It's been a while since Nick Gordon made a mark with the Minnesota Twins, but he returned to the Twin Cities last week.

"It's been awesome. The air, the everything. Definitely miss Minnesota, the weather, the people, everything," Gordon said.

Gordon, 29, was Minnesota's first-round pick in 2014 and came up in the Twins organization. He was traded away before the 2024 season. 

After one season in Miami, he signed with Baltimore. Then, early this month, he was traded from the Orioles to the Kansas City Royals and assigned to AAA Omaha. Three days later, his new team came to St. Paul to play the Saints.

"When I heard they were coming to St. Paul, I definitely called all my friends here, all my guys," Gordon said.

Gordon is still close with many Twins players, like Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton, who he spent time with over the weekend with both players' teams in town. The MLB is a unique experience. Gordon is now in his fourth organization in just over one year.

"For me, it's a blessing to be able to get on flights or go to this ballpark or that ballpark, or play for this team or that team," said Gordon. "I never really took the negative in it."

A baseball life, enviable and complicated.

"My dad would always tell me, sometimes you're gonna have to miss certain things and you're gonna have to miss out on a fun time. But you know, you're getting to do things that many people in this life will never get a chance to do," Gordon said.

He is the son of all-star pitcher Tom "Flash" Gordon, who's first eight big league seasons were in Kansas City. The thing about baseball serendipity, it just keeps going.

"Even when I signed this year with Baltimore, my mom, before I signed, she kept calling me every day and was like, 'I have a feeling you're gonna play for Kansas City,'" Gordon recalled with a shake of the head. "It's wild, man. Nothing surprises me anymore."