There aren’t many people in the world who, prior to today, had ever heard of Drew Butera. Drewtera, as his friends might call him, is a rookie catcher with the Twins. Yes, he’s Joe Mauer’s backup. That’s not a very demanding task, which is a relief, because Drew Butera might be one of the worst-hitting position players in recent baseball history.
Drew Butera Is The Unlikeliest Hero In Baseball
↵Coming into today’s game against Philadelphia, Butera had a batting average of .154, 3 RBI, and an OPS+ rating of 2. The baseline is 100. We were always under the impression that even having your name spelled right on your jersey counted for 30 OPS+ points.
↵Mind you, this isn’t exactly an anomaly brought on by small sample sizes or anything; even in the minor leagues, Butera struggled to keep his OPS over .600. In the minor leagues. In his one season of AAA play, Butera’s OPS was .560, and he barely registered more than one base for every four plate appareances. He did throw out half of would-be base stealers, so... yeah.
↵So naturally, Butera--and his wet noodle of a bat--clubbed a home run in the 10th inning of Minnesota’s wild comeback win on Saturday. Were it not for the game-tying heroics of Ross Gload(!!!) in the bottom of the tenth, Drew Butera would have been the game-winning hero. And that, friends, is how a universe ends.
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