FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -When Michael Cuddyer has a deck of playing cards in his hands, anything can happen.
In the blink of an eye, an ace of spades somehow teleports from the middle of your hand into a box of doughnuts on the other side of the table.
With the slap of his hand, Cuddyer can make a card sitting on top of a bench swap places with one he has in his palm underneath it.
He is the Minnesota Twins’ hitting Houdini. The Merlin of the Metrodome.
Yet for all those seemingly mystical powers, Cuddyer never was able to conjure the right magic trick to cure all the flukey health problems he had last season.
“If I had any magic tricks for that, I would have tried,” Cuddyer said with a chuckle. “I was tempted to go to a witch doctor or something.”
After signing a three-year, $24 million deal before last season, Cuddyer appeared in only 71 games in 2008 because injuries to his hands and foot. He says he was only healthy for four games.
‘ manager Ron Gardenhire said. “You’ve seen it happen with guys, one after another. Those freak things kept happening to him.”
It started when he cut and dislocated the index finger on his right hand on a headfirst slide into third base and missed 17 games in April.
Though still bothered by the injury, Cuddyer returned late in the month and played into June, when he strained a tendon in his left index finger. He tried to play through the pain for two weeks, but hit the disabled list on June 29 for another six weeks.
And two days before he was set to rejoin the team in August for a series against the New York Yankees, Cuddyer took a lead off first base during a rehab assignment for Triple-A Rochester. Teammate Garret Jones smacked a line drive that hit Cuddyer in the left foot.
Wouldn’t you know it? Cuddyer had a broken bone that kept him out of action for another month.
By the time he was activated on Sept. 13, his Twins were in the middle of a pennant race and outfielder Denard Span was playing too well for Gardenhire to sit him down. So Cuddyer finished the season with a .249 average, three homers and 36 RBIs.
Nothing magical about those numbers.
“I was really, really frustrated. I tried not to let on because this team is bigger than me adn there’s no way I was going to bring this team down on the mental side of things,” Cuddyer said. “But it did, it took a toll on me. I was extremely frustrated the whole season.
“But I’m recharged. I’m revamped. I’m more focused and more intensified than ever, which is great.”
Cuddyer earned that three-year deal by being a consistent run-producer behind Justin Morneau and one of the best defensive right fielders in the game during the previous two seasons.
He hit .284 with 24 home runs and 109 RBIs to help the Twins to the AL Central title in 2006 and followed it up by hitting .276 with 16 homers and 81 RBIs in 2007, all while perfecting the art of playing a bounce off that tricky baggie in right field at the Metrodome.
Cuddyer is also an extremely popular leader in the clubhouse, which is why it was so difficult for his teammates to watch him go through such a trying season.
“He had some freak injuries last year,” shortstop Nick Punto said. “Hopefully that’s all behind him. You couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him last year. When that line drive hit him, he was playing good and feeling good. Then bam! He breaks his foot.”
Doctors told Cuddyer that the ball hit him in the one spot that would cause a broken bone. A centimeter one way or the other, and it just would have been a nasty bruise.
Of course.
“I was just saying, ‘What else can happen?”’ Cuddyer said. “Right when I said that is when I break my foot on a line drive.”
The bright side was that Cuddyer got to spend a lot of time with his newborn son, Casey. He reported to spring training completely refreshed and “100 percent healthy, physically and mentally.”
“He’s back and he’s got some bounce in his step,” general manager Bill Smith said. “We’re looking forward to a big year.”
For his next act, Cuddyer looks to reclaim his spot in a crowded outfield that also includes Span, Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez.
“I know I could have helped this team last year,” he said. “I feel like I have a great opportunity this year to do that. I’m excited about the opportunity and I’m going to take full advantage of that and I’m going to help this team.”
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