I’m starting to think that baseball off-season is harder for fans than it is for the players. See, last week after the excitement of the World Series had died down one of my favorite Twins players was outrighted to Triple A-Rochester after clearing waivers. Honestly, I had no idea what this meant but I knew it couldn’t be good. A quick Google search and I soon realized my assumptions were right—the Twins were letting Justin Huber go. Sigh.
To be honest, I’ve never paid that much attention to what happens during the off-season. But after leaving Minnesota to play winter ball in Venezuela, I decided to keep tabs on Justin in hopes that his progress down south would gain him a permanent spot on the Twins 40-man. He was called up in September after Justin Morneau’s back injury pulled him off first base but due to his own injury hadn’t seen very much playing time making this winter league very important. Sink or swim time, I suppose you could say.
I guess I was just under the assumption that he would go back to Rochester, wait until the Twins needed him, and then head back to Minneapolis to slug away at the new Target Field. Obviously, my understanding of baseball transactions was way off. Justin won’t be back to play for the Twins this year, in Minnesota or in Rochester. His contract was sold to another team—the Hiroshima Carp. Yup, that’s right. Japan.
Justin isn’t the only player who won’t be back to break-in the new stadium and I’m sure we’ll lose a few more in the months to come. It is just hard to lose players after the amazing season we had. It truly was one I’ll always remember. I just wish the next few months would fly by so it would be time for spring training to start and I could head down to Fort Myers to cheer on my favorite team. Baseball in Florida in the middle of March? Yes, please.
--The other night when I needed a Twins fix I found some awesome videos of the Twins on mlb.com. This is Alexi Casilla's winning hit in the bottom of the 12th. Try and not get excited for next year while watching it, I dare you.
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