The 2025 Golden Grapefruits: Our Third Annual Favorite Spring Training Cliches

[Greggory Masterson]

Unless Rob Manfred has his way, some things in baseball are eternal. Three strikes and you’re out. Nine innings make a game. Someone shows up to spring training in the best shape of their life. Let’s give out some awards.

Image courtesy of © Chris Tilley-Imagn Images

We’ve got some awards to hand out, and they’re not for meaningless things like “best spring training hitter" or anything. No, we’re locking in and giving out trophies for the most cliché happenings. Every year, the same storylines tend to pop up, and fans consume them like Kramarczuk's sausages. We had a great showing this year. Every predicted cliché had at least one qualifier, and many award winners shone magnificently, going above and beyond what the academy was looking for. Let’s get started!

Miguel Sanó Memorial "Best Shape of His Life" Award: Jhoan Durán
We start our awards with a classic. Each year, someone in every camp shows up in what they or someone else can describe as “the best shape of his life.” Sometimes, several people show up in such a state. Some people show up in such a state several times (hence the award being named after Boquetón himself).

Like last year, there was no impressive, runaway winner. In 2024, Christian Vázquez showed up to camp eight pounds lighter than he had been the previous year, and I determined that wasn’t enough weight (my rule of thumb: if I’ve lost that much weight in 24 hours before, it’s not notable).

However, this year, Jhoan Durán showed up 12 pounds lighter (surpassing my 11-pound threshold), making him deserving of the Best Shape of His Life Award. Hopefully, his weight stays down, and his velocity stays up.

Previous winners: Jhoan Durán (2024), José Miranda (2023)

"Newest Pitch" Award: Jorge Alcalá
It was a relatively quiet year on the new pitch front. Every year, several pitchers come in trying to tinker with something. Sometimes it’s something they start working on in camp; sometimes it’s a pitch they designed at Driveline; and sometimes they tried something once at the behest of a teammate and it becomes a real thing.

Does it carry over to the regular season? Not often. But it’s always interesting to see if it can.

The most prominent new pitch discussed this spring was David Festa’s new sinker—an option for him to mix in against righties. However, this is the newest pitch award, and one Twins pitcher has had a new offering flying under the radar.

It looks like Jorge Alcalá is now throwing a curveball, a pitch he hasn’t thrown to this point in his career. It showed up at Pitch Profiler at the beginning of March, and Brooks Baseball claims he’s thrown it about two dozen times. Who knows if it’ll carry over into the season, but its 12-6 shape might help him finally neutralize lefties—something he’s struggled to do to this point in his career.

This unseats Joe Ryan, who had won in back-to-back seasons. Threepeats are unheard of when it comes to the Golden Grapefruits, and Ryan wasn't daring enough to come in this year with some wacky new thing to change that status quo.

Previous winners: Joe Ryan (2024, 2023), Griffin Jax (2023)

"Most Revamped Swing" Award: Ty France
It’s a little more challenging to pick out which guys have made swing overhauls, but someone usually tells you about it. Ty France was that guy this year.

Actually, France wasn’t the guy who first brought it up. Twins legend Denny Hocking tweeted out that he had worked with France over the offseason mere hours before the Twins announced his signing.

Allegedly, France spent the offseason getting back to basics, simplifying his swing. It’s a pretty normal reaction after struggling mightily last season, and early returns have been tremendous. If we gave out a spring training MVP, it'd probably be his for the taking.

Previous winners: Brooks Lee (2024), Max Kepler (2023)

"Weirdest Injury" Award: Mickey Gasper
Although not a cliché, it seems that every year there is an inexplicable injury that can only be chalked up to spring training. Recall 2021, when Byron Buxton missed a few weeks due to a root canal after chipping his tooth while eating steak.

I thought I’d be giving the award to Chris Paddack. If I had a nickel for every time Paddack got hit with a comebacker in the third inning of the Twins' March 8 game, I’d have 10 cents—which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. He took two comebackers in a single inning, the second hitting him in the head and giving him a bruise.

However, on Sunday, newly minted cult hero Mickey Gasper managed to get stepped on by top prospect Brandon Winokur, requiring six stitches in his heel. Gasper was playing second base, and Winokur was playing shortstop, and they collided on a grounder up the middle. Hindsight is 20/20 (though peripheral vision doesn't appear to be, for these two), but it’s worth asking if putting a guy who shouldn’t be playing much second base next to a guy who shouldn’t be playing much shortstop in major-league camp was such a great idea.

Fortunately, Gasper is still making the Opening Day roster, even if that requires a Curt Schilling bloody sock.

Previous winners: Pete Maki (ruptured bicep doing pullups, 2024), Jordan Balazovic (broken jaw, bar fight, 2023)

"Honey, Grab My Program" Award: Jeferson Morales
Spring training, especially early in the year and late in games, features a rotating cast of characters more extensive than The Simpsons'. Non-roster invitees, prospects, and career minor-leaguers are each given their turns in the Florida sun. Every year, a few prospects get their number called more than others, consistently sending fans scrambling to look up who No. 80 is.

Only players who have never appeared in MLB and are not on the 40-man roster qualify for this award. Jeferson Morales ran away with it this year, nearly leading the whole club in games played (18, one short of MLB vet Armando Alvarez’s 19), and earning 34 at-bats, ranking 18th in the organization and eight ahead of the next qualified candidate, Luke Keaschall (26 PA).

Morales made the most of his opportunity, with an OPS over 1.000, and given his flexibility, he’s a sleeper pick to get some big-league time this year if there are injuries. Of note, though, the previous two winners of this award left the Twins organization the following season.

Previous winners: Chris Williams (2024), Andrew Bechtold (2023)

"First Cliché Statement" Award: Rocco Baldelli
We have an upset. I really thought Carlos Correa would win this award until his contract was up, but Rocco Baldelli swooped in and stole it from under him. Likely due in part to the collapse, Rocco has a bit of a fire lit under him (and maybe his seat) and became a bit more of a hardo this spring. Workouts have been more structured, for instance.

“I think we're going to prepare more as a team," Baldelli said, on the very day when pitchers and catchers reported to camp. "They're still going to have individual things they're going to work on. But I like the idea and the way I think it'll look in practice, getting the guys out there as a group to get ready.” Although it might not have been a bona fide cliché, he’s clearly running his team in a more stereotypical way, and that aura is enough to win it for him this year.

I’m sure Carlos will spend all season training for next spring.

Previous winners: Carlos Correa (2024, 2023)

"Grainiest Video" Award: Dan Hayes
Finally, my favorite award. The media can’t help themselves, and we, as fans, will eat up whatever they give us. When baseball’s back, we need proof. Grainy videos taken through a fence at the beginning of camp are a spring training staple.

Do-Hyoung Park was consistently the best at this one, though I gave him a one-year suspension in 2024 for appearing to take grainy video intentionally. It ended up being a de facto lifetime suspension, as he left the beat after this season.

And we missed him. There just weren’t many bad videos. Dan Hayes won, though. This one is probably my favorite, because he inexplicably took it while lying on the floor.

This one was also pretty good, given the dreariness and silence and the batters being obscured by the protective screen.

Previous winners: Dan Hayes (2024), Do-Hyoung Park (2023)

View full article

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Funny article. Thanks Greggory.

[ryanking61]

Golden Grapefruits, what a headline! 😂

[Road trip]

""Most Revamped Swing" Award: Ty France
It’s a little more challenging to pick out which guys have made swing overhauls, but someone usually tells you about it. Ty France was that guy this year.

Actually, France wasn’t the guy who first brought it up. Twins legend Denny Hocking tweeted out that he had worked with France over the offseason mere hours before the Twins announced his signing."

 

With all due respect to Denny Hocking, I'd much rather he teach Ty France how to improve his glove work.  Hocking and his career 69 OPS+ shouldn't get near anybody's swing.

[tony&rodney]

Fun article starting with a brilliant warning about baseball's nemesis (manfred).

[dxpavelka]

I'll take "broken jaw, bar fight, 2023" for a thousand Alex.