How Giants' twins Tyler, Taylor Rogers navigated reuniting on MLB team
How Giants' Rogers twins navigated reuniting on MLB team originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Programming note: Alex Pavlovic and Laura Britt's full interview with the Rogers twins debuts at 5:30 p.m. Monday on NBC Sports Bay Area before "Giants Pregame Live," with an encore at 10:30 p.m. after "Giants Postgame Live."
For the first time since they were high schoolers, Giants relievers -- and identical twins -- Tyler and Taylor Rogers are back on the same team.
But while Tyler was drafted by San Francisco a decade ago and has been a part of its big league roster since 2019, Taylor joined his brother in the Orange and Black this offseason after signing a three-year, $33 million contract with the Giants.
So, did Taylor feel like he was imposing on Tyler's territory at all when he decided to play in the Bay? The duo explained to NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic and Laura Britt how they handled the unique situation during a spring training interview for "Giants Talk," airing at 5:30 p.m. Monday on NBC Sports Bay Area.
"We didn’t talk about it too much in the beginning," Taylor told Britt and Pavlovic. "I didn’t want to have a conversation with him and then the Giants not be interested, and then kind of feel awkward because we had a conversation and then it never materialized."
When the Giants emerged as a realistic suitor for Taylor, however, he decided to have a conversation with his twin.
"But as things kind of got going and it looked like the Giants could be a potential [fit], I wanted to have a discussion with him -- you know, if that would bother him in any way or anything like that, because he’s created his life here and I understand what that is," Taylor said. "He was really open to it and said, ‘We’d love to have you if it works out.’
"He never pushed me one way or the other, either, so I think that’s why we’re ready to be teammates again. We handled that in a mature way, which is a rarity. I think it was good for us to separate, become our own people. He’s Tyler, I’m Taylor, and now that we’re adult-ish, we can reconvene."
Tyler's 2019 MLB debut with the Giants made the Rogers just the 10th set of twins to play in the majors -- Taylor debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 2016 -- and last season, when Taylor was with the Padres, they became the fifth set of twins to play in the same MLB game when San Diego visited Oracle Park.
And as far as twins on the same team go, Tyler and Taylor are the fourth set in MLB history to play in the same jersey -- an opportunity and place in history they don't take lightly.
"It’s definitely like a ‘pinch yourself’ moment," Tyler told Pavlovic and Britt. "We’re in, like, Day 10 or something of camp and it’s still -- you’ve got to look at it and go, ‘Wow, we’re really doing this.’ It’s pretty cool, and when I saw Tay in a Giants uniform, I just felt proud for him, honestly.
"I forgot that I was wearing the same uniform, but I was proud of him and it’s cool. It’s a cool moment."
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Just as they did in their teens, Tyler and Taylor now don the same uniform again after all these years. And for the brothers, it certainly has been nothing short of fulfilling.
