direction on where we’re taking this organization.”

Joe Pohlad, 43, served as executive chair for three years. Tom Pohlad, 45, has never had a role with the baseball club before, previously serving as executive chairman of Pohlad Companies in overseeing the family’s diverse portfolio of businesses. Their uncle, Jim Pohlad, was chairman of the Twins until 2022 and continued to serve as the primary liaison to the league. Their grandfather, Carl Pohlad, built his fortune in banking and bought the Twins in 1984 from Calvin Griffith for $44 million. He died in 2009.

For efficiency and clarity, Tom Pohlad — who must still be formally approved by MLB as the club's control person — will be the only family member directly involved with the Twins and will no longer work with the other family businesses. His father, Bob Pohlad, will join Joe Pohlad, Jim Pohlad and members of the three new limited partners on an advisory board supporting the baseball club.

“Joe was not on board with this at first, and he's on board now,” Tom Pohlad said. “All he's ever wanted was to be a part of this organization and to lead it and to help this franchise win a world championship. Things change. We had to make a decision as a family. He understands."

The Pohlad family announced last year the exploration of a sale, a declaration that largely delighted a fan base frustrated by the level of investment in the player payroll. The primary driver of the decision was a debt load that hit $500 million this year, not public opinion. The loss of crowds during the pandemic and the collapse of the team's regional television contract weighed heavily on the financial operation.

Tom Pohlad was the point person for the sale exploration process, through which he developed an interest in and vision for taking over the Twins. Though initial conversations revolved around selling the majority interest, the investment groups will instead contribute an infusion of cash and strategy.

“I’m going to be an active owner. I’d say that’s what this organization needs right now,” Tom Pohlad said.

Neither the purchase prices or size of the stakes were disclosed. Financial analysis earlier this year by Forbes valued the franchise at $1.5 billion, ranked 23rd in MLB. Sportico ($1.7 billion) and CNBC ($1.65 billion) pegged the Twins a bit higher.

Major League Baseball has approved the acquisition of minority interests in the Twins by Glick Family Investments, a multi-generational New York venture capital firm; a group of Minnesota business leaders spearheaded by George Hicks; and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold. Hicks is a native of Minnesota, a former executive of Cargill Financial who co-founded Varde Partners, a startup in 1993 that has grown into a global investment firm.

The new partners have expressed optimism about meaningful changes to baseball's financial structure that could emerge from the upcoming collective bargaining with the players and potential within the Twin Cities market for the team to more fully realize from a revenue standpoint.

“They were really comfortable, convinced, and ultimately, confident that we were the right people to continue to lead this organization,” Tom Pohlad said.

The Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991, but have only reached the American League Championship Series once since, in 2002. In 2023, they ended an 18-game postseason losing streak, a North American professional sports record. They went 70-92 in 2025 and fired manager Rocco Baldelli, replacing him with Derek Shelton.

After cutting payroll for 2024, the front office initiated a major selloff last summer with nine trades that jettisoned 10 players from the major league roster with the Twins languishing in the standings. There's no plan to further pare payroll, though, and the intent with a modest free agent budget is to try to take back the AL Central title the Twins won four times in seven years under Baldelli.

“I’m well aware of how upset the fan base is with our family and with this organization,” Tom Pohlad said. “I view that as an opportunity for us. They care deeply about the sport of baseball. They care deeply about this team.”

The first step, he said, will be accountability.

“I think the rub, if you will, on the organization, historically speaking, is there’s a feeling which I might share that we continue to run the same playbook over and over, thinking for a different result,” Tom Pohlad said. "The accountability factor is saying, ‘If something doesn’t go right, if we don’t meet expectations, what are we going to do differently?’ And then go out and do something differently.”

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Minnesota Twins' Tom Pohlad speaks during a baseball news conference in Minneapolis, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP)

Minnesota Twins' Tom Pohlad speaks during a baseball news conference in Minneapolis, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP)

FILE - Minnesota Twins executive vice president Joe Pohlad speaks to fans and media during the baseball team's annual fan fest at Target Field, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

FILE - Fans attend a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins at Target Field during the sixth inning Friday, June 14, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military pressed ahead Saturday in a frantic search for a missing pilot after Iran shot down an American warplane, as Iran called on people to turn the pilot in, promising a reward.

The plane, identified by Iran as a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked on Friday, with one service member rescued and at least one missing. It was the first time the United States lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the war, now in its sixth week, and could mark a new turning point in the campaign.

The conflict, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, has rippled across the region. It has so far killed thousands, upended global markets, cut off key shipping routes, spiked fuel prices and shows no signs of slowing as Iran responds to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes with attacks across the region. Missile and drone strikes continued Saturday with an apparent Iranian drone damaging the headquarters of the U.S. tech giant Oracle in Dubai.

The downing of the military planes came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast.” The U.S. and Israel had boasted recently that Iran's air defenses were decimated.

Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released public information about the downed planes.

In an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, the military said it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East, without providing more details.

A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued. But the Pentagon also notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member on the fighter jet was not known. A U.S. military search-and-rescue operation continued Saturday.

In a brief telephone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to discuss the search-and-rescue efforts but said what happened would not affect negotiations with Iran.

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down or whether Iran was involved. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it went down was immediately known.

An anchor on a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to the police.

Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time the Iranian public was urged to look for a downed pilot.

Iranian state media said in a post on the social platform X its military shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and a weapons system officer.

An apparent Iranian drone damaged the Dubai headquarters of the American tech giant Oracle on Saturday after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm.

The attack targeted the headquarters, which sits along Dubai’s main Sheikh Zayed Road highway. Footage obtained by The Associated Press from outside the United Arab Emirates showed damage to the building. A large hole could be seen in the building’s southwestern corner, with the “e” in “Oracle” on a neon sign damaged.

The sheikhdom’s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, said a “minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City," adding there were no injuries.

Oracle, based in Austin, Texas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Guard has accused some of America’s largest tech companies of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations against the Islamic Republic and said they were legitimate targets.

Earlier Iranian drone strikes hit Amazon Web Services facilities in both the UAE and Bahrain.

World leaders, meanwhile, have struggled to end Iran’s stranglehold on the waterway, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its greatest strategic advantage in the war.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to take up the matter Saturday.

Trump has vacillated on America’s role in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it does not open the strait and telling other nations to “go get your own oil.” On Friday, he said in a post on social media: “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.”

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites “rather than indiscriminate bombardment” of urban areas.

More than two dozen people have died in Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, over 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington contributed.

Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Iraqi women hold a portrait of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in the Shi'ite district of Kazimiyah in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A woman checks a destroyed house that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)