Matt Borgschulte Blueprint: How Twins’ New Hitting Coach Can Shape Top Prospect Walker Jenkins

[Cody Christie]

Minnesota’s new hitting coach, Matt Borgschulte, has a lot to fix with the team’s big-league hitters, but his most important task might be helping the team’s top prospect. Can he use the lessons he learned in Baltimore with Jackson Holliday to help Walker Jenkins?

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (Photo of Walker Jenkins)

As Matt Borgschulte rejoins the Minnesota Twins organization as the MLB hitting coach, his track record speaks to a unique knack for refining and maximizing young talent. His experience with Orioles top prospect Jackson Holliday (and other young players) provides a blueprint that he can now apply to the Twins’ star-in-the-making, Walker Jenkins. For Twins fans, there's excitement in seeing Borgschulte return to familiar faces, like José Miranda, Ryan Jeffers, and Trevor Larnach. He guided these players during their development at the Twins' alternate site in St. Paul during the 2020 pandemic-shortened season.

Borgschulte’s Breakthrough with Jackson Holliday
While with the Orioles, Borgschulte helped fast-track Holliday’s rise as one of baseball's top prospects. His work with Holliday focused on two key areas: building a foundation of plate discipline and a mental framework to adjust seamlessly across different levels of competition. Borgschulte encouraged Holliday to work counts and select pitches he could drive. All of these qualities translate directly to Jenkins’s game, as he develops his power potential.

“You go through phases of swings,” Holliday said. “I was doing the no stride and I was spinning off balls. Now that I think I’m a little bit bigger and stronger and kind of understand my swing a little bit more, it was easier to go back to that. Last year, I did really well with the swing that I had with the leg kick, and I never really had to pull it out. Here we are now making adjustments in the big leagues.”

Borgschulte also cultivated Holliday's mental approach, using game scenarios and simulated at-bats to prepare him for the intense competition at higher levels. When Holliday initially struggled at the big-league level, Baltimore’s hitting coaches put together a plan for him and the minor-league coaches to study and implement. They showed images contrasting the poor swings with his ideal cuts at the ball and suggested drill packages to adopt. He returned to the big leagues later in the season with improved results. In the team’s final eight games, he went 7-for-13 with a double and five walks. 

Jenkins, known for his raw power and athleticism, can learn to embrace this approach, allowing him to leverage his strengths without sacrificing the selectiveness and mental resilience that top hitters exhibit. Borgschulte’s experience instilling these values with Holliday makes him uniquely suited to develop Jenkins into a balanced, dynamic force in the Twins’ lineup.

The Twins selected Jenkins with the hopes that he could become a future cornerstone of the franchise, and Borgschulte’s blueprint offers a promising way forward. With Jenkins, Borgschulte will likely prioritize controlled aggression, similar to what he implemented with Holliday. He will guide him toward choosing pitches he can punish, while avoiding the overzealous hacks that can hinder a developing hitter. Jenkins is known for his keen eye at the plate, as he had a .394 OBP last season with more walks (56) than strikeouts (47). 

While Jenkins has a strong foundation of natural talent, Borgschulte’s teaching style is well-suited to add nuance to his game. Building on Jenkins’s strengths, Borgschulte can introduce advanced concepts around pitch recognition and situational hitting, reinforcing that power isn’t only about swing mechanics but also about discipline, timing, and understanding the pitchers he’ll face. If he faces big-league struggles (like Holliday), he can formulate a plan that can be implemented at Triple-A to help him quickly return to the Twins. 

Borgschulte's work with young prospects in the Twins organization was also on display shortly after he left for Baltimore. He worked closely with some of the team’s top prospects (Miranda, Jeffers, and Larnach) during the Twins’ 2020 alternate training site in St. Paul. This trio benefited from Borgschulte’s ability to provide individualized feedback and intensive reps in a unique training environment.

With Miranda, Borgschulte worked on unlocking the hitter’s natural contact skills by refining his approach to high-velocity pitches and honing his swing path. The work Miranda did at the alternate site laid the groundwork for his 2022 breakout season (141 OPS+ in 125 games). For Jeffers, Borgschulte focused on developing a more balanced stance that helped him adjust to pitches on the outer half, which has been instrumental in Jeffers's offensive improvements at the big-league level. Larnach benefited from an approach that emphasized plate discipline and power to all fields, areas he continues to work on today.

The Twins are betting that Borgschulte’s teaching philosophies, proven track record, and dedication to player development will foster a productive culture for young hitters like Jenkins, much as it did for Holliday in Baltimore. His return to Minnesota brings with it a reunion of trust and familiarity that could be pivotal for the next generation of Twins hitters.

For Twins fans, there’s excitement in seeing a coach who elevates individual players and creates a foundation that can help Jenkins, Miranda, Jeffers, and Larnach build upon each other's growth.

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Can Borgschulte follow the same blueprint he used with Holliday with Jenkins? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

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[DocBauer]

Sorry, but our new hitting instructor's primary job is to help Jenkins reach his potential? 

Unless I'm mistaken, Borgschulte's PRIMARY job is to work with the current ML team. He will probably see and probably work with Jenkins SOME in ST. But that's supposed to put him on a career path?

NOTE: Sorry, we're going to need some kind of nickname for Borgschulte going forward. 

#1] Borgi

#2] Schulte

Other than some time in ST, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Keaschall,  and others are going to be under the tutelage of the MILB instructors the FO has put in place. Borgi might head some changes going forward that he and the FO have in mind, but he's going to have little to no influence directly with Jenkins until late 2025 at best.

His job is with Lewis, Miranda, Lee, Wallner, Julien, and others for 2025 along with the rest of his staff "yet to be named".

THAT'S his current role.

Is it just me and fantasy to say that Cruz should be hired as an assistant batting coach to bring not only a ML veteran approach, but a Latin presence?

[Doctor Gast]

6 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Sorry, but our new hitting instructor's primary job is to help Jenkins reach his potential? 

Unless I'm mistaken, Borgschulte's PRIMARY job is to work with the current ML team. He will probably see and probably work with Jenkins SOME in ST. But that's supposed to put him on a career path?

NOTE: Sorry, we're going to need some kind of nickname for Borgschulte going forward. 

#1] Borgi

#2] Schulte

Other than some time in ST, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Keaschall,  and others are going to be under the tutelage of the MILB instructors the FO has put in place. Borgi might head some changes going forward that he and the FO have in mind, but he's going to have little to no influence directly with Jenkins until late 2025 at best.

His job is with Lewis, Miranda, Lee, Wallner, Julien, and others for 2025 along with the rest of his staff "yet to be named".

THAT'S his current role.

Is it just me and fantasy to say that Cruz should be hired as an assistant batting coach to bring not only a ML veteran approach, but a Latin presence?

Agree completely with you, Doc. Just a comment on Cruz. Cruz was a great hitter & mentor. He has a lot to give to the Twins as a hitting instructor (ex: experience, leadership & motivation). But IMO the Twins would want someone who would follow orders & know how to pass on their analytical hitting philosophy.

[rdehring]

7 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Sorry, but our new hitting instructor's primary job is to help Jenkins reach his potential? 

Unless I'm mistaken, Borgschulte's PRIMARY job is to work with the current ML team. He will probably see and probably work with Jenkins SOME in ST. But that's supposed to put him on a career path?

NOTE: Sorry, we're going to need some kind of nickname for Borgschulte going forward. 

#1] Borgi

#2] Schulte

Other than some time in ST, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Keaschall,  and others are going to be under the tutelage of the MILB instructors the FO has put in place. Borgi might head some changes going forward that he and the FO have in mind, but he's going to have little to no influence directly with Jenkins until late 2025 at best.

His job is with Lewis, Miranda, Lee, Wallner, Julien, and others for 2025 along with the rest of his staff "yet to be named".

THAT'S his current role.

Is it just me and fantasy to say that Cruz should be hired as an assistant batting coach to bring not only a ML veteran approach, but a Latin presence?

It has never been clear to me what the smiley face represents.  Does it mean that the commenter is being sarcastic about the post he/she is responding to?  Or does it mean that the post brought a smile to one's face?  I wanted to clarify, Doc, that when I add the laughing face it means that your comment brought a smile to my face and I wanted to say thanks for making my morning a bit happier.

[LambchoP]

Since he's our major league coach, he will probably have very little impact on Jenkins development. What I'm hoping for is that he can figure out what went wrong with so many of our everyday players at the plate last year. If he can get Julien, Lewis and Lee hitting up to their potent again, it would be huge. I think Nelly Cruz would be an amazing assistant hitting coach. He already has the nap room at Target Field!

[gman]

He will probably start with all batters on the 40 man roster in spring training. I would also expect him to spend this winter interviewing players and watching lots of film. I think he needs to be involved with hiring assistant hitting coaches.

Hopefully he gets time in with Rodriguez next spring, who is also on the 40 man roster. Good luck with him bringing players up to their max potential.

[Western SD Fan]

It's still the offseason for the Twins, right?  Once Matt gets a staff underneath him and a general philosophy in place on how he wants to fix the hitting, why can't he work with the upper prospects to help deliver a new organizational message?  Obviously, he's not going to do this during the season, but he could analyze these prospects and give them something to work on in the offseason.  If we are talking about how AAA players like Kiersey Jr, Rodriguez, or Eeles are supposed to graduate and play in 2025, why wouldn't we want Matt to have an opinion on how they prepare for the next level.  Again, that shouldn't be his main job, but to suggest that he can't have an opinion seems silly if we are expecting these prospects to make a difference on the team in the future.  As for Cruz, I would love to see him as an assistant.  He's not going to be running the hitting philosophy of the team, but his knowledge to help the young players when they are going through slumps, or to point out things with pitch recognition or how to defend the plate to cut down on the strikeouts looking.  These are the small things that helps with BABIP and OPS that we could use some improvement on, especially if we want to face tougher pitching in the playoffs, or even the random left-hander.  Until results improve, I still see Jamie Moyer coming out of retirement and being able to get Bartolo Colon-type innings with this lineup.

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, Western SD Fan said:

It's still the offseason for the Twins, right?  Once Matt gets a staff underneath him and a general philosophy in place on how he wants to fix the hitting, why can't he work with the upper prospects to help deliver a new organizational message? 

The front office sets the hitting philosophy. The hitting coach brings a methodology to carry out the front office's philosophy. It's not clear the front office is changing their philosophy when it comes to developing hitters throughout the system.

[Fred]

On 10/29/2024 at 11:47 PM, DocBauer said:

Sorry, but our new hitting instructor's primary job is to help Jenkins reach his potential? 

Unless I'm mistaken, Borgschulte's PRIMARY job is to work with the current ML team. He will probably see and probably work with Jenkins SOME in ST. But that's supposed to put him on a career path?

NOTE: Sorry, we're going to need some kind of nickname for Borgschulte going forward. 

#1] Borgi

#2] Schulte

Other than some time in ST, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Keaschall,  and others are going to be under the tutelage of the MILB instructors the FO has put in place. Borgi might head some changes going forward that he and the FO have in mind, but he's going to have little to no influence directly with Jenkins until late 2025 at best.

His job is with Lewis, Miranda, Lee, Wallner, Julien, and others for 2025 along with the rest of his staff "yet to be named".

THAT'S his current role.

Is it just me and fantasy to say that Cruz should be hired as an assistant batting coach to bring not only a ML veteran approach, but a Latin presence?

The Borg