AJ Pierzynski sheds light on why David Ortiz wasn't successful with the Minnesota Twins
Remember when the Minnesota Twins went like two decades without a batter hitting 30 homers in a season? And remember when the Twins dumped David Ortiz for nothing after he smacked 20 homers and drove in 75 runs in just over 400 at-bats in 2002?
Turns out, hitting for contact was apparently more important to the Twins at the time than smashing mammoth home runs. Excusable? Uh, no, considering the home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa basically saved baseball in 1998.
During the nationally-televised FOX game between the Twins and Padres Saturday night, ex-Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski was the analyst and while talking about Luis Arraez's ability to hit the ball all over the field he told a story about why Ortiz wasn't successful with the Twins.
Warning: This is going to hurt Twins fans.
"When I came up with the Twins, Tom Kelly was our manager. If you struck out 100 times a year there was no way you were playing for Tom Kelly. So you were taught, hit the ball all over the field," said Pierzynski. "That's one of the reasons [Ortiz] didn't thrive in Minnesota, because he was trying to hit singles to left. As we all found out later, David Ortiz was up there to drive three guys in with one swing."
Ortiz was dominant in the minor leagues and flashed incredible power with the Twins, but apparently something wasn't good enough because Tom Kelly retired after the 2001 season and Ron Gardenhire became manager in 2002, which is when Big Papi flashed enormous power potential at the MLB level.
Based on Pierzynski's story, it appears that Minnesota's organizational philosophy at the time wasn't in line with where baseball was going.
"If Big Papi doesn't get released by the Twins, non-tendered, then he might not be giving away his money," Pierzynski continued, talking about a FOX contest featuring Ortiz's money. "Signs with the Red Sox, becomes obviously one of the legends of baseball. It's just different. He goes to Boston, they're like, 'Hey, try to hit home runs.' And he does. And he's in the Hall of Fame."
Let's go back seven years to when Ortiz spoke with the Boston Globe for a story about how ex-Twins general manager Terry Ryan still regrets getting rid of him. His words...
“I don’t think he really liked me. I don’t know why," Ortiz said of Kelly. "That was his style, not just with me. He was hard on young players. He was the kind of manager who liked veteran players. He never liked me.”
As for Gardenhire, Ortiz is quoted in the story saying Gardenhire was "OK."
Boston has won four World Series since 2004, three of them with Papi in the lineup.
A broken curse has to resurface somewhere, so when Big Papi helped the Red Sox break the Curse of the Bambino, maybe it relocated to Minnesota. That would help explain Minnesota's 18 straight playoff losses.
