The Case for the Moose: Matt Wallner Deserves More Respect

[Cody Pirkl]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Editor's Note: This is the second piece in a three-part series to close out this week, examining the Twins' corner outfield situation looking toward 2026 with a particular emphasis on the slugging Wallner. In this installment, Cody Pirkl makes a case for Wallner to be treated more as an indispensable piece of the team's core.

Doubt has followed Matt Wallner since his debut in 2022. During that season, his swing-and-miss rates in St. Paul made him a questionable candidate to carry his dominance over to the major leagues. Both the fan base and the Twins themselves have maintained a fair amount of skepticism all these years. While Wallner is far from a perfect player, he deserves much more credit than he’s given.

Wallner’s path has been winding to this point, with periods of complete helplessness at the plate that have resulted in demotions when the swing-and-miss has gotten out of control. It’s a profile Twins fans are sick of watching, after several seasons slipped away as the lineup swung for the fences and missed. 

Even the Twins have shied away from this player profile, after targeting it so heavily in years past. Although we have yet to see a significant payoff, the organization has increasingly emphasized athleticism and speed (at least rhetorically), and the team's strikeout rate has declined year over year as they’ve targeted fewer “all-or-nothing” hitters. Wallner is the only player with this approach left on the roster.

The years of doubt in Wallner’s abilities appear to have peaked in 2025, as the team (and the lineup, in particular) has crossed into complete disaster territory. Wallner’s down year has been at least part of the problem with the Twins’ offense, but adding context shows that lumping his struggles this season with the rest of the team is unfair.

Wallner’s slash line of .215/.323/.507 invokes Twins’ fans' primal urge to point and yell “Miguel Sanó!” It’s hard to argue that Wallner’s 2025 season doesn’t bear a resemblance. In Wallner’s worst season, however, hiss slash line is still over 25% better than that of an average hitter. In comparison to the rest of the Twins’ lineup, it becomes even more ridiculous to complain about.

Wallner’s .830 OPS trails only Byron Buxton among starters on the team, as does his tally of 20 home runs. His unsightly batting average is a result of a batting average on balls in play that is below average for the first time in his professional career. We now know that BABIP is not purely a luck-based metric (see Max Kepler), and that Wallner’s consistently elite exit velocities should lead to a bounceback in this department, with all things being equal. Meanwhile, he’s still walked over 10% of the time this season and has a sub-30% strikeout rate for the first time in his MLB career. This year looks like the low end of the spectrum of outcomes you can expect to see from a player with this profile, and Wallner is still one of the Twins’ better hitters.

Fans being frustrated with this profile is to be expected, but the Twins themselves appear to have shifted their view on Wallner. More often, he has hit at the bottom of the lineup, with players who are having genuinely poor offensive seasons, such as Royce Lewis and Edouard Julien. This move down the lineup has made Wallner’s strengths much less impactful, as many of his homers have come with the bases empty, and he often has nobody to hit him in when he takes his walks.

Meanwhile, Trevor Larnach has consistently batted as high as second in the order, despite a below-average offensive season, and Kody Clemens has continued to slot into the heart of the order despite his production being in the tank for months now. The Twins are clearly signaling a lack of faith in Wallner, and it could make things interesting heading into 2026 as they look to shake up this disappointing core.

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For more on the contrast between Larnach and Wallner, specifically, see the first article in this series, from Eric Blonigen.

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Since the season Wallner was promoted, the Twins have had their doubts about him. In 2022, they kept him in St. Paul for far too long as Jake Cave and Mark Contreras roamed the outfield deep into a lost season. There were rumors of them considering trading him away as recently as the 2024 trade deadline. All he’s done is post an .853 OPS in almost 900 plate appearances in his career. 

It’s an odd dynamic, as you’d think an organization that has done such a poor job of drafting and developing offensive players would be quick to celebrate Wallner, who is arguably the best offensive player they’ve drafted in this regime’s history. He has his flaws, but for him to seemingly be grouped with some of the lineup's worst performers down the stretch seems a bit extreme.

Wallner has had a down season in 2025, but it’s easy to see that his standards are much different than the rest of the lineup. Not only are fans down on his performance, but it appears the Twins are, as well. The numbers speak for themselves, however.

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[RpR]

He is a poor Right Fielder which is a large reason he is not loved as you think he should be.

[LA Vikes Fan]

I agree that Wallner tends to be undervalued. Having said that, hitting around .200 tends to get one moved down in the order. He's now up to .215 with a .321 OPS and has been moved back up since the fire sale. He's also batting .235/.361/.602 in his last 30 games (98 ABs). I will note he's also hitting .222/.319/.460 (.779) against LH  pitching for the year, up from a .665 OPS against lefties in 2024. He's better than most of the swing and miss profiles from the past, and he's definitely a better hitter than Larnach.

Wallner can be an important piece going forward. Whether that will be as a guy hitting in middle of the order or in the 6/7/8 holes depends almost entirely on his batting average and, by extension, his OBP. If he can hit .240-.260 with an OBP above .350 while keeping his SO rate under 30% and without sacrificing power (he hit .259/.372/523 last year in 220 ABs (SSS)), he can be that #4 hitter we really need hitting behind Keaschall. I'd love to see him moved to 1B but I did hear the other poster who says he has the agility of Lurch from the Addams Family. He ain't wrong.  

 

[Thumbs Down Guy]

Go Twins Daily! Hard times a coming. Best of luck with a losing franchise.

[hitterscount]

I would never have put money on Matt Wallner for three articles in three days. He will be with the team next season, it is a make or break year I believe. When the season still counted and actually meant something he was terrible at the plate, he was what he is in the OF. He's picked it up at the plate, hopefully it's sustainable and carries over. These games during his uptick have zero pressure, win or lose there is no ramifications on the team.

Honest question for those that do the gold caretaker... Does it stop all the popup ads. I can hardly finish a post without the post disappearing from all the ads refreshing the screen.

[tony&rodney]

Wallner seems to be slowly overtaking Royce Lewis as a darling on Twins Daily. Big Matt has his fans and that makes some sense for those who are wed to OPS and a few other data points. My feeling is that he is a legitimate option as a pure DH, if he only plays in the field once per month. I'm hoping Wallner becomes a star, but I'm more hoping that some team looks at Wallner as a player they are willing to part with a talented player that the Twins can use in the future. What club has eyes for Wallner? Hmmm, don't know. Maybe Pittsburgh. In the meantime, let us watch Wallner hit a few as a DH. 

[thelanges5]

#mooseplays1B

[Hubie29]

For some reason Wallner is the darling of the fan base. Don't have a clue why.  Over hyped and under performing. He can't seem to play himself off the roster no matter how bad he is. 

Before reading this article, I compared him to Sano.  Sano 716 AB, 43 HR, 118 RBI, .249 BA.  Wallner 765 AB, 49HR, 123 RBI, .238 BA to start careers. Why are we so high on Wallner? Minnesota kid, that's why. 

[AKTwinsFan]

This off-season someone needs to work with him on his stance. A less open and more square stance will help him with his swing. He's got the power already, and like many other tall players has plenty of swing and miss. But he can get better with some adjustments at the plate. The Mariners did with Polanco what years of Twins staff didn't and has had him square up his stance, now he gets more hits and is less susceptible to inside and down/away pitches. 

[Nashvilletwin]

Until he can be reliably played against LHP and becomes a consistent RBI producer, his average to below average fielding will restrict him to a platoon to slightly better than that type of contributor (and not even a primary DH).  Let’s hope he can make the jump.

[terrydactyls]

11 hours ago, hitterscount said:

I would never have put money on Matt Wallner for three articles in three days. He will be with the team next season, it is a make or break year I believe. When the season still counted and actually meant something he was terrible at the plate, he was what he is in the OF. He's picked it up at the plate, hopefully it's sustainable and carries over. These games during his uptick have zero pressure, win or lose there is no ramifications on the team.

Honest question for those that do the gold caretaker... Does it stop all the popup ads. I can hardly finish a post without the post disappearing from all the ads refreshing the screen.

The amount of pop-up ads is astronomical and annoying as hell.  I feel like I'm being punished for not being able to afford caretaker status.

[terrydactyls]

10 hours ago, AKTwinsFan said:

This off-season someone needs to work with him on his stance. A less open and more square stance will help him with his swing. He's got the power already, and like many other tall players has plenty of swing and miss. But he can get better with some adjustments at the plate. The Mariners did with Polanco what years of Twins staff didn't and has had him square up his stance, now he gets more hits and is less susceptible to inside and down/away pitches. 

Hitting isn't a "one size fits all" technique.

[Nshore]

He should stop wiping the pouring flop sweat off his face every at bat.

[TL]

Good article and agree this looks like the “low point”, which is still netting him an OPS over .800. I’ll take that on a minimum / low salary every day of the week, which is where he’ll be for another 2-3 years after this.

It does look like his future is as a DH on this team given the outfield options we have coming up soon, but that’s fine. DH with occasional RF or pinch hit duties when someone else is rotating through the DH spot. I’d stick him at #5 in the order and leave him there for the foreseeable future. 

[Blyleven2011]

Any witch way you look at it , wallner is who he is ....

Defense ;

Not quite average outfielder , he doesn't seem to be athletic  , bad routes and to many are over his head , has wallner ever caught any difficult ball at the fence , he played alot of leftfield in 2024 and seemed to be better in leftfield  , everyone raves about his arm as a cannon but with no accuracy runners gamble for a extra base  ...

Offense :

his hitting has slumped in 2025  , his production sucks in the clutch  , 20 homeruns with 35 rbi's and his production sucks for the season , he walks , gets hit by pitch enough to get on base for a OBP and OPS  but his confidence at the plate is noticeable, , he seems to be in disagreement with the umpire when batting , I'd rather he goes down swinging on a pitch that he can handle rather than lunging at off speed pitches ,...

earlier post mentioned his batting stance , yes it could use some tweaking but it's been the same since his debut with no apparent adjustments ...

He's in the group of frustrated players like Julien  , lewis ,  larnach , Miranda and others  ...

[jmlease1]

12 hours ago, Hubie29 said:

For some reason Wallner is the darling of the fan base. Don't have a clue why.  Over hyped and under performing. He can't seem to play himself off the roster no matter how bad he is. 

Before reading this article, I compared him to Sano.  Sano 716 AB, 43 HR, 118 RBI, .249 BA.  Wallner 765 AB, 49HR, 123 RBI, .238 BA to start careers. Why are we so high on Wallner? Minnesota kid, that's why. 

No, career OPS+ of 133 is why. I don't care if he's from Forest Lake, I care that he can hit on a team that needs it.

Sano was a good hitter for the Twins when he was healthy (and when they didn't do stupid things like play him in RF).  

I guess some people just hate strikeouts so much they'd rather throw away a good player that watch a whiff. I don't understand why it's so much more important for some people that a guy hits 40 more easy outs than strike out. It's still an out.

[Bodie]

7 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

No, career OPS+ of 133 is why. I don't care if he's from Forest Lake, I care that he can hit on a team that needs it.

Sano was a good hitter for the Twins when he was healthy (and when they didn't do stupid things like play him in RF).  

I guess some people just hate strikeouts so much they'd rather throw away a good player that watch a whiff. I don't understand why it's so much more important for some people that a guy hits 40 more easy outs than strike out. It's still an out.

"A good player"...

Bad at every facet (hitting for contact -awful, glove - far below average, arm so slow that it grades out below everyone, slow and bad base runner) but has 18 HR to go with his amazing 35 RBIs.

Sounds "good" to me!!!

 

[justinone]

I'm not high on Wallner being a star, but even the best teams have flawed players like him starting every day. Sure I wish he was a better fielder, struck out less, was more clutch, and had a better BABIP--but what he is isn't bad. He has amazing power--his OPS would be top 50 in the league if he qualified this year. Why would we want to trade him unless we get some crazy haul? Larnach, Outman, and Roden are better fielders, but they are never going to come close to Walner's OPS.  

So for me pencil him in at DH/RF (or maybe 1B if he can be serviceable) and try to fill the other gaping holes in the team. 

[jmlease1]

40 minutes ago, Bodie said:

"A good player"...

Bad at every facet (hitting for contact -awful, glove - far below average, arm so slow that it grades out below everyone, slow and bad base runner) but has 18 HR to go with his amazing 35 RBIs.

Sounds "good" to me!!!

 

yes, because RBI's are a good evaluator of how good a player is. 🙄

And not "bad at every facet", because you're ignoring his ability to hit for power, which is seriously valuable. Is he a bad baserunner? He's not fast, for sure, but he doesn't make big mistakes on the basepaths either. Hell, he even swiped a bag the other night. His arm doesn't grade out below everyone; it doesn't grade out quite as high as maybe it should considering how strong it is, but he's obviously not below average out there with the arm because you see guys hold up rather than challenge him.

But I get it: you don't like a player with his profile: too many strikeouts and you'd rather have a Nick Punto-type bunting more from your RF. 

I'm not pretending that Wallner is an all-star, but he's an above average starter and we need more guys like that on the Twins, not fewer. 

[LambchoP]

If he can start to make more contact and cut down on the strikeouts while maintaining his HR pop, I think he could be a decent to solid DH hitting 5th or 6th. Play him in RF when the matchups are favorable but otherwise DH him. We have a ton of athletic outfielders coming up that are going to need playing time and just about all of them are going to be better defensively than Wally.

[Hubie29]

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

No, career OPS+ of 133 is why. I don't care if he's from Forest Lake, I care that he can hit on a team that needs it.

Sano was a good hitter for the Twins when he was healthy (and when they didn't do stupid things like play him in RF).  

I guess some people just hate strikeouts so much they'd rather throw away a good player that watch a whiff. I don't understand why it's so much more important for some people that a guy hits 40 more easy outs than strike out. It's still an out.

.230+ avg is pathetic. His OPS is consistent with a double every 4 AB. If he was a .280 hitter, I would listen to you. He is part of the huge problem, not an answer to it. 

[jmlease1]

3 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

.230+ avg is pathetic. His OPS is consistent with a double every for AB. If he was a .280 hitter, I would listen to you. He is part of the huge problem, not an answer to it. 

You realize that there's only 30 guys in all of baseball who are both hitting .280 or better and qualify for the batting title, right?

If you add 50 pts of BA to Matt Wallner he's basically Juan Soto. If the only acceptable answer for whether a player should be on the Twins is "he must be an all-star" then you're going to be disappointed forever.

Wallner isn't perfect, but he's a very useful hitter, especially against RHP. I'd love it if some of the guys in the minors came up and played so well that it pushed Wallner into a DH role. But we're not there yet, and the idea that he's part of the problem is absurd.

[Hubie29]

2 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

You realize that there's only 30 guys in all of baseball who are both hitting .280 or better and qualify for the batting title, right?

If you add 50 pts of BA to Matt Wallner he's basically Juan Soto. If the only acceptable answer for whether a player should be on the Twins is "he must be an all-star" then you're going to be disappointed forever.

Wallner isn't perfect, but he's a very useful hitter, especially against RHP. I'd love it if some of the guys in the minors came up and played so well that it pushed Wallner into a DH role. But we're not there yet, and the idea that he's part of the problem is absurd.

Wallner does not offer enough to survive with a .230 avg. Look at his overall stats. What does an 800 OPS give you? I will also bet he doesn't end with an .800 OPS unless the pitching down the stretch is less than MLB level. 

[jmlease1]

11 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

Wallner does not offer enough to survive with a .230 avg. Look at his overall stats. What does an 800 OPS give you? I will also bet he doesn't end with an .800 OPS unless the pitching down the stretch is less than MLB level. 

I'd take that bet: Wallner has had an OPS over .800 every season in MLB where he played at least 75 games. But you've already given yourself an out to discount it, so...

I am looking at his overall stats, and the OPS+ of 122 is a little disappointing from Wallner this season, but it's still well above average.

It would be ideal if Wallner hit for more average, played better defense, etc. But he certainly can "survive" with even his current production. If he gets back to his career averages he's a dangerous threat in a lineup that needs more scary hitters, not less.

[Chembry]

1 hour ago, Hubie29 said:

.230+ avg is pathetic. His OPS is consistent with a double every 4 AB. If he was a .280 hitter, I would listen to you. He is part of the huge problem, not an answer to it. 

Hitting .280 is about 35 points above league average.  Currently the league average is .246.  What you are asking for in this case is a top 30 hitter in MLB for average as well as top 30 for OPS, wRC+, etc... That is the only thing that will make him "good"

[Hubie29]

3 hours ago, Bodie said:

"A good player"...

Bad at every facet (hitting for contact -awful, glove - far below average, arm so slow that it grades out below everyone, slow and bad base runner) but has 18 HR to go with his amazing 35 RBIs.

Sounds "good" to me!!!

 

Couldn't agree more. What's funny is when fans bit** when he strikes out with the bases loaded. Leaves a guy on third with less than 2 out.  That's what a .230 avg gets you.  Yep, we need more like him. 

[Hubie29]

If he hit with a real avg, he might have more than 30+ rbi.  He's just not a good hitter. Connects once in a blue moon and that's it. Don't want him. 

[Chembry]

3 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

If he hit with a real avg, he might have more than 30+ rbi.  He's just not a good hitter. Connects once in a blue moon and that's it. Don't want him. 

Is Giancarlo Stanton a good hitter?  Just curious what your thoughts are on him?  They have very similar stat lines this year.

Since 2023, Wallner has provided a better run value that Giancarlo Stanton...Most probably put Stanton in much higher regard than Wallner, but that just isn't the case.

[Hubie29]

1 minute ago, Chembry said:

Is Giancarlo Stanton a good hitter?  Just curious what your thoughts are on him?

Since 2023, Wallner has provided a better run value that Giancarlo Stanton...Most probably put Stanton in much higher regard than Wallner, but that just isn't the case.

Honestly, wouldn't touch Stanton with a ten foot pole. Terrible. I guess standards have dropped.

[sweetmusicviola16]

Whether many like to admit it or not Wallner adds to the problem with this team. He shouldn't be in RF. Defense is very valuable and Wallner doesn't have it. I'd be ok with him shifting to DH. But at that he will be a part-time DH meaning another player still has to cover for him. He's not an elite bat. I'm also not advocating trading him. Put him at DH against righties and find another player to platoon him with.