SARASOTA, Fla. — Michael Cuddyer fancies himself an amateur magician, a master of a number of card tricks and quite the sleight-of-hand artist.

He’s so good that some of his teammates have accused him good-naturedly of witchcraft and could easily picture Cuddyer jumping the train to Hogwarts with Harry Potter.

But no incantation was found to pull the former first-round draft pick from Great Bridge High out of a miserable slump earlier this month in spring training.

A strapping 6-foot-2, 225-pound rightfielder, Cuddyer wasn’t hitting his weight. His 5-for-45 showing at the plate translated to a .111 batting average.

“The spring trainings when I didn’t know if I was going to make the major league club were some of my best,” Cuddyer said. “This year I come in knowing I’m going to Minnesota and it’s one of my worst spring trainings ever.”

Preparing to play an exhibition game this past Tuesday against the host Cincinnati Reds, Cuddyer stood in foul territory near third base at Ed Smith Stadium with his massive forearms folded across his chest. He looked anything but worried as fans bellowed his name in the stands behind him, begging for an autograph.

He had finally roared out of that slump 10 days prior, comfortable in the knowledge that he could likely start in rightfield for the Minnesota Twins when they open the season Monday at Detroit.

That is, if he’s not standing in at third for Corey Koskie, who has been bothered by a groin pull this spring. But rightfield is Cuddyer’s primary spot, which he shares with Dustan Mohr and Bobby Kielty.

“We will go into the season with those three,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “I’m going to use them all out there. Until one guy completely dominates and takes over, we can play them all because they can all play. They all bring something special to the table, and we’re going to give them all opportunities.”

Although he’s the least experienced, Cuddyer will be given his shot, and he knows it.

It’s the kind of comfort afforded a young player who has experienced the successes of October. Cuddyer was starting in right for the Twins last fall when they beat the Oakland A’s in the American League divisional playoffs.

Just like that, he’d gone from toiling in Triple-A to having his smiling face on the Fox network’s pregame lineup card.

For Cuddyer, it all happened in the blink of an eye, and he figures that was a good thing. After spending the majority of last season with Edmonton, Cuddyer was recalled to the Twins the day before playoff rosters were set.

Cuddyer’s name was tacked onto the Twins’ playoff list, and upper management’s faith in the up-and-coming star paid off when Cuddyer hit .433 in the last 10 games of the regular season to finish the year with a .259 average for the Twins.

“I went out and had a good September,” he said with a grin.

He then batted .333 in the playoffs. “We had one day off between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs,” Cuddyer said. “I didn’t have time to reflect. I saved that until after the season.”

His reflections only fueled his fire. As he has done in the last six offseasons, Cuddyer returned to his parents’ home in Chesapeake and huddled on a regular basis at the Chesapeake Athletic Club with his personal trainer, Piny Reyes.

Since being the ninth player taken in the 1997 draft, Cuddyer has added 30 pounds. The extra muscle makes him look like a hardened veteran, not someone who just turned 24 Thursday and is considered by many to be a candidate for American League Rookie-of-the-Year honors this season. Cuddyer’s 130 career at-bats in the majors left him one shy of the cutoff number for Rookie-of-the-Year eligibility.

His 43 days spent in the majors last season left him two days shy of yet another cutoff. Throw in the playoffs and Cuddyer is about as experienced as a rookie can be.

Speaking of rookies, the major league minimum salary this season is $300,000. That’s a $100,000 increase over last year’s minimum, thanks to the Players Association’s new labor agreement with Major League Baseball.

But when Cuddyer says it’s not about the money or the awards, he says it with earnest eyes. He loves the game, enough so that he returned to his home in Fort Myers. Fla. — the Twins’ spring training complex is located there — and took batting practice at the club’s complex “five or six days a week beginning Jan. 12.”

Because the Twins play in one of Major League Baseball’s smaller markets, it is an organization that doesn’t have the luxury to chase name players on the free-agent market.

It also means the presence of a lot of home-grown talent that has been cultivated through the Twins’ minor league system. When Cuddyer looks around the clubhouse, he sees a number of guys he’s played with in the minors.

“There is a camaraderie with a small-market team like ours that other organizations might lack,” Cuddyer said. “We are a tight-knit group.” And as for that slump a few weeks ago, Cuddyer has a pat answer.

“Spring training numbers don’t mean a thing,” he said. “Come March 31, I’ll be hitting .000 just like everyone else and it won’t matter how good or bad I did in spring training.”