On Saturday night, the Minnesota Twins were in full control against the Los Angeles Angels. Carlos Santana just socked a three-run homer to pave the way to what would be a 16-5 victory. As he stepped on home plate, he made his way toward the dugout, where he was greeted by…Ryan Jeffers’s giant sausage?
“It’s a summer, tangy sausage,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli explained in a similar tone to an adult who had just been summoned to the principal’s office after his child had been acting up in school. I actually looked at the package yesterday. It’s bringing us a lot of hits and runs and stuff, so I’m all for it.”
Indeed, Jeffers has introduced a rally sausage to the Twins dugout. It has fueled Minnesota to just over eight runs per game during their seven-game winning streak. While Baldelli expressed long-term concerns about the unrefrigerated sausage breaking out of its packaging, Jeffers may have a more sterile solution thanks to an offensive game that has broken out over the past two seasons.
The Twins took Jeffers in the second round of the 2018 draft mainly because of his offensive game. In 128 games at UNC Wilmington, Jeffers hit .323/.445/.620 with 27 home runs and 96 RBI. He got off to a great start in the minors, hitting .344/.444/.502 with seven homers and 33 RBI in 64 games between rookie ball and Low-A Cedar Rapids.
Jeffers hit .264/.341/.762 with 14 homers and 49 RBI during the 2019 season. He debuted in the majors during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, hitting .273/.355/.436 with three homers and seven RBI in 26 games.
Jeffers’s performance was so good that the Twins decided to trade Mitch Garver, who was just over a year removed from hitting a franchise-record 31 home runs as a catcher in 2019. But Jeffers’s growing pains followed. He only hit .203/.277/.384 with 21 homers and 62 RBI in 152 games during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
While the Twins still liked Jeffers’s potential, they needed an insurance plan and a defensive upgrade. In November 2022, they signed Christian Vázquez to a three-year, $30 million contract. He was expected to be the starter, with Jeffers serving as the backup.
However, Jeffers made several adjustments to his approach at the plate over the winter and the results were apparent in spring training. Jeffers increased his exit velocity from 90.3 mph during the 2022 season to 95.6 mph during the 2023 season. He created a greater launch angle by lowering his hands, going from 5.3 degrees to 20.5 degrees.
The changes continued into the regular season. Jeffers had his best season in the majors, hitting .276/.369/.490 with 14 homers and 43 RBI in 96 games. However, he also saw gains in other areas, such as an increase in average exit velocity (90.5 mph) and a bigger jump in max exit velocity from 113.2 mph in 2022 to 117.4 mph in 2023.
The gains helped him retake the starting job from Vázquez and enter this season with ample confidence. Jeffers has smashed five home runs, but he’s also contributed in other ways. Jeffers has six doubles (his previous career high came last season with 15) and 25 total hits (a career-high of 79 last season).
“I’m much more of a well-rounded hitter now,” Jeffers told The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman last August. “I’ve always been able to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but now I’m able to kind of be a hitter. I’m putting good swings on the ball, making good swing decisions. Get singles when I need to get singles, take my walks. That’s what keeps the OPS high and leads to winning baseball.”
Jeffers has spawned winning baseball over the past week. Jeffers has had a solid start overall, hitting .305/.392/.561 in his first 24 games. However, he’s hitting 11-for-25 with two home runs, six doubles, and six walks over Minnesota’s seven-game win streak.
Jeffers has become one of Minnesota’s most important bats. However, it’s not a new phenomenon. Since the start of last season, Jeffers ranks second among current Twins with a .278 average, .372 on-base percentage and .501 slugging percentage while trailing Royce Lewis in all three categories. Jeffers also ranks second behind Edouard Julien (3.9) with 3.5 wins above replacement, which his improvement defensively has also fueled.
With the adjustments that Jeffers has made at the plate, perhaps it’s not a magic sausage that has been leading the Twins to an offensive explosion. But for a team that has struggled to score runs this season, it’s good to see that Jeffers’s bat could break out along with a potential health code violation.
