Phil Hughes enjoys rolling his trash can out to the curb every week. He's embraced the suburban lifestyle and likes having his own yard with green grass.
Heck, as a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, he even started to root for the Minnesota Wild during their playoff run.
It's safe to say Hughes has transitioned nicely from the bright lights of New York to the somewhat quieter pace of life in Minnesota. Perhaps leaving that constant microscope that all Yankees players find themselves under has helped Hughes become an All-Star candidate with the Twins.
For as much as the 27-year-old Hughes likes his new surroundings, though, there will surely be some emotions stirred up this weekend -- both good and bad -- when the Twins head to the Bronx for a three-game series with Hughes' former team.
"I'm sure these next couple days, especially when we get into town, I'll have time to kind of reflect on it and think about it," Hughes said. "It should be fun and kind of an interesting dynamic for me, being with the Yankees my whole career up to this point. I've never had the chance to face a former team, so it'll be kind of a lot of mixed emotions, but I'm really looking forward to it."
Hughes spent seven seasons in New York after the Yankees drafted him as a highly touted high schooler with the 24th overall pick back in 2004. He broke into the majors as a 21-year-old in 2007 and was pitching in the World Series two years later. Hughes also earned a spot on the American League All-Star team in 2010 when he won a career-high 18 games with New York.
Those were the best memories, the ones he still looks back on fondly. And while the majority of his time in the Bronx was pleasant, Hughes' final season in New York was one to forget. He won just four games in 2013 and lost 14, posting a 5.19 ERA in 30 games during the final year of his contract.
Hughes saw earlier in his career just how much Yankees fans embrace a winning team and successful players. He found out the hard way in 2013 that they'll turn on a struggling pitcher just as quickly.
"They can be tough. That's just how they are," Hughes said. "Usually, people's most fresh memories are kind of what sticks, and for me that wasn't a good one."
When Hughes takes the mound in Sunday's series finale at Yankee Stadium, he'll do so with a 5-1 record -- he already has one more win than he had all of last season -- and a 3.23 ERA. He's in the middle of an impressive roll, during which he hasn't walked a batter in his last six starts. The Twins are 8-2 this season in Hughes' 10 outings and he's bounced back nicely after allowing four earned runs in five innings in each of his first three starts in a Minnesota uniform.
Despite his newfound success, Hughes downplayed the idea that he'll be going back to the Big Apple with a chip on his shoulder, wanting to show the Yankees and their fans what he's capable of doing.
"I don't look at it too much that way. I just want to pitch well to continue this run I've been on," Hughes said. "That whole 'look at me now' sort of thing is a little blown up."
The Twins signed Hughes to a three-year, $24 million contract with the hopes of bolstering a struggling rotation. While Ricky Nolasco was inked to an even bigger deal with Minnesota -- four years, $49 million, the largest free-agent contract in team history -- Hughes has emerged as the best starter on the staff.
When Twins fans saw their team sign a guy who won just four games a year ago to a contract of that size, they had their doubts. In just two months in Minnesota, Hughes has done his part to cast all of those doubts aside.
"We were excited to get him. We knew he had some experience," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. "You just never know how it's going to translate on the field when you get a guy. We were hoping being comfortable would be one thing here, comfortable pitching here, and he is that."
Hughes admits that he does miss some aspects of New York City -- the abundance of restaurants in town, for one -- but things have been good for him so far in Minnesota. He now gets to call Target Field home, spending many of his starts pitching in what has earned a reputation as a pitchers' ballpark. That plays well into Hughes' strength as a fly ball pitcher and someone who constantly attacks the strike zone. When he pitched at Yankee Stadium, those deep fly balls had the potential to be more problematic.
The Twins hope that won't be the case Sunday. Minnesota has had a history of struggles against the Yankees over the last decade, something that Hughes saw firsthand during his time in New York. Now that he's on the other side, he has a chance to be part of the puzzle as the Twins figure out how to overcome the demons that have plagued them at Yankee Stadium.
Oh, and Hughes will try to do so with 50,000 fans hurling insults and boos and other colorful language at him now that he's pitching for the enemy. He'll do his best to treat it like any other start, but that might be easier said than done.
"I would imagine it's going to be big. I think everybody else will make it a lot bigger than it is inside him. He's just going to go pitch. But it's a big moment for him," Gardenhire said. "He's throwing well coming in with a new team. It always is (big) when a player leaves one area and comes back. We all know that. For starting pitchers, it's even bigger because they're centerpieces on the mound. He'll probably hear some hooting and hollering, but that's OK. The way he's been throwing, he should be just fine."
Follow Tyler Mason on Twitter
