There’s no shortage of overlap between the Yankees and Twins, including players and coaches who have been in both organizations — even if some stints were as brief as a few weeks. Here’s a look:
Aaron Hicks: Originally a first-round pick of the Twins in the 2008 draft, Hicks spent the first eight years of his career in the organization, the final three mostly in the big leagues, before he was traded to the Yankees in November 2015 for catcher John Ryan Murphy.
Jaime Garcia: While Hicks grew up in the Twins’ organization, Garcia was there just long enough to learn his new teammates’ names. The pitcher was traded from the Braves to Minnesota on July 24, made his first start with the Twins on July 28 and then was shipped off to the Yankees in another trade July 30.
Phil Hughes: Hughes beat the Twins while starting for the Yankees in the 2010 playoffs, but won’t get a chance to return the favor this postseason — he’s on the 60-day disabled list after undergoing season-ending surgery to relieve his thoracic outlet syndrome. The former Yankee signed with the Twins as a free agent after the 2013 season.
Dietrich Enns: The 2012 Yankees draft pick was working his way through the minor leagues before he was traded to the Twins for Garcia in July and made his major league debut in August. He only pitched twice for the Twins (four innings, three earned runs) and ended up finishing the season in Triple-A.
James Rowson: The Twins hired Rowson away from the Yankees and named him their hitting coach last December. He had worked as the Yankees’ minor league hitting coordinator for seven of the previous nine years.
Neil Allen: The Twins’ pitching coach also has Yankees ties. He served as the pitching coach for the Staten Island Yankees from 2001-2002 and the Columbus Clippers from 2003-2004 and in 2006. Allen was credited with developing Chien-Ming Wang in the minors and was the Yankees’ bullpen coach in 2005.
Yankees-Twins postseason history
This will be the fifth time the Yankees and Twins have met in the postseason, and none of the prior four series have exactly been close — with the Yankees winning 12 of the 14 games played. Here’s a look at how each series played out.
2003 ALDS: Yankees win series, 3-1
Minnesota took the first game, as the Twins started Johan Santana, but the Yankees stormed back to take the next three behind Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and David Wells — each allowing just one run over seven or more innings. Mariano Rivera threw a pair of two-inning saves without allowing a walk or a hit while Derek Jeter hit .429 and Alfonso Soriano drove in four runs.
2004 ALDS: Yankees win series, 3-1
It was a familiar story: Twins win Game 1, Yankees take the series in four. Things got a little hairier this time with the Bombers squeaking out a pair of extra-inning wins. Hideki Matsui walked them off in the 12th inning of Game 2 with a sacrifice fly and in Game 4 they forced extras with a four-run eighth before Alex Rodriguez scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the 11th.
2009 ALDS: Yankees win series, 3-0
On the way to winning the World Series, the Yankees made quick work of the Twins. CC Sabathia, in his first year in New York, picked up the win in Game 1 before Mark Teixeira played hero in Game 2 with a walk-off home run in the 11th inning. Andy Pettitte came through in Game 3 against ex-Yankee Carl Pavano to send the Bombers on their way. A-Rod (.455 average) and Jeter (.400) had hot bats.
2010 ALDS: Yankees win series, 3-0
The Yankees brought out the brooms again as Sabathia, Pettitte and future Twin Phil Hughes each turned in strong starts — even with two of the games at Target Field. The Twins led first in Games 1 and 2, but the Yankees came back both times. Curtis Granderson batted .455 in the series while Lance Berkman came through with a pair of clutch RBIs in his only start in Game 2.
5 things to know about the Twins
- Joe Mauer, a St. Paul, Minn., native who went to the same high school as manager Paul Molitor, nearly wasn’t a hometown hero at all. He was the 2001 Gatorade National Player of the Year for football and committed to play quarterback at Florida State. Instead, the Twins picked him No. 1 overall in the 2001 draft and he has gone on to win three batting titles and an MVP as the longest-tenured Twin on the current roster.
- According to FiveThirtyEight, the Twins’ playoff odds on Aug. 3 were 7 percent, at which point they were 51-54 with a minus-97 run differential and had traded away newly acquired starter Jaime Garcia and closer Brandon Kintzler. Since then, they went 34-23 to close out the season with a run differential of plus-124.
- Byron Buxton has stolen 24 consecutive bases without getting caught, a Twins record. The former No. 2 overall pick is 28-for-29 in swipes on the year — the only catcher to throw him out is Orioles backstop Welington Castillo.
- The Twins are the first team in MLB history to make the playoffs after a 100-loss season. They were 59-103 in 2016 and did not make any wholesale changes to the roster entering 2017. Of the nine batters in their regular lineup, seven are homegrown, and of their five pitchers with the most starts this year, only one wasn’t in the organization last year: Bartolo Colon.
- Reliever Glen Perkins is another Minnesota native on the roster (Stillwater) and played college ball at the University of Minnesota. He was an All-Star for three straight years from 2013-15. Perkins and Mauer are the only holdovers from the Twins most recent previous playoff appearance in 2010.