MINNEAPOLIS -- It has taken a long time for Devin Smeltzer to find a place in the Minnesota Twins’ rotation. First called up to the majors in 2019, the left-hander has fought through injuries and roster logjam to become one of the team’s most consistent pitchers this season.
Smeltzer, 26, is scheduled to make his sixth start of the season on Friday when the Twins begin a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Target Field. He brings with him a 2-0 record and 1.93 earned-run average into a matchup against Rays starter Drew Rasmussen (5-2, 3.02 ERA).
One of the hidden perks of being a big leaguer for Smeltzer is stirrup socks, once a universal part of any baseball uniform but now something of a relic. He had to order his own throughout the minor leagues, in both the Twins’ and Los Angeles Dodgers’ systems.
“I’m just old school. I like the look,” Smeltzer said Thursday. “I wore them all through high school, I wore them a little bit in travel (ball), but I’ve always been pants-up, my whole baseball career.”
Smeltzer said he pitched without stirrups just once throughout his professional career, a start for the Dodgers’ Class A team in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
ADVERTISEMENT
How did it go?
“Terrible,” he said. “It was an anniversary game, and we had these terrible uniforms we had to wear, and my stirrups didn’t match. So, I wore other socks and I changed them in between innings. I just hated it.”
Stirrup socks are so rare these days that minor-league teams don’t even have them around. All throughout the minor leagues, in the Dodgers and Twins organizations, Smeltzer said, “I ordered my own.”
Not many Twins players wear stirrup socks these days. Equipment manager Rod McCormick said Chris Paddack, who joined the team from San Diego this spring, wore them before he had season-ending elbow surgery on May 18. Former all-star closer Glen Perkins wore them occasionally, as well, McCormick said.
“We always have some available,” he said.
And if you’re wondering what Smeltzer did for stirrups while pitching for the Class AAA St. Paul Saints: “I just wore the Twins ones,” he said.
‘I’m Josh’
Throughout his career, Josh Donaldson has rubbed many in baseball the wrong way, even in typically quiet Minnesota. He spent two seasons with the Twins and last year made himself something of a spokesperson for baseball’s crackdown on pitchers using substances to improve their spin rates, starting a to-do in Chicago after specifically calling out White Sox starter Lucas Giolito during a game.
This season, Donaldson fell afoul of many, even in his own clubhouse, after White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson revealed that Donaldson called him “Jackie” — as in color barrier-breaking Jackie Robinson — during an altercation on May 22.
ADVERTISEMENT
Donaldson said he was trying to defuse a tense situation with a joke; Anderson didn’t think it was funny. Major League Baseball fined and suspended the Yankees third baseman for one game. Donaldson is appealing.
Donaldson, back in Minnesota with the Yankees for the first time, didn’t want to answer more questions about the incident — he has officially apologized to Robinson’s family — or his time with the Twins before the teams played the rubber match of a three-game series on Thursday.
“It’s a great organization and they’re having a great year, and they’re exceptionally hard to beat,” said Donaldson, hitting .230 with five home runs and 17 RBIs in 42 games through Wednesday. “I enjoyed my time here. I’m on the New York Yankees now.”
When it was suggested that New York hasn’t changed him, Donaldson said, “I’m Josh.”
Team reaches deal with Sanchez
The Twins agreed to a $9 million deal with catcher Gary Sanchez to avoid arbitration, multiple outlets reported Thursday.
An arbitration hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday for the two-time All-Star. Sanchez, 29, had asked for $9.5 million and the Twins had offered $8.5 million.
He entered Thursday batting .224 with seven homers and 27 RBIs in 44 games in his first season with Minnesota.
Sanchez was acquired in a March 13 trade from the New York Yankees along with infielder Gio Urshela in exchange for third baseman Josh Donaldson, shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and catcher Ben Rortvedt.
ADVERTISEMENT
An All-Star in 2017 and 2019, Sanchez is a career .229 hitter with 145 homers and 367 RBIs in 582 games with the Yankees (2015-21) and Twins.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
______________________________________________________
This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.
The Trust Project
