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Minnesota Twins: Top 5 Switch-Hitters in Twins History

By Otto Johnson

Minnesota Twins infielder Jorge Polanco hits a two-run home run off of Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer (51) during the fifth inning at Target Field. (Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports)
Minnesota Twins infielder Jorge Polanco hits a two-run home run off of Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer (51) during the fifth inning at Target Field. (Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports) /
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Minnesota Twins
Nick Punto of the Minnesota Twins in action against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. on July 9, 2005. The Royals won 12-8. (Photo by G. N. Lowrance/Getty Images) /

Minnesota Twins Switch-Hitting Honorable Mentions

We’ll start off the aforementioned Chili Davis and Luis Castillo. Davis has the fourth-most homers of any Twins switch hitter at 49 and is eighth in RBI. Luis Castillo has the highest batting average of any switch-hitter to play at least 30 games in Minnesota, but unfortunately for both, playing 290 (Davis) and 227 games (Castillo) for the Twins just didn’t cut it.

Alexi Casilla and Al Newman were two of just 10 switch-hitters to play at least 500 games in Minnesota, but Newman slashed .231/.306/.275 over five years here while Casilla slashed .250/.305/.334 over seven. Any player with an OPS under .650 should not be considered (though both players had decent stolen base numbers).

Fan favorite Nick Punto lands here (in what would be ninth place) because despite a .248 batting average and an ugly .648 OPS, he has played the sixth-most games in Minnesota of any switch-hitter, is second in steals, and third in triples.

Denny Hocking and Butch Wynegar get mentions here because of longevity. Hocking played 876 games, second-most among switch-hitters, while Wynegar played in 794 (fourth). Unfortunately, both finished their Twins careers with an OPS under .700 and batting averages of .252 (Hocking) and .254 (Wynegar).

Our last honorable mention (sixth-best switch-hitter) goes to Robbie Grossman. Grossman played in just 347 games with the Twins, but he made them count, slashing a respectable .266/.371/.400 line with a decent .771 OPS. In a small and disappointing group, that’s good enough to almost make the list.

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