Minnesota Twins: Why the Twins should take a flier on Billy Hamilton
By Chris Schad
Hamilton would add speed to the Twins’ lineup
As mentioned in the previous slide, the Twins are in desperate need for some speed when Buxton isn’t in the lineup. Minnesota has already tried to address this issue as they traded for Seattle Mariners prospect Ian Miller a couple of weeks ago, who has stolen 237 bases during his minor league career.
With a high success rate of 82 percent, adding Miller could be a sneaky-good move if the Twins get into the postseason. The bad news is that Miller has never played in an MLB game, something that Hamilton has done 783 times during his seven-year career.
In those games, Hamilton has been an absolute terror on the basepaths for opposing teams. The 28-year old has racked up 295 stolen bases in 363 attempts (81.2% success rate) during his major league career and with the added bonus of doing it at the major league level, adding Hamilton would make sense.
For as great as the Twins’ lineup has been, this would be a huge boost even when Buxton returns from the injured list. The possibility of having a speedy Hamilton on the bases along with Buxton could raise havoc in late-game situations and could help the Twins manufacture more runs as they’re needed down the stretch.