January 19

Chick Gandil (1888)
Lee Head (1899)
Rip Radcliff (1906)
Chet Trail (1944)
Jon Matlack (1950)
Rich Gale (1954)
Brad Mills (1957)
Rick Adair (1958)
Chris Sabo (1962)
Jim Morris (1964)
Orlando Palmeiro (1969)
Phil Nevin (1971)
Jeff Juden (1971)
Chris Stynes (1973)
Amaury Telemaco (1974)
Byung-Hyun Kim (1979)
James Beresford (1989)

Lee Head played in the minors for twenty-one seasons.  He batted .304, but he was best known for his ability to avoid striking out.  In 1933 he struck out three times in 468 at-bats.  In 1935 he did even better, striking out once in 402 at-bats.

Chet Trail is the only player to have been on a World Series roster who never appeared in a major league game, regular season or post-season.

Third baseman Brad Mills was drafted by Minnesota in the 16th round of the 1977 January draft, but did not sign.

Rick Adair was in baseball from 1979-2013.  Most recently, he was the pitching coach of the Baltimore Orioles.  He is the nephew of former Twins pitching coach Art Fowler.

One would not normally think of Phillip Joseph Nevin as a "utility player", but he played 483 major league games at third base, 249 at first, 128 in the outfield, and 109 behind the plate, plus another 119 at designated hitter.  He was with the Twins for the last month of the 2006 season.  Nevin was born in Fullerton, California, went to high school in Placentia, California, and then attended Cal State--Fullerton, where he was a teammate of Dan Naulty.  He was drafted by Houston with the first pick of the 1992 draft.  He played for the Olympic team that summer, so his professional career did not start until 1993.  Nevin began at AAA, was there for a little over two years, and made it to the majors in mid-June 0f 1995.  He did not hit, was sent back down after about a month, and then was traded to Houston after another month.  He got a September callup with Detroit, but was back in the minors in 1996, getting called up to the Tigers in August.  He finally spent a full season in the majors in 1997, but he was a part-time player and did not do a whole lot.  After the season, Nevin was traded to Anaheim.  Again a part-time player in 1998, Nevin continued to not do a whole lot.  Just before the 1999 season, he was traded to San Diego.  Finally given the chance to play every day, he blossomed.  In six and a half years as a Padre, he hit .288, twice hitting over .300, twice getting minor MVP consideration, and making the all-star team in 2001.  He was having a down year in 2005, and was 34 years old by then, so he was traded to Texas at the July deadline.  He did not hit as a Ranger, and in late May of 2006 he was on the move again, this time to the Cubs.  He was there for two months, and was traded to Minnesota at the end of August for a player to be named later (Adam Harben).  Nevin played in only 16 games for the Twins, getting 54 at-bats.  He hit .190/.340/.286 with one home run.  No one picked him up after the season, and his career was over.  Since then, Phil Nevin has done some work for the Padres' Radio Network and for ESPN.  He managed the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League in 2009.  In 2010 he managed the AA Erie Seawolves, from 2011-2013 he was manager of the AAA Toledo Mud Hens, and in 2014 he became the manager of the Reno Aces, which he did through 2016.  He will be the third base coach for the San Francisco Giants this season.

Infielder James Richard Beresford played ten games for the Twins in 2016.  He was born in Mount Waverly, Australia, went to high school in Melbourne, and signed with the Twins as a free agent in 2005.  He posted good batting averages and decent on-base percentages throughout his minor league career, but had almost no power, hitting only four home runs in over a thousand minor league games.  He spent two years in rookie ball, two years in low-A, and one year in high-A, reaching AA in 2012, at which time he was sill only twenty-three.  He got to AAA in mid-2013 and has stayed there, getting a September callup in 2016.  His AAA numbers are .286/.334/.342.  In his ten games with the Twins he hit .227/.261/.273.  He turns twenty-eight today and is a free agent.  Had he come up when teams had reasonably sized pitching staffs and more bench players, he might have been able to have a decent career as a utility infielder.  In today's game, though, it's going to be tough for him.  We'll be rooting for him, but there's probably a good chance that those ten games last September may be the sum and substance of James Beresford's major league career.