St. Paul – When the Minnesota Twins optioned Matt Wallner and Royce Lewis down to Triple-A, they wanted them to have a full reset. They allowed them to take as much time as needed.
Royce Lewis made his stay in St. Paul short. The Twins called him back up on Saturday after he hit 10 home runs over 15 games, and Matt Wallner may not be far behind him. The Forest Lake native had a three-home-run game in the Saints’ 7-4 win Thursday night, which was the highlight of a hot 10-game stretch.
“I feel like it’s in a pretty good spot,” Wallner said of his swing. “So I’m kind of excited with how it’s been going and the trajectory I’m on.”
The trajectory it’s been on over the last 11 games has gone under the radar while Lewis has been on his hot streak. Wallner has hit .356/.442/.778 slash line, with five home runs, 11 RBI, four doubles, six walks, and 11 strikeouts over 42 plate appearances in those 10 games.
However, he didn’t hit in his first nine games at Triple-A. He put up a .171/.250/.229 slash line, with just two extra-base hits, two walks, and 11 strikeouts. Having gone through this once before, Wallner was not expecting the blazing start his teammate had and trusted the process would play out at his own pace.
“I knew it wasn’t just going to click right away, and just put in a lot of hard work and I feel like it’s kind of coming into fruition at this point,” he said. “But I mean, the first nine, 10, whatever games were ugly and I kind of embraced it. I didn’t want that to happen, but open-minded, it was a possibility and kept working.”
“He’s been through this, just like any of these guys have,” said Saints hitting coach Shawn Schlecther. “They have a library of things that they’ve gone through that when they’re facing adversity, they have tools they can bring out to help them get back aligned with what makes them good. I think that’s something Matt has done a good job of so far with his time here.”
Matt Wallner has become comfortable with his swing more quickly than when the Twins sent him down to Triple-A in 2024. In his first 32 games with the Saints that season, Wallner hit .187/.275/.358 with the occasional home run (5), 20 RBI, a 10.6% walk rate, and a 37.3% strikeout rate. Over the next 35, he was one of the best hitters in the International League, with 14 home runs, 33 RBI, a .324/.406/.713 line, an 11% walk rate, and a 24.5% strikeout rate.
Schlechter, who’s been in his role with St. Paul since 2024, has been a big help in his turnaround. Minnesota’s major-league coaching staff has had three hitting coaches over the past three seasons, from David Popkins (2024) to Matt Borgschulte (2025), and now Keith Beauregard.
It can sometimes be a challenge for players to have new faces on the coaching staff during back-to-back-to-back seasons. However, Schlechter helped Wallner get back on track in 2024, and he’s been the right man for the job once again.
“Yeah, I feel like we’ve attacked good and we’ve worked hard at it,” said Wallner. “I’ve always liked working with Schlechter. I feel like he knows me well. So him and a bunch of weight room, training room stuff I feel like has been important as well.”
“I think since we’ve been through this before, the trust is there,” said Schlechter. “There’s a lot of things we can relate on. He’s an absolute pleasure to work with. He’s a pro’s pro. I think that respect level is there, so it’s always fun to be able to work through that with him knowing that he trusts my opinion.”
Minnesota sent Wallner down a week before Lewis. Even if he continues to put up big numbers, there’s a good chance he still spends another two to three weeks in Triple-A St. Paul before rejoining the Twins. A hot 10-game stretch is always an encouraging sign for Wallner. Still, Minnesota’s front office will want to see consistency in his improvements before recalling him to the majors.
In the last 10 games, Wallner has found the confidence he was missing at the major-league level this season. Schlechter and the rest of the Saints’ coaching staff began to see during their road trip to Louisville that he was making an impact on the field, thanks to the hard work he put in behind the scenes.
“When he’s good, he can shoot low liners to left-center field, and get the barrel delivered and obviously, use the right side of the field,” said Schlechter. “I mean, we’ve seen some of those majestic homers out of him. So once you start seeing that in training, him controlling his moves, that’s when you can start to anticipate it’s shifting in the right direction.”
Now, it’s all a matter of Matt Wallner keeping his 10-game hot streak going for another two to three weeks so he can return to the majors in July as he did in 2024.
“I just feel like I have a swing I am confident in it,” he said. “When I feel good about it, I’m going to see the ball better, I’m going to make more contact and see what’s happening.”
