Dear Twins: Please don't retire Torii Hunter's number 48

Don't get me wrong here: Torii Hunter is one of the Twins' All-Time Greats. I've always liked Torii. He definitely has a special place in Twins history, and very soon, the Twins Hall of Fame.

But please don't retire his number.

(Disclaimer: No one said the Twins would retire Torii's number, but I'm paranoid... and really there's not a lot to write about this time of the season. Sorry.)

I don't mean any of this as an insult either. Torii was great. But let's also remember that Torii spent a lot of his prime offensive years as not-a-Twin. He was an Angel, or a Tiger, or whatever. If the Twins retired Torii's number, to me, it would open an uncomfortable can of worms: If you retired #48, why didn't you retire Brad Radke's #22? Why didn't you retire Justin Morneau's #33? Why didn't you retire Chuck Knobla—lol, just kidding.

Check this out:

A list of all numbers retired by the Yankees:

#          Player  Date/Year Retired

1          Billy Martin     August 10th, 1986

2          Derek Jeter ??, ??, 2014 (Sorry, wasn't paying attention).

3          Babe Ruth       June 13th, 1948

4          Lou Gehrig      July 4th, 1939

5          Joe DiMaggio  April 18th, 1952

6          Joe Torre         August 23, 2014

7          Mickey Mantle   June 8th, 1969

8          Yogi Berra      July 22nd, 1972

8          Bill Dickey      July 22nd, 1972

9          Roger Maris    July 22nd, 1984

10        Phil Rizzuto    August 4th, 1985

15        Thurman Munson        September 20th, 1980

16        Whitey Ford    August 3rd, 1974

20        Jorge Posada August 22nd, 2015

23        Don Mattingly            August 31st, 1997

32        Elston Howard            July 22nd, 1984*

37        Casey Stengel August 8th, 1970

42        Jackie Robinson          1997

42        Mariano Rivera September 22, 2013

44        Reggie Jackson           August 14th, 1993

46        Andy Pettitte August 23rd, 2015

49        Ron Guidry     August 23rd, 2003

51        Bernie Williams May 24th, 2015

Do the Twins really want to go down this road? Where every popular player gets their number retied? I don't think they will, and I hope not (unless they retire Radke's number first).

Torii left the Twins. If he had spent his whole career in Minnesota? Retire his number, no doubt. But now? Play it like Bert Blyleven, who left, and came back . If Torii somehow gets in the Hall of Fame (laugh now but I can see it happening, and not that I agree), retire his number. Otherwise, avoid letting someone use "#48" for two years and unceremoniously let another mediocre player wear the long-time Twins player's number, just like last time. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Tommy Milone.)

What do you think? What number do you think the Twins will retire next? Do you think there are any other numbers the Twins should have retired already?