Matt Wallner’s swing was getting sweepy when the Minnesota Twins recalled him in late May, so hitting coach David Popkins told him to focus on hitting the ball to left-center. Wallner changed his approach and hit .636/.714/1.000 in five games before the Twins sent him down. They recalled Wallner on July 17. He hit a monster home run to left-center nine days later and has cemented himself as part of Minnesota’s future.
But Wallner, 25, hasn’t stopped adjusting. On Friday, he fielded a ball at the warning track and immediately threw it back to the infield. It’s a small thing. There’s no guarantee the ball was going to leave the park, and he has a pitcher’s arm. He doesn’t need to throw the ball back quickly. The crucial element here is that the Twins asked him to get the ball out faster, and he did so immediately. “We told him to get rid of the ball faster, so he did,” said Rocco Baldelli. “The next throw was immediately faster. I’ve seen guys that take that suggestion, and they play for ten more years, and they’ve never sped it up. I can’t tell you why.”
He’s made those adjustments to some mechanical things. He’s made those adjustments like mentally changing his schedule to make sure that he’s at a certain place at a certain time to get a certain drill done.
He wants to get better, and he knows that those are the ways to becoming a better player. And many of those adjustments start with discipline, and many of those adjustments start with knowing what you’re trying to actually accomplish.
Young players are entering the league more prepared to be professionals. They emulate stars like Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, and Sonny Gray, who adhere to strict routines. It helps them perform at their best and stay healthy. Sometimes it’s for physical reasons. Buxton needs treatment to remain on the field, and Gray’s habits have led to his longevity on the mound. But often, it’s mental. Correa wants to be at peak focus at the first pitch and carry that until the final out.
Beyond the $200 million contract, All-Star appearances, and championship pedigree, Correa brings a willingness to mentor young players. He pesters Derek Falvey and the front office for information about Minnesota’s top prospects. Once they arrive in the majors, he explains his routine and what he does to prepare for games. Buxton has acted as a similar resource, as has Grey with the pitching staff. In some cases, the Twins’ top prospects grew up watching some of their teammates. For example, Joe Ryan grew up in the Bay Area watching Gray pitch for the Oakland A’s.
Clubhouses were less welcoming when Baldelli broke into the big leagues. Veterans were often cold to the young players. Across the league, teams expected their prospects to sit quietly, adapt to the culture, and deliver on the field. Prospects were a threat to established players. Outside of the stars, most players lack job security in professional sports. Prospects are cheaper and typically healthier. Who’s to blame a 30-something fringe player for not wanting to mentor his potential replacement?
But the Twins can’t operate like that. Even if the environment around baseball hadn’t changed, they have to rely on prospects to win. As a mid-market team in the middle of the country, they will always have difficulty recruiting free agents. Even though they operate on a midsize payroll, got Correa to stay in Minnesota, and extended Buxton, player development will always be their lifeblood.
“It has to be,” says Baldelli. “It absolutely has to be.”
If we don’t do that well, we will not succeed. That’s a major part of what we do, and we’re not perfect, either. We don’t have every part of that equation figured out by any means. But we’re trying. That is an objective of ours, to have everything flowing.
A well-oiled machine of some kind, that’s part of the machine. When these guys show up, we need them to be ready to go. We’re not just bringing guys up from the minor leagues to see how they do and give them a little bit of experience. F— that, we need to win. And they need to help us win, and that’s the best way to have them ready to play.
The Twins would have liked to have kept Buxton healthier and gotten more from Correa at the plate. But their emerging young core is buoying them in a tumultuous season. Edouard Julien approaches at-bats like a veteran, Bailey Ober is rounding out the rotation, and Royce Lewis delivers in the clutch. Ryan Jeffers and Alex Kirilloff are professional hitters about to enter their prime.
When a young player enters the clubhouse, they usually know half the guys in the room because they played with them in the minors. They’re also familiar with the veterans because they met them in Spring Training or sought their advice in a previous stint. Wallner isn’t changing his game to conform to a cold clubhouse. He’s constantly making adjustments because he wants to have a long major league career and help his hometown team win.
