Revisiting the Tony Batista Signing, 15 Years Later

On December 15th, 2005, the Minnesota Twins announced the signing of third baseman Tony Batista to a one year, $1.25 million contract.

The Twins, at this stage, were very much in World Series contention, despite having missed the playoffs for the first time in four years. Minnesota had an elite talent core, highlighted by Johan Santana, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter, and a strong bullpen led by Joe Nathan.

They needed a few pieces to get them over the top. The Twins had a clear hole at the hot corner, having abandoned the "Michael Cuddyer, third baseman" experiment. The choice to fill it was Batista, a long-time big-leaguer who had spent the previous season playing in Japan.

At the time, I was a fledgling 20-year-old blogger, still in my first year of co-operating Nick & Nick’s Twins Blog. I recall being fairly ambivalent about the move, seeing it as a low-cost power infusion with glimmers of upside. But I’ll never forget the furious reaction of one Aaron Gleeman, whose blog I’d only recently begun to read with regularity.

In a piece titled “Tony F'ing Batista,” Gleeman eviscerated the move. “I have been critical of many Twins trades and signings in the past, but I can't possibly stress just how awful I think signing Batista is," he wrote. "I almost wish I had never disagreed with anything the franchise has ever done before, just so I could save up all of my disapproval for this singular decision."

As I’d later learn, he was absolutely right. All these years later, the Batista signing sticks in my memory for epitomizing so many frustrating traits and tendencies of the previous baseball ops department – traits that would endure and hamper the club’s efforts for another decade before a full overhaul in 2016.

The Batista signing represented three key downfalls of Terry Ryan and his disciples:

• Overvaluing traditional statistics. It’s a reflection of their dated evaluative methods, which quickly began to lag behind the times as an analytical revolution took hold of baseball. There was, quite literally, nothing very appealing about Batista other than his HR and RBI totals. He’d put up 32 homers and driven in 110 runs for Montreal two years earlier, but with a .272 on-base percentage, plainly bad defense, and a negative WAR. His performance in Japan the following year was much the same.
  

• Inability to assess and project performance from foreign pro leagues. There are many examples of former MLB players who spent a few years playing overseas and were revitalized; Eric Thames comes to mind, as does Miles Mikolas. If that’s what the Twins were hoping to achieve with Batista, they were woefully mistaken. His .263/.294/.463 slash line in one season with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, while uninspiring, proved to far exceed what he'd deliver the next year back in MLB. The Twins front office later flopped on high-profile international signings to fill immediate holes: Tsuyoshi Nishioka, and to a lesser extent, Byung-Ho Park.
  

• Unwillingness to decisively upgrade a championship-caliber roster. This was by far the most aggravating flaw, though not totally on the shoulders of the front office, since payroll limitations were more stark and suppressive in the Metrodome days. Still, the number of low-wattage veterans and creatively frugal pickups like Batista who were brought in to supplement a championship-caliber nucleus was infuriating – only more so in retrospect as we look back at the relentless playoff failures that defined that era of Twins baseball.
  

I bring all this up not to lament the past, but to appreciate the present. A completely retooled front office has returned the Twins to the top of the division, turning around a 103-loss team in just three years. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have been able to accomplish this largely because they are the antithesis of TR's administration with respect to the three items above.

Overvaluing outdated performance metrics? Hardly. This operation is on the cutting edge analytically, which has fueled its immense success. Whereas the previous regime might've well kept around Eddie Rosario, cherishing his gaudy RBI totals and intangibles, it was never even a thought for the current front office.

There isn't a direct comparison to be made on the second point, as Falvey's front office has yet to make a significant acquisition from the Asian pro leagues. (The closest thing would be Wilin Rosario, who came back from Japan in 2019 and raked at Triple-A but didn't reach the majors.) But, if and when they do, I trust it'll be made on quality data and valid intel, rather than gut feelings and specious thinking. It's food for thought as KBO star Ha-seong Kim, a talented young shortstop who could potentially suit the Twins' needs quite nicely, is expected to be posted by the Kiwoom Heroes this winter.

As for Terry Ryan's penchant for nickel-and-diming his way through the ostensible construction of championship contenders? Here we find the sharpest contrast. And as mentioned earlier, it can't be entirely tied to the man in the GM's chair – things were very different back in 2005, when Carl Pohlad still ran the show and the Dome suffocated revenues.

To what extent these realities weighed against Ryan's instinctive frugality, I don't know. All I know is I'm so damn glad the script has flipped.

In signing Batista, Ryan spent $1.25 million to address a key need on a team that went on to win 96 games – in SPITE of Batista's brutal six weeks, which set up Nick Punto as a heroic figure by merely becoming an average replacement at third.

Take that number, multiply it by nearly 100, and you arrive at the amount committed to Josh Donaldson last winter. Not only was it the kind of emphatic, all-in investment that would've been unthinkable in the previous era, but it didn't even address a clear need. The Twins had a third baseman in Miguel Sano. They signed Donaldson to power up an already outstanding team and put it over the top.

We'll see what the current front office has in store this offseason, with the same opportunity still very much at hand and several needs to be addressed. I don't know what they'll do, but I am confident they won't sign the next Tony Batista.

If they do, I'll definitely be making a visit to Mr. Gleeman's feed at The Athletic.

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