The Years of the Rookies: 1982 and 2022

I’ve mentioned in several (okay, numerous) posts that as far as I was concerned the 2022 season is primarily a “look-and-see” season for the Minnesota Twins; a fish-or-cut-bait season for testing out those promising young players that have been shining at the minor league level. Are they ready to play at the major league level or aren’t they? If they are, we’re a contender in 2023. If not… back to the Baseball Trade Casino looking for “deals” followed by another couple seasons of wallowing in baseball hell.

That’s why I argued back before spring training even got started that the Twins needed to move Sano, Donaldson and Cave to make room for Kirilloff, Larnach, Lewis and Miranda. Did I think these four rookies were sure things? No. But I did think they showed “promise”; that is, enough talent to be at least as good as the older players on the team and hopefully, better in the long term whereas Sano, Donaldson and Cave were all on the downhill slide of their careers. There is no future in the past.

Anyway, reminiscent of the early 1980’s Twins team, which also brought a number of rookies up to the major league level, I prepared a chart comparing the 2022 rookies to Gary Gaetti and Kent Hrbek so as to gain a perspective how this year’s “experiments” are doing as compared to a solid ball player like Gaetti and a star player like Hrbek, both mainstays on the team throughout the 1980’s.

Draw your own conclusions. Me, I think we’re headed to baseball’s Pearly Gates in 2023.

*Lewis I left off because of his latest ACL injury, though I think most of us were ready to declare him a future star before he went down.
* Stats are current as of 1:46 PM 6/29/22
* Hrbek finished second in Rookie of the Year Award in 1982 to Cal Ripken, Jr.  Gary Gaetti finished 5th.

Hitting Comparisons

* Interesting to note how many games Gaetti and Hrbek played that season.