Scott Leius

[Al from SoDak]

Scott Thomas Leius was born September 24, 1965, in Yonkers, New York. He attended and 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, with a single season played at each level. He was almost exclusively a shortstop.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound 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 the major league baseball, he received 28 plate appearances and hit .240 with one home run and four RBI.

When Leius was invited to Spring Training in 1991, Greg Gagne was entrenched as the starting shortstop and the Twins had 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 subpar seasons for him 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 lefthanders.

In the post season, Leius played in three of the five games of the American League Championship Series against Toronto, totaling five plate appearances.

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 by Greg Gagne 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 lefthander starter for the Braves, Tom Glavine this time. 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 and it 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 14-5 Game Five blowout by the Braves. 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. For the Series, Leius appeared in all seven games getting 14 at bats. He had five hits, a walk, two RBI, and that pivotal home run in Game Two.

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 and 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. He had one bad season with Cleveland in 1996, missed 1997, and played 1998 and 1999 with the Royals. Each of 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 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.

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