A lucky castoff

Released by Detroit, Eric Munson is trying to work himself into the Twins' good graces

BY GORDON WITTENMYER
Pioneer Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The last time somebody beat Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, it took a shutout by the other guy and a home run among the two hits Santana allowed.

That was July 11 at the Metrodome. Santana went 13-0 after that.

"I got lucky," Eric Munson said.

Six months later, Munson might have done it again after the Detroit Tigers decided their former No. 3 overall draft pick had gone bust and released the third baseman.

Luckily for Munson, the Twins remembered July — as well as the 18 other games they played against Detroit last year. And despite Munson's .215 batting average and worse reputation as a fielder, they liked what they saw and signed him.

"We watched him come out every day early in Detroit. He was always out early working — always," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That's a chemistry guy, and he wanted to play here."

Munson, who hit .240 and .212 the past two seasons in his first two full years in the big leagues, has a long way to go to dispel the Tigers' final analysis of his ability. But the attitude is something the Twins think they can work with — maybe even fix the fielder with enough repetitions and squeeze enough out of his bat to get some left-handed help from him off the bench this season.

"One thing you look at is the guy works his tail off," Gardenhire said. "He's going through our program and watching what we've talked about. I'm not saying anyone else wasn't doing the right thing or stuff like that. But hopefully we can talk enough about what we teach here, about catching the ball and using your hands and feet and all those things, and he'll be able to handle that."

Munson, after all, has shown some pop, with 18 and 19 home runs the past two seasons in fewer than 400 at-bats each year. And he's only 27.

If the Twins can do some magic with him this spring, the former University of Southern California All-American could be one of the steals of the offseason. Munson, who made $1.5 million last year, would earn $700,000 this year if he makes the team out of spring training.

"I'm excited," Munson said. "This is a good organization. They play the game hard and play the game right. Hopefully, I can just, first of all make the team, and after that see what happens and try to contribute."

Of course, that was the goal at the last place, too.

"It just came down to the fact I didn't perform well enough for them to keep me," he said. "No hard feelings."

Not even with all the position changes and fluctuating playing time. From the time he broke in, Munson went from playing first base to third base and then even caught a game last year. And after coming back from a hand injury late in his rookie season in 2003, he started slowly last year, then was platooned much of the season after that.

"I'm not used to not playing every day. It's just one of those things where I didn't make the adjustment, and it didn't work out," he said. "There's no excuse for it. It just didn't work out."

That's the chemistry-guy part of Munson the Twins like. The fact he called ahead and volunteered to report early with the pitchers and catchers, and work the bullpens is the attitude part.

But the 6-foot-3, 225-pound ballplayer part is still a work in progress.

"I told him, 'It looks to me like you're fighting every ball,' " Gardenhire said, referring to a conversation during fielding practice. "Just take a step back. If you see the ball coming, read the ball, don't let the ball play you. Don't make collisions with the ball.'

"He was like, 'Yeah,' The next ball that was hit to him, instead of 'crash,' he took a step back and caught it... he's learning. It's a slow process. But it's not one of those things where it's a total makeover."