Shane Mack

[Brock Beauchamp]

Shane Mack is one of the more fascinating players in Minnesota Twins history. Originally drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 1981 MLB Draft out of Richard Gahr High School in Cerritos, CA he declined to sign and opted to attend UCLA. He was drafted again in 1984 in the first round by the San Diego Padres (11th overall). He toiled in the Padres farm system for years, posting gaudy numbers in AAA Las Vegas in limited playing time; a .930 OPS in 1987 and a .981 OPS in 1988. After struggling to hit in 1989, the Padres failed to protect him on the 40-man roster, leaving him open for the Twins to select him in that winter's Rule 5 Draft.

Mack is a testament to how much baseball has changed since the 1980s. It's almost unfathomable to believe a team would leave someone like Mack unprotected in the modern day. Mack wasn't a one-dimensional hitter, he was a legitimate centerfielder who hit for average, had very good plate discipline, and also had decent power. He was the entire package.

Because he was selected in the Rule 5 Draft, the Twins had to keep him on their 25-man roster for the entirety of the 1990 season. That wasn't a problem, as Mack raked in 1990, posting a .326/.392/.460 triple slash over 125 games.

Mack was quietly one of the best Twins players during his five-year stint with the team from 1990-1994, posting a 130 OPS+ in a Twins uniform and compiling 19.7 Baseball-Reference WAR. He peaked with a 6.5 rWAR season in 1992. In the 1991 postseason, Mack was instrumental to the Twins beating the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, as he hit for a .881 OPS in 21 plate appearances.

Mack's career took yet another bizarre (and frankly inexplicable) twist when the baseball work stoppage happened in the middle of the 1994 season. He packed his bags and headed to Japan instead of waiting out the strike, playing the 1995 season for the Yomiuri Giants of the NPB. When the strike ended in 1995, instead of returning to MLB he played yet another season in Japan.

Shane Mack didn't return to MLB until the 1997 season when he signed a one-year contract to play for the Boston Red Sox. Only 33 years old, he posted yet another above-average season with a 109 OPS+. In 1998, Mack played for the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals, posting a 103 OPS+ in 69 games. After the 1998 season, the now-34 Mack retired from baseball.

Shane Mack is a player that leaves me scratching my head every time I think about him. He was a player unappreciated in his era and would be a highly-valued commodity in the modern game. It's a shame he never rose to the stardom he deserved.

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[Brock Beauchamp]

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