San Diego ... Twins? Padres boast 3 sets of twin brothers

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SAN DIEGO -- The Padres welcome the Minnesota Twins for a three-game series at Petco Park beginning tonight. And -- apologies for taking this too literally -- those won't be the only twins on the field this week.

That's because the Padres currently employ three twins on their active roster. No, not in the used-to-play-baseball-for-Minnesota sense. (Luis Arraez and Donovan Solano don't count.)

The Padres' three twins -- in a far more literal sense -- are Matt Waldron, Dylan Cease and Xander Bogaerts, each of whom grew up with a fraternal twin brother.

All three are quick to say they wouldn't be where they are without having grown up as a twin. At the very least, they wouldn't have had the same baseball experience.

Waldron's story is perhaps the most prominent. It was with his twin brother, Mike Waldron, that he first began throwing a knuckleball. The two loved using the pitch so much in video games, they began messing around with it in the backyard.

Now, it's Matt's signature pitch, routinely baffling big leaguers. But he says there's so much more that Mike helped him with along the way.

"I'm not throwing against a net," Matt said. "I'm throwing it to somebody who's throwing it back to me and giving me feedback. We were obsessed, truly obsessed. ... I just would not be here without my brother."

The baseball journeys for the Waldron and Cease twins ended after high school. For Xander and Jair Bogaerts, it lasted into pro ball. The Bogaerts signed with the Red Sox together out of Aruba.

"He might be the biggest [impact]," Bogaerts said. "He's definitely up there, with my family included. But it's a little different with him, because we signed together. We played our first year in the Dominican together. ... We were so new, and we didn't know much about being over there. But me going there with my brother -- I had someone."

Xander and Jair were very different players -- Xander a smooth middle-infield prospect and Jair a slugging catcher/first-base type. They often played together against Jurickson Profar's teams in Curaçao.

"Maybe the velo was a little difficult, but up to and before signing, he was a better hitter," Xander said of Jair. "We'd go to a tournament, and -- ask Profar -- Profar would be the batting champ, my brother would be the home run champ."

Profar confirmed as much.

"He was a great hitter," Profar said.

For Dylan and Alec Cease, the story is similar.

"We were always playing baseball together," Dylan said. "We were very competitive with each other. ... But it's really just, I always had a teammate and a friend to do things with."

The three Padres twins are no longer playing baseball alongside their brothers. Mike Waldron has an accounting job in Omaha, Neb. Alec Cease is working at Mercedes-Benz in Atlanta. Jair Bogaerts, after a brief stint as a baseball agent, has properties in Aruba that he manages as vacation rentals.

Taylor Rogers and Tyler Rogers are the only active twin brothers in the big leagues -- and in baseball history only 10 sets of twins have reached MLB.

But that doesn't mean the impact of these twin brothers has faded. If you watched Sunday's heartwarming Players' Weekend video from the Padres' social team, you'll understand the impact of a family's support throughout a season.

But beyond that, there's just something about a twin brother. Mike Waldron made the trip to Denver and hung out with Matt after his rough start Friday -- "much needed," Matt said.

Xander says he still talks to Jair every day and often finds that they were thinking the same things about the same aspects of the game.

"He knows what to say and when to say it and why," Xander said. "Because he knows me so good. He just knows the ins and the outs. And sometimes you don't want to hear [anything]. He'll know that, too.

"Someone else? Maybe it would be like: 'Bro, leave.' But he played. He knows how hard the game is. He knows me. He just knows what to say."