Twins To Make Drastic Payroll Cuts

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 24, 1998 / 5:24 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Saying they have no chance to be competitive next season, the Minnesota Twins plan to drastically cut their payroll.

"My goal is to keep the team here," Jim Pohlad, the son of Twins owner Carl Pohlad, said Wednesday. "If there is any kind of proposal to achieve that, at this point, we're not proud anymore."

Seven years after winning the World Series, the Twins say they can't compete under baseball's current economic structure.

"I'd say, in order to compete, you have to have a minimum of a $50 million payroll," Carl Pohlad said. "There's just no other way. (Commissioner Bud) Selig is in the process of some very major plans to change the economics and help the game get back on track."

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The payroll will be between $10 million and $15 million, down from $27 million at the start of last season.

Team president Jerry Bell said the cut is the team's only hope to break even over the next two seasons, while baseball's financial structure changes to allow small-market teams to compete.

While the Twins claim losses of $15 million for 1998, baseball's high-revenue teams have spent wildly this offseason. The World Series champion New York Yankees have a projected $80 million payroll for 1999, and the Los Angeles Dodgers an $85 million payroll.

The Twins hope for, among other things, increased revenue sharing among major league teams and a solution to their ongoing plea for a new stadium.

However, they don't plan to ask state legislators for a new stadium, and there are no offers on the table to purchase the team.

"This is a two-year plan to convince my dad that bseball can remain here," Jim Pohlad said. "If we don't lose any money in that time and we see changes in the infrastructure of major league baseball and a better situation at the Metrodome, maybe there is hope (of keeping the team in Minnesota)."

The Pohlads have set a goal of $40 million in revenue for 1999 and hope to attract a modest 1 million in attendance. In 1988, one year after winning their first World Series title, the Twins became the first team in the American League to draw 3 million in a season.

Given the club's makeup, just three players will account for about $9 million of the payroll next year: closer Rick Aguilera ($3.2 million), outfielder Marty Cordova ($3 million) and pitcher Brad Radke ($2.5 million).

"If they want it between $10 million and $15 million and you add it up now, it's pretty easy math," manager Tom Kelly said. "Obviously, they're going to do something else."