Twins' Nelson Cruz shows no signs of slowing down as 41st birthday nears

He has already passed Jim Thome and Alex Rodriguez. Willie Mays? Caught him a couple of weeks ago. Straight ahead are such legendary names as Musial, Aaron and Williams. And looming at the front of them all: Barry Bonds.

Nelson Cruz didn't become one of the game's most feared power hitters until he was 27, too late to challenge the immortals atop baseball's all-time home run list. But he also hasn't stopped yet, on the cusp of his 41st birthday, a talent that could someday give him a niche of his own.

Greatest Quadragenarian Slugger Ever?

It's a mouthful, but Cruz would take it.

"I need to play, that's the whole goal. If I play, I know I can hit homers," said Cruz, who turns 41 Thursday. "It's not a milestone you can reach in two days, but I feel good. I can still hit."

Sure looks that way. Cruz owns a .929 OPS, sixth-best in the American League, and leads the Twins with 16 home runs and 39 RBI, all while batting .300. Not as many of his fly balls carry into the seats as the past couple of seasons — 19.0%, as opposed to 26.2% last year and 23.4% in 2019 — but part of that may be attributable to the new baseballs in use. And in an era of skyrocketing strikeouts, Cruz's rate has actually dropped below 20%, to 19.2, for the first time in a decade.

"He hasn't seemed to be slowing down at all. He still hits the ball incredibly hard, he's still had great at-bats," said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, younger than Cruz by 15 months. "He's even found a way to lower his swing-and-miss and strikeout rates, and continues to make adjustments as time goes on. That's not easy to do."

Nor is hitting home runs, especially after turning 40. Cruz hit 16 in the 60-game 2020 season, and has 16 more this year, already putting him in elite company for his age group. Only 14 players in baseball history have hit more than his 32 home runs in their 40s, and at his current rate, Cruz could be among the top five by season's end.

And the 79 homers Bonds hit in his 40s? Cruz says it's plausible he could close that 47-homer margin in 2022 or 2023.

"It's not something you set out to do. I just want to keep playing, and the numbers take care of themselves," said Cruz, who with a typical 424-foot blast to center Monday passed Dave Winfield for the Twins' career record by age-40-plus players. "My at-bats are good. My legs are better now, I can still get them going when I want to. Once I feel like I can't help a team anymore, I'll make that call, but I believe I still can."

In fact, Cruz said, "in my legs, in my hips, I feel even better than I did when I was 36 [or] 38. That's huge for power."

If there's a secret to his age-defying success, Cruz said, it's something called fascial stretch therapy, a rigorous program he undergoes before every game he is in the lineup, and after games even more frequently. With the help of Twins massage therapist Kelli Bergheim, Cruz stretches not muscle but the tissue that holds his muscles and joints in place.

"It's almost more of a dance, in a way, than a straight stretch. It's really, really good for hips and lower body," said Bergheim, who first learned the technique while Vikings quarterback Donovan McNabb was a client a decade ago. "It's all assisted stretching, getting to the very end of his range of motion, working on the fascial structure. We do that for at least 15 minutes every day, before he starts hitting and preparing for the game."

The result? "It's made my legs better, and it's made my swing better. I'm more fluid," said Cruz, who asked his personal massage therapist, Adriana Guerrero, to learn the therapy, too. "It gets me looser than I've ever been. It's definitely made a huge difference in my body, and helps me help the team."

The question still to be answered is, which team? As the Twins have fallen to last place, Cruz's name has circulated in trade speculation as next month's deadline approaches.

"I don't even want to think about that," Baldelli said.

Neither does Cruz, though he knows it's a possibility, given that he doesn't have a contract for 2022.

"It's the first time I've experienced this. Even when people ask about it, I try not to watch any news or read about that. Just do my job," Cruz said. "I just want to win."