The New “Twins Way” Embraces the Gray Areas

As the Minnesota Twins have moved into Fort Myers and gotten well on their way with spring training in preparation for the 2020 season, we have begun to hear some great insights on how players' offseasons have gone. What has caught my eye in the last week are all the stories on how so many Twins pitchers have been preparing for the season and how the Twins are encouraging their personal growth.

One thing stands out in each story. Each pitcher is being coached to try to find his best individual approach. A team that just a decade ago was known for the “Twins Way” of playing has in the new regime fully embraced an approach where they don’t want a specific best type of player. Instead they are trying to make the best of whatever types of players they have on their roster.

That isn’t to say there are not some traits this front office targets, but long gone are the days of a prescribed method on how to bring them up. Long gone are the horror stories of batting stances and approaches that encourage simply hitting the ball the other way. Long gone are the days of the dreaded “pitch to contact” conversations.

With the new approach there is a strong willingness to experiment and find the little things to put a player in a position to improve and succeed. Aaron Gleeman highlighted Trevor May speaking to that approach as he described his transition from starter to back-end reliever. The biggest change he made was to move away from his curveball as his primary breaking ball and embrace his slider more.

A change of a grip, plus confirmation from the technology the Twins have implemented, and May was on his way to an improved approach. Taylor Rogers recently spoke to the Twins' new way of helping players improve and joked that the Twins may have more technology than the military.

Here is more from that interview where he highlights all the approaches the Twins are using with that technology. With a high emphasis early in the clip on individualizing the process.

https://twitter.com/palmern2Twins/status/1234507593877422082

Another interesting read over at FanGraphs focused on how Zack Littell has really developed and used two sliders in his approach as a reliever. What I found great about this is that there is no cookie-cutter way of how Littell can employ his sliders. It is a feel thing and a reading of specific situations.

There is clearly a thought process on how to decide what to use but the prescription is not readily available to everyone. In fact, only Littell knows exactly which slider he will throw when the catcher puts down the sign. Of course, technology and personal conversations with pitching coach Wes Johnson were part of Littell’s journey to using two sliders.

As humans we are much more comfortable living in black and white ways of living. That way is predictable and much easier to follow. The old “Twins Way” thrived on a “this is the way to do it” mentality it seemed a majority of the time. Now the Twins embrace the gray area in order to find what is best for each individual.

Because of that approach we have already seen many break-out performances from Twins players. It can also help us have faith that those players can continue to grow and perform and that others like Kenta Maeda, Matt Wisler, Lewis Thorpe and Jose Berrios can take some steps forward in 2020 and help the Twins contend and win in the playoffs.

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