Twins’ Trevor Larnach working hard at establishing foothold in major leagues

SEATTLE – Trevor Larnach, a former first-round pick, felt he was at a make-or-break point in his career during the offseason. He was left off the Twins’ 2023 postseason roster and he fell below other corner outfielders on the organizational depth chart.

Whether his future was with the Twins or another team, he knew he needed to play better. He had only shown small glimpses of success in the big leagues.

“There is nothing more frustrating,” Larnach said, “than reaching your dream and seeing it slip away and not knowing why.”

Larnach decided he needed to make some changes as he entered the offseason. He changed agents, joining the Bledsoe Agency, which has a training facility for its clients outside of Nashville. Larnach, from the Bay Area in California, committed to changing the foundation of his batting stance, working on swinging without taking a stride forward.

He remembers walking into the Nashville facility for the first time and thinking to himself, “Oh, man, I hope I made the right decision.”

“It was definitely a leap of faith, dude,” Larnach said. “The thing I love about them is they don’t work with people outside of the agency. You have to commit to the agency to be able to work there. ... That was my type of environment. It reminded me a lot of college. Guys on the same page trying to work hard and achieve what their goals are.”

Larnach, 27, has turned into an everyday starter against righthanded pitching, splitting time between left field and designated hitter while playing through turf toe in his right foot. He entered Saturday night’s game at Seattle with roughly league-average offensive production (.720 OPS). He had a .297 on-base percentage with seven homers, seven doubles and 25 RBI in 48 games.

There are metrics that paint Larnach as one of the unluckiest players in the league with how hard he is hitting the ball. His average exit velocity is 92.4 mph — StatCast classifies 95 mph as a hard-hit ball — which puts him in the 92nd percentile in the majors. He has cut his strikeout rate almost in half compared to last year, but he has a .268 batting average on balls in play, which is almost 40 points below his career norm.

“It doesn’t make it easy,” Larnach said. “At the end of the day, up here is about production.”

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli added: “It can be frustrating when you’re doing everything you can and you’re whacking the ball all around the park and you’re not getting any hits. I think he’s in a good place, and he’s doing exactly what we’re hoping for him to be doing. Keep hitting the ball like that and some really positive things are always going to come your way.”

Larnach planned to carry his no-stride swing into the season, but he naturally added a small step during spring training. He feels more in control of his body, enabling him to wait another split-second on pitches, which in turn has cut down on his swings and misses.

Part of Larnach’s routine in batting practice is beginning with medium-strength line drives to the opposite field, sometimes his first 15-20 swings. It’s something Larnach incorporated after spending some time working with Torii Hunter and Matt Kemp in Texas over the offseason at Royce Lewis’ invitation.

“I did the whole pull-side homers thing the past three years,” Larnach said. “I found that it pushes my point of contact up more. I’m already, I think, pretty good with the fastball. If I’m doing that in a controlled environment, it’s pushing my contact point out and it leaves me less of a chance to hit something slower the other way.”

The scouting report against Larnach over the past three seasons was to pound him with slower pitches. Every year, fewer than half the pitches he saw were fastballs.

“It was frustrating because I wasn’t fooled,” said Larnach, the No. 20 overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Oregon State. “I was pretty well aware they were going to do that. When I knew that stuff was coming and I still couldn’t hit it. ... Trust me, I did a lot of things that I possibly could in the past to try to negate that. It takes time and understanding.”

The Twins initially viewed Larnach as a depth option entering the season, behind fellow lefthanded hitters and former first-round picks Matt Wallner and Alex Kirilloff. There wasn’t even much of a competition in spring training.

That wasn’t the only reason he felt he needed to implement changes in the offseason.

“Guys come in and do well, they deserve that,” he said. “I wasn’t just thinking my time here. I was just thinking my entire career.”

The Twins expect Larnach’s luck to change. He is making too much hard contact not to have better numbers eventually.

For Larnach, now that he’s back in the big leagues and receiving another opportunity, he’s showing his offseason changes are paying off for him.

“It’s not that I wanted to switch agencies — it’s a tough thing to do,” Larnach said. “You grow a bond. You work with these people. I was at a point where I’m 26, 27. I need to make an adjustment.

“It’s a tough thing to do, but you have to take risks. I’m grateful.”