It's easy enough to make a list of Minnesota Twins who've played well at Target Field — but what about visitors?
Sure, we've heard of some of the truly great players who've put up numbers at the stadium, which opened for business in 2010, but how about a deeper dive?
Some of these won't shock you at all, like Salvador Perez, who has the most (23) home runs by a visiting player in the park's history.
But others might, like a utility man who has totally ripped it up but was otherwise a pretty solid, but unspectacular player.
Starting lineup
- C: Salvador Perez (.888 OPS in 383 PA)
- 1B: David Ortiz (1.292 OPS in 91 PA)
- 2B: Didi Gregorius (1.212 OPS in 72 PA)
- 3B: Josh Donaldson (1.224 OPS in 112 PA)
- SS: Carlos Correa (1.205 OPS in 70 PA)
- LF: Jose Bautista (1.204 OPS in 117 PA)
- CF: Aaron Judge (1.157 OPS in 82 PA)
- RF: Yoenis Cespedes (1.226 OPS in 69 PA)
- DH: Miguel Cabrera (.895 OPS in 403 PA)
The trick in this exercise is attempting to balance quality of numbers vs. quantity. It would be foolish to leave out Perez, but the No. 2 players on the Target Field visitor home run list are Edwin Encarnacion and Carlos Santana (tied with 17), and neither make the team.
Though to be fair, it's impossible to ignore what Donaldson did when visiting Target Field. His 1.224 OPS is third among players with at least 50 plate appearances at the ballpark, behind Ortiz and Cespedes.
So that's why Encarnacion isn't the choice at first (Ortiz) or third (Donaldson).
And at DH, the nod goes to Cabrera, who is one of just two players with at least 400 plate appearances (403) at Target Field as a visitor (Santana, another notable snub, has 435). So while his .895 OPS doesn't scream super elite — 20 hitters have at least 50 plate appearances and an OPS over 1.000 — the sheer volume of plate trips tips the scales in his favor.
And yes, those numbers for Correa are just as a visitor. Like Donaldson, he mashed at Target Field before becoming a Twin, though people using that as a storyline never really made any sense.
Of course Donaldson mashed at Target Field in the mid-2010s; did you see who was pitching for the Twins in those days?
Bench
- C: James McCann (.951 OPS in 126 PA)
- IF: Manny Machado (1.068 OPS in 105 PA)
- IF/OF: Sean Rodriguez (1.056 OPS in 63 PA)
- OF: Yasiel Puig (1.157 OPS in 51 PA)
McCann narrowly beats out Jonathan Lucroy in this exercise, as the latter had a higher OPS (.999) but in fewer plate appearances (72). Machado provides another roadblock to Encarnacion, while I also must admit I was shocked to see S-Rod have such a high OPS at the Targe Mahal.
Here's the rest of the hitters with at least 50 plate appearances and a 1.000 OPS at Target Field:
- Randy Arozarena (1.115)
- Chris Davis (1.078)
- Shohei Ohtani (1.065)
- George Springer (1.053)
- B.J. Upton (1.049)
- Matt Olson (1.048)
- Ryan Braun (1.036)
- Michael Saunders (1.007)
- Dustin Pedroia (1.006)
Starting rotation
- SP: Justin Verlander (2.16 ERA in 83.1 IP)
- SP: Mark Buehrle (1.85 ERA in 39.0 IP)
- SP: Chris Archer (2.29 ERA in 35.1 IP)
- SP: Rick Porcello (2.73 ERA in 89.0 IP)
- SP: Lucas Giolito (2.97 ERA in 69.2 IP)
I covered the home opener in 2013, and I'm not sure I've seen a worse matchup of Opening Day starters than that one — Verlander vs. Vance Worley. That was the first of just 10 starts for Worley in a Twins uniform, and he's reportedly so bitter over his time with the team that he crosses out any reference to the team on any autograph he signs.
Well, then.
Porcello makes the list due to quantity and quality of innings — something I tried hard to balance as I built out this rotation — even though his strikeout numbers don't exactly jump off the page (5.7 K/9), nor should you expect they would.
Bullpen
- RP: Felix Hernandez (1.88 ERA in 24.0 IP)
- RP: David Price (2.97 ERA in 66.2 IP)
- RP: Phil Hughes (2.11 ERA in 21.1 IP)
- RP: Ubaldo Jimenez (2.36 ERA in 49.2 IP)
- RP: Shane Bieber (2.98 ERA in 48.1 IP)
- RP: Jake Peavy (2.76 ERA in 45.2 IP)
- RP: Hisashi Iwakuma (0.40 ERA in 22.1 IP)
- RP: Cody Allen (1.33 ERA in 27.0 IP)
Yes, it's mostly starting pitchers. But with that said, it's hard to get any sort of sample size for any reliever in any ballpark as a visitor — even in a ballpark that has seen 15 complete seasons of teams coming in.
The one that really shocked me was Iwakuma, who had allowed just one earned run — a solo home run to Brian Dozier in 2015 — in 22.1 innings at Target Field. Otherwise, like with starters, I tried to mix quantity of innings with quality to get the best possible staff.
A bullpen with King Felix and Price in it? Yeah, I'll take my chances with that.
Other notable pitchers who might have been worth a look include Garrett Richards (2.16 ERA in 25.0 IP), Ricky Romero (2.45 ERA in 22.0 IP), Edinson Volquez (2.45 ERA in 29.1 IP), Will Smith (2.61 ERA in 20.2 IP) and Brett Anderson (2.61 ERA in 31.0 IP).
In all, 23 pitchers have thrown at least 20.0 innings at Target Field with a sub-3.00 ERA as a visitor. Ones not mentioned include former Twin Joe Smith (2.70), David Robertson (2.78), Andrew Heaney (2.91), Jesse Chavez (2.96) and James Paxton (2.96).