MATTHEW LAWTON III | LF/CF/RF | 1995-2001 | CAREER STATS
 
   G       PA      AVG      OBP      SLG     OPS+    WARP     WS
 771     3150     .277     .379     .428     107     23.3     87

Drafted in the 13th round out of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College just four months before the Twins' run to the World Series in 1991, Matt Lawton advanced slowly but surely up the minor-league ladder. After posting .400 on-base percentages in back-to-back seasons at Single-A and then batting .269/.361/.434 in 114 games at Double-A in 1995, Lawton made his major-league debut pinch-hitting for Pat Meares in a loss to the Tigers on September 5, 1995.

He struck out against Mike Christopher, but picked up his first hit against submarining southpaw Mike Myers the next day and ended up starting quite a bit down the stretch. Lawton hit .317/.414/.467 in 21 games as a 23-year-old and smacked his first homer against 245-game winner Dennis Martinez and the Indians on September 28, 1995, which turned out to be a key date in team history because Martinez hit Kirby Puckett with a pitch in the first inning and the Hall of Famer never played again.

Lawton began 1996 as the everyday right fielder, but was sent down to Triple-A after hitting just .205 in April. He returned in late June, but was sent back to Salt Lake with a .231 batting average in mid-July. After batting .297/.377/.481 in 53 total games at Triple-A, Lawton was called up again in early August and this time stayed for the rest of the year. He finished with a .258/.339/.365 hitting line in 79 games, batting .294 over the final two months of the season to earn the team's confidence heading into 1997.

With his days in the minors behind him for good, Lawton split time between all three outfield spots in 1997 and hit .248/.366/.415 in 142 games. It was a modest season even for a 25-year-old, but along with Paul Molitor and Chuck Knoblauch he was one of only three Twins regulars with an adjusted OPS+ above league average. As you might expect from a team with that little offense and a 5.02 ERA, the Twins finished 68-94 for their most losses since 1982.

The team continued to struggle in 1998, going 70-92, but Lawton had his first big year. Playing mostly right field and also filling in as the center fielder when Otis Nixon had his jaw broken by Felix Martinez, he batted .278/.387/.478 with 21 homers, 36 doubles, 86 walks, and 16 steals in 152 games. Lawton won team MVP honors and led the Twins in nearly every offensive category, including homers, RBIs, runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, walks, and total bases.

Lawton got off to a slow start in 1999 and was batting just .262/.345/.406 when he was hit in the face by a Dennys Reyes pitch on June 8. A fractured eye socket sent him to the disabled list for over a month. He returned in mid-July and continued to get on base at a good clip through the end of the year, but his power disappeared. Lawton hit five homers with a .406 slugging percentage prior to the injury, but had just two homers and a pitiful .299 slugging percentage after returning.

Lawton came back strong in 2000, bouncing back from what could have been a very serious injury to put together arguably his best season. He hit .305/.405/.460 with 13 homers, 44 doubles, 91 walks, and 23 steals in 156 games, making his first All-Star team and winning his second team MVP. The team continued to stink, winning just 69 games, but unlike several of the Twins' token "All-Stars" from that period of losing Lawton was actually somewhat deserving with a .330 first-half batting average.

That season showed Lawton at his absolute best--taking a ridiculous number of pitches, working long counts, drawing walks in bunches, lacing singles and doubles all over the Metrodome from that goofy batting stance, and stealing bases at an efficient rate. He did just about everything that a hitter could possibly do besides provide big-time power, and even batted .294 against left-handers and .326 with runners on base.

After eight straight losing seasons the Twins got off to a 14-3 start in 2001, and carried a 55-32 record and five-game division lead over the Indians into the All-Star break. After winning the first game of the second half the Twins promptly went in the tank, losing 13 of the next 17 to fall into a tie with Cleveland atop the AL Central. On July 30, with the division slipping away, the Twins traded Lawton to the Mets for veteran right-handed starter Rick Reed.

It was a controversial move at the time, in part because Reed was a 36-year-old former replacement player making $7 million and in part because Lawton was the best hitter on a team that was fairly short on offense to begin with. Lawton was hitting .293/.396/.439 at the time of the trade, while Reed was 8-6 with a 3.48 ERA in New York. After the deal Brian Buchanan and Dustan Mohr replaced Lawton in right field, Reed went 4-6 with a 5.19 ERA in 12 starts, and the Twins went 25-32 to fall out of contention.

It wasn't so much that picking up a good starting pitcher was a bad move (although certainly you could argue about Reed being the right guy), but rather that in order to get Reed the Twins had to take from an area that was far from a strength. That's typically not how contending teams bolster themselves for a stretch run and there was speculation that general manager Terry Ryan intended to swing a second deal for a hitter like Dmitri Young or Shannon Stewart to replace Lawton, but that fell through.

Reed went 15-7 with a 3.78 ERA in 2002 as the Twins made the playoffs for the first time since 1991, and then was a mess in 2003 thanks to back problems. Meanwhile, Lawton hit just .246/.352/.366 for the Mets in 2001 and was dealt to Cleveland for Roberto Alomar that winter. He spent three mediocre years there while struggling through shoulder injuries and then bounced around with four teams over his final two seasons while hitting .253/.353/.389 and being suspended 10 games for steroid use.

Lawton's strengths were drawing walks, hitting doubles, getting on base, and running efficiently, which are all skills that tend to be overlooked and have seemingly caused his Twins career to be underrated. He was very productive in Minnesota, putting together three very good years and another solid season before his 30th birthday, and his name is plastered all over the team leaderboards. Here's something that I wrote about Lawton back in 2003 that seems appropriate to quote now:

I always had a soft spot for "Matty Law" and I'm not sure why. I guess he was just a very solid all-around player who had a lot of nice moments as a Twin. Lawton and Brad Radke were sort of like the bridge from the Kirby Puckett/Chuck Knoblauch Twins to the current group.

And as any Twins fan who grew up in the 1990s can tell you, it was an awfully long bridge.

TOP 25 ALL-TIME MINNESOTA TWINS RANKS:
 
On-Base %         .379      5th
Steals              96      8th
Walks              408      9th
OPS               .807     17th
Times On Base     1195     17th
Doubles            163     18th
Runs               423     19th
RBIs               384     20th
Extra-Base Hits    248     20th
Total Bases       1144     23rd
Homers              72     24th
Adjusted OPS+      107     24th
Hits               739     25th