Swapped for each other three months ago, new Twins starting pitcher Pablo López and reigning American League batting champion Luis Arraez each still found their way to the visitors' clubhouse before Monday's game at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
It's a stadium and city López remembers fondly from his six years there — and remembers the way around because he played there last month for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.
"It's a place that saw me grow as a player, as a person," López told reporters before the game. "It's a place where I saw my hair fall out, too."
Arraez stopped by the Twins clubhouse during spring training in Florida. Then he saw them again Monday, playing against them for real for the first time.
"I still love my guys, I still love Minnesota," the Marlins second baseman told reporters, before hitting a fifth-inning RBI single off Tyler Mahle for Miami's only run in an 11-1 loss. "I miss a lot of my guys there. This is business. It's not personal … I've got something in my heart for the Minnesota Twins."
Arraez went 2-for-5 Monday and is hitting a tidy .524 (11-for-21) in his first five games with his new team.
"I've got a lot of feeling, good feeling," Arraez said. "I see my people I still feel in my heart. ... This is baseball and I come here to play for the Marlins now and do my job. They're my team now."
López started 94 games in five seasons with the Marlins before January's trade, in which the Twins also acquired teenage prospects Jose Salas and Byron Chourio..