The Ballad of Nick Punto

As the Philadelphia Phillies 21st round draft pick in 1998(scouted and signed by former big league manager Jim Fregosi), it was somewhat of a longshot for Nick Punto, who played collegiately at Saddleback Community College, to reach the major leagues, but he did so rather quickly.

A strong first impression
In his first full minor league season, at high-A Clearwater, he hit .305 and drew 67 walks in 106 games, good for a .404 OBP. This 106 game stint alone might be the reason Punto is in the big leagues today, because he never came close to repeating those numbers again. But, having made an excellent impression, the Phillies moved him to Double-A Reading in 2000, where he hit .254. He drew 68 walks and stole 33 bases, as well as hitting five homers, still his career high to this day.

The Phillies decided that was good enough to move him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2001. In 129 games he hit a paltry .229, but the parent club must’ve liked his 68 walks and 33 steals, because they called him up to the big leagues in September. He singled off Bob Scanlon for his first big league hit on Sept. 9, and ended up going 2-for-5 in four games. The Phillies decided he was ready, and he began ‘02 in the majors. But there was really no room for him, and he was demoted back to Scranton, where he had his best year since A-ball, hitting .271 with 76 walks (for a .378 OBP) and stealing 42 bases.

He got called up again in September, and ended the season 1-for-6. He again opened the season with the Phillies in ‘03, but again was sent down before the end of April. He ended up going back and forth a few times, and in 64 games in the bigs (92 at-bats) batted .227 with a .273 OBP. While he had played SS almost exclusively in the minors, he saw time at 2B, 3B and SS for Philadelphia. No doubt the Phillies had been intrigued by Punto’s ability to draw a walk while in the minors, but this 64-game stint was the first sign that, unless Punto showed some ability to handle the bat, major league pitchers weren’t going to walk him often.

Coming to Minnesota
Meanwhile in Minnesota, the Twins were becoming frustrated with Cristian Guzman, a highly talented but seemingly lazy shortstop whose development suddenly seemed stunted after a breakout season in 2001. They were also looking to deal some of their veterans to make room for younger, cheaper players. That off-season they sent catcher AJ Pierzynski to the Giants for pitchers Boof Bonser, Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan, as well as sending Eric Milton to Philadelphia for Carlos Silva and Nick Punto. Silva had been a reliable set-up man in Philly, but the Twins immediately inserted him into their rotation. Punto was advertised primarily as a utility player, and would replace Denny Hocking, who the Twins released after the ‘03 season.

However, manager Ron Gardenhire showed early signs of having an odd appreciation for Punto by suggesting that he could compete for the starting shortstop job. This seemed to be little more than a motivational tactic aimed at Guzman, since Punto had done nothing in his entire career to suggest he was capable of being a full-time player in the majors. As disappointing as Guzman had been, he was still a far better option.

But Punto never really got his chance to light a fire under Guzman, as his penchant for diving headfirst into bases and after ground balls put him on the DL frequently. He actually performed reasonably well when healthy, posting a .253 average and .340 OBP, with a couple of homers, six steals and only one error in 38 games (91 at-bats). Guzman actually did have a slightly better season, hitting .274 with 8 homers, 31 doubles and 84 runs scored, but when the Washington Nationals offered him a 4-year, $26 million contract after the year, the Twins surmised he wasn’t worth that much.

A failure at 2B
While they were right, as Guzman failed miserably in Washington, the Twins horrible infield contributed heavily to their failure to reach the playoffs in 2005. Rookie Jason Bartlett and veteran utility man Juan Castro split time at SS, and neither produced much at the plate. Punto took over at 2B when the Twins grew tired of Luis Rivas, another once-promising talent who regressed after a strong rookie season.

In his first shot at playing regularly in the big leagues, Punto hit .239 with a .301 OBP. He hit four homers and struck out 86 times in 394 at-bats.

This failure prompted the Twins to acquire All-Star and Gold-Glover Luis Castillo in the off-season. The Twins also added veteran slugger Tony Batista to play 3rd in ‘06. Bartlett was expected to get another shot at the SS job, but despite hitting nearly .400 in spring training, he was sent to Triple-A, while Castro, who entered the season with a .271 career OBP, was named the starter. This left Punto and Luis Rodriguez as dual utility players.

The rejuvenation
According to a spring training story in the Star Tribune, Punto was approached by Hall of Famer Rod Carew on the field one day before practice. Carew held a printed copy of Punto’s stats, and had circled in red ink his .301 OBP, 45 runs scored, 36 walks, and 13 of 21 stolen base rate. Carew wanted Punto to know that these numbers were unacceptable, and were the ones he should focus on during the season. There was much rolling of the eyes in Twins nation when this story appeared.

Predictably, Castro and Batista failed, with Castro traded and Batista released in mid-June. Bartlett stepped in at SS and played well, while Punto took over at 3B simply because there wasn’t anyone else.

But apparently Punto had taken Carew’s instruction to heart, because, once given regular playing time, his numbers rose consistently from June through August. He was hitting well over .300 with an OBP in the .370 to .390 range for most of the year, while playing strong defense at 3B. The Twins got hot, in part thanks to the spark provided by Punto and Bartlett, and reached the playoffs.

While Punto had had the year of his life, he also faded sharply in September, and finished the season with a .290 average and .352 OBP. Fine numbers to be sure, but many observers viewed the late slump as evidence that his mid-summer surge was largely a fluke. Unfortunately, for no good reason, Gardenhire declared late in the season that Punto would be the starter again in ‘07 at 3B, effectively ordering GM Terry Ryan not to acquire a new one in the off-season.
As evidence that Ryan didn’t trust Punto, he signed free-agent Jeff Cirillo anyway. Cirillo had always been a strong hitter, particularly against lefties, but at 37, made it clear he could not play every day.

Crashing back to Earth
2007 would prove to be the most frustrating and disappointing season of the Gardenhire era, and Punto, perhaps somewhat unfairly, was at the center of the firestorm all year. He hit .220 in April, and after a decent May, in which he posted a .364 OBP, saw his season devolve into one of the worst in baseball history from an offensive standpoint. He batted .150 in June, .218 in July, and an embarrassing .127 in August, all while playing virtually every day.

Cirillo never got going, landed in Gardy’s doghouse for refusing to play regularly, and was traded to Arizona. Meanwhile Gardenhire continued to defend Punto, primarily for his hustle and defense. And while Punto did make many highlight-reel plays, he committed as many errors as your average 3B, and most statistics that measure a fielders range, admittedly an inexact science, found him to be league average at best. Gardenhire dropped him to the No. 9 spot in the order (he had opened the year hitting second), and asked him to bunt more often, but Punto failed several times to move runners over, popping up bunts or striking out after failed attempts several times.

While these kind of fundamental lapses often land younger or more talented players in Gardenhire’s doghouse (like rookie 3B Brian Buscher, who hit well after a call-up but rarely played because of his shaky glove), the manager strangely continued to defend Punto, who by now had become a pariah among fans, who viewed him as a symbol for everything that was wrong with the team.

By late August, Punto’s average was under .200. As if that weren’t bad enough, his slugging percentage was in the .250 range, on par with many NL pitchers. Punto warmed up some in September, and as of Sept. 20 had his average up to .209, and his OBP to .292. His 54 walks rank fourth on the team behind Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer.


Another chance?
On Sept. 17, Gardenhire told the Star Tribune that Punto was his choice to open the 2008 season as the starting 2B. The Twins had traded Luis Castillo to make room for rookie Alexi Casilla at the position, but Casilla struggled both physically and mentally, at the plate and in the field.

Gardenhire’s announcement sent many Twins fans into fits of rage, as the idea that a starting job would be handed to a player coming off arguably the worst season in history seemed counterproductive, to put it mildly. Almost on cue, Punto made two glaring mental mistakes the next day, getting hung up between 2nd and 3rd for an out early in the game, then later getting thrown out while trying to stretch a double into a triple leading off an inning.
The irony was thick.

In retrospect, it’s hard to blame Punto for anything that has gone wrong this year. Quite simply, it isn’t his fault that Gardenhire has tried to make him into something he isn’t - a major league regular. Like trying to force a square peg through a round hole, Gardenhire stubbornly kept sending him out there, even though it was apparent to everyone it couldn’t work.

Punto is what he is - a light-hitting infielder with a reliable glove and above average speed. That can be useful to a team, but only if utilized optimally. However, anyone who has watched the Twins with any regularity knows that using players optimally has never been Gardenhire’s strength (see Jacque Jones, Matthew LeCroy, Lew Ford, Shannon Stewart, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, etc, etc).

But the announcement that Punto opens 2008 with a leg-up on the 2B job should be taken witha grain of salt. What choice does Gardenhire have but to say this? Casilla has been awful, and promising him a job is no way to accelerate his development. It’s clear that this is a motivational tactic to some degree, and it’s one that had to be made.

Quite frankly, as bad as Punto has been, Casilla has probably been worse, all things considered. Right now Punto is the better player, which says alot about the state of the Twins infield. Additonally, Punto is unlikely to be as bad in ‘08 as he was in ‘07, even if he does end up playing every day (which he likely won’t).

However, it also seems unlikely that Punto will ever go back to being the .300 hitter we saw for much of ‘06 (even then he posted an OPS+ of 90, meaning he was 10% below the league average that year in offensive production).

There’s no real explanation for Gardenhire’s fascination with a guy who is nothing more than a mediocre utility player. Jeff Reboulet and Denny Hocking were both far better players, and never got near the opportunities that Punto has been afforded.

That would seem to be the fundamental difference between Gardenhire and Tom Kelly. Gardenhire oddly tears down his most talented players and staunchly supports the bad ones. With TK, you could either play, or you couldn’t play. The Twins were in far better hands in those days. Nick Punto would never have started for a team managed by Kelly.