Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.
Nathan Eovaldi is the only player in major league history whose last name begins with "Eo".
Infielder Howard Roddy Clark had eight at-bats for the Twins in 2008. Born in Huntington Beach, California, Clark was drafted by Baltimore in the 27th round in 1992. He advanced slowly through the Orioles minor league system, spending two years in rookie ball, two years at Class A, and two years in AA before making his AAA debut in 1998. He then went back-and-forth between AA and AAA from 1998-2000. Along the way, he posted solid but unspectacular numbers. He had a good batting average, hit a good number of doubles, and had a far number of walks, but appears to have lacked any one outstanding skill that would have attracted the attention of the Orioles' front office. Clark became a minor-league free agent after the 2000 season and went unsigned, playing in the Mexican League and the independent Western League. He rejoined the Orioles in 2002, went to Rochester, and hit .309. He finally made his major league debut that season, spending about three weeks with the Orioles. Clark became a free agent again after the season and signed with Toronto. He was in the Blue Jays organization in both 2003 and 2004, staying in the majors for about half of each season. He was in AAA for Pittsburgh in 2005, for Baltimore in 2006 (getting seven big league at-bats), went to 2007 spring training with San Diego, was released, signed with Toronto in May, got two more months in the big leagues, and signed with the Twins for 2008. According to the Mitchell Report, it was in 2005 that Clark used performance enhancing drugs, although they don't seem to have particularly helped him. At any rate, Clark hit .293 in 2008 for Rochester, and was with the Twins for about a week in May. As a Twin, Howie Clark went 2-for-8, with both his hits being doubles. A free agent again after the season, Clark went back to the Blue Jays' organization for 2009 and was in AAA all season. He re-signed with Toronto for 2010, was sent to AAA, but did not play and was released in early May. He was out of baseball the rest of the season. He tried to come back in the Mexican League in 2011, but did not make a team and his playing career ended. He then went into coaching. He was the assistant batting coach of the Baltimore Orioles from 2017-2018. Howie Clark was going to be the batting coach for the Charlotte Knights (AAA, White Sox) in 2020. He was the assistant batting coach for the major league White Sox in 2021-2022. He was let go after that season, however, and we did not find where he had been hired by anyone. Thus, what Howie Clark will do in 2023 was not readily available.
Outfielder Gilberto Celestino has been with the Twins since 2021. He was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and signed with Houston in 2015. He put up decent, but not eye-catching, numbers in the low minors until 2018, when he batted .323 with an OPS of .868 in 127 at-bats for low-A Tri-City. He was then traded to the Twins in July with Jorge Alcala for Ryan Pressly. He was still just nineteen years old at that point. He continued to put up decent, but not eye-catching numbers through 2019. He did not play in 2020, of course, but did very well in 2021 in 49 games of AAA, batting .290 with an OPS of .827. He did not do so well in 23 major league games, batting just .136. He was with the Twins for all of 2022 and did better, but still batted just .238 with an OPS of .615. Still, he only turns twenty-four today, so it seems to early to write him off. The coming of Michael A. Taylor may mean that he will start 2023 in AAA, but it seems likely that Gilberto Celestino will get at least one more chance in the majors.
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