Ryan Jeffers didn’t initially set out to revamp his whole swing this whole season. The beginning of the process was more an assessment of what he did well and how he could build around that.
The result, though, was major changes through hours and hours of work this offseason with hitting coach David Popkins, who was on the other side of the country, over FaceTime. Jeffers hasn’t had a chance to show off much of his new swing, but he’s produced in a limited sample size, going 4 for 11 to begin the season with a home run.
It started early this offseason, about a month and a half earlier than normal. It began with tee work. At nights sometimes Popkins would FaceTime from Southern California and Jeffers, in North Carolina, would head to his garage, grab a broomstick and test out different things with Popkins offering feedback.
They talked so frequently that if there was a day where Jeffers didn’t send video of himself, Popkins would text asking, ” ‘Hey, where’s my video?’ ” Jeffers said.
Through some trial and error, they settled on a bat tip, which Jeffers said came in early in the process. They then experimented with a toe tap, but as Jeffers moved from tee work to flips to batting practice to machine work, they decided to scrap the toe tap, instead opting for no stride.
“I could tell from early on that we were making the right moves, we’re going in the right directions,” Jeffers said. “Early January, it started to really click like, ‘Hey this is really going to work. This is me. This is what I need to do.’ ”
Word of the work they were doing made it to manager Rocco Baldelli in Rhode Island, who received periodic updates from an enthusiastic Popkins this winter.
“Pop said even this offseason, ‘I’m really excited about what Jeffers is doing right now,’ ” Baldelli said. “ … I would get all kinds of videos and I think it’s great. It’s carried over and not every adjustment that you make, do you see the results when you start facing real major league pitching.”
While Jeffers hasn’t had as much of an opportunity to show off the offseason work he put in — Christian Vázquez has received the bulk of the playing time behind the plate, catching two of three games in every series thus far — Jeffers is excited to see the fruits of his labor pay off.
“I trust that I can be a top-five hitting catcher,” Jeffers said. “I truly believe that, so like I’m not going to be afraid to put in that work to like to get to where I know I can be.”
Wallner returns
Matt Wallner’s family was planning on heading to CHS Field on Saturday to watch him play.
Instead, they had a chance to watch him across the river at Target Field. The Forest Lake native was called up on Saturday with Max Kepler going on the injured list, joining the Twins for his second stint in the majors. He started Sunday, going 0 for 2 in the Twins’ 5-1 loss to the Astros.
Wallner was briefly in the majors last season, playing in 18 games last September for the Twins. This spring, he said he knew that his odds of making the team out of camp were “probably stacked” against him, but he wanted to focus on getting off to a better start than he had in previous years.
It’s a small sample size, but his start to the 2023 season in St. Paul saw him go 6 for 20 with a homer and a pair of doubles before he got the call up.
“(I’m) just trying to not do too much, I think,” Wallner said. “It’s helped me a little bit.”
Gallo update
Joey Gallo remained out of the lineup on Sunday, two days after he left early with what he described as an intercostal issue. Gallo said the plan was to give it a couple of days and give it some treatment to reduce the inflammation so he could start swinging again and get back into game action.
“It was bothering me a lot and that’s when I said something,” Gallo said. “I didn’t want to turn it into a 2-3 week thing when it could be a 2-3 day thing. So just trying to monitor it and be smart.”
