Latin American players face adjustments, but making big impact with Twins
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Kennys Vargas sent his first tweet on Feb. 3 of this year, a few months after he completed his first season in the major leagues with the Twins. Since then, almost every message Vargas has sent through his Twitter account (@kennys_vargas) has been in English, his second language.
For the 24-year-old Vargas, who grew up in Puerto Rico, Twitter is a way for him to practice his English while connecting with fans. He's continued to learn the language by watching movies -- either in English or in Spanish with English subtitles -- and has also picked up phrases by watching "Baby Einstein" videos with his young daughter.
The always-smiling Vargas is quick to greet teammates and media members alike with an enthusiastic "Hola!" but he's also proud to show off his ever-improving English skills.
"My job is in the United States. I have to speak English," Vargas said. "The fans want to listen to you and be part of their life. If they can understand you and you can talk to the fans, you can create a lot more Twins fans. . . . I always tweet English, but when I tweet Spanish, the fans ask me, 'Hey, what does that mean?' They go, 'Oh, I want to know, I want to know.' That's cool."
Vargas is just one of many Latin American players on Minnesota's roster as the game of baseball has continued to expand and grow to all reaches of the world. The Twins have many players from the Dominican Republic (55 in the organization last year), some from Venezuela (33 in 2014), and a few (10 total last season) from Puerto Rico.
No matter what country they originate from, they've all had to adjust to leaving their homes and moving to the United States. With that comes not only a major change in cultures, but also a new language that has to be learned.
Arriving in a foreign country where the people speak a different language can be a scary thing for most players, many of whom don't have much -- if any -- previous experience learning English. In Vargas' case, he did have an English teacher in school back in Puerto Rico, but he said the classes weren't much help.
"She talks in Spanish all the time and you don't learn anything," Vargas said.
Twins infielder Eduardo Nunez remembers coming to the United States for the first time from the Dominican Republic after he signed with the New York Yankees in February 2004. Even things as routine as ordering food become a tough task when the language barrier stands in the way.
"You don't know how to go to the restaurant to eat, so you don't know how to buy food -- buy anything," Nunez recalls. "You're just ordering pizza and McDonald's."
Not exactly the type of diet a professional baseball player should be eating. Sometimes, though, there's no other choice if the language is an issue.
Twins shortstop Danny Santana, who grew up in the Dominican Republic, had similar experiences upon his arrival to America. He spent his first year of pro ball in 2008 in the Dominican after Minnesota signed him. By 2009 he was in the United States, trying to learn a new language while playing in Florida.
"It's hard to learn because you need to learn a lot of words," said Santana, who will be Minnesota's Opening Day shortstop in 2015. "The first time being here in the United States, I never been here. I need to go into some restaurant to order some food and I don't know how to order. The only words I knew to say, 'chicken,' 'rice,' easy words."
That language barrier isn't just a hurdle Latin American players have to overcome when ordering food or shopping. They have to learn all new baseball terminology in order to communicate with their teammates on the field.
And in the clubhouse, trying to strike up a conversation with others on the team isn't always easy when two players don't speak the same language.
"Sometimes the teammates, they try to be friends with you but they can't because you don't understand what they say," Nunez said. "So it's tough to be a good teammate when people don't understand what you try to say."
Twins second baseman Brian Dozier is one of the few American players on Minnesota's roster who also speaks Spanish. Though he admits he's not exactly fluent, he knows enough to get by when he travels to places like Nicaragua for mission trips in the offseason.
Those Spanish skills also come in handy in Minnesota's clubhouse, as Dozier can act as a translator of sorts for the Twins' Latin players, and vice versa.
"I'll tell you what, some of the guys in here have come a long way," Dozier said. "The first time I met (Miguel) Sano, he probably knew, 'hello' and 'goodbye' and 'baseball.' Now he can carry conversations. Kennys Vargas, he's worked his tail off to learn English. He's one of the better ones, to be honest. (Oswaldo) Arcia's getting a lot better, (Eduardo) Escobar's getting better. That's always good to see."
When Paul Molitor took over as the Twins' manager this winter, he made sure to hire at least one Spanish-speaking coach to his staff, knowing full well that Minnesota would have plenty of players from Latin America on the roster. In November, Molitor added Rudy Hernandez, a native of Venezuela, as the assistant hitting coach.
Hernandez has experience coaching some of the Twins' Latin players in the minor leagues as he coached at various levels in Minnesota's organization. Now he'll help bridge the language gap as he works alongside hitting coach Tom Brunansky.
"(Brunansky) had a lot of good ideas but sometimes it's hard to understand because it's not the same language," Vargas said. "Sometimes you can tell them, 'I got it,' but you really don't got it. Now with a Spanish assistant hitting coach, it's much better because I can talk to him really clear and we can stay on the same page."
As for Molitor, Minnesota's players say his Spanish is a work in progress.
"I can talk to Molitor in English. I understand," Vargas said. "It's good that he doesn't understand Spanish because we say so many bad words. If he understands that, he'd say, 'Hey, stop. Easy.'"
Tony Oliva arrived from Cuba as a 22-year-old outfielder in the early 1960s. Back then, life for Latin American players was even tougher. Aside from the issue of learning a new language, discrimination was far more prevalent than it is today.
More than fifty years later, the 76-year-old Oliva still speaks in broken English. But he appreciates just how far baseball has come in accommodating players from Latin American countries.
"To find a place to eat, to find a place to live, it was a very tense situation because you no feeling comfortable any place where you are because you don't know if they want you or not," said Oliva, a three-time batting champion and eight-time All-Star. "It takes time to get comfortable. I think it's a big, big difference (now). Everything changed about 200 or 300 percent for the best. Right now, from the beginning, they make it for you to feel comfortable because you have a nice place to live. You have people who are teaching you English almost every day."
Today, the Twins are doing their part to help Spanish-speaking players adjust by offering English classes. Most of that takes place at the team's player development academy in Fort Myers, which recently underwent a massive renovation to make the lives of the minor leaguers more comfortable. The team also has an academy in the Dominican Republic that offers similar classes.
Still, Minnesota's front office knows there is a lot that needs to be done in order to ease the transition for Latin American players.
"We're trying to work proactively around providing incremental outreach and better communication in terms of maybe more of our people being bilingual, around continuing to facilitate education for players in terms of learning English, but even maybe looking beyond that to other curriculums," said Twins president Dave St. Peter. "And then of course even with the academy, I think there's a strong effort there for our youngest players, many of which are coming from Venezuela or the Dominican Republic or elsewhere with trying to assimilate them into the culture of the Twins in a professional, safe and in our minds constructive environment."
There's a chance that Minnesota will have six players on the 25-man Opening Day roster who come from Latin American countries -- nearly 25 percent. That includes Vargas, Nunez, Venezuela natives Arcia and Escobar, and pitcher Ervin Santana and shortstop Danny Santana from the Dominican Republic. If catcher Josmil Pinto, a Venezuela native, makes the roster, that would make seven.
And then there's the influx of Latin talent in the Twins' minor-league system. Sano, a third baseman and one of Minnesota's top prospects, could very likely be in the majors this year. Infielder Jorge Polanco debuted last year. Pitcher Jose Berrios is knocking on the door. And Eddie Rosario had a strong spring, showing he's getting closer to being major-league ready.
"I think there's just a reality that rosters are going to continue to diversify over time," St. Peter said. "Clearly, for the Twins, it's just good business because let's be honest, there's a lot of great players that live outside of the domestic United States or even Canada. . . . We love the energy and the passion that whether it be Kennys Vargas or Oswaldo Arcia or Miguel Sano bring every single day. The most important thing is we think they have the game to back it up."
Indeed, the Twins' Latin players are thriving. Vargas broke through last year as a rookie and hit nine homers in the final two months. Danny Santana was named Minnesota's Most Outstanding Rookie after batting .319 with 20 stolen bases in 101 games. Escobar played a career-high 133 games, scored 52 runs and batted .275 while playing multiple infield positions.
After a game in which he, Berrios and others performed well early in spring, Sano was asked about the young talent of this team -- including the Latin players. The big third baseman couldn't help but grin widely as he made a proclamation.
"This is the team for the future for Minnesota," he said.
As it turns out, the future of Minnesota baseball speaks Spanish.
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