Twins prospect Matt Wallner was supposed to call around 2 p.m. Thursday, but there was a delay.
Twins prospect Matt Wallner is having a week to remember
The 24-year-old Forest Lake native is headed to the All-Star Futures Game on Saturday after a promotion to Class AAA St. Paul on Thursday.
July 15, 2022 at 7:05PM
Turns out it was for a good reason.
At 2:04 p.m., the Class AAA Saint Paul Saints confirmed via Twitter some rumblings about a promotion from Class AA Wichita for Wallner. About 30 minutes later, Wallner confirmed it himself on the phone for a reporter who hadn't quite seen it was official yet.
The question to Wallner: "Looking at your numbers, you're 24 and you're tearing up Wichita. Have you been given any indication there might be another jump for you this year?"
The answer after a pause: "Uh ... yeah I'm actually on the way to St. Paul right now."
A few hours after that, Wallner was in the lineup and hitting cleanup at CHS Field as the designated hitter. And on Saturday, he will be in Los Angeles as part of the MLB All-Star Futures Game.
Not a bad week, with two rewards for a stellar season.
Wallner earned his promotion by hitting 21 home runs and amassing a gaudy .436 on-base percentage and 1.033 OPS in 342 plate appearances for Wichita. That came on the heels of a strong season at Class A Cedar Rapids (15 homers, .858 OPS) in 2021, which followed the lost season of 2020 in which there were no minor league games.
The biggest difference between this season and last year for Wallner? 62 walks this year compared to 28 a year ago in a comparable number of plate appearances.
"I've just tried to be more patient at the plate — drawing more walks and trying to be more selective," he said. "I'm just trying to find more balls to do damage with, and so far I've been successful with that."
It's quite a progression considering Wallner's path. The Twins drafted Wallner in the 32nd round as a pitcher out of Forest Lake in 2016. He opted to play college baseball at Southern Mississippi, where he transitioned from being a pitching/hitting dual threat into a hitting machine. By 2019, he was a first-round pick, again by the Twins.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity," he said. "There's no other organization I'd rather be with than the hometown team. ... The second time through, it's an even more cool and surreal experience when you understand you are going to be a part of it."
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
