Sunday March 11th, 2012

Sam Evans: In this new era of baseball, you can’t make the playoffs without an above-average first baseman. Two years ago, the Twins had one of the best first basemen in the game and they won ninety-four games. Then, Justin Morneau got injured sliding hard into second base on July 7th, 2010. Morneau might not ever be the same after suffering this fatal concussion. The Twins witnessed how rough it was without Morneau, after suffering through a 99-loss season last year.

When the 22-year-old Morneau first broke the big leagues with Twins in 2003, he struggled miserably. Year by year after 2003, Morneau improved, leading him to the 2006 AL MVP award. The Twins, led by manager Ron Gardenhire, were slowly building an A.L Central dynasty. From 2003-2009, the Minnesota Twins won an average of eighty-eight games.

Without Morneau and Joe Mauer leading the Twins to the playoffs regularly, the Twins probably wouldn’t have Target Field. Justin Morneauhad six straight seasons of an OPS over .834. He was a leader in the clubhouse, and on the field. Morneau’s exemplary play didn’t fly under the radar nationally. He was a four-time All-Star, and a two-time Sliver Slugger award winner. Morneau was the most consistent player on the Twins, and without him, you can question if Target Field would exist.

Justin Morneau was unstoppable in 2010. He was one of the best players in baseball, during the first half of the 2010 season. Morneau was hitting .345 with eighteen homers and a .437 OBP. However, in the Twins 81st game of the year, Morneau’s season came to an abrupt end.

In the eighth inning of a game pitting the Twins against the Blue Jays,  Morneau was on first base with Micheal Cuddyer at the plate. Cuddyer hit a weak grounder to shortstop, which Alex Gonzalez tossed to second basemen John McDonald. As Morneau slid into second, McDonald’s knee collided with Morneau’s head. Right away, you could tell that Morneau was not okay. He rolled around on the ground a couple of times, then he was escorted off the field by trainers.

Later, we found out that Justin Morneau had suffered a serious concussion, and he ended up missing the rest of the year due to post-concussion symptoms. Concussions are obviously a serious matter, and Morneau recently told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that his concussion symptoms could possibly end his career.

In 2011, Morneau played 69 games, and honestly, he was awful. He hit .227, with an OBP of .285. He was bothered throughout the year by the flu, a sore wrist, neck surgery, an injury to his left shoulder that brought his post-concussion symptoms back, and ultimately kept him off the field for the rest of the year.

Without Morneau, the Twins had no legitimate chance at keeping up with the other teams in the A.L. Central. Last year, they relied on Michael Cuddyer and Luke Hughes to provide production from first base. Cuddyer was decent, but the Twins had nobody to fill his outfield spot. The Twins need more offense, as scoring 619 runs (as they did in 2011), isn’t going to win very many games.

Heading into 2012, the Twins are going to try to see if Morneau can play first base again. He has played in a couple of spring training games, and he has apparently not felt concussion symptoms (yet). This is tremendous news for Twins fans, but I would still be surprised if the Twins felt comfortable with starting Morneau from day one of the regular season.

It’s amazingly unfathomable how quickly Morneau’s future was altered. Morneau’s concussion wasn’t only unfortunate for himself and it was bad news for the Twins organization. Every baseball fan appreciates the legendary hitter and are pulling for his return.

Justin Morneau’s career could very possibly be over. If he is still affected by his concussion, there is no reason why he should keep playing baseball. If he can return, it won’t be easy for him to get back to being the player he once was. However, if the Twins can find a way to keep Morneau healthy, they will no longer be at the bottom of the A.L. Central.