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It may be the dead of the off season for MLB, but no one has forgotten about Twins 2018 breakout star Willians Astudillo — nor should they. The guy is like a walking bouncy house everywhere he goes.
On Wednesday, Astudillo hit a clutch home run in the Venezuelan Winter League playoffs like this:
Your Willians Astudillo winter ball update. pic.twitter.com/trmIDIZLHW
— Parker Hageman (@ParkerHageman) January 9, 2019
For all of the blind Twinkie Town readers out there reading this, Astudillo fell to his knee, hit the dinger, then stayed on one knee as he admired his long dinger leaving the park. I don’t even know if that description does it justice.
In another interesting twist for Twins fans, Astudillo actually hit that home run off former Twins organization pitcher Deolis Guerra. For all you young’ins out there, that’s one of the pitchers the Twins got from the Mets in exchange for Johan Santana. He never really caught on with the Twins.
As for Astudillo, he’s actually had more than just a viral showing in the Venezuelan Winter League this offseason. Over 55 games, the 27-year-old hit .316/.360/.481 with eight home runs, his characteristically low number of strikeouts (four), and an amazingly (for Astudillo) eleven (!!) walks. Hopefully the nice winter season-showing by “Baby Bartolo” ensures him a spot on the Twins major league roster next season.