Paul D

Let’s Talk Salaries
The Padres traded their “once in a lifetime” superstar to the Yankees for payroll relief. This in spite of drawing over 3.2M fans in 2023 (2nd in NL). The Padres 2023 payroll was $259M (per sportrac.com) and they didn’t make the playoffs. In looking forward, the Padres are currently paying Manny Machado $17M per year until 2025 and then it becomes $25M in 2026 and then $39M for the next 7 years. Fernando Tatis will make $11.7M in 2024, $20.7M in 2025 and 2026, $25.7M in 2027 and 2028, then $36.7M until 2034. Xander Bogaerts will earn $25.45M from 2024 until 2033. It is interesting to add to this horror show the fact that both Tatis and Bogaerts were signed to play shortstop and at this moment they are playing right field and 2nd base respectively. This financial model can best be explained by the saying used by Whimpy in Popeye cartoons when he said, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”.
In the same boat are the Dodgers who this year signed Shohei Ohtani for 10 years at a total contract price of $700M. He will receive $2M in payroll each year until 2032 and then will be paid $68M for the next 10 years. They then signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto for 12 years and $325M (an average of $27M), but paying him $9.2M in 2024. And of course they traded for Tyler Glasnow and his $25M salary and quickly signed him to a lucrative contract extension. At some point, 10 years from now the Dodgers may have an extremely serious payroll problem.
To the credit of the NY Mets, last year under Steve Cohen’s ownership they bought every toy they could find in the toy department. Half way through the year they figured out that buying the best players does not guarantee positive results. At the trade deadline they traded many of their big off season signings for prospects and this off season they decided to sit out the dance and work on improving their farm system. Sanity has visited the Mets.
All of this brings me to the Twins. This past week Joe Pohlad made comments on local radio that seemed to hit the hometown fans the wrong way. He basically declared that the Twins would not be spending money to bringing in one of the high priced Boras Band of Five (now four). He did, however, leave some wiggle room for signing one of the lesser unsigned players who may come at a bargain rate and a short contract because of spring training already being underway.
Being from southern New England and new to the Twins, I’m now reading many fans questioning the ownership’s commitment to putting together a team that can compete for a World Series ring. The term “Cheap Pohlad” is appearing often in comments on X (not going to say, formerly twitter), The Athletic and Twins Daily. The majority of fans believe that the team has a strong and youthful nucleus and that with the addition of a piece or two can compete for the championship. The inability of the front office to add the missing pieces is being blamed on team ownership and their frugal ways.
To fill in my gaps in Twins history I thought that I should take a look at the team’s recent payroll and attendance figures so I can formulate my own opinion.
The Correa Effect
 
Year
Payroll
Prior Yr Attendance
Attend. Yr
2023
$160M
1,801,000
2022
2022
$150M
1,310,000
2021
2021
$123M
0
2020
2020
$135M
2,303,000
2019
2019
$114M
1,959,000
2018
2018
$110M
2,051,000
2017
2017
$104M
1,964,000
2016
 
2017 to 2019 was largely status quo. The attendance fluctuated by no more than 100,000 each year and the payroll showed inflationary increases. No huge surprises to their overall payroll plans.
2020 showed an 18.4% increase based on a 17.6% increase in attendance. Unfortunately 2020 was the Covid season where spectators were not allowed in the ball park, but players still needed to be paid according to their contract terms. I don’t know if ownership was covered by business interruption insurance or if they were stuck with a year of normal expenses (less many game day expenses) with no attendance revenue.
2021 - Probably as a reaction to the Covid season the payroll dropped by $12M for the 2021 season.
2022 – I will call this the Correa Factor. The Twins had a unique opportunity to sign one of baseball’s elites to a 3 year/$105M contract. The contract contained opt outs after each year, so unless Correa was to experience a major injury (which should have been covered by insurance), it was a 1 year/$35M contract. This transaction was probably unforeseen, but the budget was increased by $27M to make it happen. Chances are that the payroll budget may have been reduced because the attendance for the 2021 season only reached 1,310,000, far lower than previous seasons.
2023 – I will call this the Correa Factor II. There was probably little likelihood of Correa having a 2nd season with the Twins, but a funny thing happened, he fell back into their laps when the Giants and Mets were spooked by his physical. The Twins had an opportunity to take him back at a slightly lower rate and a reasonable 6 year term (with team options after that). They couldn’t reduce the budget after this signing so they ended up increasing the payroll from $150M to $160M. Attendance increased by 491,000, but still fell below the 2017-2019 norm.
2024 – They have been operating with a payroll bloated by the Correa double signings, were losing $7-$8M in TV Revenue, attendance had not bounced back to earlier amounts, and they needed to “right size” the budget.
I’ve used the term “right size” frequently in my career as a CFO. The term simply means to have the right number of employees (or payroll) for the amount of sales you are realizing. If your sales decrease from one year to the next you are probably going to look at a layoff or not replacing employees who leave. You match your loss of revenue with a reduction in expenses to keep your bottom line stable.
After all of this background, the Twins are basically saying that after a payroll that has increased by opportunity, not additional revenues, that they need to bring it back to an amount that is consistent with the attendance (and TV revenue) they are generating. That largely brings them back to the 2017-2019 days.
I think that their approach is fiscally reasonable and responsible. Let’s admit it, we were warned early in the off-season that this was going to be a reality. Last week it became cast in stone. However, let’s look at the bright side. There is still wiggle room for a spring training signing to round out the roster, just not one of the big boys.
Cost Per Attendee
To further evaluate the Twins position I decided to compare Payroll to Attendance. I did an analysis of the 2023 attendance for each team compared to their 2023 payroll. The team with the highest payroll for 2023 was the NY Mets and they were ranked 14th in total attendance. They ended up paying their players $137 for each person who attended a game. Second was the White Sox who had the 15th highest payroll but the 24th highest attendance. They ended up paying $108 for each person. The rest of the top 10 were the Yankees at $85, the Angels at $80, the Phillies at $80, the Marlins at $79, the Twins at $78, the Rangers at $77, the Padres at $76 and the Tigers at $76. The Twins ended up in 7th place among the 30 teams. The overall average was $68 for each fan attending. The team that spend the least on payroll compared to attendance were the Orioles at $31.
Some teams can alleviate some of this high cost per attendee because of the ticket prices they charge. A cost to the Mets of $137 per person or the Yankees at $85 can be offset by having higher ticket prices than a team like the Twins or Marlins. It is possible that when this payroll cost per attendee is adjusted by average ticket price, that the Twins may climb up the ladder and be closer to the top ranking.
My Summary or Conclusion (Finally)
My hope for the Twins is that as the trade deadline approaches that we will be able to pickup a premium pitcher to round out our playoff roster. I have complete confidence in ownership that this will happen if the right player and the right deal comes along. They have already opened up for purse strings for Carlos Correa. Strong attendance will be very helpful.
As far as how they handle financial management, I believe paring back payroll and not taking on another $30M per year plunge is perfectly understandable. Their 2023 attendance of 1,974,000 puts them right back to the 2017-2019 years when the team payroll was around $110M. With a $126M payroll for 2024 and a loss of $7M in broadcast fees, it seems like a reasonable budget. Hopefully attendance will increase and there will be a willingness to spend at the trade deadline for any missing pieces.
I am not a Pohlad Family “fan boy”, but I feel that their approach is fiscally sound. While there are teams spending money like drunken sailors, the majority are still living within their means and looking at their front office to make personnel moves that will make a difference. Their standing as 7th when comparing payroll to attendance tells me that they are providing adequate funding to support the team. I can’t justify joining “Cheap Pohlad Club”.

I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series.
As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget.
Preparing a budget takes great knowledge of your business. You need individuals who can anticipate what the businesses expenses for the next year will be. That includes taking into consideration what the cost of utilities, insurance, employee healthcare, the raises you would like to give to your employees, hot dogs and beer and other inflationary increases will be.
When you have created an expense budget (not including player costs), you should then work out your revenue budget. Here you will estimate what you believe are the expected revenues from ticket sales, concessions, TV revenue, etc. When creating these estimates it is important to budget conservatively. A good budget will contain income estimates that are attainable. Additionally your expenses should be budgeted accurately with extra funds built in just in case there are unexpected obligations.
You will now have a revenue budget and an expense budget, still to come are your team’s salaries and benefits, and the organization’s profit goal. The basic format becomes:
+Revenue
-Expenses
=Net Income
-Player Compensation
=Profit
Now let’s throw in some numbers -
$500,000,000 – Revenue
-$300,000,000 – Expenses
$200,000,000 – Net Income
$ x,xxx,xxx – Player Compensation
$ 50,000,000 – Budget Profit
In order to balance out the budget Player Compensation would be $150,000,000.
This is what the Twins administration will go through every year when determining how much money they should allocate for players salaries.
What can change the player budget? A couple of things can happen: 1) ownership can decide that rather than having a return on their investment (profit) of $50,000,000, they will only expect $25,000,000. This can afford them an opportunity to allocate additional budget dollars to player salaries, or 2) they can review their original budget data and determine that some expenses may end up being greater or less than they had originally thought, this difference (which can be a plus or minus) can be used to add or subtract from player salaries, or 3) they can review the revenue budget and make changes to the player budget based on getting more or less than expected. A good example is getting less TV Revenue. A loss of $15,000,000 from Bally gets adjusted by lowering the player budget by the same $15,000,000. Of course it could happen that ticket sales are strong and halfway through the year they feel that ticket sales will be $10,000,000 over what they budgeted. In this case player salaries will have additional funds to use to make changes at the trade deadline.
Naturally, as a fan, I would like an unlimited player salary budget. But as an accountant, I understand that a sound business is based on profitability. Businesses that consistently lose money will eventually run into financial difficulties. When this happens most fans will say, why doesn’t ownership throw in additional cash flow to help out the business. But the whole idea of owning a business is to make an annual profit and to built up the equity in the team so that one day in the future, you can sell the team for a nice profit.
True most baseball teams are owned by people with significant personal wealth, but they are limited to how much they would be willing to lose of their wealth in order for the team to succeed.
There are only so many Steve Cohen’s and George Steinbrenner’s and there are a lot of owners who need the team to be profitable in order for them to succeed.
I think the Pohlad’s are wise to operate the Twins as a business and not a hobby and it is wise to hold the line on spending to what the business can afford.
This is a very simple example is only meant as an aid to showing the complicated process of putting together an annual budget and how teams may determine what they can spend on players.
 
I am not taking a side in discussions, only pointing out the importance of a business preparing a budget and trying to maintain financial sanity.

I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series.
As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget.
Preparing a budget takes great knowledge of your business. You need individuals who can anticipate what the businesses expenses for the next year will be. That includes taking into consideration what the cost of utilities, insurance, employee healthcare, the raises you would like to give to your employees, hot dogs and beer and other inflationary increases will be.
When you have created an expense budget (not including player costs), you should then work out your revenue budget. Here you will estimate what you believe are the expected revenues from ticket sales, concessions, TV revenue, etc. When creating these estimates it is important to budget conservatively. A good budget will contain income estimates that are attainable. Additionally your expenses should be budgeted accurately with extra funds built in just in case there are unexpected obligations.
You will now have a revenue budget and an expense budget, still to come are your team’s salaries and benefits, and the organization’s profit goal. The basic format becomes:
+Revenue
-Expenses
=Net Income
-Player Compensation
=Profit
Now let’s throw in some numbers -
$500,000,000 – Revenue
-$300,000,000 – Expenses
$200,000,000 – Net Income
$ x,xxx,xxx – Player Compensation
$ 50,000,000 – Budget Profit
In order to balance out the budget Player Compensation would be $150,000,000.
This is what the Twins administration will go through every year when determining how much money they should allocate for players salaries.
What can change the player budget? A couple of things can happen: 1) ownership can decide that rather than having a return on their investment (profit) of $50,000,000, they will only expect $25,000,000. This can afford them an opportunity to allocate additional budget dollars to player salaries, or 2) they can review their original budget data and determine that some expenses may end up being greater or less than they had originally thought, this difference (which can be a plus or minus) can be used to add or subtract from player salaries, or 3) they can review the revenue budget and make changes to the player budget based on getting more or less than expected. A good example is getting less TV Revenue. A loss of $15,000,000 from Bally gets adjusted by lowering the player budget by the same $15,000,000. Of course it could happen that ticket sales are strong and halfway through the year they feel that ticket sales will be $10,000,000 over what they budgeted. In this case player salaries will have additional funds to use to make changes at the trade deadline.
Naturally, as a fan, I would like an unlimited player salary budget. But as an accountant, I understand that a sound business is based on profitability. Businesses that consistently lose money will eventually run into financial difficulties. When this happens most fans will say, why doesn’t ownership throw in additional cash flow to help out the business. But the whole idea of owning a business is to make an annual profit and to built up the equity in the team so that one day in the future, you can sell the team for a nice profit.
True most baseball teams are owned by people with significant personal wealth, but they are limited to how much they would be willing to lose of their wealth in order for the team to succeed.
There are only so many Steve Cohen’s and George Steinbrenner’s and there are a lot of owners who need the team to be profitable in order for them to succeed.
I think the Pohlad’s are wise to operate the Twins as a business and not a hobby and it is wise to hold the line on spending to what the business can afford.
This is a very simple example is only meant as an aid to showing the complicated process of putting together an annual budget and how teams may determine what they can spend on players.
 
I am not taking a side in discussions, only pointing out the importance of a business preparing a budget and trying to maintain financial sanity.

I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series.
As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget.
Preparing a budget takes great knowledge of your business. You need individuals who can anticipate what the businesses expenses for the next year will be. That includes taking into consideration what the cost of utilities, insurance, employee healthcare, the raises you would like to give to your employees, hot dogs and beer and other inflationary increases will be.
When you have created an expense budget (not including player costs), you should then work out your revenue budget. Here you will estimate what you believe are the expected revenues from ticket sales, concessions, TV revenue, etc. When creating these estimates it is important to budget conservatively. A good budget will contain income estimates that are attainable. Additionally your expenses should be budgeted accurately with extra funds built in just in case there are unexpected obligations.
You will now have a revenue budget and an expense budget, still to come are your team’s salaries and benefits, and the organization’s profit goal. The basic format becomes:
+Revenue
-Expenses
=Net Income
-Player Compensation
=Profit
Now let’s throw in some numbers -
$500,000,000 – Revenue
-$300,000,000 – Expenses
$200,000,000 – Net Income
$ x,xxx,xxx – Player Compensation
$ 50,000,000 – Budget Profit
In order to balance out the budget Player Compensation would be $150,000,000.
This is what the Twins administration will go through every year when determining how much money they should allocate for players salaries.
What can change the player budget? A couple of things can happen: 1) ownership can decide that rather than having a return on their investment (profit) of $50,000,000, they will only expect $25,000,000. This can afford them an opportunity to allocate additional budget dollars to player salaries, or 2) they can review their original budget data and determine that some expenses may end up being greater or less than they had originally thought, this difference (which can be a plus or minus) can be used to add or subtract from player salaries, or 3) they can review the revenue budget and make changes to the player budget based on getting more or less than expected. A good example is getting less TV Revenue. A loss of $15,000,000 from Bally gets adjusted by lowering the player budget by the same $15,000,000. Of course it could happen that ticket sales are strong and halfway through the year they feel that ticket sales will be $10,000,000 over what they budgeted. In this case player salaries will have additional funds to use to make changes at the trade deadline.
Naturally, as a fan, I would like an unlimited player salary budget. But as an accountant, I understand that a sound business is based on profitability. Businesses that consistently lose money will eventually run into financial difficulties. When this happens most fans will say, why doesn’t ownership throw in additional cash flow to help out the business. But the whole idea of owning a business is to make an annual profit and to built up the equity in the team so that one day in the future, you can sell the team for a nice profit.
True most baseball teams are owned by people with significant personal wealth, but they are limited to how much they would be willing to lose of their wealth in order for the team to succeed.
There are only so many Steve Cohen’s and George Steinbrenner’s and there are a lot of owners who need the team to be profitable in order for them to succeed.
I think the Pohlad’s are wise to operate the Twins as a business and not a hobby and it is wise to hold the line on spending to what the business can afford.
This is a very simple example is only meant as an aid to showing the complicated process of putting together an annual budget and how teams may determine what they can spend on players.
 
I am not taking a side in discussions, only pointing out the importance of a business preparing a budget and trying to maintain financial sanity.

I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series.
As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget.
Preparing a budget takes great knowledge of your business. You need individuals who can anticipate what the businesses expenses for the next year will be. That includes taking into consideration what the cost of utilities, insurance, employee healthcare, the raises you would like to give to your employees, hot dogs and beer and other inflationary increases will be.
When you have created an expense budget (not including player costs), you should then work out your revenue budget. Here you will estimate what you believe are the expected revenues from ticket sales, concessions, TV revenue, etc. When creating these estimates it is important to budget conservatively. A good budget will contain income estimates that are attainable. Additionally your expenses should be budgeted accurately with extra funds built in just in case there are unexpected obligations.
You will now have a revenue budget and an expense budget, still to come are your team’s salaries and benefits, and the organization’s profit goal. The basic format becomes:
+Revenue
-Expenses
=Net Income
-Player Compensation
=Profit
Now let’s throw in some numbers -
$500,000,000 – Revenue
-$300,000,000 – Expenses
$200,000,000 – Net Income
$ x,xxx,xxx – Player Compensation
$ 50,000,000 – Budget Profit
In order to balance out the budget Player Compensation would be $150,000,000.
This is what the Twins administration will go through every year when determining how much money they should allocate for players salaries.
What can change the player budget? A couple of things can happen: 1) ownership can decide that rather than having a return on their investment (profit) of $50,000,000, they will only expect $25,000,000. This can afford them an opportunity to allocate additional budget dollars to player salaries, or 2) they can review their original budget data and determine that some expenses may end up being greater or less than they had originally thought, this difference (which can be a plus or minus) can be used to add or subtract from player salaries, or 3) they can review the revenue budget and make changes to the player budget based on getting more or less than expected. A good example is getting less TV Revenue. A loss of $15,000,000 from Bally gets adjusted by lowering the player budget by the same $15,000,000. Of course it could happen that ticket sales are strong and halfway through the year they feel that ticket sales will be $10,000,000 over what they budgeted. In this case player salaries will have additional funds to use to make changes at the trade deadline.
Naturally, as a fan, I would like an unlimited player salary budget. But as an accountant, I understand that a sound business is based on profitability. Businesses that consistently lose money will eventually run into financial difficulties. When this happens most fans will say, why doesn’t ownership throw in additional cash flow to help out the business. But the whole idea of owning a business is to make an annual profit and to built up the equity in the team so that one day in the future, you can sell the team for a nice profit.
True most baseball teams are owned by people with significant personal wealth, but they are limited to how much they would be willing to lose of their wealth in order for the team to succeed.
There are only so many Steve Cohen’s and George Steinbrenner’s and there are a lot of owners who need the team to be profitable in order for them to succeed.
I think the Pohlad’s are wise to operate the Twins as a business and not a hobby and it is wise to hold the line on spending to what the business can afford.
This is a very simple example is only meant as an aid to showing the complicated process of putting together an annual budget and how teams may determine what they can spend on players.
 
I am not taking a side in discussions, only pointing out the importance of a business preparing a budget and trying to maintain financial sanity.

I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series.
As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget.
Preparing a budget takes great knowledge of your business. You need individuals who can anticipate what the businesses expenses for the next year will be. That includes taking into consideration what the cost of utilities, insurance, employee healthcare, the raises you would like to give to your employees, hot dogs and beer and other inflationary increases will be.
When you have created an expense budget (not including player costs), you should then work out your revenue budget. Here you will estimate what you believe are the expected revenues from ticket sales, concessions, TV revenue, etc. When creating these estimates it is important to budget conservatively. A good budget will contain income estimates that are attainable. Additionally your expenses should be budgeted accurately with extra funds built in just in case there are unexpected obligations.
You will now have a revenue budget and an expense budget, still to come are your team’s salaries and benefits, and the organization’s profit goal. The basic format becomes:
+Revenue
-Expenses
=Net Income
-Player Compensation
=Profit
Now let’s throw in some numbers -
$500,000,000 – Revenue
-$300,000,000 – Expenses
$200,000,000 – Net Income
$ x,xxx,xxx – Player Compensation
$ 50,000,000 – Budget Profit
In order to balance out the budget Player Compensation would be $150,000,000.
This is what the Twins administration will go through every year when determining how much money they should allocate for players salaries.
What can change the player budget? A couple of things can happen: 1) ownership can decide that rather than having a return on their investment (profit) of $50,000,000, they will only expect $25,000,000. This can afford them an opportunity to allocate additional budget dollars to player salaries, or 2) they can review their original budget data and determine that some expenses may end up being greater or less than they had originally thought, this difference (which can be a plus or minus) can be used to add or subtract from player salaries, or 3) they can review the revenue budget and make changes to the player budget based on getting more or less than expected. A good example is getting less TV Revenue. A loss of $15,000,000 from Bally gets adjusted by lowering the player budget by the same $15,000,000. Of course it could happen that ticket sales are strong and halfway through the year they feel that ticket sales will be $10,000,000 over what they budgeted. In this case player salaries will have additional funds to use to make changes at the trade deadline.
Naturally, as a fan, I would like an unlimited player salary budget. But as an accountant, I understand that a sound business is based on profitability. Businesses that consistently lose money will eventually run into financial difficulties. When this happens most fans will say, why doesn’t ownership throw in additional cash flow to help out the business. But the whole idea of owning a business is to make an annual profit and to built up the equity in the team so that one day in the future, you can sell the team for a nice profit.
True most baseball teams are owned by people with significant personal wealth, but they are limited to how much they would be willing to lose of their wealth in order for the team to succeed.
There are only so many Steve Cohen’s and George Steinbrenner’s and there are a lot of owners who need the team to be profitable in order for them to succeed.
I think the Pohlad’s are wise to operate the Twins as a business and not a hobby and it is wise to hold the line on spending to what the business can afford.
This is a very simple example is only meant as an aid to showing the complicated process of putting together an annual budget and how teams may determine what they can spend on players.
 
I am not taking a side in discussions, only pointing out the importance of a business preparing a budget and trying to maintain financial sanity.

I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series.
As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget.
Preparing a budget takes great knowledge of your business. You need individuals who can anticipate what the businesses expenses for the next year will be. That includes taking into consideration what the cost of utilities, insurance, employee healthcare, the raises you would like to give to your employees, hot dogs and beer and other inflationary increases will be.
When you have created an expense budget (not including player costs), you should then work out your revenue budget. Here you will estimate what you believe are the expected revenues from ticket sales, concessions, TV revenue, etc. When creating these estimates it is important to budget conservatively. A good budget will contain income estimates that are attainable. Additionally your expenses should be budgeted accurately with extra funds built in just in case there are unexpected obligations.
You will now have a revenue budget and an expense budget, still to come are your team’s salaries and benefits, and the organization’s profit goal. The basic format becomes:
+Revenue
-Expenses
=Net Income
-Player Compensation
=Profit
Now let’s throw in some numbers -
$500,000,000 – Revenue
-$300,000,000 – Expenses
$200,000,000 – Net Income
$ x,xxx,xxx – Player Compensation
$ 50,000,000 – Budget Profit
In order to balance out the budget Player Compensation would be $150,000,000.
This is what the Twins administration will go through every year when determining how much money they should allocate for players salaries.
What can change the player budget? A couple of things can happen: 1) ownership can decide that rather than having a return on their investment (profit) of $50,000,000, they will only expect $25,000,000. This can afford them an opportunity to allocate additional budget dollars to player salaries, or 2) they can review their original budget data and determine that some expenses may end up being greater or less than they had originally thought, this difference (which can be a plus or minus) can be used to add or subtract from player salaries, or 3) they can review the revenue budget and make changes to the player budget based on getting more or less than expected. A good example is getting less TV Revenue. A loss of $15,000,000 from Bally gets adjusted by lowering the player budget by the same $15,000,000. Of course it could happen that ticket sales are strong and halfway through the year they feel that ticket sales will be $10,000,000 over what they budgeted. In this case player salaries will have additional funds to use to make changes at the trade deadline.
Naturally, as a fan, I would like an unlimited player salary budget. But as an accountant, I understand that a sound business is based on profitability. Businesses that consistently lose money will eventually run into financial difficulties. When this happens most fans will say, why doesn’t ownership throw in additional cash flow to help out the business. But the whole idea of owning a business is to make an annual profit and to built up the equity in the team so that one day in the future, you can sell the team for a nice profit.
True most baseball teams are owned by people with significant personal wealth, but they are limited to how much they would be willing to lose of their wealth in order for the team to succeed.
There are only so many Steve Cohen’s and George Steinbrenner’s and there are a lot of owners who need the team to be profitable in order for them to succeed.
I think the Pohlad’s are wise to operate the Twins as a business and not a hobby and it is wise to hold the line on spending to what the business can afford.
This is a very simple example is only meant as an aid to showing the complicated process of putting together an annual budget and how teams may determine what they can spend on players.
 
I am not taking a side in discussions, only pointing out the importance of a business preparing a budget and trying to maintain financial sanity.

I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series.
As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget.
Preparing a budget takes great knowledge of your business. You need individuals who can anticipate what the businesses expenses for the next year will be. That includes taking into consideration what the cost of utilities, insurance, employee healthcare, the raises you would like to give to your employees, hot dogs and beer and other inflationary increases will be.
When you have created an expense budget (not including player costs), you should then work out your revenue budget. Here you will estimate what you believe are the expected revenues from ticket sales, concessions, TV revenue, etc. When creating these estimates it is important to budget conservatively. A good budget will contain income estimates that are attainable. Additionally your expenses should be budgeted accurately with extra funds built in just in case there are unexpected obligations.
You will now have a revenue budget and an expense budget, still to come are your team’s salaries and benefits, and the organization’s profit goal. The basic format becomes:
+Revenue
-Expenses
=Net Income
-Player Compensation
=Profit
Now let’s throw in some numbers -
$500,000,000 – Revenue
-$300,000,000 – Expenses
$200,000,000 – Net Income
$ x,xxx,xxx – Player Compensation
$ 50,000,000 – Budget Profit
In order to balance out the budget Player Compensation would be $150,000,000.
This is what the Twins administration will go through every year when determining how much money they should allocate for players salaries.
What can change the player budget? A couple of things can happen: 1) ownership can decide that rather than having a return on their investment (profit) of $50,000,000, they will only expect $25,000,000. This can afford them an opportunity to allocate additional budget dollars to player salaries, or 2) they can review their original budget data and determine that some expenses may end up being greater or less than they had originally thought, this difference (which can be a plus or minus) can be used to add or subtract from player salaries, or 3) they can review the revenue budget and make changes to the player budget based on getting more or less than expected. A good example is getting less TV Revenue. A loss of $15,000,000 from Bally gets adjusted by lowering the player budget by the same $15,000,000. Of course it could happen that ticket sales are strong and halfway through the year they feel that ticket sales will be $10,000,000 over what they budgeted. In this case player salaries will have additional funds to use to make changes at the trade deadline.
Naturally, as a fan, I would like an unlimited player salary budget. But as an accountant, I understand that a sound business is based on profitability. Businesses that consistently lose money will eventually run into financial difficulties. When this happens most fans will say, why doesn’t ownership throw in additional cash flow to help out the business. But the whole idea of owning a business is to make an annual profit and to built up the equity in the team so that one day in the future, you can sell the team for a nice profit.
True most baseball teams are owned by people with significant personal wealth, but they are limited to how much they would be willing to lose of their wealth in order for the team to succeed.
There are only so many Steve Cohen’s and George Steinbrenner’s and there are a lot of owners who need the team to be profitable in order for them to succeed.
I think the Pohlad’s are wise to operate the Twins as a business and not a hobby and it is wise to hold the line on spending to what the business can afford.
This is a very simple example is only meant as an aid to showing the complicated process of putting together an annual budget and how teams may determine what they can spend on players.
 
I am not taking a side in discussions, only pointing out the importance of a business preparing a budget and trying to maintain financial sanity.

TV--While the details are not known, the Twins have re-upped with Diamond/Bally for another (and final season). I am one that has been able to watch every Twins game, which is the main reason I have the "Sports Pack" on DirecTV. The reported amount on the television contract is 85% of what the Twins received in 2023, a reduction of perhaps $8M. The prospects for a better number in 2025 are not great unless the Twis profit greatly from streaming. While I am relieved the Twins will be available on TV and I don't have to do anything to see a great majority of their games, it seems to me the long-term outlook is still plenty cloudy. Rights fees are going to fall, perhaps precipitously, and the cost to subscribers on cable is almost certain to jump. How much, a no-blackout streaming contract would generate is open to questions from all sides? How much will the teams get? How much will the streamer charge to subscribe? What are fans going to pay and will they be willing to pay what is charged? It has entered my mind that if things go sideways, overall revenue will drop sharply to the point that players salaries will go down. IMHO, the cost for medium talent is out of hand--give Shohei and Judge their money, but don't pay obscene amounts to okay to good players. Arbitration season contracts bear this out, as well.
Injuries--Probably fifteen (maybe more) teams can credibly say today (within days of Spring Training) if they have good health, they will make the post season. I would say that includes the Twins. In 2022, the Twins used the IL second most in MLB. Last year, they were sixth. The difference for the Twins from 2022 to 2023 is that they had major league players available when other players went down. They were six or seven deep in competent starting pitchers and had major league ready players available for position player injuries. Bailey Ober and Louie Varland filled in well and guys like Donovan Solano, Kyle Farmer and Michael A Taylor met or exceeded expectations and got plenty of playing time. Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner and Edouard Julien got their chances as well and cemented themselves into the Twins' 2024 plans. This year, the Twins have added on veteran, Carlos Santana, to the position player mix, but Solano and Taylor are gone and Jorge Polanco was traded. Reinforcements would come from the same system that produced Lewis, Wallner and Julien. Last year, Polanco and Kirilloff started the season on the IL, this year there is no such carryover, but there is less proven depth to cover absences due to injuries, especially the starting pitching rotation. On the subject of injuries, I've seen TD posters question the recoveries of Byron Buxton, Alex Kirilloff, Jose Miranda and newcomer Anthony DeSlafani. and Josh Staumont. Who knows? Maybe none of them will be ready, but there's no evidence either way that they won't be healthy on Wednesday. We shall see. Personally, I doubt the recovery of DeSclafani the most. 
Bullpen--In contrast to the position player possibilities and the starting rotation, the Twins have added a bunch of veteran relief arms, most of them with options. Josh Staumont, Jay Jackson, Justin Topa and Zack Weiss were added to the bullpen and all are over 30, all under team control for multiple years and all but Jackson have options. They have additional pitchers with big league experience on minor league contracts. I'd say they have redundancy in the bullpen. They shouldn't have much hesitancy to option any of these guys and someone should be effective. The floor of the bullpen has been lifted considerably.
Carlos Santana--Yeah, he's 38 and he hasn't been a truly above-average hitter for five years, but he had 23 homers and 86 RBI last year. I can't see a huge falloff in 2024 from this guy. He's historically better against left handed pitching and his floor with the 2024 Twins is as a platoon partner for Alex Kirilloff. Injuries will probably give him plenty of at-bats against right handers. It is an open question if another, younger option might be a better fit. If Santana crashes and burns, I would hope the Twins can cashier him rather than keep him on the roster all season. 
 

We are at the point of the offseason, with the most romantic day of the year (Pitchers and Catchers reporting on the 14th), where BIG trades usually do not happen, teams are starting to find peace with their rosters. There are still a couple name starters out there, but I dont see the Twins singing a Montgomery or a Snell. The Twins are in a decent enough position where we do not have to make any rash moves, The Twins FO should definitely be plotting and laying groundwork, but never make a move until you have to. We do not need to secure a "playoff starter"  because it is not the playoffs.
The Twins have the luxury of being in the AL Central. We do not have to constantly load up like the AL East teams. Look at the AL East... Boston will be horrid but the other 4 could all win the division, therefore they all have to make aggressive moves in advance. The AL West is a 2 team juggernaut with Houston and Texas. Seattle fancies themselves players but who knows.
The Al Central?? not so much.  The White Sox are in full blown rebuild (again) mode. KC COULD eventually be good as they have some decent pieces but still not yet. Detroit and Cleveland? well they have some intriguing pieces each, but this is not the Yanks, Jays, Rays, and O's by any stretch.
All of this is self evident. we do not need a "playoff starter" until the playoffs, and we should have a great chance at the division without an addition. Assuming Health for Correa, he will be much improved, Royce I do not see a regression. Buxton (I assume the NOT healthy, and we won without him last year, so even with him at replacement level we should be able to win again. We do not have to worry about the health of Kirilloff due to the addition of Santana who is rock solid, which means anything Kirilloff gives us (which could be significant if healthy) is just a plus. IF Wallner and Julien only show a SLIGHT regression, we still win the division with what we have.
Why sacrifice the  young talent it will take to get the "playoff starter" until we know we are going to need one? BUT, lets be redy to pounce, and pounce early when the time is right.
The time and the team could come early.
Miami has the arms we want the trouble is after a WC appearance, they have the elusions of playoffs n their heads again which will not happen. Last year Philly started out HORRID!!! before coming on in the second half, that will not happen this year, they are a better team, Atlanta is Atlanta. Mets and Washington will both be nothing burgers, but Miami is pricing in perfection if they think they will be in the playoffs again. they are 3rd best at best n their division. which puts them  in WC chase again. Cinci and ST Luois are both better teams than them, the Dodgers are a gimmee, which means they are fighting with a tough Arizona team and a still stacked Padres team.
How quickly could a white flag be raised in Miami? Well lets take a look at their  schedule out the gate. After gettign 7 against Pittsburgh and Angels to start the season they have 3 against STL, Yankees, 2 series with Atlanta, the Cubs, and Giants.  By Late May or Early June Miami coudl be in position to start looking at flipping some starters for young quality prospects. SO Why move now?  Sit and wait, lay the groundwork for a June or even Early July trade where we send some high quality prospects to Miami for a high quality, controllable "playoff starter" 
 
Until then, simply carry on.
 
 

History 101 - The Spitball
The spitball originated at the end of the 19th century. There are a couple of possible origins and a couple of possible inventors, but at this point the title has not been assigned to anyone and may actually have a number of players who may have contributed to the creation of the pitch. The two most widely credited inventors were Elmer Stricklett (1876-1964) and Frank Corridan (1880-1941).
The most successful spit ball pitchers were Hall of Famers, Ed Walsh and Jack Chesboro. Walsh was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946 based on his 14 year career (1904-1917). He played his entire MLB career for the Chicago White Sox except for the 1917 season and compiled a 195-126 win-loss record. His career ERA was 1.82, the lowest career mark for any pitcher. Baseball-reference.com has computed current stats for all players and Ed Walsh had an ERA+ of 146, a FIP of 2.02 (also lowest of any pitcher), a WHIP of exactly 1.00, had 1.9 BB/9, and 5.3 K/9. Chesboro, ironically, was also inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1946. Chesbro’s career would last 11 years (1899-1909). He played 4 years for the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6 ½ years with the New York Highlanders (Yankees) and half a year with the Boston Red Sox. He compiled a 198-143 win-loss record with a career ERA of 2.68. He had an ERA+ of 110, a FIP of 2.67, a WHIP of 1.152, 2.1 BB/9 and 3.9 K/9.
Chesbro did have one really great season. In 1904 with the Highlanders he had 41 wins and 12 losses. The 41 wins is the most ever by a pitcher since the American and National League consolidated in 1901. He had an ERA of 1.82, an ERA+ of 148, and a WHIP of 0.937. The most amazing stat though is that he pitched 454.2 innings that season, almost 9 innings per start and he completed 48 of the 51 games he started.
Elmer Stricklett was credited with teaching the pitch to both Walsh and Chesboro. Stricklett was called up from the minors by the White Sox in 1904 and would pitch in only one game that season. He pitched 6 innings and gave up 12 hits and 10 runs. But more noteworthy was that he would room with Ed Walsh. Stricklett would spend 3 more seasons in the major leagues with the Brooklyn Superbas in the National League.
Because of Walsh and Chesboro’s success with the pitch, other pitchers started throwing it.
This pitch and other trick pitches of the time led to discussions that the pitch should be outlawed.
There were concerns of player safety as pitchers became more and more creative in doctoring the ball. At that time there was no rule against applying a foreign substance to the baseball. In fact, there were pitchers who would cover the entire ball with tobacco juice. Not only would this juice affect the flight of the ball, but it created a danger since the brown tobacco juice would make the ball darker and more difficult for the batter to see.
The safety concern turned into fruition when in 1920 Ray Chapman became to only player in the history of baseball to die as a result of a baseball related injury. Chapman was struck in the temple by a pitch thrown by Red Sox pitcher Carl Mays, who was widely known to throw a spitball.
As a result of Chapman’s death, baseball managers voted to ban the spitball. The rule did not ban the use of the pitch entirely but allowed each team to designate up to two pitchers who could throw the spitball.
After the 1920 season teams were no longer able to designate 2 pitchers on their staff, but rather they determined that there were 17 pitchers who threw the spitball often and those 17 would be allowed to throw the pitch throughout the remainder of their careers. The most famous of these 17 pitchers were: Dutch Leonard, Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski, Urban Shocker, Hall of Famer Urban “Red” Faber, and the last pitcher to legally throw the pitch, Hall of Famer, Burleigh Grimes, who retired in 1934.
Of course after 1934 there were pitchers who did throw the spitter but most of the time it was undetected. Bobo Newsom threw a spitter in 1942 and his manager, Leo Durocher fined him for throwing the pitch and “lying to me about it”.
There were other pitchers who were believed to throw the spitter. Preacher Roe, who pitched for the Dodgers in the 1950’s was believed to throw the pitch and acknowledged it after his retirement with an article in Sports Illustrated titled “The Outlawed Spitball was My Money Pitch”. Both Don Drysdale and Lew Burdette were also believed to throw the pitch. The most famous recent pitcher to throw the pitch was Gaylord Perry.
How Do You Throw a Spit Ball?
With a spit ball the pitcher applies either saliva to the ball or another slippery substance.   The actions of saliva or a slippery substance on the ball is meant to create random “erratic” movement that the batter (and catcher) cannot predict. The substance will take the round sphere and put extra weight on one portion of the ball causing movement and will also create a pitch with less rotation because of the slippery surface.
With umpires now paying more attention to pitchers going to their mouth there have been other substances substituted for saliva. Vaseline seems to be the most widely used substitute for saliva, but Crisco has also been used.
Don Drysdale, who has been accused of throwing the spit ball, would apply oil to the back of his hair to get the slippery result. Gaylord Perry, the king of the current spit ball pitchers, wrote in his autobiography “Me and the Spitter” that he would put vaseline on his zipper knowing no umpire would ever go to his groin area to check for a foreign substance.
There are countless other places where pitchers will hide a foreign substance. Pitchers will use their glove as a place to “store” the substance and rub the ball into their glove to transfer the substance to the ball. They will use the back of their knee to hide the substance, as well as behind their ears and neck. There probably are very few places that a pitcher has not used to deceive an umpire.
When throwing the spit ball, the pitcher will apply the foreign substance to the smooth part of the ball and then grip the ball on that surface. The pitch will be thrown with the same motion as a fast ball but since a pitcher is not using a seam, but rather a slippery surface, the ball will come in at a slower speed, like a change up, and will have an unexpected movement much like a knuckleball. And like the knuckleball, the ideal spit ball will have as little rotation as possible so that it can be more affected by wind currents.
To see more about where a pitcher may hide the substance or help to make sure they are not detected, watch this video with Bob Uecker and Bob Shaw as they talk about the spit ball and show footage of Gaylord Perry - https://youtu.be/FuP09m62sVs
Thank you to Mark Bailey for some of the information that I have used in this article. Mark’s complete article can be found at How To Throw A Spitball Pitch. Is It Legal? (baseballbible.net)

History 101 - The Spitball
The spitball originated at the end of the 19th century. There are a couple of possible origins and a couple of possible inventors, but at this point the title has not been assigned to anyone and may actually have a number of players who may have contributed to the creation of the pitch. The two most widely credited inventors were Elmer Stricklett (1876-1964) and Frank Corridan (1880-1941).
The most successful spit ball pitchers were Hall of Famers, Ed Walsh and Jack Chesboro. Walsh was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946 based on his 14 year career (1904-1917). He played his entire MLB career for the Chicago White Sox except for the 1917 season and compiled a 195-126 win-loss record. His career ERA was 1.82, the lowest career mark for any pitcher. Baseball-reference.com has computed current stats for all players and Ed Walsh had an ERA+ of 146, a FIP of 2.02 (also lowest of any pitcher), a WHIP of exactly 1.00, had 1.9 BB/9, and 5.3 K/9. Chesboro, ironically, was also inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1946. Chesbro’s career would last 11 years (1899-1909). He played 4 years for the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6 ½ years with the New York Highlanders (Yankees) and half a year with the Boston Red Sox. He compiled a 198-143 win-loss record with a career ERA of 2.68. He had an ERA+ of 110, a FIP of 2.67, a WHIP of 1.152, 2.1 BB/9 and 3.9 K/9.
Chesbro did have one really great season. In 1904 with the Highlanders he had 41 wins and 12 losses. The 41 wins is the most ever by a pitcher since the American and National League consolidated in 1901. He had an ERA of 1.82, an ERA+ of 148, and a WHIP of 0.937. The most amazing stat though is that he pitched 454.2 innings that season, almost 9 innings per start and he completed 48 of the 51 games he started.
Elmer Stricklett was credited with teaching the pitch to both Walsh and Chesboro. Stricklett was called up from the minors by the White Sox in 1904 and would pitch in only one game that season. He pitched 6 innings and gave up 12 hits and 10 runs. But more noteworthy was that he would room with Ed Walsh. Stricklett would spend 3 more seasons in the major leagues with the Brooklyn Superbas in the National League.
Because of Walsh and Chesboro’s success with the pitch, other pitchers started throwing it.
This pitch and other trick pitches of the time led to discussions that the pitch should be outlawed.
There were concerns of player safety as pitchers became more and more creative in doctoring the ball. At that time there was no rule against applying a foreign substance to the baseball. In fact, there were pitchers who would cover the entire ball with tobacco juice. Not only would this juice affect the flight of the ball, but it created a danger since the brown tobacco juice would make the ball darker and more difficult for the batter to see.
The safety concern turned into fruition when in 1920 Ray Chapman became to only player in the history of baseball to die as a result of a baseball related injury. Chapman was struck in the temple by a pitch thrown by Red Sox pitcher Carl Mays, who was widely known to throw a spitball.
As a result of Chapman’s death, baseball managers voted to ban the spitball. The rule did not ban the use of the pitch entirely but allowed each team to designate up to two pitchers who could throw the spitball.
After the 1920 season teams were no longer able to designate 2 pitchers on their staff, but rather they determined that there were 17 pitchers who threw the spitball often and those 17 would be allowed to throw the pitch throughout the remainder of their careers. The most famous of these 17 pitchers were: Dutch Leonard, Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski, Urban Shocker, Hall of Famer Urban “Red” Faber, and the last pitcher to legally throw the pitch, Hall of Famer, Burleigh Grimes, who retired in 1934.
Of course after 1934 there were pitchers who did throw the spitter but most of the time it was undetected. Bobo Newsom threw a spitter in 1942 and his manager, Leo Durocher fined him for throwing the pitch and “lying to me about it”.
There were other pitchers who were believed to throw the spitter. Preacher Roe, who pitched for the Dodgers in the 1950’s was believed to throw the pitch and acknowledged it after his retirement with an article in Sports Illustrated titled “The Outlawed Spitball was My Money Pitch”. Both Don Drysdale and Lew Burdette were also believed to throw the pitch. The most famous recent pitcher to throw the pitch was Gaylord Perry.
How Do You Throw a Spit Ball?
With a spit ball the pitcher applies either saliva to the ball or another slippery substance.   The actions of saliva or a slippery substance on the ball is meant to create random “erratic” movement that the batter (and catcher) cannot predict. The substance will take the round sphere and put extra weight on one portion of the ball causing movement and will also create a pitch with less rotation because of the slippery surface.
With umpires now paying more attention to pitchers going to their mouth there have been other substances substituted for saliva. Vaseline seems to be the most widely used substitute for saliva, but Crisco has also been used.
Don Drysdale, who has been accused of throwing the spit ball, would apply oil to the back of his hair to get the slippery result. Gaylord Perry, the king of the current spit ball pitchers, wrote in his autobiography “Me and the Spitter” that he would put vaseline on his zipper knowing no umpire would ever go to his groin area to check for a foreign substance.
There are countless other places where pitchers will hide a foreign substance. Pitchers will use their glove as a place to “store” the substance and rub the ball into their glove to transfer the substance to the ball. They will use the back of their knee to hide the substance, as well as behind their ears and neck. There probably are very few places that a pitcher has not used to deceive an umpire.
When throwing the spit ball, the pitcher will apply the foreign substance to the smooth part of the ball and then grip the ball on that surface. The pitch will be thrown with the same motion as a fast ball but since a pitcher is not using a seam, but rather a slippery surface, the ball will come in at a slower speed, like a change up, and will have an unexpected movement much like a knuckleball. And like the knuckleball, the ideal spit ball will have as little rotation as possible so that it can be more affected by wind currents.
To see more about where a pitcher may hide the substance or help to make sure they are not detected, watch this video with Bob Uecker and Bob Shaw as they talk about the spit ball and show footage of Gaylord Perry - https://youtu.be/FuP09m62sVs
Thank you to Mark Bailey for some of the information that I have used in this article. Mark’s complete article can be found at How To Throw A Spitball Pitch. Is It Legal? (baseballbible.net)

Some thoughts from me--a contrarian old guy who has followed the Twins since they moved from Washington:
Did you know? Playing the Immaculate Cube has educated and entertained me to a significant degree. I have tried to use as many Twins and ex-Twins as I can find in filling out the cube. Was there ever a guy who played for the Twins and hit 40 homers for the Reds? Yes, and if you knew this you are a trivia maven or cheat by using a baseball reference source. The answer is Wally Post. How about a Gold Glove winner from the Tigers--yeah we all knew it was Kenny Rogers. Silver Slugger on the Giants (Donny Barrels!). I've found some interesting fun facts in trying to fill in Twins on the grid.
Lefty advantage: The Twins lean right with their pitching staff. Last year, left handed pitchers started exactly six games in the entire season, all by Dallas Keuchel. Left handers accounted for only 106 of 1451 innings pitched by the staff. I have seen several articles recently demonstrating the "lefty advantage" for both pitchers and hitters. The Twins seem to subscribe to the advantage for hitting, but not for their mound staff. I continue to believe that adding a left handed starter would be beneficial, perhaps beyond the numbers put up by the starter. Defensively, the edge for left handed throwing first baseman is something the Twins have traditionally not done despite obvious advantages. I don't think those advantages are adequately covered by defensive metrics, more on that later.
Speaking of left handers and looking up former Twins, I believe people don't remember or didn't know what a good pitcher former Twin and native Minnesotan Jerry Koosman was. In comparing Kooz with another former Twin Hall of Famer, he had a far better career ERA and ERA+ than Jack Morris. He struck out more batters in basically the same amount of innings. Koosman won 222 games in his long career (Morris won 254). Koosman's career WAR was 53.7, better than Morris, Kirby Puckett or Tony Oliva.
A left handed hitter in Twins history who was far better than I remembered was Don Mincher (I remembered Halsey Hall calling him "Minch in a pinch" because of his pinch hitting abilities).  Mincher had an OPS+ of over 100 in every full season and managed a lifetime OPS+ of 127, better than Kirby Puckett or Joe Mauer. 
Misconceptions: I seen several posts saying that Kyle Farmer could platoon with Alex Kirilloff at first base. Farmer has played first base about as much as Christian Vázquez and obviously we don't want to see that much if at all. Farmer is a natural to get at-bats against left handed pitching in place of Edouard Julien. Further, I think Farmer's overall value has dropped to the Twins due to the personnel on the team. They have a replacement for Carlos Correa (Brooks Lee) in St. Paul and he's a top prospect. As a fill-in for a day or two, I think Willi Castro can play shortstop every bit as well as the 34-year-old Farmer. Farmer never has been regarded as fast, but is the epitome of the reliable guy who turns outs into outs, but he's range limited with only an okay arm. His fielding metrics last year were neutral at second and third, but substandard at shortstop. This really limits Farmer's value. I don't think there is another team that would consider him to be an everyday starter at shortstop, and that really hurts his trade value. He might be most valuable to the Twins in part due to his clubhouse presence.
Nick Gordon has improved his chances to make the Twins out of Spring Training with the trade of Jorge Polanco. I'm skeptical of him helping the team this year because what he does comparatively well (hit right handed pitching) is already covered by Julien, Wallner and Willi Castro. Nick's brother was a really fast runner (won a stolen base crown) and people seem to think Gordon is also really fast. He's not, his sprint speed before his broken shinbone was 50th percentile. He's slower than Matt Wallner and the equal of Alex Kirilloff. Burners like Bubba Thompson and (a healthy) Byron Buxton are two-three feet per second faster. I credit Nick with making himself a viable major leaguer by becoming a capable outfielder while already on the Twins. Unfortunately, he is a utility guy who is really stretched playing shortstop and he's barely played the infield corners. 
Defensive metrics: I remain suspicious of defensive metrics. First of all, I think rating defense in assigning WAR often misses the mark. Secondly, I think it is tough to measure. I don't think outfielder's throwing arms are properly credited, for example. A Matt Wallner or Michael Cuddyer can make up for not catching an occasional drive to the gap due to denying extra bases because of their strong throwing arms. Too often Defensive Runs saved doesn't justify with other measures such as range factor. Some measures reward lack of errors and "turning outs into outs" while others seem to reward making plays not expected. No system is foolproof and it seems to me that a reputation is rewarded long after the actual performance has slipped. There also isn't enough credit for versatile players that might play where they are stretched or unfamiliar like Nick Gordon or Willi Castro playing center field.
Several more thoughts in this cluttered mind. Maybe I'll make another entry before Spring Training starts.
 
 

Dereck Falvey and the Twins finally woke up from a two-month offseason slumber and made the first significant move of the offseason, trading long time Twin Jorge Polanco to the Seattle Mariners for 4 players. I have a lot of emotional thoughts on what Polanco meant not just as a player, but how he represents the organization so well in the 15+ years he's been with the Twins. Here's some quick hitters on three of the guys in the deal. 
Justin Topa
Topa was one of the more consistent relievers in what was an honestly insane Mariners bullpen. Topa pitched to a 2.61 ERA in 69 innings(nice) with a 3.15 FIP, a team high 155 ERA+ and an 8.0 K/9. Before last season, Topa had only pitched in 17 total games across 3 MLB seasons with Milwaukee. Topa's K rate is a bit low(21%), but he also doesn't walk many batters(6%). His Stuff+ is insane.

From @pitchprofiler on Twitter
Topa fills a need in the Twins bullpen hierarchy already with Duran, Jax, Stewart, Thielbar and Funderburk among others. Basically fills the Pagan role. 
 
Anthony DeSclafani
DeSclafani was already moved earlier this offseason from the Giants to the Mariners in the Robbie Ray/Mitch Haniger deal. DeSclafani was one of many breakouts on an insane 2021 Giants team, but he's battled injuries the last few seasons. He's going to provide at least some starting pitching depth, but I don't think the Twins are done adding to their rotation. DeSclafani has generally been a pretty solid back end of the rotation guy, with a career 4.20 ERA in 169 GS. He's on the last year of a 3 yr/36 million deal, but the Twins just owe him around 4 million. It gives the Twins some cap flexibility and probably gives them a shot at more starting pitching options in FA. 
Darren Bowen 
Bowen seems like just a throw in prospect to the deal, but he's got some intriguing tools. A 2022 13th round pick out of UNC-Pembroke, Bowen wasn't on the most recent top 30 Mariners prospects according to MLB Pipeline, but now slots in at number 27 in the Twins system. Only 22 years old, he had a 3.88 ERA in 19 games and 55 IP. His fastball sits around 92 MPH, and he throws a pretty nasty slider and changeup as well, though he still needs work on command with that pitch. 
Bowen's addition only intrigues the potential rotation we might get at Cedar Rapids this year, with the likes of Zebby Matthews, Cory Lewis, Andrew Morris, and C.J Culpepper. 
 
Gabriel Gonzalez
This is what really got me excited about the deal. As much as it would if the Twins got one of Bryce Miller or Bryan Woo back. Gonzalez was a top five prospect in a really underrated Mariners system, and he'll slot in as a top 5 prospect in the Twins system as well. Gonzalez is ranked inside the top 100 according to MLB pipeline at 79, giving the Twins 4 top 100 prospects. Gonzalez slashed .348/.403/.530 with a .933 OPS at single A, but only slashed .215/.290/.387 with a .677 OPS at high A. But Gonzalez is my personal favorite kind of outfield prospect. A corner outfielder with good enough defense but shows a ton of good power with potential for contact to be better as well. 
According to @SamDykstraMiLB on Twitter, Gonzalez was one of 61 teenagers to get 300+ PA at single A. He had the highest average amongst the group, and his K rate was at 13.7%, the third lowest amongst these players. The defensive profile is also promising for a 20-year-old corner outfielder. In my eyes, I think Gabriel will only continue to get better and the thoughts of a Jenkins-Gonzalez-Rodriguez MLB outfield in 4-5 years is cool to think about. 
 
@TFTwins did a great job in short time with this shorter video breaking down Gonzalez and Bowen. 
Overall, I think it's a very solid trade for the Twins and Mariners. I'd give both teams a B+ with a chance for both teams grades to be better, especially if Gonzalez and Bowen work out for the Twins. 
What do you all think of the trade? This is the longest blog I've written, so thank you for reading all the way through! Be sure to follow me on my twitter @JuhnTroy. 

What Does It Take To Be A Major League Manager?
Sitting on my couch in the middle of a New England winter, trying to pick a topic to write about for my weekly blog, my attention turned to X (I’m not going to say formerly Twitter). Staring at me was a posting by Dan Hayes of The Athletic from TwinsFest with manager Rocco Baldelli in the photo.
There are only 30 managers in Major League Baseball, so the odds of getting a managerial position are far smaller than the odds of being a major league ball player. It got me thinking about the criteria that teams may use when selecting a manager.
The current group of major league managers are a very interesting group with varied backgrounds.
There are 10 of the 30 managers who never appeared in a single major league game. Six of them (Brian Snitker, Brandon Hyde, Pedro Grifol, Joe Espada, Matt Quatraro, and John Schneider)reached AAA (a total of 435 combined games), 3 of them never got past A (Pat Murphy, Derek Shelton, and Oliver Marmol), and as far as I can tell Mike Shildt never played an inning of professional baseball.
There would only be 7 of them that played on a regular basis over a lengthy career. They are (with the number of years they appeared in over 100 games): Craig Counsel (11 of 16), David Bell (9 of 12), Skip Schumaker (7 of 11), Aaron Boone (7 of 12), Mark Kotsay (13 of 17), Rob Thompson (8 of 11) and Dave Martinez (12 of 16).
Of the 20 that played in the majors, the managers with the highest lifetime batting average were Skip Schumaker and Rocco Baldelli at .278, Craig Counsel and Dave Roberts with the highest OBP of .342, Rocco had the highest slugging percentage of .443, and also the highest OPS of .766, Rob Thompson would have the highest OPB+ with 105 (Rocco was 101), and Rob Thompson would have the highest WAR with 33.8.
Success as a player certainly can’t be one of the major criteria with current baseball operations people.
In order to be a good manager, you must fully understand the game. The best way is through observation. If you are on a team and are not a regular, you are spending a lot of time watching and observing. You’re also in the dugout and listening to discussions between the manager and his coaching staff. Maybe you are also asking questions about strategy and what was the reason for making a decision. You also have the entire field in front of you and are more aware of what each player is doing, rather than just worrying about yourself when playing in the field.
What is also very interesting information about the 30 managers is that only two, Bud Black and Pat Murphy, were pitchers.
I’m not really sure why this is true, but maybe some of you could give me your thoughts on why this is so.
It is also interesting in reviewing the positional background on the 27 managers who didn’t not pitch (and Mike Shildt).
Primarily 1B – 0, 2B – 3, Shortstop – 1, 3B – 1.5, Middle Infield (2B & SS) – 4, OF – 4.5 and Catchers – 13. The catchers were: Snitker, Hyde, Grifol, Vogt, Hinch, Quartraro, Gibbons, Shelton, Melvin, Servais, Cash, Bochy and Schneider.
I can understand the number of catchers for a few reasons: 1) many of them call the game for the pitcher and work on formulating a pitching plan for each game, they will know more about each opponent than probably anyone else on the team, 2) they are playing the only position where they can see every player on the field and all of the action is in front of them, and 3) as catchers they tend to platoon with another catcher meaning they spend more time observing the game from the bench then those normally on the field.
Many great players have managed baseball teams, but very few of them ever succeeded. These great players were lacking in areas that lesser players possessed. Perhaps things came too easy for them, perhaps they didn’t have to work hard to succeed and perhaps they couldn’t understand why players did not possess the skills needed to be great.
When you look at the great all-time managers, those elected to the Hall of Fame, you are looking at men who were very similar to the current group of major league managers. Here are the Hall of Fame managers that managed from the 1950’s until the present: Casey Stengel, Al Lopez, Walter Alston, Earl Weaver, Tommy Lasorda, Sparky Anderson, Dick Williams, Whitey Herzog, Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre and Jim Leyland.
By far, the best player of that group was Joe Torre. All the others were similar to today’s group of managers. Walter Alston play one major league game, Earl Weaver and Jim Leyland never made it out of the minors, and Tommy Lasorda was that rare pitcher. There were 3 catchers in the group (Lopez, Torre, and Leyland).
In 2018 the Twins made a managerial change. Of all the available options and all the candidates that they interviewed, they picked Rocco Baldelli to lead their team. At the same time the Twins were interviewing, the Rangers, Reds, Blue Jays and the Orioles had vacancies. Rocco ended up interviewing with most, if not all, of those teams.
I thought it would be a good exercise to see if I could find the positives that the Twins saw in Rocco that would make him their choice of all the options available.
We should be able to agree that Rocco is a great communicator. The job of the manager is taking on more and more emphasis on communications. They need to communicate with: 1)the Front Office that is more involved in day-to-day than ever, 2) the players in the clubhouse so they know their roles and expectations, and 3) the coaching staff to make sure that they know their roles also.
He also brought a playing career where he was a star player, and a bench player, before and after his illness. That helps, especially with the bench players and knowing that they need to make frequent appearances to stay sharp.
When his playing days were over he was hired by the Rays as a “special advisor” working primarily in scouting and player development (that Rays pedigree is very much in demand). In 2014 Kevin Cash put him back in uniform as his 1st base coach. In 2017 they created the coaching position of “field coordinator” which involved analyzing the tendencies of opposing hitters, he also coached defensive skills, and helped the team implement defensive strategies during the game.
Finally they chose him for his intellect. Rocco had a 4.25 GPA in high school (on a 4.0 grading system where extra quality points are given for taking honors or advanced placement classes), as well as having scored 1,300 on his SAT exams. He considered enrolling at Princeton, Yale, UCLA, the University of North Carolina before accepting enrollment at Wake Forest. Being draft as the 6th pick in the first round of the 2000 draft and offered a $2.25 signing bonus would convince Rocco to forego college and go directly into professional baseball.
Please give me your comments on what talent and experience it takes to be a successful major league manager.
 

The airwaves have been flooded with all the hysteria of the otherworldly accomplishments of Shohei Ohtani, and rightly so. He is indeed a “unicorn”, a unique baseball player who has taken MLB by storm since coming from Japan to the US.
To be able to hit and pitch with such excellence is almost unequal to any other baseball player ever, especially when you take into account that he is in the upper echelon of both pitchers and hitters at the same time. But is Ohtani not really unique and is he just following in the footsteps of someone who accomplished the same over 100 years ago? Of course I’m talking about Babe Ruth.
Most of us know the story of Babe Ruth, the hitter. But when he began his major league career with the Red Sox he was a full-time pitcher.
He joined the Red Sox in 1914 when the team purchased Babe, Ben Egan (a rather lackluster catcher with a career batting average of .165) and Ernie Shore for $25,000. Ernie Shore would have a great 4 years with the Red Sox (1914-17) where he had a 58-33 win-lost record and never an ERA under 2.63. Ernie and Babe would combine for one of the most bizarre games in baseball history. Babe was the starting pitcher in a game on 6/23/1917 when he walked the first batter. He ended up getting into an argument with the home plate umpire and was tossed from the game. Shore came on to replace him. The batter that Babe walked was thrown out trying to steal and the next 26 batters failed to get a hit or on base at all. It was initially call a perfect game, but with new rules to determine no-hitters and perfect games, it is now considered a no-hitter.
Back to Babe. From 1914-17 Babe would have a 62-34 win-loss record and except for 4 games pitched in 1914, he would have no ERA higher than 2.44. In 1916 he would lead the league with a 1.75 ERA, 40 games started, 9 shutouts, an ERA+ of 158, 6.4 hits/9 and would not give up a home run. He would give up 230 hits in 323.2 innings pitched.
Around that time the team started noticing that not only did they have one of the top pitchers in the league, but this guy could hit.
In the 1915 season he had a batting average of .315 with 4 home runs and 20 RBI’s and an OPS+ of 189 while pitching and pinch hitting (11 times). He was not as successful in the 1916 season but did have a batting average .272 with 3 home runs and 16 RBI’s, to go along with an OPS+ of 122. He pinched hit in 24 games in the 1916 season. For the 1917 season Ruth hit 2 home runs, drove in 14 runs, batted .325 and had an OPS+ of 162.
The big experiment began in 1918, when Babe pitched and also played in the field. He appeared in 95 games in total, and he pitched in 20 of them. As a position player he played 47 games in left field, 12 games in center field, 13 games at first base and pinch hit in 5.
For the 1918 season, here are his pitching stats:
W-L- 13-7, IP-166.1, BB-49, K-40, ERA-2.22, ERA+-122, FIP-2.75, WHIP-1.046
BB/9-2.7, K/9-2.2
The stat that jumps off this chart is strikeouts, Babe averaged 2.2 strikeouts per 9 innings. In looking at the American League pitching stats for 1918, the strikeout leader was Walter Johnson with 162 (326 innings, 4.5/9), Jim Shaw with 129 (241 innings, 4.8/9), “Bullet” Joe Bush with 125 (272 inning, 4.1/9), Guy Morton with 123 (214 innings, 5.2/9), Carl Mays with 114 (294 innings, 3.5/9) and Eddie Cicotte with 104 (266 innings, 3.5/9). Carl Mays would become infamous for an incident in 1920 when he hit Ray Chapman with a pitch fracturing his skull. Chapman would die the following day, being the only play to die directly from an injury received during a baseball game. And Eddie Cicotte would be remembered as one of the players banned for life in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
For the 1918 season, here are his batting stats:
AB-317, Hits-95, 2B-26, 3B-11, HR-11, RBI-61,
BB-58, K-58, Avg.-.300, Slug.-.555
OPS-.966, OPS+-192, WAR-4.7
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
These batting stats include games where Babe appeared as a pitcher.
In 1918, Babe was tied for 2nd in doubles, tied for 5th in triples, tied for 1st in home runs (with Tillie Walker???), 6th in RBI’s, 8th in walks, 1st in strikeouts, tied for 7th in batting average, 2nd in OBP, 1st in Slug. Pct., 1st in OPS, 2nd in OPS+, and 7th in WAR. All of this was accomplished with Babe being 43rd in plate appearances and 44th in times at bat. His greatness as a batter was becoming more and more apparent.
For the 1919 season Babe pitched in 17 games over 133 innings. His stats were:
W-L 9-5, IP-133.1, Hits-148, BB-58, K-30,
ERA 2.97, ERA+-102, FIP-3.58, WHIP-1.545,
BB/9-3.9, K/9-2.0
There is no question that there had been a bit of a regression in his pitching performance.
He was now 20th in ERA, 21st in ERA+, 32nd in FIP, 33rd in WHIP, and 33rd in K/9. Obviously pitching in 17 games and appearing in 116 games as a batter was taking its toll on his pitching success. The Red Sox would play 138 games that season and Babe would play in 130 of them (he had 3 games where he pitched and played in the field).
While his pitching was on a downward trend because of pitching or playing the field in practically every game, his batting stats were on the upswing
AB-432, Hits-139, 2B-35, 3B-12, HR-29
RBI-113, BB-101, K-58, Avg.-.322, Slug.-.657
OBP-.456, OPS+-217, WAR-9.1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In 1919, besides pitching in 17 games, Babe played 110 games in LF, 1 in CF, and 5 at 1B, he would also pinch hit in 1 game.
In comparing the Babe to all the other hitters in the American League, he finished: 27th in batting appearances, 43rd in times at bat, he finished 1st in runs scored with 103, 21st in hits, 5th in doubles, 7th in triples, and 1st in home runs. Babe had 29 home runs in the 1919 season, finishing 2nd was George Sisler, Tillie Walker and Frank “Home Run” Baker who had 10 each. There were a total of 240 home runs that year and Babe had 12.1% of the league total. Four of the eight American League teams had fewer home runs as a team than Babe had by himself. His Red Sox teammates hit a total of 4 home runs for the season.
Prior to Babe’s 29 home runs in 1919 the American League record for home runs was 16 in 1902 for Ralph (Socks) Seybold.
In addition to the stats for 1919 already mentioned, Babe let the league in RBI’s, was 2nd in walks, was 2nd in strikeouts, 8th in batting average, 1st in OBP, 1st in slugging percentage (.657 to George Sislers’ .530), 1st in OPS, 1st in OPS+, and he lead the league in WAR with 9.1 with Bobby Veach 2nd at 6.7.
After the 1919 season the New York Yankees received the best Christmas present ever. On December 26th they purchased Babe Ruth’s contract from the Red Sox for $100,000. This began the “Curse of the Bambino” in which the Red Sox would not win another World Series (they won in 1918) until 86 years later when they finally won in 2004.
Ruth’s pitching career pretty much ended with the trade. He did pitch in 1 game (4 innings) in 1920, 2 games (9 innings) in 1921, 1 game in 1930 and 1 game in 1933. Interestingly in those 5 games he pitched 31 innings, gave up 40 hits, walked 16 and struck out 5, but had a W-L record of 5-0!
Babe Ruth went on to have a legendary remainder of his career with the Yankees, but after the trade he would no longer be the “Unicorn”, just one of the greatest, or the greatest hitter of all time.
The one major difference between Babe and Shohei was that when Babe was in the game as a hitter he would play in the field, however in his entire MLB career, Ohtani when not pitching, would only be on the field for 7 games!
Are you ready to call both Babe and Shohei “Unicorns” or are you reserving the title for Shohei only?
 

The airwaves have been flooded with all the hysteria of the otherworldly accomplishments of Shohei Ohtani, and rightly so. He is indeed a “unicorn”, a unique baseball player who has taken MLB by storm since coming from Japan to the US.
To be able to hit and pitch with such excellence is almost unequal to any other baseball player ever, especially when you take into account that he is in the upper echelon of both pitchers and hitters at the same time. But is Ohtani not really unique and is he just following in the footsteps of someone who accomplished the same over 100 years ago? Of course I’m talking about Babe Ruth.
Most of us know the story of Babe Ruth, the hitter. But when he began his major league career with the Red Sox he was a full-time pitcher.
He joined the Red Sox in 1914 when the team purchased Babe, Ben Egan (a rather lackluster catcher with a career batting average of .165) and Ernie Shore for $25,000. Ernie Shore would have a great 4 years with the Red Sox (1914-17) where he had a 58-33 win-lost record and never an ERA under 2.63. Ernie and Babe would combine for one of the most bizarre games in baseball history. Babe was the starting pitcher in a game on 6/23/1917 when he walked the first batter. He ended up getting into an argument with the home plate umpire and was tossed from the game. Shore came on to replace him. The batter that Babe walked was thrown out trying to steal and the next 26 batters failed to get a hit or on base at all. It was initially call a perfect game, but with new rules to determine no-hitters and perfect games, it is now considered a no-hitter.
Back to Babe. From 1914-17 Babe would have a 62-34 win-loss record and except for 4 games pitched in 1914, he would have no ERA higher than 2.44. In 1916 he would lead the league with a 1.75 ERA, 40 games started, 9 shutouts, an ERA+ of 158, 6.4 hits/9 and would not give up a home run. He would give up 230 hits in 323.2 innings pitched.
Around that time the team started noticing that not only did they have one of the top pitchers in the league, but this guy could hit.
In the 1915 season he had a batting average of .315 with 4 home runs and 20 RBI’s and an OPS+ of 189 while pitching and pinch hitting (11 times). He was not as successful in the 1916 season but did have a batting average .272 with 3 home runs and 16 RBI’s, to go along with an OPS+ of 122. He pinched hit in 24 games in the 1916 season. For the 1917 season Ruth hit 2 home runs, drove in 14 runs, batted .325 and had an OPS+ of 162.
The big experiment began in 1918, when Babe pitched and also played in the field. He appeared in 95 games in total, and he pitched in 20 of them. As a position player he played 47 games in left field, 12 games in center field, 13 games at first base and pinch hit in 5.
For the 1918 season, here are his pitching stats:
W-L- 13-7, IP-166.1, BB-49, K-40, ERA-2.22, ERA+-122, FIP-2.75, WHIP-1.046
BB/9-2.7, K/9-2.2
The stat that jumps off this chart is strikeouts, Babe averaged 2.2 strikeouts per 9 innings. In looking at the American League pitching stats for 1918, the strikeout leader was Walter Johnson with 162 (326 innings, 4.5/9), Jim Shaw with 129 (241 innings, 4.8/9), “Bullet” Joe Bush with 125 (272 inning, 4.1/9), Guy Morton with 123 (214 innings, 5.2/9), Carl Mays with 114 (294 innings, 3.5/9) and Eddie Cicotte with 104 (266 innings, 3.5/9). Carl Mays would become infamous for an incident in 1920 when he hit Ray Chapman with a pitch fracturing his skull. Chapman would die the following day, being the only play to die directly from an injury received during a baseball game. And Eddie Cicotte would be remembered as one of the players banned for life in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
For the 1918 season, here are his batting stats:
AB-317, Hits-95, 2B-26, 3B-11, HR-11, RBI-61,
BB-58, K-58, Avg.-.300, Slug.-.555
OPS-.966, OPS+-192, WAR-4.7
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
These batting stats include games where Babe appeared as a pitcher.
In 1918, Babe was tied for 2nd in doubles, tied for 5th in triples, tied for 1st in home runs (with Tillie Walker???), 6th in RBI’s, 8th in walks, 1st in strikeouts, tied for 7th in batting average, 2nd in OBP, 1st in Slug. Pct., 1st in OPS, 2nd in OPS+, and 7th in WAR. All of this was accomplished with Babe being 43rd in plate appearances and 44th in times at bat. His greatness as a batter was becoming more and more apparent.
For the 1919 season Babe pitched in 17 games over 133 innings. His stats were:
W-L 9-5, IP-133.1, Hits-148, BB-58, K-30,
ERA 2.97, ERA+-102, FIP-3.58, WHIP-1.545,
BB/9-3.9, K/9-2.0
There is no question that there had been a bit of a regression in his pitching performance.
He was now 20th in ERA, 21st in ERA+, 32nd in FIP, 33rd in WHIP, and 33rd in K/9. Obviously pitching in 17 games and appearing in 116 games as a batter was taking its toll on his pitching success. The Red Sox would play 138 games that season and Babe would play in 130 of them (he had 3 games where he pitched and played in the field).
While his pitching was on a downward trend because of pitching or playing the field in practically every game, his batting stats were on the upswing
AB-432, Hits-139, 2B-35, 3B-12, HR-29
RBI-113, BB-101, K-58, Avg.-.322, Slug.-.657
OBP-.456, OPS+-217, WAR-9.1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In 1919, besides pitching in 17 games, Babe played 110 games in LF, 1 in CF, and 5 at 1B, he would also pinch hit in 1 game.
In comparing the Babe to all the other hitters in the American League, he finished: 27th in batting appearances, 43rd in times at bat, he finished 1st in runs scored with 103, 21st in hits, 5th in doubles, 7th in triples, and 1st in home runs. Babe had 29 home runs in the 1919 season, finishing 2nd was George Sisler, Tillie Walker and Frank “Home Run” Baker who had 10 each. There were a total of 240 home runs that year and Babe had 12.1% of the league total. Four of the eight American League teams had fewer home runs as a team than Babe had by himself. His Red Sox teammates hit a total of 4 home runs for the season.
Prior to Babe’s 29 home runs in 1919 the American League record for home runs was 16 in 1902 for Ralph (Socks) Seybold.
In addition to the stats for 1919 already mentioned, Babe let the league in RBI’s, was 2nd in walks, was 2nd in strikeouts, 8th in batting average, 1st in OBP, 1st in slugging percentage (.657 to George Sislers’ .530), 1st in OPS, 1st in OPS+, and he lead the league in WAR with 9.1 with Bobby Veach 2nd at 6.7.
After the 1919 season the New York Yankees received the best Christmas present ever. On December 26th they purchased Babe Ruth’s contract from the Red Sox for $100,000. This began the “Curse of the Bambino” in which the Red Sox would not win another World Series (they won in 1918) until 86 years later when they finally won in 2004.
Ruth’s pitching career pretty much ended with the trade. He did pitch in 1 game (4 innings) in 1920, 2 games (9 innings) in 1921, 1 game in 1930 and 1 game in 1933. Interestingly in those 5 games he pitched 31 innings, gave up 40 hits, walked 16 and struck out 5, but had a W-L record of 5-0!
Babe Ruth went on to have a legendary remainder of his career with the Yankees, but after the trade he would no longer be the “Unicorn”, just one of the greatest, or the greatest hitter of all time.
The one major difference between Babe and Shohei was that when Babe was in the game as a hitter he would play in the field, however in his entire MLB career, Ohtani when not pitching, would only be on the field for 7 games!
Are you ready to call both Babe and Shohei “Unicorns” or are you reserving the title for Shohei only?
 

The airwaves have been flooded with all the hysteria of the otherworldly accomplishments of Shohei Ohtani, and rightly so. He is indeed a “unicorn”, a unique baseball player who has taken MLB by storm since coming from Japan to the US.
To be able to hit and pitch with such excellence is almost unequal to any other baseball player ever, especially when you take into account that he is in the upper echelon of both pitchers and hitters at the same time. But is Ohtani not really unique and is he just following in the footsteps of someone who accomplished the same over 100 years ago? Of course I’m talking about Babe Ruth.
Most of us know the story of Babe Ruth, the hitter. But when he began his major league career with the Red Sox he was a full-time pitcher.
He joined the Red Sox in 1914 when the team purchased Babe, Ben Egan (a rather lackluster catcher with a career batting average of .165) and Ernie Shore for $25,000. Ernie Shore would have a great 4 years with the Red Sox (1914-17) where he had a 58-33 win-lost record and never an ERA under 2.63. Ernie and Babe would combine for one of the most bizarre games in baseball history. Babe was the starting pitcher in a game on 6/23/1917 when he walked the first batter. He ended up getting into an argument with the home plate umpire and was tossed from the game. Shore came on to replace him. The batter that Babe walked was thrown out trying to steal and the next 26 batters failed to get a hit or on base at all. It was initially call a perfect game, but with new rules to determine no-hitters and perfect games, it is now considered a no-hitter.
Back to Babe. From 1914-17 Babe would have a 62-34 win-loss record and except for 4 games pitched in 1914, he would have no ERA higher than 2.44. In 1916 he would lead the league with a 1.75 ERA, 40 games started, 9 shutouts, an ERA+ of 158, 6.4 hits/9 and would not give up a home run. He would give up 230 hits in 323.2 innings pitched.
Around that time the team started noticing that not only did they have one of the top pitchers in the league, but this guy could hit.
In the 1915 season he had a batting average of .315 with 4 home runs and 20 RBI’s and an OPS+ of 189 while pitching and pinch hitting (11 times). He was not as successful in the 1916 season but did have a batting average .272 with 3 home runs and 16 RBI’s, to go along with an OPS+ of 122. He pinched hit in 24 games in the 1916 season. For the 1917 season Ruth hit 2 home runs, drove in 14 runs, batted .325 and had an OPS+ of 162.
The big experiment began in 1918, when Babe pitched and also played in the field. He appeared in 95 games in total, and he pitched in 20 of them. As a position player he played 47 games in left field, 12 games in center field, 13 games at first base and pinch hit in 5.
For the 1918 season, here are his pitching stats:
W-L- 13-7, IP-166.1, BB-49, K-40, ERA-2.22, ERA+-122, FIP-2.75, WHIP-1.046
BB/9-2.7, K/9-2.2
The stat that jumps off this chart is strikeouts, Babe averaged 2.2 strikeouts per 9 innings. In looking at the American League pitching stats for 1918, the strikeout leader was Walter Johnson with 162 (326 innings, 4.5/9), Jim Shaw with 129 (241 innings, 4.8/9), “Bullet” Joe Bush with 125 (272 inning, 4.1/9), Guy Morton with 123 (214 innings, 5.2/9), Carl Mays with 114 (294 innings, 3.5/9) and Eddie Cicotte with 104 (266 innings, 3.5/9). Carl Mays would become infamous for an incident in 1920 when he hit Ray Chapman with a pitch fracturing his skull. Chapman would die the following day, being the only play to die directly from an injury received during a baseball game. And Eddie Cicotte would be remembered as one of the players banned for life in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
For the 1918 season, here are his batting stats:
AB-317, Hits-95, 2B-26, 3B-11, HR-11, RBI-61,
BB-58, K-58, Avg.-.300, Slug.-.555
OPS-.966, OPS+-192, WAR-4.7
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
These batting stats include games where Babe appeared as a pitcher.
In 1918, Babe was tied for 2nd in doubles, tied for 5th in triples, tied for 1st in home runs (with Tillie Walker???), 6th in RBI’s, 8th in walks, 1st in strikeouts, tied for 7th in batting average, 2nd in OBP, 1st in Slug. Pct., 1st in OPS, 2nd in OPS+, and 7th in WAR. All of this was accomplished with Babe being 43rd in plate appearances and 44th in times at bat. His greatness as a batter was becoming more and more apparent.
For the 1919 season Babe pitched in 17 games over 133 innings. His stats were:
W-L 9-5, IP-133.1, Hits-148, BB-58, K-30,
ERA 2.97, ERA+-102, FIP-3.58, WHIP-1.545,
BB/9-3.9, K/9-2.0
There is no question that there had been a bit of a regression in his pitching performance.
He was now 20th in ERA, 21st in ERA+, 32nd in FIP, 33rd in WHIP, and 33rd in K/9. Obviously pitching in 17 games and appearing in 116 games as a batter was taking its toll on his pitching success. The Red Sox would play 138 games that season and Babe would play in 130 of them (he had 3 games where he pitched and played in the field).
While his pitching was on a downward trend because of pitching or playing the field in practically every game, his batting stats were on the upswing
AB-432, Hits-139, 2B-35, 3B-12, HR-29
RBI-113, BB-101, K-58, Avg.-.322, Slug.-.657
OBP-.456, OPS+-217, WAR-9.1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In 1919, besides pitching in 17 games, Babe played 110 games in LF, 1 in CF, and 5 at 1B, he would also pinch hit in 1 game.
In comparing the Babe to all the other hitters in the American League, he finished: 27th in batting appearances, 43rd in times at bat, he finished 1st in runs scored with 103, 21st in hits, 5th in doubles, 7th in triples, and 1st in home runs. Babe had 29 home runs in the 1919 season, finishing 2nd was George Sisler, Tillie Walker and Frank “Home Run” Baker who had 10 each. There were a total of 240 home runs that year and Babe had 12.1% of the league total. Four of the eight American League teams had fewer home runs as a team than Babe had by himself. His Red Sox teammates hit a total of 4 home runs for the season.
Prior to Babe’s 29 home runs in 1919 the American League record for home runs was 16 in 1902 for Ralph (Socks) Seybold.
In addition to the stats for 1919 already mentioned, Babe let the league in RBI’s, was 2nd in walks, was 2nd in strikeouts, 8th in batting average, 1st in OBP, 1st in slugging percentage (.657 to George Sislers’ .530), 1st in OPS, 1st in OPS+, and he lead the league in WAR with 9.1 with Bobby Veach 2nd at 6.7.
After the 1919 season the New York Yankees received the best Christmas present ever. On December 26th they purchased Babe Ruth’s contract from the Red Sox for $100,000. This began the “Curse of the Bambino” in which the Red Sox would not win another World Series (they won in 1918) until 86 years later when they finally won in 2004.
Ruth’s pitching career pretty much ended with the trade. He did pitch in 1 game (4 innings) in 1920, 2 games (9 innings) in 1921, 1 game in 1930 and 1 game in 1933. Interestingly in those 5 games he pitched 31 innings, gave up 40 hits, walked 16 and struck out 5, but had a W-L record of 5-0!
Babe Ruth went on to have a legendary remainder of his career with the Yankees, but after the trade he would no longer be the “Unicorn”, just one of the greatest, or the greatest hitter of all time.
The one major difference between Babe and Shohei was that when Babe was in the game as a hitter he would play in the field, however in his entire MLB career, Ohtani when not pitching, would only be on the field for 7 games!
Are you ready to call both Babe and Shohei “Unicorns” or are you reserving the title for Shohei only?
 

One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar.
His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing.
Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s.
In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?”
Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva.
Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield.
On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo.
Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season.
Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF.
He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB.
For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols.
Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched.
What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965.
According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision.
Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier).
Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base.
Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins.
Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd.
He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro.
After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”.
He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season.
Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.

One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar.
His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing.
Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s.
In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?”
Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva.
Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield.
On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo.
Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season.
Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF.
He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB.
For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols.
Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched.
What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965.
According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision.
Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier).
Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base.
Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins.
Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd.
He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro.
After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”.
He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season.
Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.

One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar.
His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing.
Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s.
In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?”
Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva.
Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield.
On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo.
Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season.
Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF.
He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB.
For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols.
Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched.
What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965.
According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision.
Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier).
Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base.
Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins.
Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd.
He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro.
After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”.
He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season.
Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.

It's that time of year, and the Minnesota Twins will soon be fully engaged with spring training activities down in Sunny Fort Myers, Florida. Before the season kicks off though, and with prospect positioning set to move, I needed to put out my updated top 15 prospects for the 2024 Major League Baseball season.
The highest ranked player on the 2023 list, Royce Lewis, has since graduated and he took a couple of players with him. Both Matt Wallner and Louie Varland are no longer prospect eligible, and Edouard Julien joined them in becoming a regular for Rocco Baldelli's squad. It should be expected that a few of these names will move on by the time the dust settles on 2024, and that would be a good outcome in terms of development.
I have been posting my top 15 prospect lists here since 2016, and you can find each of them below:
2016 Top 15 Prospects
2017 Top 15 Prospects
2018 Top 15 Prospects
2019 Top 15 Prospects
2020 Top 15 Prospects
2021 Top 15 Prospects
2022 Top 15 Propsects
2023 Top 15 Prospects
Now to get into the 2024 list:
15. Yunior Severino INF
Signed when the Atlanta Braves were made to forfeit players from an international signing class that they cheated to acquired, Severino has become the darling of that group. He emerged to the highest level of the farm for Minnesota last year and showed thump that could have him as a valuable first base type. There's a lot of swing and miss, but he's now on the 40-man roster and has a clear path to a debut.
14. Matt Canterino RHP
No one has bounced around more on these prospect lists for me over the years than Canterino. Drafted out of Rice, he underwent Tommy John surgery and has dealt with arm issues as many of their pitchers do. Fully healthy, he could be an absolute weapon for Minnesota in relief this year. His stuff is impressive, and should play up even more as a reliever.
13. C.J. Culpepper RHP
A 13th round pick in 2022, Culpepper reached High-A Cedar Rapids in his first full professional season. The 3.56 ERA across 86 innings was impressive, and he owned a 9.3 K/9. There's still plenty of development to take place here, but a late round arm that works in the vein of Bailey Ober or Louie Varland is something to dream on.
12. Kala'i Rosario OF
Sent to the Arizona Fall League after the season, Rosario got in extra reps and showed out with the power. He flashed some exciting potential during big league spring training action prior to the 2023 season, and his solid year at High-A should have him ready for the Double-A challenge this season at just 21 years old.
11. Luke Keaschall INF
Minnesota took Keaschall in the second round of the 2023 Major League Baseball draft out of Arizona State and he immediately took to pro ball. He posted an .892 OPS in 31 games, and helped the Cedar Rapids Kernels secure a championship at the end of the season. He probably starts in Iowa, but could make his way to Double-A Wichita quickly.
10. Tanner Schobel INF
The Virginia Tech product tore up High-A Cedar Rapids in 2023 and earned a promotion to Double-A. He struggled out of the gate for Wichita, but did bat .294 over his final 14 games. He'll need to tap back into some of the power potential that was left in Cedar Rapids, but there's the makings of a big league regular here.
9. Charlee Soto RHP
The Twins took Soto with the 34th overall pick in the 2023 draft and he didn't pitch at all last season. Looking to build up his body and prepare for pro ball, 2024 should be a fun debut season. There is an upper-90's fastball in the arsenal, and while he's a high school arm, there is a lot to work with here.
8. Brandon Winokur OF
A tools'd out high school kid taken in the third round of the 2023 draft, Winokur impressed in limited action last year. He posted an .884 OPS across 17 games at the rookie ball level, and he showed off the power and speed combination. The plate discipline is something to watch as he develops, but the ceiling for him is immense.
7. Cory Lewis RHP
Drafted just inside of the first ten rounds during 2022, Lewis has emerged as one of Minnesota's best pitching prospects. He throws a knuckle ball but isn't a knuckleballer. With dominant stuff that led to a 10.5 K/9 in his first pro season, Lewis could start at Double-A in 2024 and may be a late season option for the Twins to consider.
6. Austin Martin INF/OF
Similar to Canterino, Martin has bounced around on my prospect lists. He got back to a workable swing last year, and while the power potential isn't there, he has solid bat to ball skills and has a good contact ability. Speed is the play here, and while exit velocities could limit his overall production, he already profiles as a plus defender in center field.
5. David Festa RHP
Taken in the 13th round of the 2021 draft, Festa represented the Twins at the 2023 Futures Game. He made his way to Triple-A St. Paul and is right there among the best pitching prospects in the organization. Festa can push velocity while also showing a strong command of his pitches. He had 119 strikeouts in 92 1/3 innings last season. Expect to see him at Target Field in 2024.
4. Marco Raya RHP
If Festa isn't the best pitching prospect in the organization, then it is Raya. Just 20 years old and a former prep arm, the Twins already have him at Double-A. He took his lumps for Wichita, but was incredibly young for the level and should be expected to use that experience for significant offseason development. He'll begin 2024 with the Wind Surge again, but getting to Triple-A St. Paul at 21 would be eye-opening.
3. Emmanuel Rodriguez OF
One of the most exciting prospects across baseball, Rodriguez has significant power potential and his ceiling is that of a slugging corner outfielder with all-star aspirations. He posted a ridiculous .400 OBP for Cedar Rapids last year despite batting just .240, and he doesn't sacrifice plate discipline for power. A meteoric rise could happen this year at 21, but Rodriguez's future is still one to be excited about even if it takes a bit more time.
2. Brooks Lee INF
Maybe the safest bet to be a big league regular for a long time across all organizations in baseball, Lee is near major league ready at this point. He's going to hit for more average than power, and can play shortstop but doesn't necessarily need to. He does everything well, and if any of the tools take another step forward, he'll end his career with more than a few all-star selections under his belt.
1. Walker Jenkins OF
The fifth overall pick from the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft, Jenkins is a superstar in every sense of the word. He may outgrow centerfield as his body develops, but he should hit for average and power while remaining a strong defender and runner. The maturity here is off the charts, and the abilities could push him into future MVP discussions. A 2024 debut isn't going to happen, but all bets should be off in 2025.
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One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar.
His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing.
Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s.
In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?”
Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva.
Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield.
On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo.
Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season.
Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF.
He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB.
For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols.
Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched.
What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965.
According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision.
Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier).
Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base.
Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins.
Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd.
He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro.
After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”.
He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season.
Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.

One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar.
His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil received a $2,000 signing bonus, Tovar got nothing.
Tovar’s first professional season was with Geneva of the NY-Penn League (Class D). He batted .252 in 87 games with 3 HR’s and 41 RBI’s. His 2nd summer was with Missoula in the Class C Pioneer League. He batted .304 with 12 HR’s and 68 RBI’s. In 1961 he was back in Geneva and he would hit .338 with 19 HR’s and 78 RBI’s, he also stole 88 bases in 100 attempts, shattering the NY-Penn League Record. In 1962 he played for Rocky Mount of the Carolina League (Class B), batting .329 with 10 HR’s and 78 RBI’s.
In spite of his success in the minors there was no clear path to the Reds. In 1963 the Reds would have a rookie named Pete Rose playing 2nd base, future major leaguer Bobby Klaus was in AAA, and his buddy, Gus Gil played in Macon (AA). The Reds would end up sending Tovar to the Twins on loan to their AAA team in Dallas-Ft. Worth. At Dallas-Ft. Worth manager Jack McKeon had Jim Snyder at 2B, so Tovar became a utilityman, mostly as an outfielder and shortstop. McKeon commented that “he has to be in my lineup and he has to be my leadoff man, but where do I play him?”
Cesar made 2 friends in his brief time in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Billy Martin, who was a minor league instructor in spring training and Tony Oliva.
Tovar returned to the Reds organization for the 1964 season, playing in San Diego. He hit .275 with 7 HR’s and 52 RBI’s, playing 3B, SS, 2B and the outfield.
On December 4, 1964, Tovar joined the Twins in a 1 for 1 trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo.
Manager Sam Mele gave Tovar a long look at 2nd base during spring training in 1965 in a competition with light hitting Jerry Kindall. Billy Martin who was now the Twins’ infield coach, again became Tovar’s tutor. Tovar would end up being sent to Denver of the Pacific Coast League to start the season.
Cesar would only appear in 18 games for the Twins in 1965, but as a sign of things to come, he would play 4 games at 2B, 1 game at SS, 2 games at 3B and 2 games in CF.
He appeared in 134 games in 1966 and had a WAR of 3.3. Tovar became only the 9th Venezuelan to reach the majors, and he would join two other countrymen, Luis Aparicio and Vic Davalillo in MLB.
For his entire Twins career he had a total of 26.0 WAR over his 7 years (3.7 average). From 1967 to 1971 he received votes for league Most Valuable Player with his best finish of 7th in 1967. In 1967 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP Award, receiving 19 of the 20 1st place votes. Tovar received the other 1st place vote courtesy of Minnesota beat writer, Max Nichols.
Versatility was definitely part of his game. Much like Willi Castro in 2023, Tovar would be all over the field. In 1967 he played at least 6 games at 6 different positions (only missing out at 1B, C and P). He would play at least 5 different positions from 1969 to 1971. But 1968 was the most noteworthy. In 1968 he played 1 game at 1B, 18 games at 2B, 35 at SS, 75 at 3B, 37 in LF, 36 in CF, 11 in RF, 1 game where he caught and 1 game where he pitched.
What made 1968 noteworthy was that he became the 2nd player in major league history to play every position in a game. The date was September 22, 1968 against the Oakland A’s. What was even more special was that playing for the A’s that day was Bert Campaneris, who was the first to accomplish the feat in 1965.
According to an article written by Henry Palattella for www.mlb.com, Campaneris’ accomplishment was taken as a publicity stunt by Angels manager, Bill Rigney and he considered it “bush”. Campaneris ended up dropping a fly ball in the 6th inning that let in a run, and in the 8th inning he pitched and gave up 2 walks followed by a run-scoring single. But the most memorable inning was the 9th when Campaneris went in to catch. The Angels Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with a single, stole 2nd base and eventually ended up at 3rd. While on 3rd there was a pitch in the dirt and he took off for home, there was a jarring collision at home plate between Kirkpatrick and Campaneris that nearly ended with both players coming to blows. The game would end up going extra innings, but without Campaneris who was send to the hospital due to a left shoulder injury caused by the home plate collision.
Tovar’s game was much different. The Twins were managed by Cal Ermer. They would end up in 7th place that season, and the game was played near the end of the season against the A’s who would finish in 6th place. Also the A’s were owned by Charley Finley who was famous for this type of “unique” event (including Bert Campaneris doing the same 3 years earlier).
Ermer started the game with Tovar on the mound. He ended up pitching a scoreless first inning where he got Campaneris to ground out, had a walk, a balk and struck out Reggie Jackson. Getting the toughest positions out of the way, Tovar caught in the 2nd inning. The Minneapolis Star Tribune would report that Tovar was in a semi-crouch stance due to “the shin guards being too long for his stubby legs”. In total for the game, Tovar fielded one ground ball, along with having 5 putouts. The team rewarded him with a color TV for his performance. It was the only game ever that Tovar was to pitch, catch or play 1st base.
Since Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968 only 3 other players have played every position in a game: Scott Sheldon on September 6, 2000 for the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox, Shane Halter on October 1, 2000 (less than a month later) for the Detroit Tigers against the Twins, and finally, Andrew Romine on September 30, 2017 for the Detroit Tigers, also against the Twins.
Cesar Tovar definitely had a memorable career. He was a huge contributor while he was on the Twins. He played for 2 pennant winning teams and 2 teams that finished in 2nd.
He would stay with the Twins through the 1972 season when he was traded in the off-season to the Philadelphia Phillies for Joe Lis, Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders. Lis would play for the Twins for the entire 1973 season and would be purchased by the Guardians in June of 1974, Sanders would only last until August of the 1973 season when he was released and Reynolds’ Twins career would end before it started when he was traded before the start of the 1973 season to the Brewers for Mike Ferraro.
After the 1973 season Tovar’s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers. They purchased him because their manager, Billy Martin said “get me Cesar Tovar”.
He would play for the Rangers and Oakland Athletics in 1975, and the Athletics and New York Yankees, managed by Billy Martin in 1976. He would retire after the 1976 season.
Sadly Tovar passed away on July 14, 1994 in Caracus, Venezuela at the age of 54.

Was Zoilo Versalles a One-Hit Wonder?
When the Washington Senators relocated to Minneapolis/St. Paul for the 1961 season they brought a team that had finished 7th, 8th, 8th, 8th, and 5th the previous 5 years. After the move the team finished 7th in 1961, then 2nd, 3rd and 6th in the 10 team American League.
The 6th place 1964 team had a starting lineup of Earl Battey-catching, Bob Allison, Bernie Allen, Zoilo Versalles, and Rich Rollins in the infield, and had an outfield of Harmon Killebrew, Jimmy Hall and Tony Oliva. Their most used subs were Don Mincher, Jerry Kindall and Jerry Zimmerman. The starting rotation was Camilo Pascual, Jim Kaat, Dick Stigman, Mudcat Grant and Lee Stange. Coming out of the bullpen was closer Al Worthington, along with Gerry Arrigo, Jim Perry, Bill Pleis and Johnny Klippstein.
The 1965 team didn’t have a lot of turnover from the 1964 team. Don Mincher took over at first base and Jerry Kindall at second, Bob Allison played left field instead of 1st base and the rest of the lineup was the same as 1964. Because of injuries Harmon Killebrew only played in 113 games. 1964 starter, Lee Stange, was traded to the Cleveland Guardians along with George Banks for Mudcat Grant. Besides Grant, the other starters were Jim Perry, who went from a reliever to a starter, Jim Kaat and Camilo Pascual. Dave Boswell, got an occasional start. The bullpen still had Worthington, Klippstein, Pleis, and added Stigman (a converted starter) and Jerry Fosnow, who came to the Twins in an offseason trade with the Cincinnati Reds for Gerry Arrigo. Cesar Tovar would also come over in the trade, but he would spend most of 1965 with the Denver Bears.
While there were not a lot of personnel changes from 1964 to 1965 the team would go from a 79-83-1 record good for 6th place to a 102-60 record that would win the AL pennant.
WAR leaders in 1964 (batters only) according to Baseball Reference were: Oliva 6.8, Allison 6.4, Killebrew 4.7, Hall 4.0 and Rollins 3.0. For the 1965 season the WAR leaders were: Versalles 7.2, Oliva 5.4, Killebrew 4.4, Hall 4.3 and Allison 4.2.
Jimmy Hall would show an increased WAR from 1964 of 0.3, but the major increase would come from Zoilo Versalles, who went from 2.5 in ‘64 to 7.2 in ‘65.
Versalles would go on to win the American League Most Valuable Player award with 19 of the 20 votes. Tony Oliva would receive the other vote.
While Versalles would have a solid baseball career, he never had another year that came close to approaching 1965.
In 1965 he had career highs in plate appearances in (728), runs scored (126), hits (182), doubles (45), 2nd most triples (12), 2nd most home runs (19), most RBI’s (77) and stolen bases (27), 2nd highest Batting Average (.273), best OBP (.319), Slugging Pct. (.462), OPS (.781), OPS+ (115), and Total Bases (308). He led the American League in plate appearances, runs scored, doubles, triples, and total bases. He did make the All-Star team and won a gold glove that year.
Versalles would never come close to repeating his accomplishments of 1965. The Twins would have some success by finishing 2nd in 1966 and 1967 and would again with the pennant in 1969, but Versalles would only have a WAR of 1.6 in 1966, -1.6 in 1967 and would be traded prior to the 1968 season to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Mudcat Grant, for Bob Miller, Ron Peranoski and John Roseboro.
In Zoilo’s entire 12 seasons in MLB he had a total WAR of 12.6 with only 5.4 of his total over his other 11 seasons.
Sadly, he passed away at age 55 in 1995 while living in Bloomington, MN.
Zoilo would be the 1st of only 2 players in MLB history with the name Zoilo, the other would be Zoilo Almonte who played a total of 47 games (as an outfielder/DH) for the New York Yankees in 2013 and 2014.
While Zoilo had 7 seasons as the Twins primary shortstop, would you consider him a “One Hit Wonder”?