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Delmon Is Moving On

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By CARTER GADDIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2008

FORT MYERS - By Saturday morning, the verbal dust had long since settled at the Lee County Sports Complex, where the Twins held their first full-squad workout of the spring. The day before, Minnesota outfielder Delmon Young had passed the first test of what he insists is a newfound professional contentment.

A long-distance, public admonition Friday by former Rays teammate Carl Crawford had the potential to drag Young back into the mire from which he had hoped to crawl when he was traded to the Twins in November.

His new team, undaunted by whispered tales, published reports and viral videos of Young's antics with the Rays, expected nothing less from Young than for him to diffuse the bizarre, back-and-forth exchange of messages through the respective reporters who cover the teams.

And that's what happened when Young, 22, essentially backed down after Crawford responded strongly Friday morning to Young's ill-conceived public reaction Thursday to Crawford's assertion earlier in the week that Tampa Bay's clubhouse was a more cohesive and less-dramatic place this year than last.

In years past, Young no doubt would have insisted on having the last word, even from two hours south of the Raymond Naimoli Complex. But not now, unless you consider what he said Saturday to be his last word on his discordant - and oh, so brief - Rays career.

Regrets? Yes. He's had a few.

"Yeah, I regret a lot of things I did over there to make an uneasy peace in the clubhouse with people and everything," Young said. "But I was young. I wish it didn't happen, but it kind of turned me into turning a leaf and starting a new page and maturing."

Because of the things he did and said during four-plus years in the Rays organization, Young gained a reputation as an immature, impatient, bat-throwing misanthrope whose sense of entitlement bordered on hubris after he was chosen with the No. 1 overall draft pick as a 17-year-old out of Camarillo, Calif.

But to the Twins, Young already is the guy who actually asked to stay in cold, cold Minneapolis an extra day to participate in the entirety of the three-day love-in known as Twins Fest, where 30,000 fans clamored to embrace him as one of their own.

He's the starting left fielder whose professional diligence prompted him to take up offseason eye exercises to enhance his depth perception and improve his selectivity at the plate (his .316 on-base percentage as a Rays rookie was his most glaring weakness).

He's the star pupil who stands ready every moment to absorb even the most casual exposure to baseball knowledge when a Hall of Famer like Rod Carew or Paul Molitor passes through the clubhouse.

To the Twins, he is, in short, the model citizen.

"We did a lot of homework," said Twins general manager Bill Smith, whose offseason was spent remaking a roster without long-time mainstays Johan Santana and Torii Hunter. "We talked to a lot of people. We kept getting nothing but good reports. He hasn't done anything but exceed expectations since he's come here.

"All he's been for us is a stand-up guy."

Young still is as opinionated as ever and, as the episode with Crawford revealed, his opinions still can rub some people the wrong way. But he slowly has come to realize that outside perceptions do matter.

"I never really realized that I was a so-called role model or stuff like that, because that's just being from Southern California, where everything's so laid-back," Young said. "Especially toward the end of the 2007 season, I started to realize it, but not that much. Then I just thought about it the whole offseason."

He concluded early in his tenure with the Rays that a change of scenery would be just the thing, and the Rays finally obliged in November by sending him to Minnesota, along with infielder Brendan Harris, for pitcher Matt Garza and shortstop Jason Bartlett.

It was not a move Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman made lightly.

"Delmon's a very talented player that had a lot of immature moments, but I think he'd be the first to admit that," Friedman said. "We always felt like there was a good chance that he would grow into a good clubhouse guy. We weren't sure when it would happen, but he possessed all of the necessary attributes to do that."

What Young would like to happen is for his career path to smooth out now that he's in a new place, just as it did last year for older brother Dmitri Young with the Washington Nationals.

"When the trade happened, I was looking forward to it, seeing what my brother did, playing happy," Young said. "And following what Randy Moss did this year with the New England Patriots. Same player, two different uniforms. Sometimes a change of scenery helps out a lot of people."

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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