Aaron Gleeman is as Minnesota as they come.<\/p>\n
He grew up in St. Paul, attended the University of Minnesota, and now lives in Minneapolis. He began writing about the Minnesota Twins while in college. When the longtime Twins writer for The Athletic was told by his bosses to stop covering the Twins, he chose what seemed right for him.<\/p>\n
Gleeman has left The Athletic<\/a>\u00a0and relaunched\u00a0AaronGleeman.com<\/a> as an independent subscription site. The 43-year-old is striking out on his own to provide Twins coverage for his readers. We recently caught up with Gleeman to discuss his decision and goals.<\/p>\n Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. <\/p>\n Awful Announcing: You had been with The Athletic since 2019. Was leaving a difficult decision?<\/p>\n Aaron Gleeman: \u201cIt was definitely difficult because I loved working at The Athletic. It was a dream job. I would have stayed. But once the job and the role changed, they approached me in early April and told me they were going to take me off the Twins and wanted me to do more of a news desk role or more national stuff on baseball.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the next couple of weeks, I talked it through with them, but once I realized that if you\u2019re not covering the team you want to cover in the state you live in and writing about what you\u2019re passionate about, it ceases to be the dream job, I ultimately felt pretty good about the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n What are your emotions right now?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a big risk, personally, professionally, and financially. It\u2019s a little scary, but I feel that, no matter what happens on the financial front, I can feel good that I\u2019m doing what I\u2019m passionate about for an audience that wants it and cutting out the middleman. Just writing directly for them is, in many ways, exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n My big news: I\u2019ve left The Athletic because they wanted me to stop covering the Twins.<\/p>\n I refused to give up my dream, so I\u2019m betting on myself and returning to my independent roots.<\/p>\n I need your support to make it work. Join me and let\u2019s do this together: https:\/\/t.co\/osUsyR3GwG<\/a><\/p>\n
What reasons did The Athletic give you for making the change?<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t give me a lot of great reasons. Obviously, the Twins have struggled over the past two or three years. I don\u2019t think our readership numbers were down. All of our annual reviews were very good. I never got a negative review. I always beat my goals for metrics. I have a feeling, from some of the things they said, that The New York Times looked at it and said, \u2018Why do we have two writers covering the Minnesota Twins?\u2019 And so I\u2019m hopeful that they keep my former beat partner, Dan Hayes<\/a>. He does a great job, and he\u2019s a great guy, and I enjoyed working with him. But I do worry about the shrinking local coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n What would you say to someone who claims that writing about baseball at the national level is a great gig?<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s fair. And that\u2019s something I wrestled with over the last few weeks. It\u2019s not a bad job, the role they were offering me. It is a job I might have jumped at 15 years ago. It\u2019s a job that whoever fills it now will be lucky to have. But from my perspective, I\u2019ve been doing this a long time. I am an established voice on the Twins locally. I feel my situation is different because I\u2019m not just a baseball writer who happened to be covering the Twins at this stage. I\u2019m a Twins writer. I cover the Twins. I have a podcast about the Twins. I go on the radio and talk about the Twins. I write about the Twins.\u201d<\/p>\n Why does writing about the Twins mean so much to you?<\/p>\n \u201cI was born and raised in Minnesota. I don\u2019t plan to ever leave. I\u2019m a lifelong Minnesotan. I grew up a Twins fan. I wrote about them for many years, when no one paid me or read my work. So the opportunity to cover them as a more traditional beat writer for The Athletic was really fun for me. It\u2019s just what I love to do. I think it\u2019s what I\u2019m best at. It\u2019s what I\u2019m most passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Byron Buxton has 13 homers in his last 23 games.<\/p>\n He\u2019s the fifth player in Twins history with 13 or more homers in a 23-game span.<\/p>\n The previous four:
How would you persuade someone to subscribe to\u00a0AaronGleeman.com<\/a>?<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are passionate about the Twins and interested in day-to-day, in-depth analysis and coverage of the Twins, whether in the majors or in minor-league coverage, interviews, reporting, opinion, all that stuff, I\u2019ve been doing this for a really long time. And I think I\u2019m good at it.<\/p>\n \u201cI know people have a lot of subscriptions these days, and this is adding another one. But I think I\u2019ve priced it at $8 per month or $2 per week, and you can also get a discount on a year-long subscription. I feel very confident that people will get their money\u2019s worth and then some.\u201d<\/p>\n How many subscribers do you have?<\/p>\n \u201cMy whole idea behind this was that if I could get a thousand paying subscribers, that would be enough to make a living from this, make it a job, and really focus on it. I\u2019m happy to say we\u2019re at 1,000 subscribers now, so the support has been overwhelming and has just blown me away. And all the kind words, messages, and everything I\u2019ve gotten on social media have been great.\u201d<\/p>\n Are you married? Do you have children?<\/p>\n \u201cI am not married, but I am basically married. 12-year relationship, no children, a cat. So, in that sense, maybe a little less risky. I\u2019m not trying to put kids through college or anything like that. My girlfriend has been a saint throughout this, very supportive and very helpful. She definitely encouraged me, once I told her about the situation with The Athletic and how it was unfolding, to bet on myself, believe in myself, and be willing to take a leap of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n New podcast!<\/p>\n Aaron\u2019s Big News: https:\/\/t.co\/LqVWtAm8GT<\/a><\/p>\n
Have you reached out to others who have taken the independent path?<\/p>\n \u201cYes, definitely. I\u2019m subscribed to some newsletters on Ghost or Substack. Away from sports, one of my favorite writers is Alan Sepinwall<\/a>. He covers television and was at Rolling Stone for a long time. He started his own website on Ghost, which I\u2019m using as the content system. I talked to him a little bit about the behind-the-scenes stuff. And then there\u2019s also a very big Twins fan named Aaron Rupar<\/a>, who writes about politics on Substack. I talked to him a little bit a few weeks ago. That was definitely very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n What will success look like in a year?<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m doing what I love, which is covering the Minnesota Twins, and I\u2019m able to do it in a way I love, which I think the independence will bring, and I\u2019m able to do it for an audience that is both sizable and passionate about reading my stuff, which I think we\u2019ve basically already gotten to that point and I would expect it to continue growing, that\u2019s plenty for me. That\u2019s all I need.\u201d<\/p>\n \t
\n\u2014 Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n
Nelson Cruz
Brian Dozier
Trevor Plouffe
Harmon Killebrewpic.twitter.com\/XFIHU1Dn3m<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n