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At a glance, it doesn't look like Trevor Larnach is doing any of the things you'd hope to see from him this season. He's hitting it on the ground more; he's pulling it in the air less. His swing speed is down; his chase rate is up. He's generating lower batting and slugging averages on contact, which makes sense, because he's not hitting it hard as often as he has in the past, and he's walking less, which makes sense because he's swinging more.
When you look at his full line, though—he's hitting .245/.321/.395 for the season—things don't look so dreary. In fact, he's on a tear lately, right in line with some of the best work he did last year.
Larnach credits a more balanced, consistent approach for this success, which has coincided with the Twins' rebound from a terrible start to the season that threatened to end their playoff hopes before they could even mature.
"The goal is to be consistent with your moves as much as you possibly can," Larnach said Saturday. "The more you’re consistent, the more you’ll see consistent results."
That day, his results were tremendous, as they've often been in recent days. He doubled and homered, and has two of each of those in the last five contests. During the Twins' current eight-game winning streak, their slugging corner outfielder is hitting .303 and slugging .545. He's struck out more lately than he did over the first five or six weeks of the campaign, but is making up for it with increased power. Under new hitting coach Matt Borgschulte, he's enjoying the fruits of a team-oriented approach.
"I think each hitting coach has their own kind of philosophy that they like to follow, and Borgs’s is very simple. He tries to simplify things. Each hitting coach is different," Larnach said. "You’re gonna have a guy who likes mechanics, you’re gonna have a guy who likes approach, you’re gonna have a guy who might like both. But Borgs, specifically, I think he likes to take a team approach and help guys out in the team sense, to simplify, ‘Ok, this is what the pitcher does. Let’s all try to pass the batons, and do the right things.’"
It's taken time for that collective mentality to take root, and for the team's production to match their projections. That's been happening lately, though, and it comes as no surprise to Rocco Baldelli.
"Borgs is an extremely intelligent hitting guy. He’s very prepared, but he’s really good, more than anything, at how do you help guys train to prepare for what’s to come? As opposed to just honing a swing, he’s actually honing a swing combined with what a team is about to see on a given night," Baldelli said Tuesday. "He’s really into, not just taking swings, but practicing things that are going to help with things like decision-making and improving guys’ approaches at the plate."
Under Borgschulte, Larnach's using the opposite field more often than in the past, and pulling the ball less than ever. On the other hand, his 20.5% strikeout rate is the lowest of his career, too. He's making contact with over 87% of the strikes at which he swings, a career-best and a mark of thorough strike zone control. The skipper believes that's a natural result of the process the team has implemented this spring.
"He’s a very process-oriented guy, who’s not just there to create an ideal swing that’s going to hit a pull-side homer," Baldelli said. "Yes, that’s important, but he’s really interested in the flexibility of a swing—the ability to help a swing adapt to all the things that a pitcher is going to do. And he makes a lot of these things that are somewhat complicated really simple, as the guys are trying to prepare. He’s trying to help these guys get ready to hit major-league pitching, which is totally different than just breaking down a swing on video. It’s not a static thing, in Borgs’s mind. It’s like a living, breathing thing, the major-league swing."
That flexibility is exactly what Larnach has largely lacked during his big-league career. Famously, he struggles mightily against offspeed and breaking stuff. He's also been a dead pull hitter. The new and (hopefully) improved Larnach is better able to cover the whole plate and use the whole field, which he credits not only to good coaching, but to subtle adjustments facilitated by getting to play more often against left-handed pitching this year. In the past, Larnach has strode closed, which ensured that he wouldn't lose coverage of the outer edge but also cost him some bat speed.
"That happens over time, but it’s not something I’m always trying to do—because eventually, that leads you to cutting yourself off. And that’s not what you want," Larnach said of that stride pattern. "So sometimes, if I get pitched away a lot from right-handed pitchers—even last year, it happened—but if it happens a lot, it’ll be extensive. So the adjustment is to try and get back. So then, everyone is different, but sometimes for me, seeing a lot of left-handed sided stuff, that helps me even back out."
Whether it's specific instruction or just more opportunities to handle varied opposition, Larnach is rounding out nicely at the plate—even if the results so far are more encouraging than outright dazzling. The team mindset has filtered through the roster. Until Matt Wallner returns to the lineup, Larnach will be badly needed as a left-handed bat, and his new hitting coach has him in a good state of mind to meet that need.
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