The 1990 Minnesota Twins season was the 30th season for the Minnesota Twins franchise in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, their 9th season at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and the 90th overall in the American League. Three years after their World Series title in 1987, the team fell to the bottom of the American League West once again. However, the season had some bright spots that included pitchers Rick Aguilera and Scott Erickson. Aguilera was converted from a starter to a closer and recorded 32 saves, while Erickson was promoted to the Twins in June from the team's AA affiliate and went 8–4 with a 3.27 ERA. During Fan Appreciation Day on October 3, Outfielder Dan Gladden made a prediction saying that even though we finished in last place this season, we're going to improve next season and if we did, they could potentially bring another World Series championship to Minnesota. His prediction proved accurate the next year.

Offseason December 4, 1989: Drafted Shane Mack from the San Diego Padres in the 1989 Rule 5 draft. December 6, 1989: Signed Kent Hrbek as a free agent. January 8, 1990: Carmelo Castillo was signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Twins.

Regular season

The lone representative of the Twins in the All-Star Game was center fielder Kirby Puckett. The highest paid Twin in 1990 was Puckett at $2,816,667; followed by Kent Hrbek at $2,100,000.

Offense

+ Team Leaders Statistic Player QuantityHR Kent Hrbek 22RBI Gary Gaetti 85BA Kirby Puckett .298Runs Kirby Puckett 82

Pitching

+ Team Leaders Statistic Player QuantityERA Allan Anderson 4.53Wins Kevin Tapani 12Saves Rick Aguilera 32Strikeouts Mark Guthrie, Kevin Tapani 101

Defense

The highlight of the season came on July 17, in Boston, when the Twins turned two triple plays. In the 4th inning, with the bases loaded and Scott Erickson pitching, former Twin Tom Brunansky hit a sharp grounder to Gary Gaetti at third base, who stepped on the bag for the force out, fired to Al Newman at second, whose relay to Kent Hrbek was in time to get Brunansky at first. In the 8th inning, with John Candelaria pitching and runners on first and second, Jody Reed hit a one-hopper at Gaetti who again started a 5-4-3 triple play. This was the first time in MLB history that two triple plays were recorded in a game, a feat that has not been duplicated since.

The following night, still in Boston, both teams combined for an MLB-record-tying ten double plays. Boston tied an American League record by grounding into six DPs in the game, only escaping the twin killings in the sixth and seventh innings.

Both games were won by Boston.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Roster 1990 Minnesota Twins Roster Pitchers Catchers

Infielders Outfielders

Other batters Manager

Coaches

Notable Transactions April 4: Traded Mike Pomeranz (minors) to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Received Junior Ortiz and Orlando Lind (minors). June 4, 1990: Midre Cummings was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (29th pick) of the 1990 amateur draft. Player signed June 12, 1990. June 4, 1990: Jayhawk Owens was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd round of the 1990 amateur draft. Player signed June 12, 1990. June 4: Drafted Eddie Guardado in the 21st round of the 1990 amateur draft. Player signed May 23, 1991. July 27: Traded John Candelaria to the Toronto Blue Jays. Received Nelson Liriano and Pedro Muñoz. December 18: Randy Bush was signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Twins.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI C Brian Harper 134 479 141 .294 6 54 1B Kent Hrbek 143 492 141 .287 22 79 2B Al Newman 144 388 94 .242 0 30 3B Gary Gaetti 154 577 132 .229 16 85 SS Greg Gagne 138 388 91 .235 7 38 LF Dan Gladden 136 534 147 .275 5 40 CF Kirby Puckett 146 551 164 .298 12 80 RF Shane Mack 125 313 102 .326 8 44 DH Gene Larkin 119 401 108 .269 5 42

Other batters Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI Fred Manrique 69 228 54 .237 5 29 Nelson Liriano 53 185 47 .254 0 13 Randy Bush 73 181 44 .243 6 18 John Moses 115 172 38 .221 1 14 Junior Ortiz 71 170 57 .335 0 18 Carmelo Castillo 64 137 30 .219 0 12 Paul Sorrento 41 121 25 .207 5 13 Pedro Muñoz 22 85 23 .271 0 5 Jim Dwyer 37 63 12 .190 1 5 Scott Leius 14 25 6 .240 1 4 Lenny Webster 2 6 2 .333 0 0 Chip Hale 1 2 0 .000 0 2 Doug Baker 3 1 0 .000 0 0

Starting pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO Allan Anderson 31 188.2 7 18 4.53 82 Kevin Tapani 28 159.1 12 8 4.07 101 David West 29 146.1 7 9 5.10 92 Mark Guthrie 24 144.2 7 9 3.79 101 Scott Erickson 19 113.0 8 4 2.87 53 Paul Abbott 7 34.2 0 5 5.97 25

Other pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO Roy Smith 32 153.1 5 10 4.81 87 Tim Drummond 35 91.0 3 5 4.35 49 Larry Casian 5 22.1 2 1 3.22 11

Relief pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G W L SV ERA SO Rick Aguilera 56 5 3 32 2.76 61 Terry Leach 55 2 5 2 3.20 46 Juan Berenguer 51 8 5 0 3.41 77 Gary Wayne 38 1 1 1 4.19 28 John Candelaria 34 7 3 4 3.39 44 Jack Savage 17 0 2 1 8.31 12 Rich Garcés 5 0 0 2 1.59 1 Rich Yett 4 0 0 0 2.08 2 John Moses 2 0 0 0 13.50 0

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: ElizabethtonJohnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

Notes and explanations

External links Player stats from www.baseball-reference.com Team info from www.baseball-almanac.com Twins history through the 1990s, from www.mlb.com 1990 Standings