Closer Joe Nathan and former team president Jerry Bell will be inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame this summer at Target Field.
Nathan, 44, pitched seven seasons for the Twins and had a team-record 260 saves. He was a four-time All-Star in Minnesota and twice with the Texas Rangers.
Bell was team president during two World Series victories, in 1987 and 1991, and also played a key role in getting Target Field built despite years of hurdles.
"When you come here, you don't forget about the turmoil and struggle," Bell said. "We accomplished something, and everything I did, I did as a team member. That why it was important to me."
During his 16-year career, Nathan had 377 saves, eighth-most in major league history. With the Twins, Nathan struck out 561 batters in 463 innings. He was acquired in a trade with the Giants before the 2004 season, and had only one save at age 28 before becoming a closer. All but two of his saves came in a 10-year span.
"When I first came over here, it was still a question mark if Eddie [Guardado] and LaTroy [Hawkins] would be here, they were free agents at the time, so I came and was fighting for a job somewhere in the late innings," Nathan said. "They gave me an opportunity and I just tried to run with it."
With five teams, in 787 games, Nathan was 64-34 with a 2.87 ERA.
There are now 33 members of the Twins Hall of Fame. Nathan and Bell will be inducted during the weekend of Aug. 3-4.
Still warm
Miguel Sano's winter ball experience will probably continue. The club is open to letting him play in the upcoming Caribbean Series — wherever it's played.
Sano was given permission to miss TwinsFest so he could play for Estrellas in the Dominican winter league championship, and he helped the team win its first title since 1968. Now Estrellas is moving to the Caribbean Series, where it will play teams representing Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
"We're going to talk through that over the next couple of days," Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey said. "I think it is something that he can do if he wants to. We just want to be thoughtful about his next few weeks, but we are open-minded to it."
The Caribbean Series is supposed to be played in Venezuela from Feb. 2-6, but political unrest there has forced officials to consider moving the event to Mexico.
Etc.
• Twins president Dave St. Peter said season-ticket renewals will be somewhere between 80 and 90 percent, and the club hopes to have around 12,000 season tickets sold in 2019. He also projected attendance to be around 2 million. The Twins hoped for 2.25 million fans in 2018 but drew 1.9 million.
• The Twins invited seven minor leaguers to major league camp in Fort Myers, Fla. Royce Lewis, the No. 1 overall pick in 2017; Alex Kirilloff, the 15th overall pick in 2016; and Brent Rooker, the 35th overall pick in 2017, are three. The others are Luke Raley, Jake Reed, Ben Rortvedt and Brian Navaretto.
• Major League Baseball suspended Twins minor league pitcher Alex Schick 50 games without pay after testing positive for a banned amphetamine. Schick last pitched in 2017, making two appearances for Class A Cedar Rapids before elbow problems that eventually led to Tommy John surgery. The righthander was a sixth-round pick in 2016 out of Cal.
• The Gophers baseball team will play Oklahoma at Target Field on April 20.
