Matt Borgschulte's Marching Orders: Get Consistent Production From a High-Variance Lineup

Less than two weeks after relieving hitting coach David Popkins and both of his assistants of their duties, the Minnesota Twins (known for taking their time) actively sought out and hired Matt Borgschulte for the same position. Borgschulte, 33, shuffled between minor-league hitting coach roles with Minnesota from 2018 to 2021 before joining the Baltimore Orioles' major-league coaching staff in 2022. Quantifying the impact Borgschulte made on Twins minor leaguers over his three seasons with the organization is nearly impossible. However, Borgschulte has been at the forefront of various hitting success stories since becoming the Orioles' co-hitting coach alongside Ryan Fuller.

Whether it be extracting surplus value from older homegrown talent in Anthony Santander, Cedric Mullins, or Ryan Mountcastle; reviving reclamation projects like Ryan O'Hearn, Jorge Mateo, and Aaron Hicks; or serving as a guiding light to star young prospects in Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser, and Jackson Holliday, Borgschulte and Fuller captained one of the most effective offensive units in MLB over the past three seasons. Despite newfound success as an organization, Baltimore has fallen short come playoff time, failing to win a playoff game despite winning 101 games in 2023 and 91 games in 2024. Finding sustainable regular-season success is a virtue that should not be overlooked. However, what good is sustainable regular-season success for an organization if the rug unfailingly gets pulled out from beneath them early in the postseason?

Baltimore found itself in this bittersweet predicament. Instead of parting ways with manager Brandon Hyde, the organization made coaching changes on the margins. The O's first parted ways with Fuller. However, they appeared content with Borgschulte on the 2025 staff while hiring a new co-hitting coach. Despite retaining his job with a young, successful team on the precipice of a World Series run, the 33-year-old former college baseball player chose to rejoin the Twins organization.

Borgschulte will be the clear-cut, top hitting coach of an MLB club for the first time in his career. The Twins' hiring him for this role continues the organization's trend of opting for youth and innovation, as they did when hiring Popkins before the 2022 season. Interestingly, being young and relatively inexperienced aren't where the parallels between Popkins and Borgschulte end. Borgschulte's hitting philosophy centers on making purposeful swing decisions, controlling the strike zone, and prioritizing hard contact. His approach with Baltimore also stressed the importance of making loud contact and driving the ball into gaps and over the fence. Sound familiar?

Now, hiring someone who appears to have the same philosophy as Popkins may seem counterproductive. However, there seems to be a distinct difference in how they communicate this approach, evidenced by this tweet from Twins Daily's Parker Hageman:

A frequent fan critique of the Twins in recent years was that hitters appeared to stick to the game plan, even when opposing pitchers made adjustments that neutralized their pre-planned approach. Whether it was Edouard Julien skittishly overanalyzing every plate appearance or Ryan Jeffers staring at middle-middle fastballs in 2-2 counts, Twins hitters looked like they were drowning at the plate, evidenced by the team posting the fifth-worst wRC+ in MLB from Sept. 1 through Sept. 29. Fair or not, much of the blame fell on Popkins and assistant hitting coaches Rudy Hernandez and Derek Shomon.

Again, it is tough to quantify how much praise or blame managers and hitting coaches deserve at the major-league level. However, there is no doubt that the mix of rigid game planning and an inability to make adequate in-game adjustments is the type of systematic error that led to the Twins' dramatic collapse during the season's final month and overall season-long struggles. Plagued by inconsistency, the 2024 Twins' lineup flaws were fatal, resulting in Popkins, Hernandez, and Shomon losing their jobs. Although these three came up short in their quest to build a sustainably productive, hard-hitting offense, that doesn't mean the approach they were trying to teach was dysfunctional. This is where Borgschulte comes into the equation.

As stated earlier, Borgschulte is similar to Popkins in that he values purposeful swing decisions, controlling the strike zone, and prioritizing hard contact on balls in the zone. Borgschulte will continue to teach this approach with the Twins, just like Popkins will as he heads north of the border. Every MLB organization prioritizes these same traits. However, some do it better than others. The Twins have lower-quality offensive personnel than the Orioles had the previous three seasons. That said, the club's personnel is significantly better than they displayed this past September.

Despite the Pohlad family recently announcing their intention to sell the franchise, the Twins' payroll will likely hover around $130 million again next season. This unfortunate reality means the team's lineup will include many of the same hitters as last season. Borgschulte's greatest indicator of success will be his ability to lessen the high-variance nature of the Twins lineup, in the name of manufacturing a more sustainable team-wide approach. Popkins successfully pulled off this high-wire act once during his tenure with Minnesota, and the result was the organization winning its first postseason game in 18 years. If Borgschulte can clearly communicate necessary hitting adjustments to players, create more flexible game plans, and be endowed with a relatively healthy assortment of players, the Twins could quickly return to the playoffs.