Expect former Twins closer Joe Nathan to pitch with extra adrenaline this weekend when his new team, the Rangers, plays a three game series at Target Field. There’s no guarantee, of course, that Nathan will be relieving in the games but former Twins shortstop Roy Smalley, now a Fox Sports North analyst on Twins telecasts, told Sports Headliners players want to make a statement when they compete against ex-teammates and former fans.
Nathan, often among baseball’s best closers when he pitched for the Twins from 2004-2011, signed as a free agent with the Rangers during the last offseason. Tonight’s game in Minneapolis will be the first that Nathan has been in a Rangers uniform against the Twins.
“It’s not just any other game when you compete against your old club,” Smalley said. “He doesn’t want to come in and not do the job.”
Smalley played for the Rangers, Twins and Yankees. He never wanted to look at his former teammates and know they had defeated him.
Smalley said Nathan will have more “butterflies” pitching here against the Twins than when Minnesota goes to Texas. “The juices flow more when you come into your former park,” he said. “It will be easier for him to pitch in Texas. He doesn’t want to fail in front of all these (Twins) fans.”
Nathan has been given the closer role with the Rangers. His record is 0-2 but he has saved two games. His ERA of 9.00 reflects some difficult moments in the young season and is worse than the 4.46 he had last year with the Twins.
In 2011 Nathan was making a comeback from 2010 elbow surgery. He wasn’t the Nathan of old and the Twins decided that a 37-year-old coming off surgery with a fast ball in decline wasn’t worth the two-year, $14.5 million deal the Rangers reportedly offered.
Smalley has no doubt the Twins made the right decision. “To pay that kind of money for a 37-year-old when a team is rebuilding doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.
In Nathan’s prime his fast ball could be clocked up to 97 miles per hour, according to Smalley. Now he might be throwing it in the low 90’s. “I have never known any pitcher, other than maybe Nolan Ryan, not to lose velocity when he gets older,” Smalley said.