Minnesota Twins Willians Astudillo is the hero we need
Minnesota Twins rookie phenom Willians Astudillo is the baseball cult hero we need to replace the aging Bartolo Colon
Move over, Bartolo Colon, there’s a new lovable cult hero in town. Minnesota Twins catcher Willians Astudillo lit up Twitter with his “little engine that could” effort around the bases on a triple by Max Kepler on Wednesday. With his belly leading the way and his hair trailing behind, Astudillo huffed and puffed his way around the bases to score a run in the bottom of the seventh against the Yankees. The thing about Astudillo is, he runs just as hard as Billy Hamilton; he just doesn’t get there as fast.
Astudillo is an instant sensation in the same way that a rock band that plays together for a dozen years before being discovered is an instant sensation. He signed with the Philadelphia Phillies as a 17-year-old undrafted free agent way back in 2008, two years before he could be Instagrammed because Instagram didn’t exist yet.
In those early years when he was still a teenager, he was listed at 5-foot-9 and 182 pounds. His current weight on his Baseball-Reference page is 225. Even that might be fudging it a bit. After he scored on Kepler’s triple, the Twins announcers chuckled about his nickname being El Tortugo, which means the turtle or tortoise. Astudillo said later, “I just wanted to show that chubby people also run.”
Astudillo played three years in the Venezuelan Summer League to start his career, then moved up to the Gulf Coast League as a 20-year-old in 2012. He continued his progress up the minor league ladder when he reached A-ball in 2014 and High-A in 2015. At those three levels, he hit .323/.353/.412 and struck out just once every 29.6 plate appearances. That’s another amazing thing about Astudillo. He rarely strikes out. He rarely struck out in the minor leagues and he’s rarely struck out in the major leagues.
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House That Hank Built
The Phillies didn’t seem to care that he hit well and rarely struck out. They let him become a free agent after the 2015 season. Astudillo spent the 2016 season in Double-A with the Atlanta Braves organization. Then they released him. He spent the 2017 season in Triple-A with the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Then they released him. Last November, he signed with the Minnesota Twins.
After spending most of the first three months of the season in Triple-A, Astudillo joined the Twins in late June and made his major leagued debut on June 30. He was only up for a couple weeks at that time before being sent back to Triple-A, but returned in late August to become the cult hero we didn’t know we needed but are delighted we have.
Size doesn’t measure speed. pic.twitter.com/r13jphlD9j
— MLB (@MLB) September 13, 2018
After going 3-for-5 on Friday, Astudillo is hitting .314/.340/.529. In 53 major league plate appearances, he’s only struck out twice. He also drew his first walk of the season on Friday, which equals the number of times he’s been hit by a pitch. Unlike most hitters these days, when Astudillo steps to the dish, he puts the ball in play more than 90 percent of the time.
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He played his regular position, catcher, in Friday’s game, but he’s also played second base, third base, left field and center field this year. He even pitched an inning on July 14 in a 19-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Of course, he didn’t walk or strike out anyone in that inning. If the Minnesota Twins can get him an inning at first base and shortstop, he’ll have played every position on the field this year. C’mon, Twins, make it happen. We need this.