After a season that was disappointing even for the Minnesota Twins’ depth-plumbing standards, it’s probably no surprise that this year’s “Turkey of the Year” can be found at Target Field.
The annual Thanksgiving roast from Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse highlights the most dismaying performance (among much competition) in Minnesota sports the previous year, and this Thanksgiving Reusse selected the Minnesota Twins’ executive chair Joe Pohlad.
It comes on the heels of an 82-80 season that ended with an atrocious run of form from August onwards that saw them fall out of playoff contention just a year after the team had ended a 20-year playoff win drought.
The high hopes that followed the 2023 playoff run were crushed over the course of the 2024 season, with the Twins cutting payroll by $30 million amid the ongoing financial struggles of lead broadcaster Bally Sports, with many fans locked out of watching Twins games for much of the season due to the company’s impasse with Comcast.
Pohlad, who was appointed executive chair of the Twins in 2022, assuming control of the team’s management from his uncle Jim Pohlad, said the team had to embark on “right-sizing” payroll ahead of the 2024 season, and defended the decision in the wake of the season’s calamitous ending.
In his column, Reusse said he had “no … equivocation” in choosing Pohlad as Turkey of the Year.
“Joe seems like the right Pohlad to follow his late grandfather Carl, the only two-time winner of this prize, as a Turkey of Year,” he said.
