Fitzgerald makes wild journey from Triple-A to Milwaukee

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.

MILWAUKEE -- There are literal journeys and there are metaphorical journeys. En route to his Major League debut on Friday night, Twins infielder Ryan Fitzgerald made one of each.

The metaphorical trek is obvious as soon as you look at his stats page. Fitzgerald, who turns 31 next month, has just about seen it all in baseball, though until Friday he’d never been on a big league roster.

He went undrafted after four years at Creighton University, played in the independent American Association, spent six years in the Red Sox system and is now with his third MLB organization. He’s spent two winters playing for Licey in the Dominican Republic.

It's been a long haul.

But then, so was the literal journey from Triple-A St. Paul’s series in Des Moines, Iowa, to American Family Field in Milwaukee. Let Fitzgerald tell you that one himself.

“We had a doubleheader in Des Moines,” he recalled. “I played Game 1, 0-for-3 with two K’s. Right? Naturally. [Manager] Toby Gardenhire, he scratched me [for the second game], and I actually was mad at him. …

“So I was on the bench, kind of [angry], but I was like, ‘Whatever, I’ll play tomorrow.’ Then he came to me in the second inning and said, ‘Hey, you need to go up.’ … I left the game in the second inning, went and packed up the hotel room, tried to fly here, but the flight got canceled. So, got in a car and drove.

“Me, girlfriend and her dog.”

Yes, all three of them. Fitzgerald, girlfriend Briar (who is a TikTok influencer) and fluffy little Koda. They hopped in the car and drove the six hours from Des Moines to Milwaukee so that Fitzgerald could make his big league debut.

But even then, it wasn’t a certainty. Fitzgerald was initially added to the taxi squad as the Twins waited to learn the status of Carlos Correa, who was in MLB’s concussion protocol. When Correa was formally placed on the injured list, Fitzgerald was added to the Major League roster for the first time.

His second phone call was to his parents. But there’s a reason for that.

“I called my younger brother, Colan,” Fitzgerald said. “I called him because I didn’t want to tell my parents first. I was like, ‘I’m going to call them and let them know, put the camera on them, I want to see the reaction.’”

Fortunately, mom and dad were able to make the trip. In fact, it was quite a bit of an easier path for them to get to Milwaukee than for Fitzgerald himself. He hails from the Chicago suburbs, making for a pretty easy hop to American Family Field.

It was a cheering section of seven.

“Most of my friends are in baseball, so they’re either still playing or they’re in other parts of the country,” Fitzgerald said. “A lot of them have young kids now, too. So they couldn’t make it out. But some of them were checking flights to see if they could. I only had mom, dad, two brothers, agent, girlfriend and my trainer from back home.”

Only? That’s not bad at all. He said he was able to spot them quickly in the stands, too.

“I saw them right away,” he said. “They had all the gear on, all the Fitzy gear.”

And best of all? They got to see him play right away. The reason wasn’t good -- Willi Castro fouled a ball off of his knee in the second inning, and Fitzgerald was needed to man second base for the already injury-depleted Twins.

But he got in there, and he can say he’s played in a big league game. And that’s not just popular among his friends and family. There are a lot of people pulling for Fitzgerald.

“Toby went over and gave him a hug,” said pitcher Zebby Matthews, who also made the trip from Des Moines this weekend, “and we were all like, ‘Is this really happening right now?’ He came in and told everybody the news. It was awesome. He kind of went across the field and he was gone. But yeah, to see a guy like him, he’s worked his tail off all through the Minors, so to see him get the opportunity is awesome.”