Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Month - June 2024

[Cody Christie]

It’s hard to believe the baseball season is already half over, and this is the time of year where players tend to separate themselves. A trio of Saints hitters has been destroying the baseball, but which big bat will win June’s top hitter?

 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

The middle of the minor league season can start to become a grind for players who spend a large chunk of the year away from their families in smaller towns scattered across the country. Some players from the organization will be traded before the end of July while others will lose roster spots to newly drafted players. June is a month to showcase what a player can mean to an organization. There were strong offensive performances up and down the farm system during June, which made selecting one hitter more difficult. Here are a handful of honorable mentions before exploring the details of Twins Daily’s top pick.

Honorable Mention #3: Nate Baez, Cedar Rapids Kernels
20 G, 19-62 (.307 BA), 4 2B, 6 HR, 15 RBI, 1.075 OPS
Baez might be an unfamiliar name compared to some others on this list, but the 2022 12th round pick has been key to the Kernels lineup. He’s hit over .300 in each of the last two months while also being among the team leaders in multiple offensive categories. His 1.075 OPS for the month ranks highly among the hitters in the organization, but he gets less playing time since he plays regularly behind the plate. Baez has already set career highs in home runs and RBI. Only Ricardo Olivar has more home runs in a Kernels uniform this season. Baez is slightly older than the average age of the competition in the Midwest League so the team could bump him up to Double-A in the season’s second half. 

Honorable Mention #2: Brooks Lee, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels/St. Paul Saints
21 G, 29-87 (.333 BA), 6 2B, 6 HR, 19 RBI, 1.017 OPS
Lee began the year on the injured list with a herniated disc in his back, so there was some concern about how quickly he would be able to get back into form. He’s quickly put all those concerns behind him while showcasing a revamped swing from the right side. Lee is a switch hitter and last season he posted a .603 OPS from the right side which was over 250 points lower than when he batted left-handed. He worked on his right-handed swing this winter and the results have been clear as he has posted a 1.121 OPS with eight extra-base hits in 37 plate appearances. He’s knocking on the door to the big leagues based on his June performance. 

Honorable Mention #1: Yunior Severino, St. Paul Saints
23 G, 34-80 (.425 BA), 3 2B, 6 HR, 19 RBI, 1.231 OPS
Severino started the season slowly with a .588 OPS in April, raising that by 129 points in May. However, he has been nearly impossible to get out during June. In the first 12 games of the month, he went 17-for-39 (.436 BA) with four home runs while getting on base over 59% of the time. He didn’t slow down in the second half of the month with a .415 BA and a 1.100 OPS in 11 games. Severino is on the 40-man roster, so it will be interesting to see if the Twins can find a use for him down the stretch. He should win this award and in many other months he would be the winner by a landslide. However, only one player can earn top honors and his strong performance earns him the runner-up spot. 

Hitter of the Month – Matt Wallner, St. Paul Saints
26 G, 34-105 (.324 BA), 6 2B, 12 HR, 28 RBI, 1.127 OPS
Wallner is letting his bat do the talking after a terrible start to the season at the big-league level. He started off on a tear when the calendar turned to June. In 14 games, he went 23-for-58 (.397 BA) with nine home runs, four doubles, and a 1.384 OPS. The Twins named him the organization’s Minor League Hitter of the Week (June 1-7) as he posted a .591 ISO and a 242 wRC+. He followed that up by winning the International League Player of the Week for June 10-16 after hitting .519 with five homers in six games.  

Power hitters like Wallner have an element of streakiness baked into their performance because of their swing and miss tendency. In June, he showed the ability to hit for average and power while striking out in 27.7% of his plate appearances. His power numbers give him the award over the walks and lack of strikeouts from Severino. 

Should Wallner or Severino have taken the top spot? Leave your rankings in the COMMENTS and start the discussion.

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[FlyingFinn]

Congrats to Wallner. I was a month early in predicting he would be the Twins minor league hitter of the month in May.

[Dman]

Still feels like Severino was cheated there.   I would take that .400 BA and higher OPS over the extra HR's, but that's just me.  Still an Amazing month for Wallner and you can see why teams are calling about him.  His power is elite and he can play right field which is a pretty nice combo.  I bet the A's would love to have Wallner and Rooker back to back in their lineup.

Still Severino is the man IMO.  I like the consistent hitting (.425 BA) as it get's into the pitchers head.  Severino has power as I believe he led the minors in HR's last year, but I'll take more contact and fewer homers if it leads to a 1.200 OPS.

Not making outs is the name of the game and I feel like Severino did a better job of that. Scoring runs (28 RBI's) is what wins games and Wallner and the 12 HR's did better there this time around.  So depending on how you see value it could go either way..  They both had impressive months and if they keep this up they will get their shots at MLB.

[FlyingFinn]

8 minutes ago, Dman said:

They both had impressive months and if they keep this up they will get their shots at MLB

If Lewis goes on the IL, and the Twins don't want to call up Brooks Lee yet, Severino would certainly be a "call him up when he's hot" choice. Certainly nice to have a bunch of AAA guys who would be in MLB for another team - Severino, Lee, Wallner, Julien and Keirsey.

[chpettit19]

Dang, hitting .426 for a month with more walks than strike outs and power to go with it (.688 slug) doesn't get you hitter of the month?

[NYCTK]

Severino had a .500 BABIP in June. Like, how is that even possible? 

[bean5302]

33 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

Severino had a .500 BABIP in June. Like, how is that even possible? 

Line drives have a .675 BABIP
Fly balls have a .250 BABIP
Ground balls have a .200 BABIP

Hit a lot of line drives and your BABIP is much higher. 

[bean5302]

Severino - .425/.544/.688 OPS 1.231 wRC+ 216, 20.4% BB, 18.4% K
23G, 103 PA, 15G above wRC+ 100, RBI = 19
Wallner - .324/.403/.724 OPS 1.127, wRC+ 179, 10.9% BB, 27.7% K
26G, 119 PA, 17G above wRC+ 100, RBI = 28

Wallner has the home runs and a huge RBI advantage with a bunch of games where he carried the win, but the hitter of the month should have gone to Severino.

Severino is slowly bringing his overall line into respectability.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

1 hour ago, NYCTK said:

Severino had a .500 BABIP in June. Like, how is that even possible? 

hit ball hard

[mikelink45]

Not picking - just enjoying

[FlyingFinn]

Brooks Lee coming up!

[JD-TWINS]

Have not paid attention to Severino at all - he sure seems to be worthy of paying attention to from now on - amazing stats.

Wallner……have been reluctant to promote him being promoted. Not sure there’s any room on Big Club w/o demoting Martin - doesn’t seem fair. Wallner sure looks ready to contribute! Can’t stay in St Paul all the way to September 1st can he? Definitely is the expanded roster guy.

[Bill Lumbergh]

I don’t know what his numbers were for June but I thought Will Holland might be in the conversation.  He had a strong month and raised his average to .299