A month ago, I wrote an article about the new jersey numbers on the Twins roster. Now that the team’s spring training roster has been finalized, why not do it again? After all, there have been several signings, both major and minor league, as well as other roster changes.
I won’t spend too much text on individual player numbers this time, just highlight the numbers I think are interesting and outline overall trends and changes.
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So be it. (All players in italics Was a non-roster invitee to major league training camp. )
starting pitcher
17 Bailey Ober
20 Mick Abell
24 Simon Woods Richardson
26 Taj Bradley
41 Joe Ryan
49 Pablo Lopez
52 Zebby Matthews
58 David Festa
60 Kendry Rojas
61 Connor Prillip
71 John Klein
74 Trent Baker
78 Andrew Morris
81 Corey Lewis
82 Christian McLeod
85 Marco Raya
(Lopez tore elbow ligaments yesterday has put the projected rotation into question, but that has been discussed elsewhere.)
Not surprisingly, players further down the roster were mostly assigned higher numbers, which seems to be a baseball tradition. I know a lot of people expected Prilip to move to the bullpen, but I’m keeping him here just for roster reasons. Interestingly, three of the 1980s numbers on this list were worn by the Twins: Jordan Balazovic wore 81, Ober and Austin Martin started their careers in 82, and Charlie Barnes and Jair Camargo wore 85.
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relief pitcher
19 Eric Oz
31 Liam Hendricks
39 Andrew Chafin
43 Anthony Banda
44 Cole Sands
45 Travis Adams
47 Julian Meriwether
48 Justin Topa
51 Matt Bowman
53 Dan Altavilla
55 Tyler Rogers
57 Cody Funderburk
59 Grant Hartwig
65 Cody Lauridson
93 Andrew Bash
94 Raul Brito
Also unsurprisingly, major league veterans invited to training camp do not receive higher spring training numbers. Hendricks, who wore No. 62 when he debuted with the Twins and went on to become a top closer, will wear his regular No. 31 jersey as he is the 31st Australian to compete in the majors. Chafin gets his fourth jersey with No. 39 (a jersey he wore with the Cubs, Athletics and Angels), Banda gets the No. 43 he wore the past two seasons (and earlier in Toronto) from James Altman, and Rodgers (as mentioned in last month’s article) gets his old No. 55 back from Funderburk. Laweryson debuted last year at No. 66; that number now belongs to field coordinator Toby Gardenhire.
catcher
27 Ryan Jeffers
37 Victor Caratini
70 Alex Jackson
73 Patrick Winkle
77 Noah Cardenas
83 Ricardo Olivar
90 Andrew Corsetti
92 David Banuelos
Apart from his debut, Caratini has worn the number 7 or 17 jersey throughout his career. However, #7 was retired in Minnesota for Joe Mauer, and #17 belonged to Bailey Ober, so he got the next available number (Jeffers had #27), ending with 7. Oh, and he debuted in 2017. (Also, Jackson had #64 last month but has changed it to #70, which he wore last year when he debuted in Atlanta and as an Oriole.)
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infielder
2 Cody Clemens
4 Tristan Gray
11 Orlando Arcia
12 Gio Urshela
13 Eric Wagman
15 Luke Kischal
22 Brooks Lee
23 Royce Lewis
56 Josh Bell
76 Karen Culpepper
86 Aaron Sabato
89 Tanner Schobel
The most common numbers for Arcia are 3 and 11; Harmon Killebrew retired at No. 3, so it’s no surprise that he finished at No. 11. Urshela has never worn No. 12 before, but the No. 15 he wore as a Twin in 2022 was worn by Keaschall.
outfielder
5 Ryan Kreidler
9 Trevor Larnach
16 Austin Martin
18 Alan Roden
25 Byron Buxton
30 James Altman
33 Emmanuel Rodriguez
38 Matt Wallner
64 Hendry Mendez
72 Gabriel Gonzalez
75 Walker Jenkins
80 Caleb Fedeko
87 Karai Rosario
As mentioned above, Ultraman dropped last year’s #43 to accommodate Banda; he now wears #30. His old #33 now belongs to Emmanuel Rodriguez, who has closed the #32 because…
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coach
0 Grady Sizemore (1BC)
8 Derek Shelton (MGR)
32 LaTroy Hawkins (BPN)
46 Ramon Borrego (3BC)
63 Mike Rabello (Abbon)
66 Toby Gardenhire (MLFC)
67 Trevor Amicon (AHIT)
68 Mark Holberg (BEN)
79 Redon Serra (AHIT)
84 Keith Beauregard (HIT)
88 Pete Markey (PIT)
91 Luis Ramirez (APIT/INT)
97 Anderson De La Rosa (BPNC)
98 Frank Nigro (BPNC)
…LaTroy got his number back!
So if you’re watching or attending a contest and you see someone you don’t know using an unknown number, now you know who they are. (Until the list inevitably gets shuffled again.)
