Cristian Guzman Bounced Back From The Worst Season In Twins History To Become An All-Star Shortstop

[William Malone]

Cristian Guzmán had arguably the worst season in Twins history and then blossomed into an All-Star shortstop.

The Minnesota Twins have had many successful sell-offs in franchise history. A recent example is when they got Joe Ryan from the Tampa Bay Rays for half a season of a declining Nelson Cruz. The best example is when they sent A.J. Pierzynski away in his contract year to the San Francisco Giants for Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano, and Boof Bonser.

Minnesota also got a pretty good haul for superstar second baseman Chuck Knoblauch in 1998. This was the guy they wanted to build the franchise around after the retirements of Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek, and for good reason. Knoblauch was becoming a regular at the Midsummer Classic. His trophy case featured the 1991 AL Rookie of the Year, a few Silver Sluggers, a Gold Glove, and a World Series ring. He was locked up long-term, signing a five-year extension before the 1997 campaign. But his attitude soured as Minnesota limped to a 68-94 finish that season, and Knoblauch demanded a trade.

He was traded to the New York Yankees just days before camp opened in 1998. The return was four prospects: Eric Milton, Brian Buchanan, Danny Mota, and Cristian Guzmán. Milton and Guzmán were All-Stars in 2001 and big pieces of the team when they finally returned to postseason play in 2002. But developing them into these key pieces wasn’t always pretty—especially Guzmán, who began his career by having arguably the worst season in Twins history.

Baseball America ranked Guzmán as the league’s 68th-best prospect heading into 1999, and he was the Twins' starting shortstop on Opening Day that season. Guzmán went 0-for-2 before getting lifted for pinch hitter Brent Gates. It's not a major league debut for the history books, but it's far from a disaster. Especially with the Twins winning, thanks to a stellar pitching performance from Brad Radke. But things never got better for him as a rookie. 

While starting 126 Twins games at shortstop in 1999, Guzmán posted a miserable .543 OPS. His on-base percentage (.267) and slugging percentage (.276) sat below .280, and the defense wasn’t great either. Guzmán committed 24 errors in 1999, the fifth most by any American League player. It was the second most by an American League shortstop.

Nobody in the American League came close to touching his -2.5 bWAR that season. The second worst was -1.7, recorded by teammate Doug Mientkiewicz. White Sox shortstop Mike Caruso and his -1.6 bWAR was the worst in the American League by any non-Twin in 1999.

This is a rookie season that is impossible to defend, and it very well could be the worst season in Twins history by someone who got regular playing time. But Guzmán was out there on Opening Day once again in 2000. What choice did the team have? Minnesota had become one of the worst teams in baseball since winning the 1991 World Series. Guzmán wasn’t just starting on Opening Day. He was batting second.

And you know what? Things finally got better for the speedy shortstop. The Twins lost 7-0 to a terrible Tampa Bay Devil Rays team, but Guzmán went 2-for-4 with a stolen base. He had an RBI double and another stolen base in their second game, which was a winning effort. His first triple of the season came three days later, and then he hit 19 more. Those 20 triples led the majors and are tied with Goose Goslin of the 1925 Washington Senators for a franchise record.

2001 marked another year of improvement for Guzmán, named an All-Star for the first time. He hit .302 and led the league in triples once again. Guzmán finished 16th in the AL MVP voting and helped Minnesota to their first winning season since 1992. They finished just six games out of a playoff spot, but this young core wouldn’t have to wait much longer to finally get a taste of October baseball, winning the AL Central in 2002 with a 13 game margin.

Guzmán went 6-for-21 (.286) as Minnesota defeated Oakland in the 2002 ALDS, adding two stolen bases and a home run. Like many of his Twins teammates, the rest of his postseason sample was less successful. He hit .217 with no RBI and just one extra-base hit over the remaining 13 playoff games of his career.

Following the Twins' 2004 ALDS loss, the Washington Nationals signed Guzmán in free agency. His first season there was almost as bad as that 1999 rookie campaign. He slashed .219/.260/.314 (.574), and that was aided by a fantastic September where Guzmán hit .325 with nine extra-base hits in 25 games. Without that September surge, this wouldn’t have been “almost” as bad as that rookie season. It would’ve been just as bad.

This was a guy the Nationals were hoping to build around. They had just moved from Montreal and didn’t have much on their roster upon arriving in our nation’s capital. Signing an All-Star caliber shortstop who had been playing October baseball regularly could get fans excited. But instead, poor numbers and a perceived lack of hustle had Guzmán getting booed each time he came to the plate.

Nobody was able to boo him in 2006, as Guzmán missed the entire season due to shoulder and eye surgeries. The booing stopped when he hit a career-best .328 in 2007. Guzmán followed that up by making his second All-Star team in 2008.

But 2009 saw offensive and defensive declines for a now 31-year-old Guzmán. He was moved to second base at the start of 2010 and traded to the Texas Rangers at the deadline that year. Guzmán initially tried to decline the trade by invoking his 10-5 rights but eventually talked into accepting after a few days of “will he, won’t he” drama.

Guzmán hit just .152 for the Rangers after the trade and was left off their playoff roster. Texas reached the World Series, where they fell in five games to the Giants. He sat out the 2011 season while rehabbing from another shoulder surgery, citing unspecified family issues. The Cleveland Indians signed him to a minor league contract in 2012 but released him before spring training ended. This ended the professional career of Cristian Guzmán.

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[Parfigliano]

So Lee will equal Guzman?

[William Malone]

3 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

So Lee will equal Guzman?

Brooks Lee was not remotely close to being as bad as rookie year Guzman

[Rik19753]

I really wish the Twins would stick to their young players and let them learn a little more like they did 25 years ago with Guzman.

I understand that the team wasn't good then and could afford to give playing time to underperforming prospects, but it really feels like the current regime does not have the patience to let players develop at the major league level (especially when they seem to have all the patience in the world for underperforming veterans, but that is a topic for a different article). Examples like Wallner, Julien, Miranda, Varland come to mind.

This is pure speculation, but I think it's likely that prospects that constantly have to worry about being sent down if they are performing badly will make choices that stunt their long-term growth in exchange for short-term success (adjusting their approach to deal with certain flaws in their game which exposes an even larger flaw, etc.). It certainly would help to explain the reason that most of our young hitters light the world on fire one month then can't hit a lick the next.

[William Malone]

9 hours ago, Rik19753 said:

I really wish the Twins would stick to their young players and let them learn a little more like they did 25 years ago with Guzman.

I understand that the team wasn't good then and could afford to give playing time to underperforming prospects, but it really feels like the current regime does not have the patience to let players develop at the major league level (especially when they seem to have all the patience in the world for underperforming veterans, but that is a topic for a different article). Examples like Wallner, Julien, Miranda, Varland come to mind.

This is pure speculation, but I think it's likely that prospects that constantly have to worry about being sent down if they are performing badly will make choices that stunt their long-term growth in exchange for short-term success (adjusting their approach to deal with certain flaws in their game which exposes an even larger flaw, etc.). It certainly would help to explain the reason that most of our young hitters light the world on fire one month then can't hit a lick the next.

This is the other side of the coin when it comes to spending money. And while they’re still not the Dodgers or Yankees, spending $1 million for Ty France to take at-bats away from Jose Miranda was something the Twins could not afford in 2000. They were consistently bottom five in payroll post-1994 strike until Target Field opened, despite the fact that they often won their division. Right now, they’re not even bottom ten in payroll 

[bean5302]

On 3/22/2025 at 3:32 PM, William Malone said:

Brooks Lee was not remotely close to being as bad as rookie year Guzman

 

On 3/22/2025 at 9:41 PM, Rik19753 said:

I really wish the Twins would stick to their young players and let them learn a little more like they did 25 years ago with Guzman.

I understand that the team wasn't good then and could afford to give playing time to underperforming prospects, but it really feels like the current regime does not have the patience to let players develop at the major league level (especially when they seem to have all the patience in the world for underperforming veterans, but that is a topic for a different article). Examples like Wallner, Julien, Miranda, Varland come to mind.

This is pure speculation, but I think it's likely that prospects that constantly have to worry about being sent down if they are performing badly will make choices that stunt their long-term growth in exchange for short-term success (adjusting their approach to deal with certain flaws in their game which exposes an even larger flaw, etc.). It certainly would help to explain the reason that most of our young hitters light the world on fire one month then can't hit a lick the next.

As William Malone noted Christian Guzman was horrifying in his rookie year (and awful the next year too)

Advocating for the Twins to follow the Guzman method is crazy to me. Guzman was well below average as a hitter in the minors, including his only AA experience where he managed a .656 OPS at age 20. The Twins then bafflingly had Guzman skip AAA altogether, immediately making him the full time SS at the MLB level for his age 21 season. It was a ludicrous strategy and Guzman went on to produce -3.4 WAR with poor defense and a .543 OPS (wRC+ 34) in 1999 and then -0.1 WAR with shaky defense and a .687 OPS (wRC+ 69, steroid era) in 2000.

This method would basically be promoting Kaelen Culpepper to starting 3B this year.

[William Malone]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

 

As William Malone noted Christian Guzman was horrifying in his rookie year (and awful the next year too)

Advocating for the Twins to follow the Guzman method is crazy to me. Guzman was well below average as a hitter in the minors, including his only AA experience where he managed a .656 OPS at age 20. The Twins then bafflingly had Guzman skip AAA altogether, immediately making him the full time SS at the MLB level for his age 21 season. It was a ludicrous strategy and Guzman went on to produce -3.4 WAR with poor defense and a .543 OPS (wRC+ 34) in 1999 and then -0.1 WAR with shaky defense and a .687 OPS (wRC+ 69, steroid era) in 2000.

This method would basically be promoting Kaelen Culpepper to starting 3B this year.

It's always fun to look back at how successful the Twins youth movement was in the early-2000's, but I don't think fans are patient enough anymore to actually sit though it. Guzman was simply the worst player of them all out of the gate. But Douggie Baseball (mentioned in piece), Denny Hocking and Torii Hunter were all really, really bad in 1999. Jacque Jones was okay, at best. Eric Milton, Joe Mays and LaTroy Hawkins all struggled on the pitching side of things. You had this huge youth movement and it took them 3-4 years to make the playoffs after they all came up and become regular players. Koskie was really the only guy from the 2002-04 home grown core who started hitting right away.

[nicksaviking]

On 3/23/2025 at 7:41 AM, William Malone said:

This is the other side of the coin when it comes to spending money. And while they’re still not the Dodgers or Yankees, spending $1 million for Ty France to take at-bats away from Jose Miranda was something the Twins could not afford in 2000. They were consistently bottom five in payroll post-1994 strike until Target Field opened, despite the fact that they often won their division. Right now, they’re not even bottom ten in payroll 

I have to disagree. This off season looks an awful lot like that era of the Twins. They were always signing Butch Husky's and Otis Nixon's and Quinton McCrakon's. Guys who at one point had some name value but now were just veteran filler for the sake of being veteran filler. Ty France and Harrison Bader are basically the exact same caliber of free agents they were always cycling through, but that history has already forgotten.

And at the end of his tenure, Tom Kelly showed NO patience with the young players who didn't perform. But unlike Rocco Baldelli, he also showed no patience with the veterans who didn't perform. Therefore he didn't cut off his nose to spite his face; he gave the young guys reps because it was clearly the best answer for the long term.

[William Malone]

18 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I have to disagree. This off season looks an awful lot like that era of the Twins. They were always signing Butch Husky's and Otis Nixon's and Quinton McCrakon's. Guys who at one point had some name value but now were just veteran filler for the sake of being veteran filler. Ty France and Harrison Bader are basically the exact same caliber of free agents they were always cycling through, but that history has already forgotten.

And at the end of his tenure, Tom Kelly showed NO patience with the young players who didn't perform. But unlike Rocco Baldelli, he also showed no patience with the veterans who didn't perform. Therefore he didn't cut off his nose to spite his face; he gave the young guys reps because it was clearly the best answer for the long term.

But how long term are we talking though? Look at all the young guys from that 2002 team. And now look at them in 1999. It wasn’t just Guzman who was bad. Torii Hunter and Douggie Baseball were also really, really bad in 1999 while getting regular playing time. Jacque Jones was okay, at best. And it eventually clicked, but we’re talking about 1999-02. Are you patient enough today to wait that long for a young core to come through?

[bean5302]

51 minutes ago, William Malone said:

It's always fun to look back at how successful the Twins youth movement was in the early-2000's, but I don't think fans are patient enough anymore to actually sit though it. Guzman was simply the worst player of them all out of the gate. But Douggie Baseball (mentioned in piece), Denny Hocking and Torii Hunter were all really, really bad in 1999. Jacque Jones was okay, at best. Eric Milton, Joe Mays and LaTroy Hawkins all struggled on the pitching side of things. You had this huge youth movement and it took them 3-4 years to make the playoffs after they all came up and become regular players. Koskie was really the only guy from the 2002-04 home grown core who started hitting right away.

I think you're right in that fans won't put up with a non-competitive team threatening to lose 100 games a year while prospects who aren't ready waste their service time in the majors. It's worth noting it wasn't all team controlled cheap prospects who carried the Twins into their era of competitive play. The team payroll nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2003 as players reached the end of their team control.

There are some teams who've carried that home grown prospects only philosophy forward like the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have been to the playoffs 3x over the past 26 years. The biggest problem with trying to run a team like it's 1999 is how player development and value have been advanced over time. Of course, it helps to draft 2 future MVP's and get a Cy Young through rule 5 all at the same time. I just don't think that's legitimately sustainable.

[William Malone]

5 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I think you're right in that fans won't put up with a non-competitive team threatening to lose 100 games a year while prospects who aren't ready waste their service time in the majors. It's worth noting it wasn't all team controlled cheap prospects who carried the Twins into their era of competitive play. The team payroll nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2003 as players reached the end of their team control.

There are some teams who've carried that home grown prospects only philosophy forward like the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have been to the playoffs 3x over the past 26 years. The biggest problem with trying to run a team like it's 1999 is how player development and value have been advanced over time. Of course, it helps to draft 2 future MVP's and get a Cy Young through rule 5 all at the same time. I just don't think that's legitimately sustainable.

The Twins were also lucky to have so many people on the exact same clock. Guzman, Jacque Jones, Koskie, Doggie and AJ were all reaching free agency after 2004. AJ got moved in offseason. Doug at deadline. Other three all walked on their own. Almost impossible to pull off getting six good to great players on the exact same clock. It’s what Pirates have been trying to do for 30 years and they can’t line it all up 

[Rik19753]

23 hours ago, bean5302 said:

 

As William Malone noted Christian Guzman was horrifying in his rookie year (and awful the next year too)

Advocating for the Twins to follow the Guzman method is crazy to me. Guzman was well below average as a hitter in the minors, including his only AA experience where he managed a .656 OPS at age 20. The Twins then bafflingly had Guzman skip AAA altogether, immediately making him the full time SS at the MLB level for his age 21 season. It was a ludicrous strategy and Guzman went on to produce -3.4 WAR with poor defense and a .543 OPS (wRC+ 34) in 1999 and then -0.1 WAR with shaky defense and a .687 OPS (wRC+ 69, steroid era) in 2000.

This method would basically be promoting Kaelen Culpepper to starting 3B this year.

I'm not advocating for the Twins to call up a half-baked player or to stick with a player while he literally puts up the worst performance in the majors. Rather, I would just like to see them have faith in young unproven players like Julien and Miranda to grow like they did with some young players back then.

[Linus]

That was a pretty good trade as they flipped Buchanan for Jason Bartlett straight up in addition to Guzmán and Milton