Toledo Mud Hens manager Doug Mientkiewicz talks Tigers prospect development in his office in Toledo on Saturday, June 8, 2019. Gregory Levinsky, Detroit Free Press
TOLEDO, Ohio — Look back to the 2017 American League Wild Card game. The Minnesota Twins are at Yankee Stadium. Eddie Rosario blasts a first-inning, two-run homer off Luis Severino, and Doug Mientkiewicz is watching Minnesota intently from his seat along the third base line, thinking, “those are my guys.”
“It gave me chills,” Mientkiewicz said.
Much of the homegrown talent of those Twins was developed under the guidance of Mientkiewicz in the minor leagues, managing in High-A and Double-A from 2013-17.