Twins prospect Tyler Austin booms mammoth homer in first game at Rochester

Earlier this year, Tyler Austin caught the attention of Twins fans by hitting a three-run homer off the departed Lance Lynn.

His season took a turn for the worse and he ended up being demoted to Scranton-Wilkes Barre, the Class AAA farm club of the Yankees, where he was in the lineup at first base on Monday night -- for one inning.

That's when he was yanked from the game and told been traded -- to the team across the field. Austin was going from the Yankees to the Twins in the deal for Lynn, and was in the dugout a few minutes later shaking hangs with his manager and new teammates.

^{Austin is greeted by Rochester manager Joel Skinner during Monday's game between the Red Wings and Scranton-Wilkes Barre. (Red Wings photo)}

The news was broken to Austin from Scranton-Wilkes Barre manager Bobby Mitchell. (if you're old enough, you could remember Mitchell as a center fielder with the Twins in the early 1980s..) As bizarre as the scene sounds, it's something that's not wholly unusual in minor-league baseball.

Mitchell told DJ Eberle of the Wilkes Barre Times Leader: "It's always tough to do that right in the middle of the game, and I've had to do it a few times. I was hoping he was going to the big leagues or something so I could tell him that, but this is the second-best thing, I think, for him. I think he thinks that. He's happy. He had a smile on his face once he heard the news.

You can read Eberle's full story here.