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Maybe that’s because he appreciates smooth crooners, but more likely it was because he sent a slider from Yankees right-hander Allan Winans to the moon—or at least beyond the left field wall.
It might as well have been to the moon. The Twins and Yankees hit plenty of home runs Tuesday, but all except Bader’s took the easy route, to right field, where wind gusts exceeding 20 mph were carrying the ball. Harrison Bader’’s shot was into the teeth of that same wind.
The solo shot, paired with an earlier home run by fellow Twins newcomer Ty France, gave the Twins a 2-1 lead over the Yankees in the third inning. The team lost that lead when Michael Tonkin yielded three runs in the fifth inning, but tied it up again at 4-4 on a home run by Matt Wallner, and won the game in the ninth thanks to a walkoff hit by DaShawn Keirsey Jr.
The moonshots were fun to see, especially because manager Rocco Baldelli revealed after the game that Wallner and France were only in the lineup because yesterday’s game was rained out and the skipper wanted to get them some at-bats. But do they matter?
Considering the three guys involved, maybe. Wallner had a miserable spring training last year that led into a miserable April, which led to a demotion to St. Paul. France had a miserable midseason that led to him bouncing around the league and being stuck with a non-guaranteed contract. And Bader went from starting center fielder on the Mets to searching for backup jobs on the free-agent market. So yeah, a jolt of early success might matter quite a bit to these guys.
Or maybe it was just about a windy day in Fort Myers. Or a classical banger of a song played at the right time. Could it play a future role for him?
“I’m looking for [a permanent walkup song],” said Bader. “We’ll see.”
We Saw Simeon Wood Richardson’s Velocity
Simeon Woods Richardson started his 2025 season where he left his 2024 season, mixing pitches, being effective, and throwing in the mid-90s. Last year, Wood Richardson averaged 93.1 on his four-seam fastball, and he already averaged a tick over 92.5 with the twelve he threw in yesterday’s start.
He also went through his full repertoire of pitches, though he gave up a home run on a wind-aided fly ball in the second inning. Unlike last year, Woods Richardson didn’t come to training camp a month early this year, needing his body to recover from a career-high 127 innings he threw last year between Triple A and the majors. He was pretty clearly gassed by the end of the season, posting a 5.91 ERA after Jul. 23 after posting a 3.27 ERA up to that point.
So what should we expect this year?
“Refine, revamp, and keep it going,” said Woods Richardson when asked his goals for training camp earlier this week. “Nothing really changes on the prep part. No real changes on the mechanical part. It’s just kind of just revamp and rego this year.”
So far, so good.
We Did Not See Jhoan Duran’s Velocity (Yet?)
It is not unusual for pitchers to have something less than their midseason velocity in their first couple outings of the spring. But Durán’s reduced velocity last year was a story, and there were reports earlier this camp that he was showing big velocity in some early sessions. But we didn’t see it Tuesday.
Duran threw 14 pitches in a scorelss inning, and six of them were his four-seam fastball, which averaged 100.5 mph last year. Objectively, that’s wonderful, except that it averaged 101.8 mph in 2023. Today, the fastest was 99.6 mph.
Don’t hit the panic button. Just like we suggested not to hit the panic button just because Justin Topa gave up a run in Saturday’s game. Especially because…
Topa Had A Clean Outing
Three batters faced, one strikeout, no hits, no walks and his velocity was as expected. But what might matter is that the sweeper that he relied on to get out of his last outing got two outs, one on a swinging strike. We’ll keep an eye on that.
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