Kubel has hopes of helping

Outfielder wants to be part of playoff race with the Twins

A piece of Rochester Red Wings history may have walked out of Frontier Field for the final time Monday night.

Jason Kubel, who is primed to become the first Red Wing to win an International League batting title since 1988, will join the Minnesota Twins today.

And he's eager to do there what he doesn't appear to have been able to do here: help his club reach the playoffs.

"I wish it would've worked out down here to where we could get to the playoffs. I mean, we still have a couple games left but it's gonna be real, real tough to get in," Kubel said. "The Twins have a real good shot at making it and hopefully I can help out there."

That's not to say the 22-year-old outfielder hasn't left Red Wings fans with plenty of memories in his four-month stint here.

"This is history. The last one that won the batting title here was Steve Finley," Rochester manager Phil Roof said.

"Finley went on and had a great career for several teams and played on a championship team in Arizona three or four years ago. We just hope the same thing happens to Jason Kubel."

If his development stays at its current pace, that success may be inevitable. Kubel, who played with Class-A Fort Myers last year, started this season with Double-A New Britain before being promoted to Rochester in May.

Roof had lobbied to have Kubel on his roster since spring training.

"We knew he would be good, we just didn't know he was going to be this good," Roof said. "Nobody expects a young man to come here and hit .340 or .350 for as long as he has."

Even Kubel can't believe how quickly things have happened.

"I didn't think (the promotion to Minnesota) would happen this year, or any time soon," he said. "But I'm extremely happy about it. It's gonna be a lot of fun."

Twins general manager Terry Ryan told Roof Saturday that he was going to promote Kubel. Before that happened, Ryan wanted Kubel, whose .343 average was points ahead of Buffalo's Jhonny Peralta entering Monday's games, to play in Ottawa Sunday to ensure that he met the minimum at-bat requirement to qualify for the batting title.

Once Kubel got his necessary two at-bats, plus a third (just to be on the safe side), Roof took Kubel out of the game and gave him the news.

Because the club was in Canada, he had to wait until he crossed back into the United States to use a cell phone to call his family.

"They told me during the game so I had to come out of the game and start thinking about all the stuff I had to do to get ready to go," Kubel said.

"It's all happening so fast."