According to the Los Angeles Times, the Angels have signed Torii Hunter to a five-year contract worth $90 million. The move comes as a shock for several reasons, not the least of which is that the Angels handed center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. a five-year, $50 million contract last offseason and also have Reggie Willits, who seemingly combined to make them pretty well set as the position for the rest of the decade.

Beyond that, the White Sox and Rangers were thought to be the front-runners for Hunter, who had given little indication that the Angels were even a major factor and said earlier this week that a decision wouldn't be made until after Thanksgiving. Instead, an announcement was made in the wee hours Thursday morning and Hunter apparently felt strongly enough about heading to California that he inked the deal shortly after dining with Rangers owner Tom Hicks.

The Rangers and White Sox had both been very forthcoming publicly about their interest in Hunter and a handful of other teams had been linked to him, so it's possible that he left some money on the table by signing so quickly. Whatever the case, Hunter ends up with two more seasons and an additional $45 million over what was reportedly the Twins' best offer to re-sign him, which is why the odds of his remaining in Minnesota have realistically been close to non-existent for months now.

Hunter remaining in the AL isn't ideal, but signing with the Angels beats joining the White Sox or even the Royals. The good news is that because the Angels finished with a winning record in 2007, the Twins will receive the 27th overall pick June's draft as compensation for losing Hunter. Had he signed with the White Sox, Rangers, Dodgers, Nationals, Royals, Astros, Reds, or any other sub-.500 team, the Twins would have received a supplemental first rounder instead.

With Hunter now officially out of the picture, Bill Smith and the Twins can finally move on to finding his replacement in center field. Interestingly, Willits was one of 25 potential Hunter replacements who were examined in this space two weeks ago. I wrote at the time that Willits "seems like a prototypical Angels player and might be tough to pry away," but that could change with Hunter now making their outfield even more crowded. If you're curious, Matthews has a full no-trade clause through 2009.

Losing Hunter hurts, both because he was the team's most popular player for the past decade and because it's difficult to replace a good defensive center fielder who's hit .271/.324/.469. With that said, the writing has clearly been on the wall for quite a while and the way Hunter that handled his pending free agency during the past eight months makes it easier to see him go. He gave the Twins a lot of good years and I wish him luck with the Angels, but moving on might be best for everyone involved.

EARL JESSE BATTEY JR. | C | 1961-1967 | CAREER STATS
 
   G       PA      AVG      OBP      SLG     OPS+    WARP     WS
 853     3161     .278     .356     .409     109     38.3    114

Signed out of a Los Angeles high school by the White Sox in 1953, Earl Battey made his major-league debut in 1955 at the age of 20, collecting a pair of hits in a five-game stint with the team, but didn't see his first extended action in the majors until 1957. Battey then spent the next three seasons serving as Chicago's backup catcher, playing sparingly behind seven-time All-Star Sherm Lollar while batting just .209/.301/.377 in 413 total plate appearances.

The last of his three seasons backing up Lollar was 1959, when a 24-year-old Battey lost significant playing time to another 24-year-old catcher, rookie Johnny Romano. Romano batted .294/.407/.468 in 53 games to overtake Battey for the No. 2 spot on the depth chart during the White Sox's World Series run. Meanwhile, the 34-year-old Lollar was showing no signs of slowing down, turning in his second straight 20-homer, 80-RBI season while batting .265/.345/.451 in 140 games.

Lollar had been one of the game's best catchers for over a decade, so the White Sox decided to stick with him. That winter owner Bill Veeck traded Romano and 24-year-old first baseman Norm Cash to the Indians for a four-player package that included Minnie Minoso, who the White Sox had traded away just two years earlier. Then in April, about two weeks before Opening Day, the White Sox sent Battey, 22-year-old first baseman Don Mincher, and $150,000 to the Senators for Roy Sievers.

The trades paid immediate dividends, as both the 33-year-old Minoso and 34-year-old Sievers gave the White Sox two good seasons before leaving after 1961, but the moves were long-term disasters. In 1961 a 26-year-old Cash, now playing in Detroit, batted .361 with 41 homers and 132 RBIs. He went on to make five All-Star teams and smack 377 homers during his 17-year career. While not quite the hitter that Cash became, Mincher made two All-Star teams and hit .249/.348/.450 with 200 homers.

Romano, who went on to make a pair of All-Star teams while batting .255/.354/.443 during his 10-year career, immediately took over as the Indians' starting catcher, batting .272/.349/.475 in 1960 while the 35-year-old Lollar hit just .252/.326/.356 for the White Sox. Similarly, 1960 also saw Battey become an instant starter for the Senators, winning the AL Gold Glove while batting .270/.346/.406 with 15 homers during the team's final season in Washington.

The team moved to Minnesota and became the Twins in 1961, as Harmon Killebrew starred by hitting .288/.405/.606 with 46 homers and 122 RBIs. While Killebrew was putting together the first of what would be seven 40-homer seasons for the Twins, Battey was quickly establishing himself as one of baseball's premiere all-around catchers. Now 26 years old, Battey won his second straight Gold Glove and hit .302/.377/.470 with 17 homers while starting 127 games and catching over 1,100 innings.

Battey declined in 1962, batting .280/.348/.393, but won his third straight Gold Glove and made the first of four All-Star teams. He then bounced back to have the best season of his career in 1963, hitting .285/.369/.476 with 26 homers while catching a league-leading 1,237 innings in a league-high 142 starts and finishing seventh in the AL MVP voting. Yankees catcher Elston Howard won the MVP, but Battey produced similar numbers offensively while batting 55 more times in a dozen more games:

            G      PA      AVG      OBP      SLG      OPS     HR     RBI
Howard    135     531     .287     .342     .528     .870     28      85
Battey    147     586     .285     .369     .476     .845     26      84

Battey declined in 1964, hitting a still-solid .272/.348/.407, but bounced back in 1965 to finish 10th in the MVP voting. Minnesota teammates Zoilo Versalles and Tony Oliva finished one-two in the balloting and Twins starter Mudcat Grant placed sixth, with Battey hitting .297/.375/.409 as the team won 102 games and the AL crown before falling to the Dodgers in the World Series. He caught all seven games despite running neck-first into a railing chasing a foul ball in Game 3, but went 3-for-25 at the plate.

Just 30 years old, 1965 proved to be Battey's final great season as weight problems, injuries, and big workloads caught up with him. He batted .255/.337/.327 in 1966 before splitting time with Russ Nixon and Jerry Zimmerman in 1966, hitting .165 in his final season. After retiring he worked with inner-city kids in New York before going to college at the age of 45, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He then became a high-school teacher and baseball coach in Florida before dying from cancer in 2003.

Despite a relatively brief career that ended shortly after his 30th birthday and one of his best seasons coming in Washington for the Senators, Battey ranks as the best catcher in Twins history. His raw offensive numbers during seven seasons in Minnesota (.278/.356/.409 with 76 homers) look solid and the multiple Gold Gloves tell the story of his defensive reputation, but without a closer look at Battey's career it's easy to undersell his impact.

Battey's entire career was spent in one of the lowest-scoring eras in baseball history and he played a position that was both the most physically demanding and often home to no-hit defensive specialists. Battey was a stud on both sides of the ball, logging a huge number of innings while frequently catching one of the league's best pitching staffs, throwing out a high percentage of would-be base stealers, and putting up numbers offensively that were far more impressive than they initially appear.

For instance, when Battey hit .285/.369/.476 with 26 homers in 1963, the AL as a whole batted just .247/.312/.380. The AL batted .271/.338/.423 in 2007, which means that Battey's 1963 hitting line was the equivalent of batting .315/.400/.530 today and he would have cleared 30 homers with ease. As it stands, he ranked among the AL's top five catchers in Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) in each of his six full seasons with the Twins:

1961              VORP     1962              VORP     1963              VORP
Elston Howard     51.8     Johnny Romano     34.1     Elston Howard     43.1
Johnny Romano     41.5     Elston Howard     25.3     EARL BATTEY       40.7
Johnny Blanchard  32.1     EARL BATTEY       16.9     John Orsino       27.0
EARL BATTEY       31.6     Jim Pagliaroni    13.5     Joe Azcue         17.4
Earl Averill      22.2     Ken Retzer        12.4     Yogi Berra        13.7

1964              VORP     1965              VORP     1966              VORP
Elston Howard     41.7     EARL BATTEY       29.4     Johnny Romano     16.6
Bill Freehan      37.0     Johnny Romano     23.5     Joe Azcue         10.5
Bob Tillman       25.3     Billy Bryan       18.8     Elston Howard      8.3
Johnny Romano     21.3     Charlie Lau       10.0     Paul Casanova      7.9
EARL BATTEY       19.2     John Orsino        9.3     EARL BATTEY        5.7

No other catcher cracked the top five in each of those six seasons and the only guys to make it five times were Howard and Battey's old competition from Chicago, Romano (see what I mean about those trades not working out especially well for the White Sox long term?). And VORP only accounts for hitting. As outstanding as Battey was offensively, it's his defense--and specifically his arm behind the plate--that actually may have been the strongest part of his game.

Battey was never especially mobile behind the plate to begin with and became perhaps baseball's slowest player once age, the rigors of five straight 1,000-inning seasons defensively, and excess weight caused by a goiter problem sapped him of whatever limited quickness he once had. Despite that, Battey never lost his amazing arm and remained the league's best-throwing catcher throughout his career. Battey allowed just 226 stolen bases in over 6,700 innings at catcher while in Minnesota.

Allowing one steal for every 30 innings during the run-heavy 1960s is amazing enough, but Battey also gunned down nearly 40 percent of would-be base thieves. Teams rarely tested him despite the huge stolen-base numbers being posted throughout baseball, yet Battey still managed a league-leading caught-stealing total three times during his career. He also led the AL in pickoffs four times, including a career-high 15 in 1962. That year Battey allowed 34 steals and picked off or threw out 42 runners.

TOP 25 ALL-TIME MINNESOTA TWINS RANKS:
 
OBP            .356        15th
Walks           328        16th
Hits            768        19th
AVG            .278        20th
Homers           76        20th
RBI             350        21st
Total Bases    1131        21st
OPS            .765        25th

For a complete list of other write-ups in the ongoing "Top 40 Minnesota Twins" series, click here.

Here's the full list of completed write-ups for my ongoing "Top 40 Minnesota Twins" series:

- #16 Corey Koskie
- #17 Earl Battey
- #18 Rick Aguilera
- #19 Dave Goltz
- #20 Camilo Pascual
- #21 Gary Gaetti
- #22 Zoilo Versalles
- #23 Cesar Tovar
- #24 Shane Mack
- #25 Brian Harper
- #26 Eddie Guardado
- #27 Larry Hisle
- #28 Tom Brunansky
- #29 Kevin Tapani
- #30 Jacque Jones
- #31 Butch Wynegar
- #32 Al Worthington
- #33 Greg Gagne
- #34 Matt Lawton
- #35 Steve Braun
- #36 Dave Boswell
- #37 Jimmie Hall
- #38 Eric Milton
- #39 Scott Erickson
- #40 Randy Bush