Is Matt Wallner Still a Viable MLB Bat?

[LA Vikes Fan]

Yes you want to give guys time IF it looks like they may be figuring things out. Wallner isn't just hitting poorly, his at bats are not competitive. There is no evidence he is figuring anything out. He really has no chance at this point. I think it's actually worse for him and his confidence to continue getting his head bashed in at the MLB level. it's time now for him to go down to AAA and try to re-set his swing. 50 more MLB ABs with 25 SOs is not the answer. 

BTW, I don't think Larnach is the answer. I would DFA Bowman to create a 40-man spot, add Keirsey to the 40-man, and call him up for Camargo. While we're at it, I would also send Varland down and call up SWR for the 5th starter spot.  

[Schmoeman5]

5 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Yes, Wallner is a viable bat. But look at his minor league career, at his first 50 AB's each year. Except for one year, he is a slow starter. Would we be okay if he doesn't hit great in his first 50 AB's (he's far from great right now). He heats up with the weather.

Because of his poor ST numbers, I even pondered if the Twins should start him out with the Saints and most on TD thought I was nuts. I do think he needs to go to the Saints but bring him back up when he heats up (and works on his weak area as others have stated).

He heats up with the weather? Thats it? And Buxton can only hit if he's playing in the field.  Yeah, that one had legs too. 

[Schmoeman5]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

Wallner has the raw tools to be an all-star. But the Twins only focused on trying to squeeze out a few more HRs while ignoring working on his defense & ability to make contact. Twins broadcasted very loudly that they were doubling down on the "all or nothing" approach & the league pitching was well prepared for them. The approach that helped kill Sano's career

Year	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	OPS
2024 Regular Season	33	6	9	0	1	0	.273	.385	.718

What I noticed is that Sano has 0 HRs & decent BA & OBP. That shows me that LAA has focused entirely on Sano's problem of not making contact & got away from hitting HRs. 

This is hilarious 😂 

[LyleCole]

Is there something to this organization or is it just plain bad luck?  Before the season started it looked like finally the time had come when we would have Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis in the lineup at the same time...  with Brooks Lee and Walter Jenkins in the minor league pipeline, and other quality players surrounding them LIKE Matt Wallner and Carlos Correa.  

Lewis goes down 2abs into the season.  Correa goes down with injury.  Lee goes down with injury.  Jenkins goes down with injury.  Buxton, Wallner, and several of the other players start the season off with major slumps. Kepler goes down too.

Looking at players in the current order with more than 25 at bats on the season,  we have two hitters, Jeffers and Kirilloff with batting averages over .250.   We have 8 with .206 or lower batting averages (Sanatana .135, Julien .200  Castro .119  Buxton .200 Wallner .080  Farmer .071  Vasquez .115 Margot  .206).  (Kepler has a .050 average on the DL).  If the player isn't hurt, he is slumping with the exceptions of Jeffers and Kirilloff.  Not a good start.

Does this team lack in preparation during the spring training to make these hitters break out so slow?  Does our training staff throughout the organization lack skills to keep our players healthy?  The injury issues with our prospects has been a long term problem for the organization.

I assume it is just bad luck.  And while it is still early, the Twins next game will be 10% of the season.  The hole isn't fully dug, but it is being dug deeper each game.  Hopefully with the weather warming up the bats will turn around and they will get healthy.  In some ways they are lucky to be 6-9 with the start they have had. 

 

 

 

 

[MABB1959]

49 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Let's not make moves too quickly.  Larnach has been tried over and over and found wanting.  He is hitting 182 in the minors and some think he should be brought up?  How many ABs did Kelly say were needed to truly measure a players skills?  

Santana is much more of a problem and our clean up hitter Farmer is not going well.  Castro and Buxton are not hitting and Margot has not been exciting.  

Why are we singling out Wallner at this time?  

I agree, Kepler was awful and never got a RIP like this.  Lot's of heat on the pitchers but they rarely get run support.

[Mike Sixel]

He might need to go down for a month or so..... As some of us said in the off season, he was great last year, but he might go down at some point this year and then come back. I'm not sure we're at that point yet, but we're at least close. 

As for Martin, they should have been relying on him last post season and to start this year....

[Schmoeman5]

Trevor is in Baltimore. He has been there since yesterday. Maybe the Twins flew him up for the oysters and soft-shelled crabs. 

[roger]

2 hours ago, NotAboutWinning said:

Earlier today the Strib had an article on Wallner being demoted and Larnach called up. Now the link isn't working. Anyone else see anything about this?

Yup, is on the Twins transaction page.

[D.C Twins]

2 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Wallner has a massive hole covering the entire inner third of the plate, but especially down and in. He can't hit those pitches. And once you get him focused on trying to hit those inner third pitches you drop something soft down and away and he's finished. Houston did their scouting before the ALDS against the Twins and showed the world how you get him out. This season has just been pitcher after pitcher saying "it's coming inner third, hit it if you can" over and over and he can't hit it. The league adjusted. He's miles away from adjusting back. From the sounds of it he knew this would be a problem and spent the offseason putting in work to try to close that hole. It hasn't worked. AAA is probably the place for him the second Larnach or Lee or anyone is ready.

Very nice analysis... thanks!

[Road trip]

21 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

He might need to go down for a month or so..... As some of us said in the off season, he was great last year, but he might go down at some point this year and then come back. I'm not sure we're at that point yet, but we're at least close. 

As for Martin, they should have been relying on him last post season and to start this year....

I'd largely agree with this.  Wallner has options, this might be a good time to send him down for a month.  Rocco has shown he won't play him regularly, so getting 4 ab's every day in St Paul might get Wallner back into rhythm.

I'd give some of the playing time to Martin.  Let's see if he can hit at this level.  Same with Miranda, see if he can return to 2022 form.

Larnach... I'd like to believe, but at this point I'm getting skeptical.  I'd love to be wrong. Hopefully he takes this chance and breaks out, because this may well be his last chance.

 

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, Road trip said:

I'd largely agree with this.  Wallner has options, this might be a good time to send him down for a month.  Rocco has shown he won't play him regularly, so getting 4 ab's every day in St Paul might get Wallner back into rhythm.

I'd give some of the playing time to Martin.  Let's see if he can hit at this level.  Same with Miranda, see if he can return to 2022 form.

Larnach... I'd like to believe, but at this point I'm getting skeptical.  I'd love to be wrong. Hopefully he takes this chance and breaks out, because this may well be his last chance.

 

I'm with you on larnach, though he's actually been better than I thought, it's expectations that make judging him hard. He's been a league average hitter the last two years! Which most here wouldn't believe. 

[jorgenswest]

Let’s hope Larnach is here to stay and that Wallner makes the necessary adjustments in AAA. They need them both and hopefully by June they will be in the line up together.

[Mike Sixel]

8 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Let’s hope Larnach is here to stay and that Wallner makes the necessary adjustments in AAA. They need them both and hopefully by June they will be in the line up together.

Why anyone would down vote a hopeful post like this is truly mind boggling. Truly. 

[RpR]

2 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

Agreed.  The sample size is too small to mean very much at this point.  Give him another month or so to straighten himself out.  There are several other players who also need to fix things for the Twins to realize their potential.  Unfortunately between injuries and ineffectiveness, there isn’t really anyone in St. Paul that would be much help at this point.  

Since the end of last years regular season , including Post Season and  Spring Training he has 7 hits and 42 Strike Outs.

That sample is NOT too small.

Time for him to spend a LOT of time in AAA, or do like they did with Sano, send him down to Single A.

[DJL44]

17 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Why anyone would down vote a hopeful post like this is truly mind boggling. Truly. 

Hope gets in the way of bellyaching.

[RpR]

44 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Let’s hope Larnach is here to stay and that Wallner makes the necessary adjustments in AAA. They need them both and hopefully by June they will be in the line up together.

Rookies can learn in AAA, the veterans which seem to be befuddled can not, so send the young boys down to learn and get  better hitting coaches.

[jorgenswest]

2 minutes ago, RpR said:

Rookies can learn in AAA, the veterans wh seem to be befuddled can not, so send the young boys down to learn and get  better hitting coaches.

There is still time for Larnach and Wallner to learn and grow. Morneau in his third season had an OPS+ of 93 and a truly awful month of August that he entered with a nearly 800 major league PAs. It was Cuddyer’s 6th season before he posted an OPS+ over 100. I think the Twins utilized all his options moving him back and forth as he developed.

Wallner’s success he showed last year is just as real as the struggle he has shown this year. There is a good chance he finds the successful swing again.

[RpR]

1 minute ago, jorgenswest said:

There is still time for Larnach and Wallner to learn and grow. Morneau in his third season had an OPS+ of 93 and a truly awful month of August that he entered with a nearly 800 major league PAs. It was Cuddyer’s 6th season before he posted an OPS+ over 100. I think the Twins utilized all his options moving him back and forth as he developed.

Wallner’s success he showed last year is just as real as the struggle he has shown this year. There is a good chance he finds the successful swing again.

IF, I were a betting man, I would split the bet 98.6 against and 1.4 in favour.

As of now, Sano is showing such a thing , may, be possible but odds are not in favour.

[Road trip]

13 minutes ago, RpR said:

IF, I were a betting man, I would split the bet 98.6 against and 1.4 in favour.

As of now, Sano is showing such a thing , may, be possible but odds are not in favour.

I sure do wish Vegas would hire you to set odds... but they are too smart for that.

[RpR]

3 minutes ago, Road trip said:

I sure do wish Vegas would hire you to set odds... but they are too smart for that.

Yep, they hired the Twins fron office, damned if you do, and damned if you do not. 🤪

[CRF]

I guess the leash was pretty short. I'm sorry to see him get sent down. Hopefully he gets straightened out in StP and is back here soon. 

[RpR]

28 minutes ago, CRF said:

I guess the leash was pretty short. I'm sorry to see him get sent down. Hopefully he gets straightened out in StP and is back here soon. 

To give him a slight break, the WHOLE team , for some sad reason, is absolutely horrid when it comes to hitting.

It is easy to point fingers, but when it is mass like that, the coaching systems almost has to be part of the problem.

Too many players are listening to their babbling.

[KirbyDome89]

He can be, but he isn't right now, which is why AAA is where he needs to be. 

Wallner has an option and he has become an offensive liability for a team that can't afford another hole in the lineup. I don't really see an argument for letting him "figure things out," at the ML level. If he picks it up in AAA there will undoubtedly be room for him on the 26 man. 

[Riverbrian]

I wouldn't have made the move this quickly but I certainly understand... and almost appreciate the immediate attention to what has been a problem. 

[bean5302]

4 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

...But look at his minor league career, at his first 50 AB's each year. Except for one year, he is a slow starter...

This keeps getting posted, but here's Wallner's MiLB/ST career

2019 - First 49 PA (R) .310/.408/.381 OPS .789 wRC+ 129
2020 - First 5 PA (ST) .500/.500/.500 OPS 1.000 wRC+ 262
2021 - First 49 PA (A+) .310/.388/.548 OPS .935 wRC+ 150
2022 - First 4 PA (ST) .333/.500/1.333 OPS 1.833 wRC+ 307
2022 - First 49 PA (AA) .073/.184/.146 OPS .330 wRC+ (20)
2023 - First 33 PA (ST) .207/.303/345 OPS .648 wRC+ 75
2023 - First 49 PA (AAA) .324/.490/.676 OPS 1.165 wRC+ 190
2024 - First 44 PA (ST) .132/.227/.395 OPS .622 wRC+ 59

[jorgenswest]

3 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I wouldn't have made the move this quickly but I certainly understand... and almost appreciate the immediate attention to what has been a problem. 

I think a lot depends on how Wallner personally was responding to the struggle. We can’t see that. He may need the fresh start now.

[wsnydes]

I wasn't all that impressed with what I saw last year and had/have my concerns heading into this year, but I do think it's far too early to write him off.  But he's got a lot of work to do to become an established and consistent hitter at the MLB level.

[MABB1959]

4 hours ago, LyleCole said:

Does this team lack in preparation during the spring training to make these hitters break out so slow?  Does our training staff throughout the organization lack skills to keep our players healthy?  The injury issues with our prospects has been a long term problem for the organization.

Spring training was a joke this year!

[Mike Sixel]

16 minutes ago, wsnydes said:

I wasn't all that impressed with what I saw last year and had/have my concerns heading into this year, but I do think it's far too early to write him off.  But he's got a lot of work to do to become an established and consistent hitter at the MLB level.

He had the second highest wtc+ of all LF last year. What would have impressed you?

[mikelink45]

5 hours ago, Schmoeman5 said:

They aren't singling out Wallner. He has options. No competition in spring training. How's that working out?

I agree but Keirsey and Fajardo make more sense that Larnach right now.  If Helman was healthy he would be better too.