New hitting focus in mind as Twins eye coaching staff replacements

MINNEAPOLIS -- There are certain things the Twins can point to that indicate their offense, in aggregate, was a reasonably successful one across the last two seasons -- but they came to the point where they simply couldn’t overlook the deep lapses in consistency and approach that they felt cost them winnable games in that time.

In response, they parted ways with all three of their hitting coaches following the 2024 season. In the aftermath, as they figure out how to replace the departed David Popkins, Derek Shomon and Rudy Hernandez, the Twins look to have a different emphasis in mind in regard to their hitting philosophy.

"Situational-hitting approach, things like that, are going to be part of the conversation we have here around the next hitting group,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “What that looks like, what were we missing on that. It did feel like, particularly in certain situations, it was hard for us to execute in maybe a key moment."

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In the words of many of the Twins’ hitters over the last few years, their approach in that time largely boiled down to honing in on pitchers’ mistakes and taking powerful swings to do maximum damage against those pitches. Many hitters were also very complimentary of Popkins’ work ethic and the staff’s methods of drilling deep on swings.

When all that worked, the results were spectacular.

Take the second half of 2023, for example, when the Twins had the third-best offense in baseball per wRC+ (123) and slugging (.463), or the period this season from April 22-Aug. 17 during which they had the best record (63-40) in the Majors, thanks to the second-best wRC+ (121) and fourth-best slugging percentage (.448) in the game.

But the downswings proved brutally costly to the team.

An extended offensive slump to start the season was a significant contributor to the club’s rough 7-13 start, and the Twins had one of the worst offensive outputs in the sport amid their 12-27 collapse out of the playoff picture. It culminated in an 8-6 loss in 13 innings to the Marlins on Sept. 26 during which the club went 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position amid bad execution lapses that Falvey has pointed to several times as a critical point of reckoning.

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Twins manager Rocco Baldelli had been openly critical of his team’s lack of approach -- or ability to stick to one -- at several points toward the end of the ‘24 campaign, asking for more consistency in “dominating one part of the plate” and stringing together productive plate appearances.

The Twins scored four or fewer runs in 24 of their final 30 games.

“There were a lot of games that were tight, very tough ballgames where we couldn't really muster anything up,” Baldelli said. “It depends on how you want to break it down and how you want to look at it, but I do think that consistency in approach that I’m hoping we can carry out, that we need to carry out, for 162 games will be something that we address and that we can do better.”

Those extended slumps had become a trend. While the offense put up solid numbers in aggregate in ‘23, the first half was tough enough for the bats that, at various points, Royce Lewis remarked that he was straying from the team’s approach and trying simply to put the ball in play. The players briefly took over leadership of pregame hitters’ meetings, as well.

"Having one strength that can carry you for a long time -- those strengths don’t necessarily carry you for that long anymore,” Baldelli said. “You have to keep changing with the game and we’ve always talked about adjustment-making being important, but you can’t survive and flourish in today’s game without the ability to change things on the fly, on your feet, and become a different kind of hitter.”

Though Baldelli and Falvey didn’t yet indicate a timeline for any potential hires, the transition away from an entire hitting group certainly seems to indicate a philosophical change is in order -- and they, of course, noted that shortstop Carlos Correa was looped into the process early.

"The thing he always wants to know is, ‘Do you have the resources to help me be the best player I can be?’” Falvey said. “That's our mission. We need to make sure Carlos has the resources he needs and the other players have the resources they need and work with a group that can provide that."