Happy Birthday–December 2

Deacon White (1847)
Andre Rodgers (1934)
Pedro Borbon (1946)
Wayne Simpson (1948)
Julio Cruz (1954)
Chip Hale (1964)
Darryl Kile (1968)
Mark Kotsay (1975)
Peter Moylan (1978)
Gary Sanchez (1992)

Nearly all of infielder Walter William "Chip" Hale's major league career came with the Twins. He was born in San Jose, attended the University of Arizona, and was drafted by the Twins in the 17th round in 1987. A left-handed batter, he posted solid batting averages in the minors and showed the ability to draw walks. He was with the Twins for about a month in 1989 and played one game in 1990, but did not really reach the majors until 1993. Hale came to the Twins in June of that year, and with the exception of a couple of weeks in 1995 he stayed with the big club through 1996. Hale was used as a bench player throughout that time: he played a little second, a little third, a little DH, and was used as a pinch-hitter from time to time. He was actually pretty good in that role. He had neither power nor speed, and was not considered particularly good defensively, but he provided a decent batting average and a decent OBP off the bench. As a Twin, Chip Hale hit .281/.349/.369 in 563 at-bats, with 7 homers and 78 RBIs. Hale became a free agent after the 1996 season and signed with the Dodgers. He started the season in Los Angeles, but was used exclusively as a pinch-hitter, going 1-for-12 with two walks in that role over the first month of the season. Hale was demoted to AAA Albuquerque after that, and never played in the majors again. He was released by the Dodgers after the 1997 campaign and signed with the Angels, but was traded to St. Louis at the end of spring training. He was with AAA Memphis for the entire season, and then his playing career came to an end. Hale then went into managing and coaching. He was a coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2007-2009, then became the third base coach for the New York Mets in 2010. He was in the running for the manager’s job for 2011, but when it went to Terry Collins, Hale was retained as third-base coach.  After the season, however, Hale left the Mets to take a job as bench coach for the Oakland Athletics for 2013-2014.  Chip Hale was been the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2015-16.  He was let go after the season and was the third base coach for Oakland in 2017.  He was the bench coach for the Washington Nationals in 2018-2020.  He was the Detroit Tigers' third base coach at the start of 2021, but in July he became the head baseball coach at the University of Arizona.

Right-hander Peter Michael Moylan never played for the Twins, but he was originally signed by them. A native of Attadale, Australia, Moylan signed with the Twins as a free agent in 1996. He was in rookie ball for two years, posting ERAs right around four, and then was released in April of 1998. He returned to Australia and worked as a pharmaceutical salesman while playing ball for Blackburn. He was a member of the Australian WBC team in 2006 and pitched well. Back problems had resulted in conversion to a sidearm delivery, and with this motion, his fastball became ten miles per hour faster. Impressed by his WBC work, Atlanta signed Moylan in March of 2006. He did not pitch well at AAA Richmond, nor did he pitch well in 15 games in the majors, but Atlanta obviously saw something in him. The Braves were rewarded, as Moylan was a solid member of their bullpen three of the next six seasons (he was injured much of 2008 with Tommy John surgery and 2011 with a torn rotator cuff).  He was still injured much of the 2012 season, but did very well in eight major league appearances. In 295 appearances for Atlanta, Moylan posted an ERA of 2.59 and a WHIP of 1.29.  A free agent, after the season, he signed with the Dodgers for 2013.  He spent most of the season in AAA Albuquerque and did very well there.  His spent about two months in the majors and his numbers don't look good, but eight of the eleven runs he allowed came in two appearances.  If you throw those out, his ERA is 2.25.  Including them, it goes to 6.46.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Houston for 2014 but tore a ligament and was released during spring training.  He missed all of that season, but signed back with the Braves in 2015.  He was in AAA most of the season but came up in mid-August and pitched very well.  He was apparently used as a ROOGY, making 22 appearances but pitching only 10.1 innings and in twelve of his appearances he faced only one batter.  He signed with Kansas City for 2016, came up to the majors in mid-May, and had a fine season, appearing in fifty games and going 2-0, 3.43, 1.30 WHIP.  He remained with Kansas City in 2017, remained healthy, and again had a fine season.  He led the league in appearances with seventy-nine and went 0-0, 3.49, 1.10 WHIP in 59.1 innings.  He signed with Atlanta in  2018 but it did not go nearly as well, as he posted an ERA of 4.45 and a WHIP of 1.77.  He pitched briefly in the Czech Republic in 2019, but then became a pre- and post-game analyst for the Atlanta Braves on Fox Sports South.  He was named manager of the Melbourne Aces for the 2021-2022 season, but it was cancelled, so he managed his first game for the Aces in the 2022-2023 season.

Catcher Gary Sanchez Herrera played for the Twins in 2022.  He was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and signed with the Yankees as a free agent in July of 2009.  His minor league numbers are good, not great, but he was always quite young for his league.  He reached AA in 2013 at age twenty and AAA in 2015 at age twenty-two.  He made his major league debut at the end of 2015 and came up to stay in early August of 2016, batting .299 with an OPS of 1.032 the rest of the way.  He had a solid 2017 batting .278 with thirty-three homers, but then injuries slowed him down and poor defense cut his playing time.  His best year since has been 2019, when he batted just .232 but hit thirty-four home runs.  He batted only .204 in 2021, although with twenty-three home runs.  After that season, the Yankees traded him to Minnesota with Gio Urshela for Josh Donaldson, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Ben Rortvedt.  He started the 2022 season sharing time with Ryan Jeffers, but when Jeffers was injured he became the regular.  He batted .205 with an OPS of .659, hitting sixteen home runs, and became a free agent after the season.  It seems like he's been around for a long time, but he's only turning thirty today.  One assumes someone will take him to spring training for 2023, but he's going to have to get his batting form back if he's going to keep his major league career going much longer.