I found myself thinking through recent Twins history today
and considered how much volatility there has been in terms of consistency. The
Twins have been mostly bad, but when good, the performances have came and went
rather quickly. 2020 truly looks like an open window, but it is Brian Dozier
that I latched onto as the pinnacle of the roller coaster.
After debuting in 2012 as a shortstop, Dozier quickly flamed
out at the position after just 84 games there in his opening salvo. He would
relocate to second base and it wasn’t until 2015 that he began to make his mark.
He was an 8th round pick, and despite an appearance in both the Home
Run Derby (2014) and All-Star Game (2015), he didn’t crack an .800 OPS until
2016.
That was the year, at age-29, that it seemingly all came
together. Dozier reinvented himself into a dead-pull hitter that was determined
to find the quickest way over the left field fence. His 42 homers that season
were the most by any Twins player during a single year not named Harmon
Killebrew. He became a slugger despite a smaller stature, and he had risen to
be called one of the best second basemen in the game.
It really wasn’t since peak Robinson Cano that baseball had
seen someone like Dozier. Brian wasn’t the prototypical uber-prospect, and he
certainly wasn’t a five-tool player either. Like Cano, he was an offensive
stalwart at an otherwise starved position. Around the league second base had
become a destination for poor armed shortstops and was generally a position
that you could find someone sitting right at league average.
The 2016 Twins were abysmal in every sense of the word. They
won just 59 games and manager Paul Molitor couldn’t get any more out of that
squad if he tried. Thanks to Dozier’s dinger derby, there was at least
something to tune into on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, much of his accomplishment
was lost nationally in the vein of his club being so bad. He’d go one to follow
up that performance with 34 dingers in 2017, a year in which Minnesota made the
Postseason.
Now having played for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and
Washington Nationals since, Dozier’s career has already begun a downturn. He did post a .771 OPS last season
while playing in 135 games and eventually winning a World Series ring. He had
to settle for a minor league deal heading into 2020, but the expectation would be
that he’d make the San Diego Padres Opening Day roster.
I’m not sure if we’ll see Brian reach that .800 OPS plateau
again or not, but he was a late bloomer that gave us one of the highest peaks
in Twins history. The unfortunate reality is that it came during a period of extreme
lows and the contributions proved hollow in the grand scheme of things.
Thankfully, Dozier was a fan favorite and will not soon be
forgotten in Twins Territory. His career will likely come to an eventually end
being a rather nondescript one, but the memories will remain among the fondest
to take place at Target Field. It will be interesting to see what we get from him
in those nice new Padres threads, and what there is yet to come in the future.
It will not be a career that’s celebrated with substantial
accolades when he hangs em up, but it’s incredible to think how good he was, even
if it was for such a brief time.
