Twins hitting coaches should get their due for team’s turnaround

The Twins have solved one of their most worrisome problems.

They are no longer dependent on their stars.

For years, they couldn’t win without Byron Buxton in the lineup.

Last year, they had trouble winning early in the season while Carlos Correa was playing through plantar fasciitis.

Earlier this year, the lineup looked helpless when Royce Lewis was unavailable.

Now the Twins have stars, and enough offensive depth to win without them.

This is a result of drafting and developing hitting talent, and a group of hitting coaches that has shown a knack for breaking players out of slumps.

When the Twins set the record for home runs in a season in 2019, then-hitting coach James Rowson received his share of the credit. He was easy to praise. His hitters were thriving, and he was gregarious and insightful.

Current hitting coach David Popkins came under fire during the first 3½ months of the 2023 season as the Twins’ lineup slumped, and he didn’t spend much time doing damage control.

Now the results are speaking for him. Popkins, fellow hitting coach Rudy Hernandez and assistant Derek Shomon, along with Correa, have helped turn the Twins into an offensive powerhouse.

“One of the hardest jobs in baseball is being a hitting coach for a major league team,” Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said. “I think it remains the shortest-tenured job of any individual position coach. You deal with failure so much more than with success. Half the job is psychologist; half the job is technician, and you have to find the right blend.”

At the 2023 All-Star break, the Twins ranked 16th in walks, 25th in on-base percentage, 20th in slugging percentage, 24th in runs and 22nd in OPS.

After the All-Star break, they ranked first in walks, fourth in OBP, third in slugging percentage, fifth in runs and third in OPS.

This season, even with Buxton, Correa and Lewis spending time on the injured list and Buxton going through an early-season slump, the Twins rank 19th in walks, sixth in OBP, third in slugging, fourth in runs and fifth in OPS.

You’ll notice one difference between the way the Twins thrived at the end of ‘23 and how they’re thriving now.

They aren’t drawing as many walks. They’re attacking hittable pitches early in the count. Also, second baseman Edouard Julien specialized in drawing walks, and he has spent most of this season in the minors.

What’s most impressive about the Twins’ offensive performances over the last calendar year is how many inexperienced or previously slumping players have produced.

Matt Wallner went through a terrible slump, repaired his swing mechanics at Class AAA St. Paul and looks like a different hitter now. Jose Miranda looked like he had lost his chance to secure an everyday big-league job and then, this year, he tied a major league record for most consecutive hits.

Willi Castro had a .673 OPS with Detroit, and was released. He has a .762 OPS with the Twins and was just named to the All-Star team.

Popkins deserves credit, but the reality of the modern-day hitter is that each is on his own program. Some might rely solely on Popkins. Some might use video to work with their own personal guru. Sometimes teammates consult one another, and Correa, as the unquestioned team leader, often translates analytics data into information his teammates can absorb.

“Carlos understands the more advanced things that exist in the game today,” Falvey said. “And he can help younger players understand what the data means.”

St. Paul Saints hitting instructor Shawn Schlechter has helped Lewis and Lee prepare for the big leagues, and recently helped Wallner alter his stride, turning him from an easy out to one of the most dangerous hitters on the team.

Whatever they’re doing and whoever should get the most credit, the Twins’ improvement at the plate over the last calendar year has been dramatic, and the Twins’ top two prospects who aren’t in the majors — outfielders Walker Jenkins and Emma Rodriguez — are projected to be stars.

“We haven’t gotten off to great starts the last two years, and the most important thing for our hitting coaches was that they didn’t panic,” Falvey said. “You have to take things seriously, but you can’t totally pivot from what got these players to the big leagues in the first place.”