Dave Boswell, who won 20 games as a 24-year-old in 1969 and pitched eight seasons in the majors for the Twins, Tigers, and Orioles, has passed away at age 67.
Boswell’s former teammate, Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, tweeted the sad news last night.
Boswell debuted with the Twins as a 19-year-old in 1964 and posted a sub-3.50 ERA in each of his first five full seasons. That run culminated in 20 wins and a 3.23 ERA in 256 innings in 1969 as the Twins won the division title, but Boswell was never the same after throwing 10.2 innings in a postseason start versus the Orioles.
He’d gone 64-47 with a 3.28 ERA in 968 innings through age 24, but logged a total of 98 innings with a 5.90 ERA from age 25 on and threw his last big-league pitch as a 26-year-old in 1971.
Blyleven is the only player in Twins history to start more games, log more innings, strike out more batters, or record more wins than Boswell through age 24. And despite the premature end to Boswell’s very promising career I ranked him as the 36th-best player in Minnesota Twins history.