Sports Illustrated - USA (2020 - Spring)

officer, Derek Falvey, asked about

Donaldson, Hawkins was effusive,

particularly on the way he challenged

teammates to improve.

“He has no problem calling guys

out—‘Hey, you need to be better,’ ”

Hawkins says. “And he doesn’t just

say that after a guy goes 0 for 4. He’ll

say that after [he goes] 3 for 4.”

Last year’s Twins won 101 games

and christened themselves the Bomba

Squad while shattering the single-

season home run record, with 307. But

another division-round sweep by the

Yankees got the front office thinking

about doing something different.

That and a book. Falvey says his

staff was inspired by a leadership

tome, Adam Grant’s Originals: How

Non-Conformists Move the World, which

discourages hiring for cultural fit. That

kind of focus, Grant writes, can lead to

homogeneity; it may be wiser to seek

out cultural contribution. How can this

person advance our environment? How

can he push us in a different direction?

These Twins, the front office decided,

were too nice. They needed someone

He must thrive on the field, even as he
gets his bearings. At the same time, he
wants to overcome what he feels is a
fundamental misperception.
“People,” he says, think “I’m just
a dick.”

LATROY HAWKINS
cackles at this characterization. “I can
see that,” he says.
Minnesota employs four longtime
Twins as special assistants to the GM:
Hawkins, Michael Cuddyer, Torii
Hunter and Justin Morneau. In some
organizations, theirs is a title that
denotes a stooped star of yesteryear
in baseball pants, shuff ling around
spring training, encouraging players
and waving to fans. But not in Min-
nesota, where at least one member of
this quadrumvirate researches and
weighs in on each of the team’s po-
tential acquisitions. And when it came
to Donaldson, the decision was easy:
Hawkins, a former pitcher, had spent
69 days with the Blue Jays in 2015
playing alongside this potential new
hire. When the Twins’ chief baseball

who could demonstrate how to work and

confront anyone who fell short.

In other words, Minnesota needed

someone who could be “a dick.” And

Donaldson—known across baseball as

a guy who’s just as likely to curse out a

teammate as he is to berate an opponent,

who’ll demolish a pitch and then gawk

at it, who’ll beat you and then remind

you he beat you—seemed to f it. He could

be distant and rude, brash and aggres-

sive. He also had, it seemed, a tendency

to make his teammates better. What

some can see as arrogance, Falvey calls

an “edge,” a guy who “plays with fire.”

That fire, it seems—plus the fact

that he’s been, by WAR, the second-

most valuable player in baseball since

he became a regular starter—helped

earn Donaldson, at 34, the largest free-

agent deal in team history. In return, the

Twins hope he’ll shore up a position at

which they finished No. 25 in defensive

WAR last year, according to FanGraphs,

and inject even more homers off a bat

that produced 37 in 2019.

Donaldson points out: That number

might have been higher elsewhere. “In

to the postseason

just three times in

45 years. The good

times have not lasted,

but the pain has.

Now, for a change,

there’s a sustained

sunny forecast in

Chicago, thanks to a

front of young talent

that arrived while

no one was paying

attention: shortstop

Tim Anderson, 26, the

AL’s batting champ;

third baseman

Pf}eDfeZX[X#õ)+ 2 

c\]kÓ\c[\i<cfp

Jiménez, 23;

Z\ek\iÓ\c[\i

Luis Robert, 22 (he’s

the next Mike Trout,

Jiménez says); and

righthanders Lucas

Giolito, 25, and

Michael Kopech, 23.

An AL Central title isn’t

assured in ’20, but

progress is. —M.M.

12

Because...

THERE’LL

BE SOME

UNMISSABLE

BIG-CITY

INTERLEAGUE

MATCHUPS

MLB’s three

two-team

markets are

likely to have

six above-.500

clubs for the

first time since

’08, as the

White Sox and

Angels project

to level up.

—Jack Dickey

RO

N (^) V
ESE
LY/
ML
B (^) P
HO
TOS
/GE
TT
Y (^) IM
AG
ES
...
JOSH DONALDSON
20 FOR THE ’20S
11