 Despite his World Series heroics and gold glove-caliber fielding (his .991 fielding percentage was tops among American League second basemen in 1986), Lombardozzi was never able to hit above .238 for the Twins (after hitting .275 in the minors and .370 during his 1985 major league debut season) and hit only .209 with 3 home runs and 27 RBI in 1989.Following both the 1987 and 1988 seasons, the Twins, looking to add some more offense at the position, traded first for Cardinal Tommy Herr and then New York Mets second baseman Wally Backman.Being the odd man out, Lombardozzi split time at second in 1988 and finally was traded to the Houston Astros at the end of spring training in 1989 (for career minor league outfielder Roman Cedeno).