Early in the season (I can’t remember exactly when), someone in the comments (can’t remember who) brought up the idea of a tall vs. short Out of the Park tournament. Now that the Twins season is over, it’s time to make that a reality.

With many thanks to whoever came up with the idea, we are proud to present the North Star Stature Showdown!

Having searched through Baseball Reference’s database, I have built up a 28-man team of the tallest players in Minnesota Twins history and a team of their shortest players. Each had to have some unfortunate omissions in order to fill up every position (I picked by height first, then by games played as a Twin, then by enough to fill out the diamond), but every player on the short team is between 5’7” and 5’10”, while all but four players on the tall team are between 6’5” and 6’11”.

And while I haven’t plugged these teams into OOTP yet — as usual, they’ll be imported with their best season as a Twin — I suspect that the tallest batter in Twins history, 6’8” Carson McCusker, will not be able to play on these teams because he debuted in the majors after the release of OOTP ‘26. So he’ll be the honorary manager. (If I am able to import him from Baseball Reference, he’ll take Joey Gallo’s spot.)

For jersey numbers, I tried to match each player with a number he wore as a Twin; for unavoidable duplicates, I picked another number they wore in the majors.

Your rosters, listed by relevant height by position (and numerically within matching heights), are:

Starting Pitchers
17 — Bailey Ober — R/R — 6’10”
48 — Mike Smithson — R/R — 6’8”
34 — Mike Pelfrey — R/R — 6’7”
35 — Michael Pineda — R/R — 6’7”
44 — Kyle Gibson — R/R — 6’6”

Relief Pitchers
60 — Jon Rauch — R/R — 6’11”
50 — Aaron Slegers — R/R — 6’10”
51 — Alex Meyer — R/R — 6’9”
58 — Trevor Megill — R/R — 6’8”
45 — John Candelaria — L/L — 6’7”
59 — Michael Tonkin — R/R — 6’7”
30 — Garry Roggenburk — R/L — 6’6”
31 — Dan Naulty — R/R — 6’6”
39 — David West — L/L — 6’6”

Catchers
7 — Joe Mauer — L/R — 6’5”
14 — Glenn Borgmann — R/R — 6’4”

Infielders
40 — Cotton Nash — R/R — 6’7”
19 — Kennys Vargas — S/R — 6’5”
37 — Scott Stahoviak — L/R — 6’5”
22 — Miguel Sanó — R/R — 6’4”
27 — Terry Jorgensen — R/R — 6’4”
9 — Gene Larkin — S/R — 6’3”

Outfielders
21 — Walt Bond — L/R — 6’7”
26 — Mike Poepping — R/R — 6’6”
32 — Dave Winfield — R/R — 6’6”
41 — Michael Restovich — R/R — 6’6”

Utility Players
8 — Dave McCarty — R/L — 6’5”
13 — Joey Gallo — L/R — 6’5”

“But what about middle infielders?”, you may ask. Well, it took until searching 6’4” players to find someone who played shortstop, which brought Terry Jorgensen and his eight games at the position onto the roster. And for second base, the only player 6’3” or taller with any time at the position is Gene Larkin, who played the position for… let me check… one-third of an inning in 1991. Good enough for the team.

Starting Pitchers
18 — Eddie Bane — R/L — 5’9”
20 — Lee Stange — R/R — 5’10”
22 — Bobby Castillo — R/R — 5’10”
31 — Darrell Jackson — S/L — 5’10”
54 — Sonny Gray — R/R — 5’10”

Relief Pitchers
33 — Jackie Collum — L/L — 5’7”
19 — Bill Pleis — L/L — 5’10”
24 — Danny McDevitt — L/L — 5’10”
27 — Brandon Kintzler — R/R — 5’10”
28 — Mike Marshall — R/R — 5’10”
30 — Francisco Oliveras — R/R — 5’10”
53 — Danny Coulombe — L/L — 5’10”
56 — Carmen Cali — L/L — 5’10”
70 — Ronny Henriquez — R/R — 5’10”

Catchers
7 — Christian Vázquez — R/R — 5’8”
64 — Willians Astudillo — R/R — 5’9”

Infielders
3 — Sergio Ferrer — S/R — 5’7”
4 — Houston Jiménez — R/R — 5’8”
39 — Donovan Solano — R/R — 5’8”
74 — Ronald Torreyes — R/R — 5’8”
8 — Nick Punto — S/R — 5’9”
11 — Chuck Knoblauch — R/R — 5’9”

Outfielders
1 — Jarvis Brown — R/R — 5’7”
6 — Quinton McCracken — S/R — 5’7”
34 — Kirby Puckett — R/R — 5’8”
47 — Sandy Valdespino — L/L — 5’8”
37 — Ben Revere — L/R — 5’9”

Utility Players
12 — César Tovar — R/R — 5’9”

Over the next few weeks, I’ll play out the tournament and we’ll see which size ends up on top! (And I promise my own 5’3” height will not unfairly bias me toward the short squad.)