St. Paul – When it comes to opposite-field hitters, the first player that comes to many Minnesota Twins fans’ minds is Joe Mauer hitting the ball to left field for a clean single on a two-strike count.
In the age of batted ball data, it may surprise some that Mauer doesn’t hold the all-time lead for opposite field contact rate. Per FanGraphs, he sits 17th all-time at 34.6%, while another former Twins catcher, Mike Redmond, is the all-time leader at 42.3%.
This year, Luke Keaschall has been doing that from the right side in the majors. He hits the ball to the opposite field 29.7% of the time, good for 12th among qualified hitters.
But Keaschall isn’t the only hitter in the Twins system leaning into this skill. Four St. Paul Saints hitters are hitting to the opposite field at a 29.5% or higher mark. Gabriel Gonzalez (36.7%) from the right side, and Walker Jenkins (30.6%), Hendry Mendez (34.1%), and Cody Morissette (29.5%) from the left.
“It definitely makes my job a little bit easier because they have different ways they can generate success for themselves,” said Saints hitting coach Shawn Schelcter. “So it is a pleasure to watch how they navigate those and how they pick and choose what approach and plan they’re going to take into the box.”
For most of these players, hitting the ball the other way on outside pitches has been a skill they can trace back as far as they remember, especially in Jenkins’ case. His dad could never hit the outside pitch and drive it to the opposite field. So it was a skill he wanted to ensure his son would have no matter how far his career took him.
“When I was a kid, we used to work on hitting away pitches all the time,” Jenkins said. “He was wanting to make sure I could actually hit the outside pitch. So I would say for a long time I was considerably better hitting balls to the left side of the field than I was the right side of the field.”
The Tampa Bay Rays are the only MLB team with at least three hitters hitting the ball the opposite way 30% of the time. Chandler Simpson (32%), Jonathan Aranda (30.5%), and Yandy Diaz (30.4%) are their three hitters who frequently put the ball in play to the opposite field.
Minnesota already has one proficient opposite-field hitter in the majors: Keaschall. However, add the four who are doing it so well at Triple-A, and they could give Tampa’s trio a run for their money soon.
“Morissette, he’s probably the one guy who you can point to where he’s had success a ton is to the inner half of the plate,” said Schlechter, “but something he’s thoroughly worked on is being able to be more aggressive on the outer half with the intention of going to the opposite field.
“Gabby’s always been that way. Mendez has been amazing; I know he had a little bit of a low there for a couple weeks, but it felt like when he cracked into Triple-A he was constantly using the opposite-field outfield gap. And now you’re starting to see him get back to that along with being able to do some damage to the pull side.”
Gonzalez put his opposite field skills on full display last Thursday night when he came off the bench and delivered the walk-off hit that gave the Saints a 4-3 victory over the Columbus Clippers. Going into Tuesday’s game, Gonzalez has the best opposite field contact skills on the team this season.
It’s become a lot more common for left-handed hitters to lean into the opposite field hitting skills than righties, because teams use defensive shifts far more often against a lefty’s pull side. Still, Gonzalez has made it a skill that keeps first and second basemen on their toes and center fielders playing against the pull shift.
“Honestly, it depends on the pitch,” Gonzalez said via pitching coach Carlos Hernandez, who translated on his behalf.
“Knowing who’s on the mound too, my job is actually, if it happens to be a slider, it’s a pitch that’s kind of going away from me, it’s kind of like trying not to pull it. But if it’s coming at me, I’m ready to pull it and get the hit out and pull the pitch. But if it happens to be middle away, I’m trying not to do too much, just go with the flow and hit it the other way.”
“He has such good barrel control on that where he can use the whole field,” Saints manager Brian Dinkelman said following Gonzalez’s walk-off hit. “Good hitters have the ability to use right field, left field, whatever. Whenever he’s going well, he uses all parts of the field there.”
As strong a skill as hitting the ball the opposite way is for these four batters, it’s not the only one they want to have in their approach at the plate. Each of these hitters has also showcased what they can do when they pull the ball over the left or right field fences at CHS Field, and it’s still a sight to behold.
Jenkins will always be a hitter who can hit the ball to all fields. Still, as he grows, he doesn’t mind pulling a few balls down the right field fence for some home runs.
“I want to pull the ball over the fence, but man, I work on hitting the ball to all parts of the field all the time,” said Jenkins. “It’s a little bit of a joke. I want to drive the ball that way and impact the ball that way.
“It’s one of those things; it really is. I’m trying to close the barrel, and where it’s driving the ball with more impact. I always have the mindset of pulling the ball to left field, where it’s like I’m still catching the ball out front but impacting that way if it’s pitched away. So it’s more of hitting the ball where it’s pitched.”
“I think Walker’s the perfect example to where early this year, he had a really high pull-side ground ball percentage,” Schlechter said, “and as he’s worked through the year, he’s gone back to some of the things that ultimately created the opportunity for him to be the player he is and where he got drafted at.”
For all four of these hitters, their batted ball splits across the diamond are something they should be able to transfer to the majors. Better pitching will expose some of their weakness that still need to be fine-tuned. However, once they’re all up there for a substantial amount of time, they can always go back to spraying the ball to the opposite field.
The Twins have had a ton of excellent opposite-field hitters, including Joe Mauer, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Luis Arraez, and Michael Cuddyer. It’s exactly the type of hitters the Twins would like to continue developing in their farm system to create a much more versatile lineup.
“The thing we are trying to be constantly in tune with is not only is a skill creating success here at this level but is going to uphold at the big league level,” said Schlecter, “and they’re only going to face more problems once they get up there and they face tougher pitching.
“And so for these types of players to have the adjustability to be able to go to maybe something such as going to the opposite field when they aren’t effectively pulling the ball. It’s just giving them less of an Achilles heel for them to be attacked on.”
