Taylor Rogers didn’t need any convincing to rejoin the Twins, the organization that drafted him in 2012 and the team he represented for the first six seasons of his major league career.
Rogers, a 35-year-old lefthanded reliever, nudged his agency to tell the Twins front office at the winter meetings that he was interested in returning after spending the last four years with other clubs. He said he didn’t hear back from the Twins until Wednesday, Jan. 21, and it was a quick negotiation.
On Thursday, Jan. 22, Rogers was already on a flight to Minneapolis to take his physical examination and participate in TwinsFest activities.
“It was slow. I had written it off a little bit, just thought maybe it wasn’t going to work, and I was fine with that,” said Rogers, who signed a one-year, $2 million deal. “Once the interest was mutual, I was like, let’s just do it.”
Rogers was drawn to the coaching staff. New Twins manager Derek Shelton was the team’s bench coach in 2018 and 2019, and he had frequent chats with Rogers in the outfield during batting practice. Rogers plans to lean on new bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins for advice, particularly learning from Hawkins about how he extended his career when fastball velocity begins to tick downward.
He also knows new bench coach Mark Hallberg from when they were in San Francisco together.
“I told Shelty on the phone, if he was managing a team in Fargo, North Dakota, I would want to want to go there,” Rogers said. “Same with an opportunity to work with LaTroy in the bullpen. ... I mean, that’s a match made in heaven.”
Rogers is expected to reach his 10 years of service time April 21, if he calculated the date correctly. It’s a major milestone for all major leaguers — it fully vests their pension — and it means a lot to Rogers that he will hit that benchmark while playing for his original organization.
