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Presenting the Twins' All-Quarter Century Team, the best in Minnesota since 2000
Presenting the Twins' All-Quarter Century Team, the best in Minnesota since 2000

New York Times

time6 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • New York Times

Presenting the Twins' All-Quarter Century Team, the best in Minnesota since 2000

Editor's note: The Athletic is marking 2025 by naming an MLB All-Quarter Century Team, selected by Jayson Stark. Some of our beat writers are picking All-Quarter Century Teams for the teams they cover. Check this page to find all of our All-Quarter Century Team coverage. Postseason success has been maddeningly elusive, but the Minnesota Twins have the 12th-best record in MLB since 2000, going 2,015-1,991 (.503) while finishing with a winning record in 15 of 25 completed seasons and reaching the playoffs in 10 of them. Advertisement That includes the final two years of Tom Kelly's managerial career, followed by 13 seasons of Ron Gardenhire (.507), four seasons of Paul Molitor (.471) and Rocco Baldelli (.526) for the past seven years. And, of course, there was a venue change in 2010, with the move from the Metrodome to Target Field. Today we're selecting a Twins All-Quarter Century Team consisting of 10 hitters (nine lineup regulars and one utility player) and six pitchers (five starters and one closer) who were Minnesota's best players from 2000 to 2025. Longevity matters and pre-2000 performances aren't factored in. Here are the highest WAR totals by a Twins catcher since 2000, according to FanGraphs: 8.3 — Joe Mauer, 2009 6.5 — Joe Mauer, 2008 5.8 — Joe Mauer, 2006 5.7 — Joe Mauer, 2010 5.0 — Joe Mauer, 2013 4.6 — Joe Mauer, 2012 No other Twins catcher reached 4.0 WAR in any season from 2000 to 2025. Mauer was the Twins' starting catcher for 10 years, from 2004 to 2013, when a concussion ended a spectacular decade behind the plate in which the first-ballot Hall of Famer hit .323/.405/.468 for a 134 wRC+ and 46.3 WAR, with three batting titles, three Gold Glove Awards, five Silver Slugger Awards, six All-Star appearances and the 2009 American League MVP. In the 11 seasons since Mauer ceased catching (2014 to 2025), all Twins catchers have combined to hit .236/.308/.389 for a 91 wRC+ and 18.1 WAR. This was a pretty easy one. — Aaron Gleeman The catcher who has always called Minnesota home gets the call of a lifetime. Joe Mauer, you've made it to Cooperstown. 🎥 Emily Meisinger/@Twins — National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) January 24, 2024 Another shoe-in. Following the departure of Torii Hunter to the Los Angeles Angels in 2008, Mauer and Morneau made the Twins relevant again. They ushered in a new era at Target Field, one which held so much promise until both sustained career-altering concussions. Morneau's run from 2006-10 included the AL MVP in 2006 and a runner-up AL MVP finish in 2008. And he potentially had an AL MVP award robbed in 2010 when he took a knee to the head while sliding into second base, thus ending the best season of his career with a .345/.437/.645 line in 81 games. Advertisement Even though injuries slowed the back half of his career and eventually led to a trade, Morneau produced 19.9 WAR for the Twins, more than doubling their next-best first baseman (Doug Mientkiewicz, 8.2). — Dan Hayes Perhaps three-time batting champion Luis Arraez would have at least made an argument for this spot if he hadn't moved more to first base and been traded for Pablo López. But nobody comes close to Dozier's production, including the 167 homers he belted between 2012-18. Dozier was one of the few bright spots during a 99-loss campaign in 2016, setting the AL record for round-trippers by a second baseman with 42. He was an All-Star in 2015, won a Gold Glove Award in 2017 and was a key leader in the clubhouse for a young wave of talent arriving in the latter part of his Twins tenure. — Hayes Koskie improved from borderline unplayable at third base — to the point Kelly would use him in left field — to become one of the best defensive third baseman in baseball, while posting an OPS at least 10 percent better than the league average in all six of his full seasons with the Twins. Koskie is one of the most underrated position players in team history, ranking 12th in WAR among Twins hitters, ahead of many far bigger names. But he was very good every season, occasionally great, and his combination of left-handed power and plate discipline with above-average defense never goes out of style. — Gleeman Jorge Polanco is the Twins' WAR leader at shortstop for the 2000s, but he holds only a slight lead over Correa in nearly double the number of games played. While Correa's tenure has been hampered by bouts of plantar fasciitis in each foot, he's simply been a great addition to the franchise. No matter how he seems to be feeling physically, Correa's sure-handed, strong-armed defense is a sight to behold. His potent bat has carried the lineup in two of his first three seasons in town, the other being slowed by his first foot injury. Advertisement But Correa's biggest impact could be felt late in 2023 when he finally had a chance to rest his foot and balled out in the postseason, going 9-for-22 (.409), providing heady defense and helping the team end its two-decade postseason losing streak. — Hayes The only negative about Hunter's Twins tenure was that it ended. Hunter's arrival in 1999 with several other young core members marked the start of a turnaround after several years of struggle in the wake of Kirby Puckett's early retirement. The Twins flourished with Hunter, averaging 83 wins in his 10 full seasons, winning at least 90 games and the division four times. Hunter's defense was excellent, as demonstrated by the seven Gold Glove Awards he won with the Twins, and he was a major presence in the lineup, averaging 25 homers and 90 RBIs from 1999-2007. Hunter also managed to be a big postseason performer, hitting .300/.337/.538 in 21 games. — Hayes An epic moment in @AllStarGame history. 19 years ago, @toriihunter48 robbed @BarryBonds. 😱 — MLB Vault (@MLBVault) July 9, 2021 We avoided the difficult decision of leaving Hunter (23.0 WAR) or Buxton (24.2 WAR) off the 2000s team by going with three positionless outfielders rather than choosing one in left, center and right. Copout? Maybe, but Hunter and Buxton are clearly both deserving of places on this team. Plus, who wouldn't want to watch them playing alongside each other and robbing hits in the same outfield? (Other than opposing batters, of course.) — Gleeman Cuddyer gets the slight nod over Max Kepler for the third outfield spot. Kepler has a big edge defensively, although Cuddyer's great arm and ability to play caroms off the Metrodome baggy were plenty valuable as well. And Cuddyer (110 wRC+) was simply a better hitter than Kepler (102 wRC+) while also playing longer for the Twins. In fact, only Mauer, Morneau and Hunter have more games in a Twins uniform in the 2000s. — Gleeman Advertisement The Twins hoped for but never could have imagined what they'd receive from Cruz when he agreed to a one-year deal with a second-year team option ahead of the 2019 season. Cruz was a monster at the plate, the captain of 2019 Bomba's Squad, but also a leader through and through. Cruz immediately had everyone's respect when he entered the clubhouse, a standard bearer for how to work and act who provided Baldelli, a rookie manager, with a captain. He held that role for two-plus seasons in a Twins uniform. Beyond his leadership, Cruz redefined the DH position for the franchise. He blasted 41 homers in his first season, was on 43-homer pace during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign and continued with absurd production in his age-40 season in 2021. As if all that weren't enough, Cruz's trade to Tampa Bay produced starting pitcher Joe Ryan. — Hayes Polanco started by far the most games at shortstop for the Twins since 2000, but we went with Correa there and instead fit Polanco onto the team by taking advantage of his versatility in the utility role. Polanco is the only Twins player with at least 275 career games at both shortstop and second base, and he also volunteered to play third base when it helped the team. His flexibility, switch-hitting ability and 111 wRC+ across 832 games with the Twins make him an ideal 10th man. — Gleeman From the moment Santana returned to the majors with a new changeup in mid-2002 through the day the Twins traded him on Feb. 2, 2008, he was the best pitcher in the league. It just took the Twins a while to realize it, keeping him in the bullpen an infuriating long time. Santana spent only four seasons as a full-time member of the Twins' rotation, but it was the most dominant four-year run by any pitcher in team history. He went 70-32 with a 2.89 ERA and 983 strikeouts in 912 innings, winning two Cy Young Awards and deserving a third. Advertisement Santana played six total seasons in Minnesota after returning from the minors, and the Twins won 69 percent of his starts, playing like a 112-win team with Johan on the mound. When anyone else started during that span, the Twins won 52 percent of the time, equivalent to an 84-win team. Twins fans are all too aware of their 2-18 postseason record versus the New York Yankees. Both wins came in Santana starts. With any other pitcher on the mound versus New York in the playoffs, the Twins are 0-16. There's a decent chance that my last words — hopefully many years from now — will be 'Johan should have three straight Cy Youngs.' — Gleeman #OTD in 2007, @johansantana struck out 17 batters in a #TwinsWin over the Rangers! — Minnesota Twins (@Twins) August 19, 2021 Radke tends to be underrated in discussions about the best starters in Twins history because he pitched in such a hitter-friendly era. And this 2000s-only exercise also ignores several of his best seasons, including an All-Star nod in 1998. But the strike-throwing machine's ERA was 12 percent better than league average from 2000 to 2006 while averaging 195 innings per season, including topping 200 innings in five of seven years. Santana (29.0 WAR) and Radke (22.3) are the only Twins starters to produce more than 16 WAR in the 2000s, and Radke also stepped up with a 3.60 ERA in six playoff starts. His first innings weren't always pretty, and he gave up some tape-measure homers, but Radke logged the most innings of any Twins pitcher in the 2000s and his 112 ERA+ is comparable to the current rotation trio of López (114), Bailey Ober (113) and Ryan (111). — Gleeman Santana's inclusion on this list speaks volumes to how well the rest of his time in the Twin Cities went considering it all began with an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use in 2015, before he ever threw a pitch for the Twins. Signed to a four-year, $55 million deal in December 2014, Santana lived up to the hype once he got going. Advertisement Santana returned from the suspension and provided 6 1/3 innings per start in 2015 with a 4.00 ERA, demonstrating the type of workhorse he'd be. From 2016-17, he produced a 3.32 ERA in nearly 400 innings, leading an upstart 2017 group to the Wild Card Game. Though Santana suffered a finger injury late in 2017 that limited him to five starts in 2018, few Twins pitchers made the type of impact he had over the first 2 1/2 seasons. — Hayes A consensus top-50 prospect who was supposed to be The One, Berríos' career got off to an inauspicious start with an 8.02 ERA in 58 1/3 innings as a 22-year-old in 2016. But for the next 4 1/2 seasons, Berríos was a very good pitcher, going 52-36 with a 3.76 ERA and 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings before the Twins traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021. Berríos topped 200 strikeouts in 2018 and 200 innings in 2019. He was the team's most consistent starter after returning to the Twins in May 2017 after more seasoning in the minors, making 121 starts. And he pitched well in the postseason in '19 and '20, allowing a combined two earned runs (four overall) in nine innings in losses to the Yankees and Houston Astros. — Hayes While flush with position players, the Twins have always struggled to land front-line starting pitchers. But the team's January 2023 trade to acquire López for fan-favorite Arraez has more than delivered. In two-plus seasons with the Twins, López has proven to be a strikeout machine and a pitcher capable of handling the big moments. López tops all Twins starting pitchers this century with 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings, racking up 234 and 198 whiffs in his first two seasons. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is the team's third-best over the past 25 years, behind only Phil Hughes and Ryan. What gives López the edge over Ryan or Ober for the final rotation spot is his outstanding performance during the 2023 postseason. Calling the pressure of ending the 18-game losing streak a privilege, López led the Twins to a 3-1 victory in the wild-card opener against Toronto and followed it with a dominant seven innings in Houston for a second-round win. — Hayes Glen Perkins (three times), Eddie Guardado (twice), Taylor Rogers and Brandon Kintzler were All-Stars for the Twins in the 2000s, but Nathan is still an easy choice for the closer spot on this team. Advertisement Acquired from the San Francisco Giants in 2004 as part of the A.J. Pierzynski trade, Nathan was a four-time All-Star in his seven seasons in Minnesota, racking up a franchise-record 260 saves with a 2.16 ERA and .186 opponents batting average. Nathan struggled in limited playoff action, but few closers in MLB history have been as consistently dominant in the regular season. Not only does Nathan lead all Twins pitchers in Win Probability Added since 2000, his 24.6 WPA is more than the No. 2 and No. 3 relievers combined. — Gleeman (Photo of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau: Charles Krupa / Associated Press)

New Twins OF Carson McCusker accidentally launches bat into left field during rainy matchup with Guardians
New Twins OF Carson McCusker accidentally launches bat into left field during rainy matchup with Guardians

Yahoo

time20-05-2025

  • Sport
  • Yahoo

New Twins OF Carson McCusker accidentally launches bat into left field during rainy matchup with Guardians

The rain got the best of Carson McCusker on Monday night. McCusker stepped up to the plate in the second inning of the Minnesota Twins' matchup with the Cleveland Guardians as decent rain was falling at Target Field in Minneapolis. But when the right fielder went to swing at a pitch, well, McCusker completely lost control of the bat. It wasn't just a little bit, either. McCusker sent his bat absolutely flying. The bat made it all the way into left field, where it calmly came to rest as everyone slowly realized what had happened. As Guardians players went to retrieve it, McCusker and the home plate umpire just stood there laughing. Carson McCusker nearly hit a home run with the bat… literally.#MNTwins — Talkin' Twins (@TalkinTwins) May 20, 2025 Whoops. To make the situation even better, McCusker had just been called up to the Twins from their Triple-A affiliate on Saturday. Monday was just his second game in the big leagues. But, to McCusker's credit, that very likely would've been a single had he actually made contact with the ball instead of trying to cut corners with his bat. Eventually, McCusker struck out looking. The game was tied 1-1 at the time, but Willi Castro hit an RBI double later in the inning to put the Twins up by a run. By the end of the third inning, however, officials decided they had had enough and sent the game into a rain delay. The game was called off for the day and will resume on Tuesday at 5:10 p.m. CT, with Game 2 of the series to follow. The Twins entered Monday's contest with a 26-21 record. They have won 13 of their last 14, too, after their impressive win streak came to an end on Sunday when the Milwaukee Brewers beat them, 5-2. The Guardians, on the other hand, came into Monday's game on a four-game losing skid. While McCusker is hoping to get the hang of things with his new club, Monday's bat incident was an incredible way for him to kick off his time with the Twins.

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