Article: The Minnesota Twins Said No To Jim Thome

[Parker Hageman]

In June 1989 the MInnesota Twins completed what would be one of their most well-rounded drafts and one that aided in bringing a second World Series title to the organization.

 

In the first four rounds they nabbed Chuck Knoblauch and Scott Erickson (two pillars of the 1991 team) as well as Denny Neagle (who the Twins would trade to Pittsburgh for 20-game winner John Smiley in efforts to replace the departing Jack Morris for the 1992 season). In the tenth round they would land future Rookie of the Year outfielder Marty Cordova, then pitcher Mike Trombley, who provided nine years of service for the organization, in the fourteenth. Oh, and even the Twins’ long-time utilityman, Denny Hocking, was selected in the fifty-second round.

 

It was a good yield, to be sure, but the Twins passed over on one player who would have made that draft class legendary.Earlier that spring, 18-year-old James Howard Thome, all of six-foot-four and fungo thin, was manning shortstop at Illinois Central College. The Limestone High School graduate from just outside of Peoria, was getting little interest from within the professional baseball ranks. The summer after high school Thome attended a St. Louis Cardinals camp and was dismissed. Dozens of scouts would be at the junior college games, mostly looking at players on the opposing team.

 

One scout, Ellsworth Brown, had noticed him. He saw him in high school and followed him around the state’s junior college circuit. Brown was working for the Minnesota Twins. Several years prior, he had scouted Kirby Puckett and eventually signed the center fielder. Brown could recognize hitters no matter the shape. He believed, in spite of the obvious positional limitations, that Jimmy Thome would indeed hit.

 

Download attachment: Thome.PNG

He tried to convince everyone above him that this kid would hit. For their part, the Twins’ higher ups told him that they didn’t believe Thome could play shortstop. There are eight other positions, Brown informed them.

 

According to Terry Ryan, then the team’s scouting director, power was a high priority in the draft. It was the reason the team spent the second round pick on a little remembered outfielder out of Riverside, California by the name of John Gumpf. Other picks were spent in search of power.

 

As Brown was trying to convince his superiors that Thome would be worth the investment, the Cleveland Indians had a scout named Tom Couston who was also enamored of Thome’s hit tool. After spending a game with the intention of tracking an opposing player, Thome caught his attention by hitting rockets all over the field. According to Couston, Thome was seen running a 5.2 down the line to first, which is a full-second slower than the average left-handed major leaguer. Couston also had timed Thome running a 6.8 60-yard dash time so he was confident there was enough athleticism to find him a position. Watch this kid hit, was the mantra Couston repeated to his bosses.

 

With Couston’s endorsement, the Indians opted to draft Thome in the thirteenth round of the 1989 draft, with 332 players drafted ahead of him. They offered $10,000 to sign him. He asked for $15,000. They agreed.

 

Two rounds prior, the Twins drafted Dan Masteller, a first baseman out of Michigan State, who saw a spattering of starts in 1995. A round later, they drafted a catcher, Alvin Brown, who eventually converted to being a pitcher in the Tigers organization. They drafted outfielders and middle infielders, leaning more towards athleticism than power. Eventually they tabbed two hulking first baseman in the later rounds hoping for some slug. None, of course, would compare to Jim Thome.

 

Needless to say, the draft is filled with stories of scouts saying they begged their bosses to draft so-and-so, whether it was Mike Trout or Albert Pujols or Jim Thome. With every great player comes the tale of a scout who believed in him when others doubted.

 

It is hard to say what his career trajectory would be had the Twins listened to Brown and drafted Jim Thome. The Twins obviously had Kent Hrbek at first but you could easily see them shifting Hrbek to the DH spot in 1993 or 1994 and allowing a young Thome to learn first. Had the Twins drafted him, the mid-to-late 1990s could have been radically different. Instead of shoehorning Dave McCarty at first or experimenting with Scott Stahoviak for several seasons, they would have had 40 home run potential locked in. It’s possible they never trade for David Ortiz or try to draft Travis Lee (which means they don’t get Matthew Lecroy either). Thome’s presence with the Twins would not have fixed the dreadful pitching problems but it could have been improved considering he wouldn’t be in a Cleveland uniform blasting white missiles into the blue seats at the Metrodome.

 

At the same time, it’s possible Thome never fulfills his destiny if he were drafted by Minnesota. After all, Thome credits a lot of his success to working with Charlie Manuel while in AAA Charlotte. It was Manuel who gave Thome is iconic pre-pitch bat point, a move he borrowed after watching The Natural. It was after that season that Thome’s home run power arrived. Then again, hitters hit. It would likely be a matter of time before he sandblasted baseballs all across the universe no matter what uniform he was in.

 

Fortunately, MInnesotans did get to witness Thome’s Hall of Fame power up close and firsthand. While he was in the twilight of his career and moving at the speed of a glacier, Jim Thome could still melt baseballs like no other. The 600th home run milestone was achieved in a Twins uniform and that moment will forever be associated with the organization. Still, what if Terry Ryan and others listened to Ellsworth Brown when he described Thome’s hitting abilities all those years ago? How different would the Twins’ franchise look today?

 

While we can all dream of an alternate history, in the end, Jim Thome reaches the Hall of Fame, he will don a Cleveland Indians hat, just the way the baseball gods intended.

 

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[h2oface]

Wonderful piece! Thanks a bunch.

[old nurse]

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Damn, if only.

[Tommygun921]

Nice piece. Always interesting to see these type of draft stories. I wonder if his career would still end up the same and whether he'd have hit his 600th with the twins or someone else. Was pretty awesome watching him launch balls into deep right field.

[Doctor Wu]

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for a great article. Man, the draft can be such a crapshoot, huh? All the excitement over a "great" prospect like Dave McCarty, who ended up being such a disappointment. I also remember the Braves drafting Mike Kelly, another "great" college player very high in the draft (number one?) about the same year, and he had an even more unspectacular career. Where's that crystal ball when you need it?

[Platoon]

Well the skeptic in me figures he would have left as soon as he was a FA. . But the bigger question is: Why is Brian Dozier driving that Gator in the parade?

[Shaitan]

Jim Thome at SS. You've blown my mind.

[Drew]

Looking back on MLB drafts and daydreaming what could've been, I love it. I could read stories like this forever. Great read!

 

[Doomtints]

Thome would have hit free agency before the Twins could have really used him. But still, it's fun to think about!

[spanman2]

Holy Hannah I had no idea.  Certainly speaks to why drafts are like throwing darts blindly at times.  He sure did look good in a Twins uniform in his late years.  What a fantastic career and by all accounts a great man.  Never heard a bad word about him in the media or from his peers.

[Nine of twelve]

Man, the draft can be such a crapshoot, huh?

Teams are getting better at drafting as the years progress but baseball is unique in that players are eligible for the draft years before they will develop the skills necessary to play in the majors. It would be interesting to see how many future stars were available at the end of each round of the drafts of years past and picture what kind of team could be constructed out of those players.

[hugelycat]

Thome will always be one of my favorite Twins, even if he didn't wear the uniform very long. Quality player, and a quality human being!

Also...

HEY GUYS ITS JI
JIM THOME

[less cowbell more neau]

Somewhere, in a fourth dimension tessaract, there's a timeline where Jimmers leads the Twins to a 2002 World Series win over the Giants, but giant telepathic spiders turn the victory parade route into a sticky-web strewn nightmare maze. There's always a trade off.

[diehardtwinsfan]

The take away here is that everyone said no to Thome 12 times... same happened with Pujols by the way, except that he was drafted much later. I think there's  a moral here in that late draft talent can be found, and if there was something the analytics guys could do about it, it is figuring what the common themes that are unique to those late round gems and make it a point of picking up guys that fit the criteria.

[Parker Hageman]

The take away here is that everyone said no to Thome 12 times...

 

 

Yes and no.

 

In the general sense, yes, outside of two teams, everyone else overlooked him. Didn't even bother to actively scout him. In that way, all the teams said "no". 

 

As Thome discussed in a book about the Cleveland Indians, there were only two scouts that were tracking him and having conversations: the Twins' Ellsworth Brown and Cleveland's Tom Couston. Brown actually presented Thome as an option and Twins directly said no. In that way, the Twins are really the only team to have said "no". 

[twinfan]

I got to know Thome when he played in Kinston (Carolina League). He was mainly a third baseman at the time but played a bit of first and DH. He was a class act then and throughout his career. I am glad he was able to play for the Twins near the end. I don't see how the scouts did not feel he could hit.