This story was excerpted from Matthew Leach’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MINNEAPOLIS – It may be the hardest choice some Twins players face this offseason: which teammate’s wedding to attend?
Four Minnesota players – yes, four – all have nuptials planned for Saturday, Nov. 14: Ryan Kreidler, Brooks Lee, Luke Keaschall and Cole Sands. They all did the planning independent of one another, and then learned about the shared date in Spring Training.
After all, there just aren’t that many ideal days for a ballplayer to get married.
“You don't want to be too close to the end of October,” Lee explained, “and don't want to be too far [into November] because Thanksgiving is coming up. Seemed like everyone is going to choose that date.”
Manager Derek Shelton doesn’t have a choice to make – he has prior plans, though he’s aware he’ll likely be sending four gifts come fall. He also confirmed Lee’s assertion that mid-November is a pretty natural time for a baseball wedding.
“I gave them a bunch of [grief],” Shelton said. “'How am I going to get to each wedding?'
“I also told them, you guys need to be smart enough to just invite people that aren't going to come to get gifts. You guys should invite me to all [four] because then I've got to send all of you gifts. But actually, we've already planned a Napa trip with some friends because my anniversary is the next day. There's a lot of baseball anniversaries there.”
There’s an extra complication for Lee and Keaschall: they share the same agent, Adam Karon. So even though it’s a total accident, it’s helpful that their events are right down the road from each other in central California. The goal for Karon may be to get to one ceremony and one reception.
“I think so,” said Lee. “I think he's going to go to Keaschall's first and then ours. But they're both early in the afternoon because the sun sets so early.”
None of the players are too terribly worried about it. It doesn’t seem that any current Twins will be part of the wedding parties, which makes things easier. As for how they came to realize that they share a common date, well, Keaschall said it’s really pretty simple.
“When you find out somebody’s getting married,” he said, “you ask when.”
Kreidler is getting married in Southern California, and Sands near his home in North Florida. They’re all mostly amused by the coincidence.
“I think the word fiancé was thrown around quite a few times in Spring Training,” Kreidler said. “And it was like, ‘Oh, you’re getting married? When are you getting married?’ And it’s like, 'the same day as everybody else.' Just funny more than any weird coincidence. But usually it works."