Inside The Twins

Watch: Twins' Matt Wallner drills 3-run homer off Yankees' Gerrit Cole

Wallner's second home run of spring training came against one of the best pitchers in baseball.
Will Ragatz|
Sep 11, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins right fielder Matt Wallner (38) runs the bases and celebrates his solo home run against the Los Angeles Angels in the first inning at Target Field.
Sep 11, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins right fielder Matt Wallner (38) runs the bases and celebrates his solo home run against the Los Angeles Angels in the first inning at Target Field. | Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

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Minnesota Twins

Gerrit Cole, meet Matt Wallner.

In the second inning of Thursday's spring training matchup between the Twins and Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Wallner blasted a three-run homer off of Cole to complete a five-run inning for Minnesota against one of the best pitchers in baseball.

On a full count, a 97 mile-per-hour fastball caught too much of the plate, and Wallner drilled it over the fence in right-center field. It left his bat at 105.5 MPH and traveled 379 feet.

The Twins made quite a bit of hard contact in the inning against Cole, the Yankees' ace who has made six All-Star teams and won the AL Cy Young award in 2023. It started with Trevor Larnach ripping a leadoff single at 111.9 MPH. Brooks Lee then singled off the wall at 107, and Mickey Gasper's RBI knock left the bat at 104. After a fielder's choice and a Mike Ford sacrifice fly, Wallner delivered a huge swing to give Minnesota a 5-0 lead.

Wallner could be in line for a big season in 2025. He's been productive over roughly half a season for the Twins in each of the past two years, generating 2.2 WAR in roughly 75 games both times. In his career, Wallner has 29 home runs and a 139 OPS+ in 169 games. But due to some inconsistency and struggles to hit left-handed pitching, he's also spent big chunks of the last couple years playing for Triple-A St. Paul.

More: Twins' Matt Wallner cracks MLB Network's list of top ten right fielders

The Twins hope this will be a breakout year for the 27-year-old Wallner, who hails from Forest Lake, MN. He hits the ball harder than anyone on their roster and has a big-time arm in the outfield as well. Wallner will start out on the bench against some lefties, but he has a chance to play quite a bit in the corner spots.

Wallner also appears to be the leading candidate to be the Twins' primary leadoff hitter this season; he's hit atop the lineup in every spring training game he's appeared in thus far this year. Rocco Baldelli likes his power and on-base percentage in that role.

Lee tacked on a sixth run against Cole with a home run in the third inning. The game was in progress at the time of this story's publication.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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