{"id":218350,"date":"2021-02-03T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T16:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=218350"},"modified":"2021-02-03T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T16:20:09","slug":"twins-cruz-reach-one-year-deal-for-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=218350","title":{"rendered":"Twins, Cruz reach one year deal for 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-183845\" src=\"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Cruzphoto.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"164\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Cruzphoto.jpg 164w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Cruzphoto-133x175.jpg 133w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 164px) 100vw, 164px\" \/>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/30824723\/sources-nelson-cruz-returning-minnesota-twins-1-year-13m-deal\">ESPN<\/a>)\u00a0 Designated hitter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/6242\/nelson-cruz\">Nelson Cruz<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/min\/minnesota-twins\">Minnesota Twins<\/a> are in agreement on a one-year, $13 million contract, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz, 40, has been a linchpin of the Bomba Squad Twins&#8217; lineup. And he&#8217;ll be back right in the middle of it in 2021.<\/p>\n<div class=\"teads-adCall\">\u00a0The slugger, who hit .303 with 16 home runs, 33 RBIs and a career-high OPS+ (169) in the pandemic-shortened season, finished sixth in the American League MVP voting and was selected as the Marvin Miller Man of Year in the annual Players Choice Awards.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">The award goes to the player whom his peers &#8220;most respect based on his leadership on the field and in the community.&#8221; Cruz donated a fire engine and an ambulance and helped build a police station in his hometown of Las Matas de Santa Cruz in the Dominican Republic, and his Boomstick 23 Foundation has contributed wheelchairs and crutches, and he set up a clinic to provide medical and dental care.<\/aside>\n<p>His mission to help his hometown and other towns in the Dominican Republic led to him receiving the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at the 2020 ESPYS.<\/p>\n<p>The designated hitter played last season on a $12 million deal after swatting a team-high 41 home runs while reaching 108 RBIs in 2019, despite two stints on the injured list for a wrist problem. He has reached the 40-homer mark four times in his career; Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth hold the all-time mark with five seasons. Cruz also was the 57th player in major league history to reach 400 career home runs.<\/p>\n<p>His .992 OPS in 2020 ranked fourth in the AL and was the fifth-best mark in MLB history by a player in his age-39 season or older, according to ESPN Stats &amp; Information research. And he led all major leaguers with a 1.182 OPS on pitches in the strike zone over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>From 2014 to 2018, no player in the majors hit more home runs than Cruz (203). In 16 major league seasons, Cruz, a six-time All-Star who has three Silver Slugger Awards, has hit 417 home runs with 1,152 RBIs and a .278 batting average for the Twins, Mariners, Orioles, Rangers and Brewers.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(ESPN)\u00a0 Designated hitter Nelson Cruz and the Minnesota Twins are in agreement on a one-year, $13 million contract, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan. Cruz, 40, has been a linchpin of the Bomba Squad Twins&#8217; lineup. And he&#8217;ll be back right in the middle of it in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218351,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218350\/revisions\/218351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}