The 1979 Minnesota Twins season was the 19th season for the Minnesota Twins franchise in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, their 19th season at Metropolitan Stadium and the 79th overall in the American League. The team finished 82–80, fourth in the American League West.

Offseason In January 1979, the Twins attempted to trade first baseman Rod Carew to the New York Yankees in exchange for Chris Chambliss, Juan Beníquez, Dámaso García, and Dave Righetti, but were unable to finalize a deal. Carew would instead be traded to the California Angels on February 3.

Notable transactions October 3, 1978: Dave Johnson was released by the Twins. December 4, 1978: Dan Ford was traded by the Twins to the California Angels for Ron Jackson and Danny Goodwin. December 8, 1978: Greg Field (minors) and a player to be named later were traded by the Twins to the New York Mets for Jerry Koosman. The Twins completed the deal by sending Jesse Orosco to the Mets on February 7, 1979. January 6, 1979: Mike Marshall was signed as a free agent by the Twins. February 3, 1979: Rod Carew was traded by the Twins to the California Angels for Ken Landreaux, Dave Engle, Paul Hartzell, and Brad Havens.

Regular season Three Minnesota Twins homered in the May 15 win over Texas, the sixteenth straight Minnesota game with at least one Twins homer. The streak will end on May 16. Nine players homered 28 times during the club's record-setting streak.

Only one Twins player made the All-Star Game: shortstop Roy Smalley. Smalley hit 24 HR, drove in 95 runs, and scored 85 runs, all team-leading totals. Ken Landreaux, acquired in the Carew trade, batted .305 with 15 HR and 83 RBI. Ron Jackson, acquired in the Dan Ford trade, hit 14 HR and collected 68 RBI.

Reliever Mike Marshall continued as manager Gene Mauch's all-purpose reliever, pitching in a league-leading 90 games, racking up 10 relief wins along with a league-leading 32 saves. Veteran Jerry Koosman won 20 games. Dave Goltz (14–13) and Geoff Zahn (13–7) had double-digit wins.

Smalley turned 144 double plays this year, setting a major league record for shortstops. The team total of 203 double plays set a new season record.

Third baseman John Castino shared the AL Rookie of the Year award with Alfredo Griffin of the Toronto Blue Jays. Each received 7 first place votes.

1,070,521 fans attended Twins games, the fourth lowest total in the American League. It was only the second time since 1970 the team attracted over one million fans.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions June 5, 1979: 1979 Major League Baseball draft Randy Bush was drafted by the Twins in the 2nd round. Mike Kinnunen was drafted by the Twins in the 10th round. June 29, 1979: Rudy Meoli was purchased by the Twins from the Philadelphia Phillies. July 25, 1979: Craig Kusick was purchased from the Twins by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Roster 1979 Minnesota Twins Roster Pitchers Catchers

Infielders Outfielders

Other batters Manager

Coaches

Player stats = Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI C Butch Wynegar 149 504 136 .270 7 57 1B 159 583 158 .271 14 68 2B Rob Wilfong 140 419 131 .313 9 59 SS 162 621 168 .271 24 95 3B John Castino 148 393 112 .285 5 52 LF Bombo Rivera 112 263 74 .281 2 31 CF 151 564 172 .305 15 83 RF Hosken Powell 104 338 99 .293 2 36 DH José Morales 92 191 51 .267 2 27

Other batters Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI Glenn Adams 119 326 98 .301 8 50 76 270 67 .248 6 30 Mike Cubbage 94 243 67 .276 2 23 96 229 57 .249 8 35 80 199 49 .246 0 14 58 159 46 .289 5 27 Rick Sofield 35 93 28 .301 0 12 31 70 14 .200 0 8 24 54 13 .241 3 6 Gary Ward 10 14 4 .286 0 1 4 7 0 .000 0 0 Dan Graham 2 4 0 .000 0 0

Pitching = Indicates league leader

Starting pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO 37 263.2 20 13 3.38 157 36 250.2 14 13 4.16 132 26 169.0 13 7 3.57 58 28 163.0 6 10 5.36 44 24 123.0 3 10 5.63 47

Other pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO 40 108.1 7 3 3.49 85 24 69.1 4 4 4.28 43 20 64.0 1 3 6.61 31

Relief pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G W L SV ERA SO 90 10 15 32 2.65 81 31 4 2 0 4.39 33 9 0 0 0 4.97 3 6 0 0 0 7.11 5 3 0 0 0 6.00 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 1 Paul Thormodsgard 1 0 0 0 9.00 1

Farm system

Notes

References

Player stats from www.baseball-reference.com Team info from www.baseball-almanac.com