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Every year, Forbes tries to guess how much every MLB franchise is worth and then ranks them by said worths. The Yankees, of course, are always the worthiest because they live in the biggest market in the country, have a ton of great history, and a strong (even if stupid) brand. The teams with the crappiest stadiums tend to be the least worthy, so that’s usually the Rays or the Athletics.
The Twins are usually somewhere in the middle-ish of the pack. This year, they rank 22nd in MLB, valued at $1,025 million. That’s a 13% increase from last year’s $910 million valuation, even though they ranked 20th among MLB teams then.
What’s interesting is looking at some of the teams ahead of the Twins. Obviously the Dodgers and the Red Sox and what-not are up there, but the Diamondbacks and the Padres? They ranked 20th and 21st respectively—both ahead of the Twins.
It turns out, the worth of the Padres increased because they are the last remaining pro-sports team in San Diego. As for the Diamondbacks... I don’t really know. They didn’t lose 103 games? Which, obviously, the Twins did. In fact, it’s a little remarkable the Twins’ value increased despite having their worst season of all time, given the short blurb about their worth mostly talks about falling attendance at Target Field. Is it optimism about the new front office? Who knows.
Forbes also does an all sports-things rankings, which includes the worth of every sports team for every professional sport, plus players and companies that have any connection to sports. According to this list, the Twins are the 174th worthiest sports-thing in the world. Mr. Money Bags himself, Joe Mauer, came in at 280th—just before Frito-Lays (286th), but after the Nashville Predators (277th).