Every Minnesota Twins season, there’s a player who shines for a period of time and then is never memorably heard from again. Think Scott Diamond in 2012, Chris Colabello’s 2014 RBI binge, Michael Restovich winning a wild one in 2003, or Michael Ryan whipping the White Sox to end ‘03.
With the way 2016 had been going in the opening months, one might think that season the exception to the rule. Not so. For a brief moment of time, a LHP captured the imagination of Twins Territory during its darkest hour.
In 2010, the Twins drafted Pat Dean out of Boston College with the 102nd overall (3rd round) pick. Progressing nicely through the rungs of the minor league ladder, Dean put together 179 IP of 2.82 ERA ball in 2015 as a SP at AAA Rochester. When the bottom fell out of ‘16, Dean was called up to the big club in mid-May.
After two relief appearances—one an ostensible spot-start after a disastrous Jose Berrios (0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 7 ER) debacle—Dean was given a chance to climb the bump from the jump.
His first start (5/21/16 versus Toronto): 6 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 5 K, 3 BB in a 5-3 Twins victory.
Now, you might be thinking “what’s so memorable about a barely-across-the-finish line quality start?!” Well, you have to recall just how dire the straits were at that exact moment. A QS was akin to a miracle.
Pat’s next presentation (5/27/16 @ Seattle): A legitimately masterful 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 8 K, 0 BB gem to out-duel King Felix Hernandez!
Again, this should not have been cause for celebration. But to an unmoored Molitor & Co. it felt like a revelation! One fan in particular was pretty jazzed about the proceedings…
I wish I could tell you this story had a ride-off-into-the-sunset happy ending. But to paraphrase Morgan Freeman’s character in The Shawshank Redemption: “MLB is no fairy tale world”.
Dean’s line with the ‘16 Twins: 1-6, 67.1 IP, 19 G, 9 GS, 6.28 ERA, 67 ERA+, 1.65 WHIP.
In fact, Dean’s major league career would come to a close upon 2016’s resolution. Stints in the Korean Baseball Organization (Kia Tigers), the Atlantic League (Southern Maryland Blue Crabs & Somerset Patriots), and the Albuquerque Isotopes (AAA Colorado) never produced a path back to The Show.
In the end, Pat Dean accomplished the dream: he made the big leagues. Sure, it didn’t last as long as he—or we—would have liked. But any MLB duration from Moonlight Graham to Nolan Ryan represents a minuscule fraction of athletes at the tippy top of their professional endeavor. Possessing the greatest spoonerism in the history of the Minnesota Twins doesn’t hurt his memorability factor, either.
