Pat Putnam, the former first baseman who spent eight seasons in the majors with the Rangers, Mariners and Twins, died Aug. 25 at age 72, according to a report in Florida Weekly on Sunday, Sept. 6.
The report said Putnam died of natural causes. Andy Hill, who knew Putnam from Fort Myers (Fla.) Little League and stayed close with him as an adult, said a neighbor found Putnam in his bedroom.
Putnam appeared in 677 big league games and finished his MLB career with a .255 batting average, 63 home runs and 255 RBIs. He played for Texas from 1977 to 1982, for Seattle from 1983 to 1984 and for Minnesota in 1984.
His path to the majors included a draft wrinkle and a college stop that changed everything. The New York Mets selected him out of Miami-Dade College, but he did not sign. After transferring to the University of South Alabama, he was taken by the Rangers with the 22nd overall pick in 1975.
Putnam’s bat made noise early in the minors. In 1976 with the Asheville Tourists in the Class A Western Carolinas League, he hit .361 with 24 home runs and 142 RBIs, becoming the league’s first Triple Crown winner and earning Player of the Year honors.
He carried that production into the majors. In 1979, his first full season in the big leagues, Putnam hit .277 with 18 homers and 64 RBIs in 139 games for Texas. He picked up downballot votes in the American League Rookie of the Year voting and finished fourth.
Texas dealt Putnam to Seattle in December 1982 for Ron Musselman, and he made an immediate impact with the Mariners. In 1983, his first season there, he hit .269 with 19 homers and 67 RBIs, and his teammates voted him the club’s MVP.
Putnam’s time with Minnesota came in August 1984, when a trade dropped him into a division title chase that ultimately fell short. He then spent all of 1985 with the Kansas City Royals’ Triple-A affiliate.
His major league days were basically done after that, but he kept going overseas. Putnam signed with the Nippon-Ham Fighters and hit 27 home runs across two seasons, 1986 and 1987, in Japan’s top league.
After coming back to the United States, Putnam left baseball behind and settled in Fort Myers. There, he owned a business focused on air and water purification.
In Other News...
Twins Have A Late Season Roster Decision Three Saints Are Forcing
As the minor league season winds down, the Twins are starting to sort through the kind of late-season roster questions that can shape September depth, and three St. Paul Saints stand out in that conversation. Emmanuel Rodriguez is back from injury and has flashed the kind of offensive production that can force his way onto a major league radar, while Cody Morissette has taken a clear step forward at the plate since joining the organization.
Aaron Rozek adds a different kind of value, giving Minnesota another arm to consider as pitching depth becomes more important in the stretch run. With the Saints' season nearing its finish and big-league roster decisions coming into focus, the Twins have a few performances in St. Paul that are making it harder to ignore what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Kaelen Culpepper Is Giving The Twins A Real Shortstop Decision
Kaelen Culpepper has spent just 100 plate appearances in the majors, but he has already made the Twins think seriously about what comes next at shortstop. In that small sample, he has hit .297/.350/.451 with five doubles and three home runs, while also showing the kind of bat speed and defensive comfort that can make a young middle infielder hard to take out of the lineup.
The more he plays, the more the job starts to look like his, especially with his glove holding up at shortstop over 203 innings and his offensive approach bringing real life to the position. Culpepper still has to keep building, stay healthy and prove he can carry it forward, but the Twins appear to be moving toward a future where he is the full-time answer there next season. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Did Everything They Could And Still Got This Ending
The Twins spent the second half trying to claw their way back into the race, and for a while it at least felt plausible. Their playoff odds were around 40% in August, the front office pushed chips in with trades for pitching help, and the organization kept leaning on its young talent by promoting top prospects Kaelen Culpepper and Waker Jenkins. Even as the season slipped, the message from the club was clear: they were not going to let the roster sit still and accept the slide.
Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan kept playing through injuries, Ryan Jeffers continued to emerge as one of the teams most reliable contributors, and the Twins still found a way to stay in the conversation longer than it might have seemed possible. But the second half never produced the sustained run they needed, and now the math has finally closed the door on postseason contention. For a team that kept searching for answers all the way to the end, the ending still lands hard. [Read more 🡒]