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Twins winning and having fun while doing it, tout their clubhouse chemistry

betsy helfand, pioneer press
·3 min read

Chris Paddack may not be with his teammates physically — the starting pitcher had Tommy John surgery last week in Dallas — but he’s still following along from afar, checking in on them.

“Chris Paddack did text me and say, ‘Richie is about to get it done,’” starter Chris Archer said Monday night shortly after the Twins rallied for their fifth straight win. Paddack was referring to “Richie the Rally Goat,” a figurine that starter Sonny Gray picked up at a Barnes & Noble in Kansas City in April.

Paddack was only in the Twins’ clubhouse for about a month and a half — he was acquired in April as part of the trade with the San Diego Padres for reliever Taylor Rogers — but the anecdote is just one of many that speaks to the chemistry the Twins have developed early on this season for a club that is winning — and having plenty of fun while doing it.

A gong appeared in the Twins’ clubhouse on Monday, as well as some vuvuzelas — instruments that became popular globally during the 2010 World Cup — as the Twins try to “enhance the experience,” as Max Kepler put it, after wins.

“I think the creativity level is high,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We play six or seven days a week and we’re here for eight months, and you have to have fun and you have to enjoy yourself.”

Helps to enjoy your teammates, too, and the Twins sure seem like they do.

Much of the team was assembled in March after the lockout ended. Between the end of the lockout and the beginning of the season, the Twins traded catcher Mitch Garver to Texas for Isiah Kiner-Falefa, acquired Gray for minor leaguer Chase Petty, shipped Josh Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa to the New York Yankees for Gio Urshela and Gary Sánchez and later swung a trade for Paddack and reliever Emilio Pagán, sending Rogers to San Diego.

On the free agent front, they brought in veterans Carlos Correa, Archer and Joe Smith. Right before the lockout, they added starter Dylan Bundy.

The frenzy of activity left Baldelli curious about how the chemistry would develop.

Players were coming in from all over, and all this was happening when the Twins were trying to ramp up during a shortened spring training and make sure everyone was physically prepared to play 162 games.

“Getting them mentally ready, everyone on the same page, thought process, that’s what most of our time ended up being on, and most of our energy was on,” Baldelli said. “But again, as a staff, we can work really hard on that, and even do a very thorough good job on it, it really comes down to the players’ ability to mesh and really start pulling the rope all in the same direction. And that normally doesn’t all come together that quickly the way it has so far here.”

The “great vibes,” Baldelli described started very early on in spring, and players have repeatedly mentioned it throughout this season. The starters brought it up early after developing a routine where they go out and watch each other’s bullpens, swapping bits of advice amongst themselves.

Kepler was one of the latest to mention it, taking about it while simultaneously interspersing directions on the best way to hit the gong.

“The people are interested in each other,” Kepler said. “More so than last year. It was, it felt more disconnected, an individual thing. … Chemistry over everything, for all team sports, it really helps and yeah, it’s just easier to play a game.”

Winning sure doesn’t hurt, either.

“Our chemistry in here is phenomenal,” center fielder Byron Buxton said. “It’s going to be hard to find teams that bond as well as we do.”

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