TOM PRINCE

Baseball history is full of backup catchers who manage to play forever despite not being able to hit.  Tom Prince is a prime example.  He spent parts of 17 years in the big leagues, but only appeared in 519 games.  And in those games, he put up a .208 career batting average.

Prince signed with the Twins as a 36 year old free agent in 2001.  That was, of course, the pivotal year in Twins history where, in the face of contraction, the young nucleus of Hunter, Mientkiewicz, Jones, Koskie, and Guzman came together to give the Twins their first winning season in nine years (in manager Tom Kelly's final season).  Prince appeared in 64 games as A.J. Pierzynski's backup and mentor.  In his 15th big league season, he established new career highs with 215 plate appearances and seven home runs.