FORT MYERS, Fla. — Twins outfielder Michael Cuddyer has played in all of 49 major league games over two seasons, has struck out more often than he's gotten a hit and has yet to earn a starting job in the big leagues.

But after the Twins' wild ride through the playoffs last season, during which Cuddyer had seven postseason starts in right field, the rookie can't seem to go anywhere in Chesapeake, Va., without being recognized.

Anywhere?

Just ask him about the time he went to that sports bar to watch "Monday Night Football" and had trouble taking a bathroom break.

"I'm at the urinal, and a guy taps me on the shoulder and tries to have a conversation with me — while I'm using the urinal,'' Cuddyer said. "That was the worst. I wanted to say, 'I'll be glad to talk, just let me relieve myself.' "

Believe that life has changed for Cuddyer.

"Yeah,'' he said, "but it's pretty good.''

Consider how much better it could get with a strong spring.

After hitting .385 during that seven-game playoff stretch, he enters spring training with the inside track in a crowded race for the Opening Day right field job. He already is in manager Ron Gardenhire's lineup for the exhibition opener Thursday night against the Boston Red Sox.

"I've said all along I want to see what he can do,'' Gardenhire said. "We saw (Bobby Kielty), we saw (Dustan) Mohr play, and they both did great. I want to see what Cuddyer can do. If Michael Cuddyer looks like he's going to kill the ball and drive it all over the ballpark like he did last spring, I'll put him out there (on Opening Day).''

Cuddyer hit .317 with eight extra-base hits and 11 runs batted in over 21 games last spring but opened the season at Class AAA Edmonton because the Twins thought too highly of his long-term potential to have him sit on the bench. Brian Buchanan was the big-league starter in right.

Even after Buchanan went on the disabled list early in the season — he eventually was traded to San Diego — Mohr and Kielty wound up sharing right field for almost the entire season. Nicknamed "Dusty Kielmohr,'' the pair combined to hit .278 with 24 homers and 91 RBIs.

Those two, who happen to be two of Cuddyer's best friends on the team — he is rooming with Mohr this spring — and are his stiffest competition for the starting job.

It not only hasn't gotten in the way of the outfielders' friendships, but if Cuddyer does what scouts inside and outside the organization have projected since he was drafted ninth overall in June 1997, it might not matter.

And if he wins the starting job, he has the talent that suggests he's capable of making a bid to become the Twins' sixth Rookie of the Year winner, their first since Marty Cordova in 1995.

After all, how many rookies can say they have seven games of playoff experience and a .333 postseason batting average (6 for 18)?

"It's a cool thing, but at the same time, it's not a motivating factor,'' said Cuddyer, who turns 24 next month. "We got a taste of the playoffs last year, and I want to help the team get back there and have that feeling again. That's my motivating factor.''

That playoff experience might be the biggest advantage Cuddyer has.

"It's definitely valuable. Those seven games I played were huge,'' he said. "To have Gardy have the confidence to put me out there in the playoff games and let me start gives me a lot of confidence coming into this spring. And it makes me feel more like a part of the team, like I belong.''

Before that, Cuddyer's claim to fame in the Twins clubhouse might have been his repertoire of card tricks. But the card tricks have stayed in the box so far this spring.

"They'll come out. It'll just take a little longer this year,'' he said. "I've gotten a few requests for them.''

He hasn't intentionally ignored the tricks, and it's not a sign of a change in his level of seriousness about his job this year, he said.

But he might have a few more important things on his mind nonetheless.

And, besides, he said, "Everybody's seen them.''

So this year, he said, he has a few new ones.

"I have a rope trick,'' he said, "and a magic stick this year.''

The Twins hope so.