Back With Minnesota, Mark Hamburger Relishes Moment

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — With 61 players in spring training with the Minnesota Twins, the paths taken to major league camp are many.

Mark Hamburger's winding journey included a month in rehab.

"I don't believe in coincidences, so all that stuff that happened to me and even stuff that's going to continue to happen, whatever path I take I know that it's meant to happen," Hamburger said. "So I just try to live in the moment and try to let things come. If you try to push for things, it doesn't really work out as well. It's just letting them go."

The right-hander posted a 3.69 ERA in 70-plus innings last season, mostly with Triple-A Rochester after a promotion from Double-A New Britain. Hamburger is 28 now, well past the age of most prospects, but he has always been a late bloomer.

The 6-foot-4 Hamburger grew eight inches his senior year at Mounds View High School, a suburb about 10 miles north of Minneapolis, and didn't turn pro until he was 20 when the Twins signed him out of their annual tryout camp.

Traded to Texas in 2008, Hamburger made his major league debut with eight innings for the Rangers in 2011. But he was left off their 40-man roster the following year and bitterly bounced around the minors, getting let go by Texas and then San Diego and Houston, too. He turned to marijuana to deal with the frustration and after a second failed test was slapped with a 50-game suspension in early 2013.