Minnesota Twins: Brian Dozier back in to see his kids all grown up

Brian Dozier played his first 955 big-league games for the Minnesota Twins. On Wednesday night, he returned to Minneapolis as a visitor for the first time.

Brian Dozier made his major league debut with the Minnesota Twins on May 7th, 2012. He was a 25-year-old shortstop for a 7-21 Ron Gardenhire led team that would finish last with a 66-96 record. Dozier batted second, grounding the baseball up the middle in the eighth for his first major league hit.

That was over seven years ago. The only other player present to suit up for Wednesday’s game was Howie Kendrick, the second baseman for the Angels at the time – now a Nationals’ supersub.

Dozier was well-liked in Minnesota, but not exactly a franchise great – more like a really great character actor on a show that isn’t all that good. Like Jeffrey Dean Morgan on The Walking Dead. Or Michael Shannon on Boardwalk Empire.

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I can’t think of any right now who weren’t villains, but you get it, he’s the good guy version of the guys above. The Twins were bad, but Dozier made them worth a watch, and he developed a small cult following as a result.

Dozier holds the home run title at Target Field, as well as for Twins’ second basemen all-time. His 167 long balls are good enough for 10th on the franchise leaderboard. He’s also 8th all-time with 830 strikeouts, for what it’s worth, but there’s a decent chance that this era of Twins players push him off both those lists.

Still, Dozier played 6 1/2 seasons in Minnesota, a stretch during which he made the transition from shortstop to second base, became an All-Star and Gold Glover. Believe it or not, he even garnered MVP votes in his last three full seasons, finishing 28th, 13th, and 11th just two years ago.

Power was his calling card then, as it is now. His best season was unfortunately wasted on a 96-loss team in 2016 when he slugged 42 home runs, drove in 99, and finished with an overall slash of .268/.340/.546.

The next season was the first great turnaround under GM Thad Levine – and Dozier’s last full season in MN. The 2017 Twins improved by 19 wins to sneak into the Wild Card game. Dozier led off the game with a solo home run, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Yankees hit 3 home runs and took the game 8-4.

The Twins fell back to earth in 2018 and traded Dozier to the Dodgers on deadline day. Logan Forsythe, Luke Raley, and Devin Smeltzer was what it cost to make Dozier a Dodger.

The team in Minnesota doesn’t look all that different from the one Dozier left. Many of his former teammates remain: Jose Berrios, Jason Castro, Eddie Rosario, Taylor Rogers, Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Ehire Adrianza, Mitch Garver, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco. Dozier was one of just a few veterans on that team, along with Castro and Joe Mauer.

And yet, though many of the players are the same, this is a completely different Minnesota Twins team. It feels like forever ago that Dozier was on that team, playing the part that Anthony Rendon and Ryan Zimmerman play now for a young cast of stars in Washington.

The Twins Dozier left behind are all grown up now. Kepler, Rogers, Rosario, Garver, Berrios, Polanco are borderline stars. This iteration of the Twins are legitimate contenders.

The home crowd gave Dozier a nice ovation before his first at-bat Wednesday, but he ended the day 0-4.