MINNEAPOLIS — With the baseball season now two months old, Minnesota's offseason acquisitions are no longer the new guys. And as it turns out, first-year Twins Jamey Carroll, Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit — all of whom signed as free agents this winter — have been three of Minnesota's most productive players through nearly 50 games.
After hitting a three-run walk-off homer against Oakland on Tuesday, Willingham leads the Twins with 32 RBI and is tied for the team lead with nine homers. He's drawn 28 walks, second-most on the team behind Joe Mauer. Willingham's .547 slugging percentage also leads all Minnesota hitters. On top of that, he's played in 46 of Minnesota's 49 games, missing only a few days on paternity leave when his wife gave birth earlier this year.
Doumit is tied for second on the Twins with 25 RBI and has nine multi-RBI games, which leads the team. His on-base percentage of .336 is fourth-best on the Twins, and his five home runs have him tied for third. In addition, his versatility defensively has meant he's been able to catch as well as play first base and right field.
Carroll hasn't produced offensively at the level that Willingham and Doumit have — the 38-year-old utility infielder is batting just .238 after Tuesday with 14 RBI and has been hitting in the No. 9 spot in the lineup. But what he has brought to Minnesota is a reliable glove capable of playing three infield positions.
Willingham and Carroll signed multi-year deals with the Twins, while Doumit inked just a one-year contract. Early on, all three signings have paid off for Minnesota.
"They all are veterans. They've all been in the league for a while," center fielder Denard Span said of his new teammates. "I can't say enough about each one of those guys. … They're almost guys that you would think that grew up in this organization."
They didn't, of course, but all have seemed to embrace being a part of the Twins organization.
"I've said it from the beginning. This has been as easy a transition as I could have possibly hoped for," Doumit said. "I felt like I was a part of the team after Day 1 of spring training. It's a good group of guys."
In seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Doumit never played on a team that finished the season with a winning record. His Twins career is following a similar trend so far, as Minnesota is now 17-32 after Tuesday's 3-2 walk-off win.
But he says he's enjoying the clubhouse in Minnesota — and according to his teammates, he's the one who's helping keep things loose despite the team's early struggles.
"Doumit's just a crazy guy, man," Span said. "You don't know what you're going to get from him. He's not as crazy as Mike Redmond, but he's pretty close."
Even though he's one of the new guys, Carroll was given one of the corner lockers in the Twins' clubhouse at Target Field. At 38 years old, he's the oldest player on the team. Like Doumit, Carroll said he's felt at home since he first joined the organization this past offseason.
"Here we are two months into the season and it feels like I've been a part of this team for a long time," Carroll said. "It also goes to show you the character of guys that we have in this clubhouse. All are great guys that made you feel welcome from the beginning."
Willingham is perhaps the quietest of the three newcomers in the clubhouse and might not provide as many laughs as Doumit, but he's delivered something else: big hits. That was the case Tuesday, when his two-out, three-run homer propelled the Twins from two runs down to beat his former Oakland team by a 3-2 final.
It was the fifth walk-off home run of Willingham's nine-year career, and his first with Minnesota. The magnitude of his ninth home run of the season was a reminder that the Twins signed Willingham with the hope that he could add power to the lineup. So far, he's done just that.
"He can do it. He can put it in the seats," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Willingham. "We have a few guys that can do that, and he's one of them."
After Willingham rounded third base on his walk-off homer Tuesday, he was greeted by his Twins teammates, his new family, who all celebrated by mobbing him at the plate. During an on-field postgame interview, Minnesota closer Matt Capps doused Willingham with a Gatorade shower.
Indeed, these new guys have all made themselves at home in Minnesota, and the Twins are happy to have them.
"They've been great. I feel like they've been here for a couple years now," Span said. "They're having fun. They're good teammates. They're good guys. I think they were good moves that we made this offseason."
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