Twins Aren’t the Only MLB Team Cutting Payroll and Blaming TV Revenue

The Minnesota Twins came out last month and announced to the fanbase and the baseball world that they will be cutting payroll for the 2024 season, due to the uncertainty involving how they will recoup $65ish million in TV revenue without Bally Sports paying them to broadcast games.

Texas Rangers cutting payroll too

Recently, we found out they aren’t the only MLB team using payroll slashing practices to ease stress on their 2024 pocketbook. It turns out the Texas Rangers – whose games are also broadcast on TV by Bally Sports — are unlikely to pay top starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery for the same reason.

The Rangers seem unlikely to bring back Jordan Montgomery due to the financial uncertainty of losing local TV deal.

Per, @Ken_Rosenthal pic.twitter.com/ndI8VWuzf1

— Texas Rangers Insider (@RangersInsiders) December 8, 2023

Over half of Major League Baseball has Bally Sports as their TV broadcasting partner. While the Twins contract with Diamond Sports (Bally’s parent company) expired after last season, it’s expected they will drop all contracts with pro sports teams after the 2024 MLB season, due to their ongoing bankruptcy.

Related: Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler Drawing More Trade Interest, as Twins Wait…

I’d be hard-pressed to believe the Twins and Rangers are the only MLB organizations tweaking future roster and staff payroll decisions based on future television revenue uncertainty. There will be others, though most won’t say it publicly like these two have.

Do not accept Minnesota Twins excuses, no matter how many other teams use the same ones.

But this news doesn’t vindicate the Pohlads. There’s no need to make excuses for the Twins or other billionaire MLB owners. Why do the business people operating these organizations choose to harm their relationship with local fan bases just to save a quick buck in the short-term?

Having $50+ million in flux seems like a lot, until you factor in all the numbers. Like the numbers showing major professional U.S. sports teams jump $100s of millions in value every year, lately.

Related: TV Blackouts Will Not Exist in Minnesota Twins New Broadcasting Age

The Minnesota Twins latest valuation (Statistica) has them worth about $1.4 billion, more than double what they were worth less than 10 years ago in 2014 ($605 million) before they moved into Target Field, which local citizens paid half of.

In all reality, the Twins would be worth more than what this valuation says. According to Sportico, the average MLB team is worth closer to $2.5 billion. The Kansas City Royals sold for $1 billion in 2020 and the Mets went for $2.4 billion the same year. The Marlins sold in 2018 for $1.4 billion.

But tell MLB teams like the Twins and Rangers that they will have to work a little harder to make their standard $50-100 million in TV revenue for a season or two and owners start panicking and cutting payroll, among other things. Classic.