With word coming Monday that Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has been selected as the National League captain for the 2014 Home Run Derby, there’s thought he could select current teammate and former Minnesota Twin Justin Morneau to accompany him to Target Field in July for the event.
But the first baseman’s return could only serve to highlight the Twins’ failings in recent seasons on and off the field.
“If I was asked to do it, I would. Obviously, we’re a long way from that, but it would be fun,” Morneau told the Star Tribune on June 10.
Morneau has done what many Twins fans feared he might when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates last August by going back to his old ways and swinging the bat with verve and power that saw him win the 2006 AL MVP award.
So far this season, Morneau is hitting .302/.339/.515 with 12 home runs and 51 RBI’s. If he were on the Twins roster as of Tuesday, Morneau would lead his old club in hits, slugging percentage and RBI’s. He would also be second in home runs and third in batting average and doubles.
If we prorate Morneau’s 2014 numbers for a full season – adding three extra homers in the next 10 games for the sake of the experiment – the Canadian born first baseman’s final tally would be around 30 HR, 115 RBI’s with a .300 average. Said numbers are eerily similar to the 2006 MVP campaign that saw him hit 34 HR, 130 RBI’s and hit .321.
Should Morneau return for the Home Run Derby, an event he won in 2008, how will Minnesota fans react to the homecoming of yet another Twin who left only to find success elsewhere?
Patrons of Target Field have been hurt many times like this before and Morneau’s return may be akin to rubbing salt in an open wound, especially with the hometown team playing less than mediocre for the last three-plus seasons.
The catalog of Twins shining elsewhere is extensive. The 2013 All-Star Game alone named eight: Michael Cuddyer (Rockies), Torii Hunter (Tigers), Carlos Gomez (Brewers), David Ortiz (Red Sox), J.J. Hardy (Orioles), Joe Nathan (Rangers), Grant Balfour (Athletics) and Jesse Crain (White Sox).
At the time, Joe Mauer said he was happy to see his friends and former teammates succeeding, even if it wasn’t in Minnesota.
“It’s pretty cool,” Mauer told the Star Tribune last summer. “It’s kind of bittersweet. Obviously, you’d like to have all those guys in Twins uniforms here, but there’s great friendships with guys you played with. You carry on. You see your friends doing well. You always hope for that.”
Meanwhile, Hunter had a different point of view, one many Twins fans may have shared.
“It is tough to see [the Twins] where they are at right now,” the former Twins outfielder told the newspaper last year. “With all these ex-Twin All-Stars here you’d think that if they would have kept us we would have been in the World Series.”
More successful ex-Twins include Kyle Lohse (Brewers), Matt Garza (Brewers), Francisco Liriano (Pirates), R.A. Dickey (Blue Jays), A.J. Pierzynski (Red Sox) and Johan Santana (Mets).
A devil’s advocate would say it’s hard to blame the Twin’s front office for moving on considering Morneau was a shadow of his former self after suffering a concussion in 2010. In the seasons with Minnesota that followed, he didn’t surpass 19 HR in a season, and his best batting average was a meager .267.
Still, something seems wrong with the decision-making in Minnesota’s front office when so much talent is allowed to slip through their proverbial fingers.
The signing of free agent first baseman Kendrys Morales is only a further indictment of the Twins’ blunder with Morneau, as it proved finances weren’t at issue.
Morales signed a prorated contracted at a rate of $12 million per year with the Twins in early June. Morneau is in the first year of a two-year deal with Colorado that will pay him $12.5 million.
The more the mistakes pile up, the more it suggests Twins leadership has committed franchise negligence of epic proportions in recent years.
If owners or general managers could receive All-Star honors, there’s no chance Terry Ryan or the Pohlad family would even be in the discussion. Nevertheless, they will be there in July when MLB’s best (and likely some former Twins) trot out onto Target Field this summer.
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Nicolas Hallett is a staff writer for 105 The Ticket. He recently graduated from the University of Minnesota and has written for the Murphy News Service, the Minnesota Daily and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Follow him on Twitter at @nicolashallett.