Kevin Tapani

[Brock Beauchamp]

Kevin Tapani was born in Des Moines, Iowa. Interestingly, only while typing this bio did I (Brock Beauchamp) discover that Tapani grew up in the town where I was born (Escanaba, Michigan). Fun trivia, for me at least.

Tapani's high school (Escanaba) was too small to have a baseball team so he didn't play the sport until he attended Central Michigan University. He was originally drafted by the Cubs in the 1985 MLB Draft (9th round) but returned to Central Michigan for one more season, after which he was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the second round of the 1986 draft.

In 1987, Tapani was traded to the New York Mets where he stayed until the trade deadline of 1989, when he was traded to the Twins as part of the Frank Viola trade. He had made his MLB debut earlier that season in New York but with the Twins he made his first MLB starts (five that season). Entering the 1990 season, Baseball America ranked Tapani as the 88th-best prospect in baseball.

Tapani spent most of the 1990 season in the Twins rotation but it was 1991 that cemented Tapani in the minds of Twins fans. He posted a 6.8 Baseball-Reference WAR that season with a 2.99 ERA in 244.0 innings pitched. In stark contrast to how we evaluate pitchers in modern baseball, Tapani finished all the way back in seventh place in American League Cy Young voting that season.

While Tapani was one of the most critical pieces of the 1991 Twins during the regular season, he did not pitch well in the postseason. He posted a 7.84 ERA in two starts of the ALCS and a 4.50 ERA in two starts in the World Series.

Tapani stayed with the Twins through the 1994 season and came back from the MLB strike in 1995 still a member of the team. He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the 1995 trade deadline for Ron Coomer, Greg Hansell, and Jose Parra.

Thus ended Kevin Tapani's tenure with the Twins. Over parts of seven seasons, he finished with a 4.06 ERA (108 ERA+) and 19.1 Baseball-Reference WAR. That 19.1 rWAR number puts him just outside the top ten of all-time Twins pitching WAR leaders at #12.

Tapani signed with the Chicago White Sox for the 1996 season, then moved to the Chicago Cubs in 1997, where he pitched for five seasons. He retired after the 2001 season at 37 years old.

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[Brock Beauchamp]

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