Third base is known as the “hot corner”, because the third baseman is relatively close to the batter and most right-handed hitters tend to hit the ball hard in this direction. Now days the third base position is expected to provide power. There are fewer third basemen in the Baseball Hall of Fame than there are Hall of Famers’ of any other position.
The Twins have had their share of good players at that position and the list below shows Twins players that have played in at least 200 games and played at least 51% of their games at third base from 1961 through 2016. Current Twins third sacker Miguel Sano will be moving up this list very quickly.
Gary Gaetti has always been one of my all-time favorite Minnesota Twins. I enjoyed watching him play third base and the man got his uniform dirty, he went all out all the time. Plus, he was a very good hitter. If I was asked for my Twins top 10 list, he would be near the top.
WAR/pos | G | From | To | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | 1 | Gary Gaetti | 27.1 | 1361 | 1981 | 1990 | 4989 | 646 | 1276 | 252 | 25 | 201 | 758 | 74 | .256 | .744 | |
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2 | Corey Koskie | 22.1 | 816 | 1998 | 2004 | 2788 | 438 | 781 | 180 | 13 | 101 | 437 | 66 | .280 | .836 | |||||||||||||
3 | John Castino | 15.1 | 666 | 1979 | 1984 | 2320 | 293 | 646 | 86 | 34 | 41 | 249 | 22 | .278 | .727 | |||||||||||||
4 | Rich Rollins | 11.8 | 888 | 1961 | 1968 | 3048 | 395 | 830 | 117 | 20 | 71 | 369 | 15 | .272 | .727 | |||||||||||||
5 | Eric Soderholm | 10.2 | 407 | 1971 | 1975 | 1345 | 184 | 345 | 56 | 7 | 36 | 161 | 14 | .257 | .725 | |||||||||||||
6 | Trevor Plouffe | 8.1 | 723 | 2010 | 2016 | 2638 | 332 | 651 | 148 | 10 | 96 | 357 | 11 | .247 | .727 | |||||||||||||
7 | Mike Cubbage | 6.9 | 555 | 1976 | 1980 | 1681 | 195 | 447 | 66 | 18 | 29 | 226 | 6 | .266 | .715 | |||||||||||||
8 | Scott Leius | 4.9 | 476 | 1990 | 1995 | 1373 | 201 | 346 | 58 | 10 | 26 | 155 | 15 | .252 | .693 | |||||||||||||
9 | Mike Pagliarulo | 4.0 | 246 | 1991 | 1993 | 723 | 79 | 197 | 40 | 4 | 9 | 68 | 8 | .272 | .693 | |||||||||||||
10 | Danny Valencia | 0.8 | 273 | 2010 | 2012 | 989 | 106 | 257 | 52 | 4 | 24 | 129 | 4 | .260 | .695 | |||||||||||||
11 | Brent Gates | 0.8 | 217 | 1998 | 1999 | 639 | 71 | 161 | 28 | 2 | 6 | 80 | 4 | .252 | .656 |