Scott Leius Was A Platoon Player Who Delivered On Baseball’s Biggest Stage

[Al from SoDak]

Scott Leius was never a full-time player. The most games he ever played was 129. The most plate appearances he ever notched was 449. Both those marks came in his rookie season of 1991. He picked the perfect time to be his best, as his contributions helped the Twins win the 1991 World Series Championship.

Scott Thomas Leius was born September 24, 1965, in Yonkers, New York. He graduated high school from nearby Mamaroneck, New York, before attending and playing baseball at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York.

The Minnesota Twins drafted the right-handed hitting infielder in the 13th round of the 1986 Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft. He played five minor league seasons, a single season at each level, and was almost exclusively a shortstop.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Scott Leius received his call to the big leagues after September roster expansion in the Twins last place season of 1990. During that first taste of major league baseball, he received 28 plate appearances and hit .240 with one home run and four RBI. His first hit came in his first at-bat, but he was picked off second base two batters later. His first home run came in career game number five. It was against Jim Abbott and was the only run in a 3-1 loss to the Angels.

When Leius was invited to spring training in 1991, Greg Gagne was entrenched as the starting shortstop, and the Twins signed free agent Mike Pagliarulo over the winter to play third base. I’m not sure anyone expected there to be room for Leius to make the team out of spring training. Well, Pagliarulo was coming off a couple of subpar seasons and struggled to hit during the spring, and Leius made an impression with his hitting and fielding. He surprised everyone and made the team as an extra infielder out of spring training and ended up platooning all season with Pags at the hot corner. 

In 1991, Leius’ batting numbers were .286/.378/.416, with five home runs and an OPS+ of 116. 161 of his 235 plate appearances were against left-handed pitchers, and 42 of his 52 starts were against left-handers. The third base platoon worked well, as did just about everything for the Twins during that magical 1991 season. After a slow April and May, the Twins played brilliantly for the rest of the way, starting with a 15-game winning streak that began on June 1. They held first place for 113 days, led by as many as ten games, and ultimately won the division by eight. 

In the post-season, Leius played in three of the five American League Championship Series games against Toronto, totaling five plate appearances. He had no hits and one walk. The team around him played excellent baseball and cruised to a 4-1 series win. Leius would make a bigger mark in the World Series.

Left-hander Charlie Leibrandt started Game One of the World Series for Atlanta, so Leius got the start at third base for the Twins. In the fifth inning, Leius singled. Then scored on a three-run homer, which put the Twins up 4-0 on their way to a 5-2 victory. But Game Two was Leius’ time to shine. It was another left-hander starter for the Braves, Tom Glavine this time. The Twins jumped to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning on a Chili Davis home run but could not add to the lead. The Braves chipped away and tied the game at two apiece in the fifth inning. The score remained tied until the bottom of the eighth inning when Leius had the biggest hit of his life. Leading off the inning, Leius launched the first pitch into the left-field stands, which proved to be the winning run in Game Two. The Twins had a two games to none lead. The Series moved to Atlanta for Games Three through Five, where the Braves won three straight. Leius went one for six in Atlanta. He had an RBI walk in the Braves' 14-5 Game Five blowout. Leius had two hits in Game Six – the Kirby Puckett game – but no runs or RBI. In Game Seven, Leius saw Pagliarulo start at third base against righty John Smoltz. Leius was put into the game at shortstop in the tenth inning after Gagne and Al Newman had been replaced by pinch hitters during the two most recent plate appearances for the shortstop position. Leius appeared in all seven games for the Series, getting 14 at-bats. He had five hits, a walk, two RBI, and that pivotal home run in Game Two. His Win Probability Added during the series was fourth among Twins batters behind only Puckett, Gene Larkin, and Chuck Knoblauch.

Leius and the Twins achieved the dream in 1991. How would the rest of his career play out?

1992 saw Leius and Pagliarulo again split time at third base. All of Leius’ offensive numbers dipped from his rookie season. After the 1992 season, the underappreciated Greg Gagne left the Twins and signed a free-agent contract with Kansas City. The Twins’ answer to replacing Gagne was to award the 1993 Opening-Day shortstop assignment to Leius. Unfortunately, the 1991 World Series hero tore his rotator cuff and was done after only ten games. While he was out, Pat Meares was called up and played well enough to solidify himself as the starting shortstop going into 1994. In 1994 and 1995, Leius was back at third base, posting similar, underwhelming, offensive numbers as in 1992. He had become a fairly replaceable player. After the 1995 season, he became a free agent and was signed by Cleveland. I don’t recall the Twins putting up much of a fight to retain him. He had one bad season with Cleveland in 1996, missed 1997, and played 1998 and 1999 with the Royals. In those last three seasons, he played fewer than 40 games and had fewer than 90 plate appearances. Injuries to his hamstring and shoulders contributed to the lack of playing time.

Throughout his career, Leius’ role never changed. He was a slick-fielding third baseman (he finished second to Wade Boggs in 1994 Gold Glove voting) who hit left-handed pitching well enough to remain in the majors. Unfortunately, that promising first season was his best, and he never improved on it. His final career statistics were .244/.316/.353 for an OPS of .669. He hit 28 home runs and had 172 RBI in nine seasons. His career OPS+ settled at a below-average mark of 78, which includes the last three abysmal seasons with Cleveland and Kansas City. For his Twins career, his OPS+ was 85. 

Scott Leius seems to be a bit of a private person. I could not find much information on his upbringing or what he has done since his playing career ended, other than that he had a one-season stint as a hitting coach for the triple-A Omaha Golden Spikes in 2000. He appears at TwinsFest each year and seems to genuinely appreciate catching up with former teammates, coaches, and managers.

What are your memories of Scott Leius? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

If you like looking back at the Twins past, check out my previous articles at Twins Daily History.

Sources include Baseball Reference and Wikipedia.

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[Matt Johnson]

And he still lives in Minneapolis, right? Is he involved in local baseball at all?