Twins one-moment wonders: Caleb Hamilton clears the fence

Last week, I wrote about the two Twins players whose MLB careers lasted one game. (And thanks to BH-Baseball for sharing, in a comment below the article, about Senators one-game, one-legged pitcher Bert Shepard.) If this were earlier in the offseason, I’d make this a series (and I still might, just next offseason); as it is, there’s another short-tenured player who came to mind that I’d like to recollect.

Through a middling 2022 season, the Twins got minimal offense from the catching position, with Gary Sánchez their primary backstop. On July 15, looking for help at that spot, they called up Caleb Hamilton from St. Paul. A 27-year-old career minor leaguer, Hamilton had been a 23rd-round pick of the Twins six years before; now, wearing #90 (yes, that’s the main reason I remember him), he debuted for the big club… and didn’t hit at all. Before being optioned back to the Saints on August 3, Hamilton appeared in just three games with Minnesota, coming to the plate six times without a hit, including four strikeouts.

But his time in the majors had yet to finish. The Twins brought him back up on August 23, and he remained with the team for the rest of the season, appearing in 19 more games, largely as a late-inning replacement. However, he started four games, and it is the third of those we come to.

The warm, sunny afternoon of September 25 saw the Los Angeles Angels taking on the Twins in the finale of a three-game series at Target Field. Hamilton batted ninth, catching for Dylan Bundy, and as soon as I mention Bundy, you know the game didn’t go well. Bundy lasted 3.1 innings and gave up five runs, including a homer to Mike Trout; Ronny Henriquez followed Bundy and kept the Angels’ tally at five, but the Twins, who had tacked on two early runs, could not narrow the deficit.

Until the bottom of the eighth.

With José Quijada on the hill for the visitors, Hamilton was due up as the third batter of the inning. Quijada struck out Jermaine Palacios and Jake Cave, but on the first pitch to Hamilton…

Unfortunately, neither the game nor Hamilton’s career would feature further highlights.

Trevor Megill took the mound for Minnesota in the ninth and gave up five runs, turning a close game into a blowout 10-3 loss. And Hamilton made five more appearances for the Twins in ‘22 without a hit; he was waived and claimed by the Red Sox, for whom he appeared in four games the next season. After going hitless with Boston, Hamilton was granted free agency after 2023. He signed with the Angels the following season but never made the majors, and his playing career ended after ‘24. Hamilton did join the High-A (NYY) Hudson Valley Renegades as a defensive coach for ‘25, but the Renegades’ website no longer lists him as a coach this season, and I could not determine where or if he is coaching.

His home run on September 25, 2022, was the only hit of his career. But he made the most of that one hit, giving himself, his teammates, and everyone in attendance a moment to remember in an otherwise forgettable Twins season.