Same name, same position ... different players?

SEATTLE -- How many Austin Adams can be in uniform during a Major League baseball game? Turns out the answer was two on Thursday at T-Mobile Park as both the Twins and Mariners had their own version of Austin Adams in the bullpen.

The Mariners promoted Austin Lance Adams, a 28-year-old right-hander from Florida, to their Major League club on Monday after acquiring him from the Nationals nine days earlier.

The Twins made it a double on Thursday by calling up Austin David Adams, a 32-year-old right-hander from Alabama, to bolster their bullpen for his first MLB promotion since 2016, when he was with the Indians.

The two are not from the same Adams family and, in fact, had never met prior to Thursday’s series opener in Seattle. The Twins won, 11-6, and neither Adams pitched in the game.

“He’s a little older than I am,” said the Mariners’ Adams. “I’ve never ran into him. But it’s actually pretty funny. In 2009, he got drafted and that was my senior year in high school. So my college coach [at South Florida] called and said, ‘Hey, I see you got drafted so you’re probably not going to show up on campus.’ And I said, ‘Uh, that’s a different Austin Adams. Don’t give my scholarship away. I still need that.’”

The two almost crossed paths again prior to the 2017 season. At that point, the current Mariners’ Adams was with the Angels, who traded him to the Nationals in December. Two months later, the current Twins’ Adams was traded from the Indians to the Angels.

“That was confusing,” said Seattle’s Adams. “I started using my middle initial last year trying to clear it up, but everyone seems to still get it mixed up.”

As of pregame Thursday, the two still hadn’t crossed paths.

"I haven't yet," the Twins' Adams said of a potential meeting with his unofficial twin. "But that's pretty cool.”

Seattle’s Adams -- who has pitched in 10 big league games over the past three years with the Nats and now Mariners -- said he often receives fan mail meant for his namesake, looking for autographs on baseball cards from the other Adams' days with the Indians, when he pitched in 53 games from 2014-16.

“I’d love to meet him and just let him know, ‘Listen man, the amount of baseball cards I have of yours is ridiculous,'" the Mariners' Adams said. "He’s been in the game a lot longer than I have and with a lot more show time, so people know him more than me.

“I don’t sign them, just because it’s not me. I would hope if he gets any of my Minor League cards from the Cal League he doesn’t sign them either. It’s pretty funny. It’s kind of been a running joke with my family and people who have played with him and played with me.”

Seattle’s Adams even has a scenario thought out for a potential photo.

“There’s a Spider-Man meme where two Spider-Men are pointing at each other,” he said. “I think that would be awesome.”