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FORT MYERS, Fla. – There was a smile, then a "how we doin' guys?," then a wave.
There was Nick Gordon, a former fifth-overall draft pick by the Twins, looking happy and staying optimistic this week on a Zoom call with reporters. His final step to the majors has been frustratingly elusive, but as Gordon talked about his rough 2020 season and the stalled nature of his career, you didn't hear much frustration in his voice.
Gordon, 25, can produce line drives at the plate and play a little short but might be more suited to second base. The son of former major league pitcher Tom "Flash" Gordon and brother of current major leaguer Dee Strange-Gordon, Nick knows how to be a pro and operates that way.
The last few seasons, however, have challenged him more than the worst hitting slump could.
In 2018, Gordon was locked in at the plate early but then came down with a severe case of gastritis, and watched his weight drop from 185 pounds to around 160.
In 2019, he battled an adductor strain early and was hit in the left knee with a pitch in August and missed the final three weeks of the season. But the gastritis remained an issue throughout the season, affecting his strength and endurance. Still, he hit .298 in 70 games.
Last season, he reported to camp no longer a top ten Twins prospect. Jorge Polanco was coming off an All-Star selection and Luis Arraez had passed him on the depth chart as second. The sports world skidded to a halt because of the coronavirus, and Gordon tested positive before summer camp convened at Target Field. He was down for about a month and lost 15 pounds. Symptoms initially went away, then returned a few weeks later. And it wrecked his stomach again.
"I still kind of had my gastritis. The problems there, they got pretty intense," Gordon said. "Definitely during COVID, kind of just played a hand with each other. COVID was kind of difficult; I was down for a while. Couldn't really get out of bed too much."
It cost Gordon all of 2020. He did head to Fort Myers in August to work out and get his body right in time for this year's camp, where a path to a roster spot isn't clear. Could he stick as a utility player? Or do the Twins want him to play every day in the minors so they can determine how the former top prospect can help?
Either way, Gordon's ordeal is one reason why organizations should keep drafting and signing multiple shortstop prospects.
During spring training in 2018, a slightly husky sportswriter produced a story about the quality depth the Twins had at the premium position. Eduardo Escobar was giving way to Polanco at short. Gordon was about to hit .333 in 42 games at Chattanooga before gastritis kicked in. Jermaine Palacios was coming off a .296 season in two A-ball leagues. Wander Javier, signed to a $4 million deal out of the Dominican Republic in 2015, was coming off a .299 season at rookie league Elizabethton. And Royce Lewis had been selected with the first overall pick during the previous June draft.
Prospects up and down the chain.
Polanco is now the starting second baseman. Palacios was traded to Tampa Bay during the opening weeks of the 2018 camp for Jake Odorizzi — a rare deal in which the Rays were fleeced — and has not played above Class AA. Javier missed all of 2018 with a torn left labrum, batted .177 the next season and went unselected in the Rule 5 draft, twice. Lewis will miss all of 2021 with a torn ACL — and some wonder if he will be a center fielder by the time he debuts.
As for Gordon, he has a career to revive.
"I learned that positive is the way," Gordon said. "You can definitely change the way just the day is going by being positive. There's already enough negative stuff going on around me anyway with my body and things like that, and you've just got to find the best in everything."
Who knew in 2018 that, three years later, the Twins would go from having a surplus of shortstops to signing Andrelton Simmons?
