Twins players arrive at Opening Day, whether first-timers or familiar with it, bearing emotions

ST. LOUIS - Pablo López was hoping to run into Sonny Gray, his former teammate and Thursday’s Opening Day opponent, during the Twins’ and Cardinals’ workouts at Busch Stadium on Wednesday.

“I was hoping to see him playing catch, throwing the baseball,” López said. “But I didn’t hear any grunting.”

Take that as the first solid hit of the 2025 season, one competitor amicably heckling another on the eve of their Opening Day faceoff. Gray will be making his fourth Opening Day start and first since 2020 with the Reds, while López gets the ceremonial honor for the third consecutive season with the Twins.

“It means the world to me,” said López, who joins Bert Blyleven, Dave Goltz and Brad Radke as the only Twins to start three openers in a row. “As a starter, you always want to set the tone for the game, for the series, for the season. And my grandma notified me that the game is going to be broadcast in Venezuela tomorrow, so that gives me more motivation. You always want to make Grandma proud.”

There will be a lot of proud people around the ballpark Thursday, plenty of players’ parents and children and spouses. Heck, Twins outfielder DaShawn Keirsey is hoping his dog is here to watch him play alongside his fiancée, Tori Webster, since it’s a service dog.

But everyone in the Twins’ dugout agreed: It’s going to be an emotional day. Not just because it marks the renewal of baseball, but because it means they are at the top of their chosen profession.

“I’m super-stoked,” said Keirsey, one of four current Twins — along with infielder Mickey Gasper and pitchers Simeon Woods Richardson and Justin Topa — who will experience the celebration for the first time. “I’m going to do my best to really soak up the moment. Guys like [Byron] and [Harrison] Bader, they say you never get used to it. They say it’s awesome.”

For Topa, suiting up for the game will be a victory in itself, because it means he’s healthy. He’s pitched in big-league games in each of the past five seasons, but never on Day 1.

There were a couple of close calls. When he was in camp with the Brewers in 2021, he injured his elbow five days before the season started. In 2023, he was the last pitcher cut by the Mariners, though he joined Seattle’s bullpen 10 days later.

“It’s cool, right? Starting the year is a little different for me,” said Topa, who was limited to three relief appearances last year because of injuries. “It’ll be fun. I’ve got family coming to town, so it’ll be a cool experience.”

It almost always has been under Rocco Baldelli, who is 4-2 in Twins openers, both losses coming by one run. Minnesota pitching has allowed only 14 runs in those six games, six of them in a 10-inning loss in Milwaukee in 2021. López has been scored on only once in his two openers — and this one, he thinks, might be the most fun of them all.

“There’s probably not a better place to have Opening Day than St. Louis. It’s such a baseball town, there’s so much history here,” López said. “My adrenaline is beginning to build up. You know, you have to approach the game the same way you approach a June 27 start.”

Nobody gets this sort of emotional rush on June 27, though.

“I’m an emotional player, but I don’t know, some of the [ceremonial] stuff doesn’t really hit me all that hard when I’m in it. The game is what gets me going,” said Gasper, who at age 29 has made an Opening Day roster for the first time in his seven years as a professional. “I’m sure my mom will be emotional, so that might make me a little emotional, too.”

And just imagine what the moment might be like if the switch hitter lines a single to the outfield during the game.

“Just find grass, baby,” Gasper said at the suggestion. “Just find a way to put the ball on the grass and help the team win.”

Gasper played 13 games for the Red Sox last season, his first and until this week only major league experience, and his parents attended nearly all of them. The Sox’s broadcaster, NESN, liked to show his folks watching each of his at-bats as Gasper chased his first big-league hit.

It wasn’t the feel-good story they had hoped.

“It was painful, for sure. I’d check the iPad [in the dugout to see] my previous at-bat, and you could only look at the broadcast feed,” said Gasper, who unfortunately ended the season 0-for-18. “So I’d try to look at my at-bat, and I’d see my parents stressing over every pitch. I was like, I don’t really want to watch that anymore.”