A Twins offseason that once appeared destined to be static and uneventful may turn out to be one of the most consequential periods of upheaval in the franchise’s history.
Five weeks after Minnesota’s baseball franchise was put up for sale by the Pohlad family, six weeks after the Twins turned over the production and distribution of their telecasts to MLB, and 35 years after he joined the team as an intern, Twins president Dave St. Peter announced Tuesday morning that he is stepping back from the chief-executive role he has held since 2002.
“This is a difficult decision because this [team] has been my life. This has been my journey. I’ve given everything I have to this organization and have been proud to do it,” said the 57-year-old St. Peter. But after more than two years of consideration and consultation with Twins owner Jim Pohlad and executive chair Joe Pohlad, “we felt now was the right time.”
St. Peter will remain with the Twins as a strategic advisor to his successor — current President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey, who will become the team’s chief executive over both baseball and business. And to help build the roster, one of Falvey’s top lieutenants, Jeremy Zoll, has been promoted to general manager.
“I feel truly convicted that Derek is the right successor, and I want to support him in every way and set him up for success, hopefully, over the long haul,” St. Peter said. “The move is important because it signals, I’m hoping, to the broader organization and to our partners that there is stability and continuity.”
He is not retiring, St. Peter emphasized several times, but merely turning over control to a younger generation — a transition that will become official sometime before the 2025 season starts next March — as the franchise prepares for a potential new owner.
Falvey, hired in October 2016 to succeed Terry Ryan, has been included in many high-level discussions about the team’s business, media and partnership strategies, St. Peter said, and has a collaborative instinct as a leader that makes him suited for a dual role.
“There are many decisions made, more than [people] realize on a daily basis, that I don’t make, that the likes of Jeremy and other directors and assistant GMs and VPs and others make,” said Falvey, who has greatly expanded the team’s player development, analysis and coaching staffs over the years. “Key roster decisions, trades, those are still going to involve Joe Pohlad, me, Jeremy, Dave.”
