Hello, fellow humans! My name is William Malone IV. Son of William Malone III. And I come with great news! The Minnesota Twins have some spring training baseball games under their belt. This means we are getting closer and closer to regular season baseball.

With spring training games comes spring training home runs. Several Twins players have gone yard so far, including off-season pickups Harrison Bader and Ty France. But what does this all mean? Some of you might say "...but it's only spring training" and choose to not get excited over these glorious dingers. Others might choose to get excited. So who is right? Perhaps history can give us the answer. Here in the Twins spring training home run leader for every season of the Target Field-era (since 2010).

2024 - Ryan Jeffers (4)
Ryan Jeffers led the Minnesota Twins with four home runs in 2024 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .346 average and a 1.178 spring training OPS. During the regular season, Jeffers wound up hitting a career high 21 homers. But a lot of these came early in the season. The Twins catcher had 12 homers and an .892 OPS through the end of May. He began June on an 0-for-17 skid, putting up a .615 OPS from June 1st until the end of the regular season.

2023 - Jose Miranda (5)
Jose Miranda led the Minnesota Twins with five home runs in 2023 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .325 average and 1.225 spring training OPS. The regular season was not kind to Miranda, who struggled mightily. He slashed .211/.263/.303 over 40 big league games, and was eventually shut down by a shoulder injury. A healthier Miranda had a better season in 2024.

2022 - Byron Buxton (5)
Byron Buxton led the Minnesota Twins with five home runs in 2022 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .469 average and 1.094 spring training OPS. In the regular season, Buxton hit a career high 28 dingers and was an All-Star for the first time. He ever homered in the All-Star Game, and many claimed he was robbed of the game's MVP award. Unfortunately, injuries caused Buxton to miss most of the second half that year.

2021 - Kyle Garlick (5)
Kyle Garlick led the Minnesota Twins with five home runs in 2021 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .293 average and .978 spring training OPS. The man had one job in the big leagues; mash lefties. Garlick did that to the tune of an .878 OPS against left handed pitchers in 2021. Injuries to some of his teammates forced Garlick to hit against right handed pitching more than Rocco Baldelli would've liked, and those at-bats dragged Garlick's raw numbers down a bit. The injury bug eventually caught him as well, as Garlick's season was ended in July by a sports hernia.

2020 - Nelson Cruz and Trevor Larnach (3, tied)
Nelson Cruz and Trevor Larnach co-led the Minnesota Twins with three home runs in 2020 Grapefruit League action. The COVID-19 pandemic caused these games to end prematurely. Trevor Larnach, still a prospect at that time, didn't make his Major League debut until 2021. COVID-19 canceled his minor league season, so he hit a grand total of zero regular season home runs that year. Cruz won the Silver Slugger at designated hitter and finished sixth in American League MVP voting.

2019 - Byron Buxton, Adam Rosales and Eddie Rosario (3, tied)
Byron Buxton, Adam Rosales and Eddie Rosario co-led the Minnesota Twins with three home runs in 2019 Grapefruit League action. Rosales was a 36-year old journeyman infielder. He had played 11 big league seasons for six different clubs, and was trying to make the Twins his seventh. But his home runs barrage couldn't help him make the roster, and Rosales played 20 games for the Rochester Red Wings before getting released. Buxton and Rosario were both key pieces of the record breaking Bomba Squad offense.

2018 - Ehire Adrianza and Miguel Sano (3, tied)
Ehire Adrianza and Miguel Sano co-led the Minnesota Twins with three home runs in 2018 Grapefruit League action. Adrianza, a two time World Series champion who has played in 12 big league seasons, wound up playing in a career high 114 games in 2018. This included a lot of time at shortstop early in the season when Jorge Polanco was suspended. Sano, who had been an All-Star in 2017, had a terrible campaign. He got demoted due Single-A due to conditioning concerns at one point, but did eventually bounce back with 34 homers and .923 OPS in 2019.

2017 - ByungHo Park (6)
ByungHo Park led the Minnesota Twins with six home runs in 2017 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .353 average and a 1.159 spring training OPS. After a lackluster 2016 season, Park had been taken off the 40-man roster during the off-season. He remained in the Twins organization after clearing waivers. His strong spring wasn't enough to help him earn a spot back with the big club, and he would spend the entire 2017 season in Rochester. After slashing .258/.308/.415 for the Red Wings, Park would be released outright and return to Korea.

2016 - Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe and Kurt Suzuki (4, tied)
Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe and Kurt Suzuki co-led the Minnesota Twins with four home runs in 2016 Grapefruit League action. This sparked a career year out of Brian Dozier, who hit 42 home runs and drove in 99 for a miserable 103 loss Twins team. It was the second of three straight years in which he received MVP votes. Suzuki and Plouffe both struggled, ending their respective tenures with the club.

2015 - Eduardo Escobar and Kennys Vargas (4, tied)
Eduardo Escobar and Kennys Vargas co-led the Minnesota Twins with four home runs in 2015 Grapefruit League action. Escobar, who had debuted back in 2011 with the Chicago White Sox, wound up hitting double digit homers for the first time that season. He also added 31 doubles, and established himself as a legit big league player. Vargas, who had finished 2014 on a hot run, wound up struggling out of the gate once the regular season began. He wound up spending most of 2015 in Triple-A.

2014 - Oswaldo Arcia and Brandon Waring (2, tied)
Oswaldo Arcia and Brandon Waring co-led the Minnesota Twins with two runs in 2014 Grapefruit League action. Arcia had peaked as the 41st ranked prospect on the Baseball America league wide top 100, and had some solid numbers in 2013. He then hit 20 home runs with a 109 OPS+ in 2014, still showing much potential for what was to come. But that was as good as it ever got for Arica, and then the Buxton/Kepler/Rosario wave took all the outfield spots a year later. Waring was a 28-year old career minor leaguer who spent all of 2014 with Doulbe-A New Britain.

2013 - Aaron Hicks (4)
Aaron Hicks led the Minnesota Twins with four home runs in 2013 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .370 average and a 1.051 spring training OPS. His strong spring helped Hicks win the opening day center field job, despite never playing above Double-A beforehand. But Hicks wasn't just starting on opening day. He was the Twins leadoff hitter. It didn't really go all that well, which led to a rocky three year tenure for Hicks in Minnesota.

2012 - Luke Hughes (6)
Luke Hughes led the Minnesota Twins with six home runs in 2012 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .303 average and .983 spring training OPS. The Australian infielder was DFA'd after playing just eight games for Minnesota in 2012. Oakland claimed him on waivers, but he played just four games for the Athletics before they DFA'd him as well. This ended the big league career for Luke Hughes.

2011 - Luke Hughes (6)
Luke Hughes led the Minnesota Twins with six home runs in 2011 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .246 average and an .834 spring training OPS. What more can you say? The man mashed in spring training. He was Mr. Grapefruit League! He played 96 regular season games for the Twins in 2011, slashing .223/.298/.338 while playing everywhere in the infield.

2010 - Jason Kubel (4)
Jason Kubel led the Minnesota Twins with four home runs in 2010 Grapefruit League action. This went along with a .281 average and an .865 spring training OPS. This carried over to a solid 2010 regular season showing, where he hit 21 homers with a .750 OPS. The most memorable of those 21 home runs was the first long ball in Target Field history. But enough about Kubel. How did Luke Hughes do? That's what the people want to know! He only had 21 at-bats that spring, but had seven hits (.333 average) and one homer. He would make his Major League debut on April 28th, homering off Max Scherzer in his first career big league at-bat.