Matt Wallner started the 2024 season in a world of trouble, going 2-for-25 with 17 strikeouts in his first 13 games. The Twins sent him to Triple-A to get right, and while it took three months, he did. After he returned to the majors in early July, Wallner transformed into the best player on the big-league club.
The. Best.
In his final 62 games beginning July 7, Wallner batted .282/.386/.559 with 12 home runs and 16 doubles. In that span, he was the team's most valuable player by fWAR, by a half-run margin. One place he continued to struggle was against left-handed pitching. It wasn't something he could correct at St. Paul.
It wasn't always like this against lefties for Wallner. As recently as 2023 in Triple-A, he batted .310/.398/.662 with six homers, and nine walks with just 22 strikeouts (for a 26.5% K%) against left-handed pitching. Conversely vs. right-handed pitching, Wallner hit .284/.405/.470. Matt Wallner had reverse splits.
It wasn't the first time Wallner crushed lefties. At Triple-A in 2022, he batted .271/.394/.627 with five homers against lefties. At Double-A earlier in the year, he batted .276/.406/.539 with five homers and 14 walks.
Wallner can do this. He can be an everyday player. He has a history, and a pretty substantial one, of being able to hit left-handed pitching. If he can apply this latent skill to his major-league self, he becomes much more valuable to the Twins. And to himself. This is the difference between getting paid like a platoon player and what superstars receive.
As for the present, the Twins don't necessarily have an optimal substitute in right field.
Harrison Bader covers ground, but he doesn't have Wallner's arm. Austin Martin has come a long way this spring on defense, but he's more of a center/left type for the same reasons as Bader. Willi Castro you could put out there, but you're not making your defense better by doing so.
It's a major advantage for the other team when the Twins sub out Wallner because a left-handed pitcher has come into the game. There's often a good chance the Twins are quashing one more plate appearance for Wallner later in the game, which probably won't be against a lefty.
If the Twins can help it at all, Wallner should stay in the game from start to finish.
The Twins often did this with Max Kepler, another lefty batter who started his career weakly against left-handed pitchers. But by the end of his time in the Twin Cities was quite capable of putting up competitive at-bats against them.
This is not to say that Twins manager Rocco Baldelli should put Wallner at the top of the batting order against a left-hander the first time the team sees one, as happened in Spring Training against Chris Sale.
But giving him opportunities later in the batting order makes sense. Most lefty batters who come to the majors ascend the minors without ever mastering lefty pitchers — which is why we see them platooned in the majors from the start.
They never showed an aptitude to hit same-side pitching on their way to the big leagues.
Wallner has. The Twins should pursue more opportunities for him to reclaim this skill. The benefits would be enormous.