Corey Koskie elected to Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame

(ABC 6 News) — The Minnesota Twins announced on Friday that former Twins third baseman Corey Koskie has been elected to the club’s Hall of Fame.

Koskie will become the 41st member of the Twins Hall of Fame when he is inducted on Sunday, August 17 as the Twins host the Detroit Tigers at Target Field.

“For more than two decades, Corey Koskie’s presence and impact have been felt across Twins Territory, embodying what it means to be a Minnesota Twin through his leadership and community stewardship,” Twins President & CEO Dave St. Peter said via a press release.

“Corey was a clubhouse leader, a critical offensive catalyst and one of the best defensive third basemen in club history on several of the most important Minnesota Twins teams of the last 25 years. Post-career, he became a community leader, an annual presence in support of the Twins Community Fund and occasionally joined his family on local town ball fields.”

A native of Anola, Manitoba, Canada, Koskie was selected by the Twins in the 26th round of the 1994 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft and made his major league debut for Minnesota in 1998. The next season, his first full in the majors, he hit .310 (106-for-342) with 21 doubles, 11 home runs, 58 RBI, four stolen bases, 40 walks, 42 runs scored and an .855 OPS, the beginning of his run of some of the best campaigns by a third baseman in Twins history.

In 2001, Koskie hit .276 (155-for-562) with 37 doubles, two triples, 26 home runs, 103 RBI, 27 stolen bases, 68 walks, 100 runs scored and an .850 OPS, becoming one of six players in Twins history (1961-present) with at least 100 RBI and at least 100 runs scored in a season, alongside Bob Allison, Harmon Killebrew (2x), Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett (2x) and Michael Cuddyer. Koskie’s 2001 performance also garnered him American League MVP votes for the only time in his career.

From 2001-2004, Koskie combined to hit .272 with 127 doubles, nine triples, 80 home runs, 312 RBI, 266 walks, 315 runs scored, an .837 OPS and a 16.9 WAR (per Baseball Reference). Among Twins hitters in that span, he was tops in walks, ranked second in RBI and doubles (behind fellow Twins Hall of Famer Torii Hunter), was third in homers and runs scored, and fourth in hits and fifth in triples. He was a key part of the Twins’ American League Central Division-winning clubs from 2002-04 and hit .308 (4-for-13) with one double, two RBI, three walks, two runs scored and an .858 OPS in the 2004 AL Division Series.

Overall Koskie hit .280 (781-for-2788) with 180 doubles, 13 triples, 101 home runs, 437 RBI, 66 stolen bases, 385 walks, 438 runs scored and an .836 OPS in 816 games over seven seasons in a Minnesota uniform. His .280 career batting average and .966 career fielding percentage lead all Twins third basemen (minimum of 425 games).

Koskie also ranks first on the Twins’ all-time position player list in defensive runs above average (36.6) and fWAR (23.2). After leaving the Twins, Koskie played two more seasons in the majors, for Toronto in 2005 and Milwaukee in 2006, before retiring.