Guess Who Tops Favorites List of the Twins Last 25 Seasons

 

The Twins are 25 years into the new millennium.  It’s been a historic period in franchise history with the opening of Target Field, division titles and ending that infamous streak of 18 consecutive post-season losses.

To honor the 25 years, I am selecting two personal favorites from the era.  One choice will be about as surprising as the sunrise tomorrow.  The other might have you guessing for 10 minutes.

No one put his fingerprints on Twins history over the last 25 years like Joe Mauer.  My other selection, Francisco Liriano, only teased at sustained superstardom for a brief time but he captured my favor forever.

Both players played major roles in the Twins extraordinary 2006 season.  The Central Division champions had the American League MVP in Justin Morneau, batting champion in Mauer, Cy Young Award winning in Johan Santana, a sixth consecutive Gold Glove Award winner in Tori Hunter, and Liriano a lights out pitcher who might have been both the Cy Young winner and Rookie of the Year if not for late season arm trouble.

In one of the best trades in Twins’ history, general manager Terry Ryan had brought Liriano to the organization in a 2003 deal with the Giants that also obtained pitchers Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser for catcher A.J. Pierzynski. After the trade Ryan remembered “everybody raving about him (Liriano)” in the farm system.

Liriano pitched briefly for the Twins in 2005 and then was more than ready in the spring of 2006 when manager Ron Gardenhire put the left-hander in the starting rotation. “He never really skipped a beat from Triple-A to the big leagues,” Ryan told Sports Headliners.  “He had velocity. He had control. He had command.

“He had the slider that was an out pitch.  He had an excellent change up.  You know with he and Santana, they both had those changeups—difference makers.  So, he had a complete mix.

“He was a good athlete.  He had a good makeup about him; nothing seemed to faze him. ….”

Liriano’s dominance from May until early August when he injured his arm was breath taking to watch.  During that short stretch he was the best Twins pitcher in franchise history this observer ever saw.

The Twins were almost certain to win when Liriano went to the mound.  He put together a streak of eight quality starts (per MLB.com) and was named to the American League All-Star team.  Ryan referred to that magical run of 2006 as “phenomenal.”

Liriano was a strike out pitching machine, partially because of a nasty slider that Ryan described as unhittable while also praising the then 22-year-old’s velocity. “I don’t care if you’re left-handed or right handed (hitter), you couldn’t hit it. Because it had power and it had severe bite, and he could locate it, and he wasn’t afraid to throw it in any count.

“Whether he was two and one; three and one; 0-2, he’d throw it. He didn’t have any problem with location, complete confidence in an out pitch, especially with left handers where they didn’t stand a chance against that pitch.”

Liriano had a 1.96 ERA into August of 2006 but then hurt his arm. He made only two starts in the last two months of the season.  Still, his season numbers were gaudy: 12-3 record, 2.16 ERA, 144 strikeouts in 121 innings with opposing batters hitting .205.  In a full season it might have been Liriano, not Santana who won the Cy Young Award.

“Liriano and Santana were about as impressive a tandem on a starting staff as you could ever hope for,” Ryan said.  “And there was no chance that we were going to go on any extended losing streak with those two guys on the staff.  Because each time either one of those guys took the mound you had a pretty good feeling you had a very good chance of winning that game that particular night.”

Before Liriano got hurt it looked like the Twins had the makings of a future World Series champion.  Perhaps even in 2006.  Ryan described the loss of Liriano as “devastating” to that team.  “When he went down it really set us back,” Ryan said.

Liriano missed the entire 2007 season after having Tommy John surgery in late 2006.  He stayed with the Twins into the 2012 season before being sent to the White Sox.  He had a quality 2010 season with the Twins winning 14 games and later in his career won 16 for the Pirates.  But injuries plagued his career before officially retiring in January of 2022.

It seems like Joseph Patrick Mauer, born and raised in St. Paul, has been in the spotlight forever.  At Cretin-Derham Hall in the late 1990s he was a headline maker on the local sports pages.  He was terrific on the basketball court, a five-star college quarterback prospect and so coveted in baseball he became the first overall selection in the 2001 MLB Draft.  The Twins chose Mauer over pitcher Mark Prior and it was a wise decision because spurning the local kid for a guy who had an okay career on the mound would have been a disaster.

Ryan said the Twins might have scouted Mauer more than any prospect he knows of.   “…I think we got a lot of things right on him. His make up was phenomenal.  Tremendous athlete.  He had a desire (to excel).  He was a quiet leader.

“His demeanor was unbelievably calm.  Those types of guys, they had that low pulse.  They don’t get overreacting.  They don’t get over excited. They just go about their business.”

By 2004 Mauer was the team’s starting catcher and taking the first steps of a legendary 15-year career in the majors, all with the Twins. The 6-foot-4, left-hand hitting Mauer won three American League batting titles, five Silver Slugger Awards and was the 2009 AL MVP Award. His production that year was the stuff of baseball immortals, hitting a career-high 28 home runs along with a .365 batting average and best-ever 96 RBI.

A Sports Illustrated cover boy, he is the only AL catcher ever to win a batting title.  Six times he was named an AL all-star.

Mauer was a superb catcher superb catcher who showed off a quarterback’s arm in targeting base runners. His marvelous athleticism made him capable of even catching a foul ball behind his back or reaching behind the protective netting to snag a ball.  He was a three-time Gold Glove winner as a catcher and probably deserved to win one after moving to first base late in his career.

“He was probably one of the greatest athletic catchers that came a long in the game,” Ryan said.

Mauer was voted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2023.  The ultimate post-career honor came in 2024 when he was a first=ballot selection for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Ask Ryan how special Mauer was and you will hear about the man as well as the player. “Well, he’s a Hall of Famer for a reason. He’s got tools. He’s got makeup.  He’s a great teammate.

“Great human being.  He was raised well and. …And he hasn’t changed. I’ve been around him quite a bit since he retired, and he hasn’t changed at all”.

Mauer is a legend and he’s one of us.  He put his stamp all over the first 25 years of the new millennium and we’re all the better for it.