Trevor Larnach on the Minor Leagues, Prospect Rankings and Where He Still Needs to Improve

[Lucas Seehafer PT]

I caught up with Larnach after Sunday’s simulated game, in which he belted a “double” to left center field that one-hopped the wall — there was no defense in the field, but it would have been a double if a real game was being played — and also pulled a hard hit ball down the right field line. Below is a transcript of our conversation that was mildly edited for clarity.When the Minnesota Twins selected Trevor Larnach with the 20th overall pick in the 2018 draft, they did so with dreams of his powerful, left handed swing slotting in the middle of their order for years to come. While he may still be a year or so away from reaching The Show and turning his team’s dreams into reality, the former Oregon State Beaver — and the Twins’ third-best prospect according to MLB.com — is spending his spring days at the alternate training site at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul, preparing for what will likely be his Triple-A debut.

 

I caught up with Larnach after Sunday’s simulated game, in which he belted a “double” to left center field that one-hopped the wall — there was no defense in the field, but it would have been a double if a real game was being played — and also pulled a hard hit ball down the right field line. Below is a transcript of our conversation that was mildly edited for clarity.

 

Lucas Seehafer: I guess what I want to know most, and I think what the fans would want to know most, is what it’s like to be a minor league baseball player, especially at the higher levels.

 

Trevor Larnach: I guess ...There’s almost two questions to that: You have pre-COVID and you’ve got post-COVID. Post-COVID, I think I could probably say this for everyone, when you don’t have a season it feels more or less like a job than anything else. You’re not necessarily competing every day against other teams and there’s no stat sheet and there’s no schedule. It’s just practice, almost. When you’re practicing aimlessly and you don’t really know where it’s going, that can get kind of tedious.

 

But, at the moment, we’re on schedule for a season, so it’s kind of an in-between. We’ve got an alternate site right now and a season we’re getting ready for, so it’s pretty nice. This is my second year here, so I kind of have a feel, an understanding, of the ballpark and the city and everything else. It’s been a lot of fun. I think we’ve got a super good group of guys and I think we’re ready for a season. We’re hoping it doesn’t get pushed back or anything, but I think I can speak for those guys on that.

 

Lucas: Yeah, I was going to say, how’s it going to feel to be on the field again and playing actual baseball again that matters?

 

Trevor: It’s going to be awesome. I think everyone’s going to be a lot more excited than just having practices every single day. I’m assuming there’s going to be fans everywhere we go. It’s just going to be awesome to face other pitching, other teams, just travel again, you know? It’s just going to be a refreshing feeling to be able to play a season and knowing that you can adjust what you’re doing on the field in comparison to, like, how you’re failing against other teams and stuff. When we’re facing each other, we’re facing guys that are working on their stuff to get to the big leagues and we’re hitting to get to the big leagues at the same time, but it’s just completely different, you know? It’s just very different.

 

Lucas: Kind of speaking more personally about yourself, anywhere you look, you’re one of the highest ranking Twins’ prospects in the system. Do you pay attention to that kind of stuff?

 

Trevor: No. Zero attention. I have social media accounts, but I don’t run them. I’m barely online. I think there’s a lot of technology and a lot of information nowadays that can cause a lot of drama, per se, especially amongst yourself, teammates, family. I have family members that come to me all the time and say, “Hey, I saw this about you.” and I’m like, “Well, there’s been no season, so I wouldn’t take it with all the greatest credibility.” Not to say any website like you guys or whoever else aren’t credible, it’s just different. There’s no situation where there’s a season and you can actually judge people off of what they’re doing. Me, personally, I stay away from it. I think, especially a lot of people are negative on places like Twitter and Instagram even. I just stay away from it.

 

Lucas: When you get to see teammates like [Alex Kiriloff] or [Nick Gordon] or [Travis Blankenhorn] or whoever, when they do get to go to the big leagues, how’s it feel knowing that sooner or later that’s going to be your name that’s going to be called.

 

Trevor: It’s exciting. I think the younger guys, per se, like the guys you just mentioned, I’m a lot closer with, so it’s a lot more exciting when guys go up. You’re cheering for them, you’re rooting for them and I’m hoping there’s a day in a year or however long it might be that we’re all up there together and we’re all competing. I know we have a lot of chemistry together, I know what each and every one is capable of and they’re all good guys, so I’d love to play with them all at once in the big leagues. But it’s not really under my control.

 

Lucas: What do you think you have to work on the most in order to get to that level?

 

Trevor: That’s a good question. [long pause]. You know, I wouldn’t be so hesitant if there was a season beforehand because I would be able to tell you , like, what are my weaknesses, playing other teams, other pitching? But just based off of what I’ve done here, Spring Training, the alternate site last year, I would just say consistency. Just continue to be consistent in the batter’s box, continue to be consistent in the field, consistently being a good teammate. All of those things. I feel like if I stick with that, stick with my routines and my processes and doing everything right, I feel like it will fall into place. I’m in a great mindset. Whether I get a call or not, I’m very positive and when that call does come, I’ll be very, very excited. Very ready as well.

 

Lucas: I’ve got one more for you. When people think of the minor leagues, I think it’s kind of hard to say to what level that level is at. If you were to compare, Double-A, Triple-A, whatever, to what you played against at the Division I level, how would those levels compare?

 

Trevor: Let’s just say this: I’d compare college ball to low-A. That’s what I would compare it to. It’s a little different, though. You can’t necessarily compare it with that much justification, just saying it’s going to be “Low-A is college ball”, because you’re playing every day, you have different arms, you have different people from every different place in the world. Scouting reports are different. The atmosphere is completely different as well, but I would say the competition level, more or less, from the offensive side and maybe the pitching side, here and there, I think it would be low-A. High-A I think is a step above. High-A is closer to Double-A. I mean, obviously, they’re right next to each other.

 

But once you get to High-A, the velo starts jumping a little bit more, the stuff starts getting a little bit nastier, but the command isn’t necessarily there. But when you get to Double-A, that’s when both of those two things — the velo and the command — and the nasty pitching, that all starts to be in the zone. They know what they’re doing with it. Triple-A, from what I’ve heard, I can’t speak on experience, I’ve never been in Triple-A, but, from what I’ve heard, it’s you’ve got guys that have big league time, guys that have a chance at getting in the big leagues and they know what they’re doing. Everybody knows what they’re doing. Everyone’s a very high-level player at Triple-A. Depending on an opportunity, most Triple-A guys could play in the big leagues, but I can’t speak from experience because I haven’t been there yet.

 

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[SkyBlueWaters]

He sounds pretty level-headed. 

 

I enjoyed his take on the different levels of MiLB.  Thanks.

 

 

[se7799]

Great article. Thankyou for sharing.

[MNT1996]

Smart kid for staying off Social Media. I think a lot more people need to follow that path.

[Brian_PDX1]

I was a bit surprised they didn't call Larnach up but the Twins, all evidence to the contrary, know what they are doing, I hope.

[Wercor]

Bring him up...