Twins Daily Minnesota Twins Hitter of the Month - August 2021

[Thiéres Rabelo]

It’s time to name the best Minnesota Twins hitter of the month! So far, Mitch Garver, Nelson Cruz, and Jorge Polanco have taken home this prestigious award. Will there be a new winner for the month of August?

August represented the first month of the season in which Minnesota had a winning record. Curiously enough, according to several metrics, it was also the month in which they had their lowest offensive productivity. This controversy (given that their pitching wasn’t substantially better either) could be explained by the fact that Twins hitters performed very well in clutch situations, making the difference between losing and winning in at least a handful of games.

Without further ado, here are three honorable mentions, followed by the big winner!

Honorable Mention #3: Luis Arraez
This is how good Luis Arraez is: despite having a slight dip in productivity during August, he still had one of the top 15 batting averages in baseball. Also, by slashing .291/.371/.384 (.755), he finished the month with the highest batting average on the team. Unsurprisingly, his power numbers aren’t impressive, but he compensates for that with a ton of plate discipline. Among all qualified batters in August, Arraez’s strikeout rate (8.2%) ranked fourth-best in baseball. He only struck out more than one of his teammates in August: bullpen legend Willians Astudillo (2.9%).

It should be brought to your attention that Arraez’s final numbers in August started to drop only during the last week of the month. Until Aug 24, he was slashing .314/.381/.404 (.785) before an 0-for-16 slump. Hopefully, the turn of the calendar will help him get back on track.

Honorable Mention #2: Miguel Sanó
Miguel Sanó’s mere presence in this Twins lineup was a question mark for quite some time. When he struggles, as he did during April and May, many people are vocal about it. Well, for the past three months, he’s been proving many people wrong, having a very consistent, above league average productivity. His highlight of the month happened last week, when he hit the longest home run in all of baseball this year, sending the poor baseball completely out of Fenway Park.

During August, Sanó had his highest number of plate appearances of the season (106), and he was able to sustain a season-best .820 OPS while also having a .344 wOBA and 118 wRC+. It seems as if consistent playing time makes all the difference for the big fellow. Sanó had the team’s second-most extra-base hits (11) and third-highest SLG (.489) in August. Not to mention that he stepped up when the team needed him the most, putting the ball in play 50% of the time in high-leverage situations, the eighth-best BABip in all of baseball in such situations.

Honorable Mention #1: Josh Donaldson
“The Bringer of Rain” had an incredible month of August, possibly his best in a Twins uniform. Donaldson led the team in batting average for the month, slashing .278/.360/.519 (.878) while also posting .376 wOBA and 140 wRC+, both ranking second-best on the team and considerably above league average. This was the fourth month out of five this year in which he maintained a wRC+ of at least 125.

For those who believe the Twins should pursue a trade involving him next winter, his improved second half of the season can seriously increase his trade value.

Hitter of the Month: Jorge Polanco
For the first time since we’ve established the hitter of the month award, we have a player to be named for a second time. In August, Jorge Polanco was easily the Twins’ best hitter, leading the team in fWAR, with 1.1 and also most of the other relevant offensive metrics, including .945 OPS, .612 SLG, .390 wOBA, and 150 wRC+. But what was even more impressive about Polanco’s August was how clutch and decisive he was! He was responsible for three consecutive walk-off RBI hits for Minnesota this month alone. Check out this video from Twins Daily’s Tom Froemming with every one of his five walk-off hits this season.

Given his track record and expected statistics, his current power surge is probably unsustainable over an entire season. He slugged .421 for the first three months of 2021 before jumping to .548 in July and .612 in August. Nonetheless, Polanco’s August was just the icing on the cake of what has been one of his best seasons as a major-leaguer, entitling him to be a front-runner to be named the Twins’ hitter of the year.

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[mikelink45]

No. Doubt. The right choice. 

[theBOMisthebomb]

It's interesting to see that Arraez's off field personality matches his on field persona. Fun player to follow. 

[RpR]

Twins cannot afford to lose either Polanco or Donaldson, take them out of the lineup and you will have the Minnesota Orioles .

Fielding they cannot lose Simmons or Donaldson and Buxton.

They need pitching badly but getting a good pitcher at the cost of run producers and run preventers would be asinine.

[LA VIkes Fan]

Agreed. We need to improve our pitching through free agency and internal development, not by additional trades. The only players I would trade for pitching are Kepler and maybe Sano, Frankly I don’t think either one of them will bring back a quality starting pitcher. Same even if you traded both in the same trade.

[Mike Sixel]

39 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Agreed. We need to improve our pitching through free agency and internal development, not by additional trades. The only players I would trade for pitching are Kepler and maybe Sano, Frankly I don’t think either one of them will bring back a quality starting pitcher. Same even if you traded both in the same trade.

You wouldn't deal prospects for a legit 2/3 type (if there is one out there)?

[Karbo]

19 hours ago, RpR said:

Twins cannot afford to lose either Polanco or Donaldson, take them out of the lineup and you will have the Minnesota Orioles .

Fielding they cannot lose Simmons or Donaldson and Buxton.

They need pitching badly but getting a good pitcher at the cost of run producers and run preventers would be asinine.

Agree with Donaldson and Buxton but I do believe there will be so many top tier ss available this off season we can probably find a decent fielding ss that can hit better than Simmons. If not, re-sign him for less than he's getting now, but leave Polo at 2nd.

[LA VIkes Fan]

On 9/1/2021 at 2:41 PM, LA VIkes Fan said:

Agreed. We need to improve our pitching through free agency and internal development, not by additional trades. The only players I would trade for pitching are Kepler and maybe Sano, Frankly I don’t think either one of them will bring back a quality starting pitcher. Same even if you traded both in the same trade.

I agree on Kepler and Sano. I think we need to recognize what other teams will see them as being. Kepler is a below average hitting,  good defensive corner outfielder who can also play centerfield. Perfect 4th outfielder for a good team like the Yankees or Oakland, not a starter. Sano is a boom or bust power hitter with no defensive position that he can competently play. In other words, a DH that hits sixth in the lineup. Those guys, even packaged together, are not going to get us a young controllable starter. They might get us a young shortstop, young relief pitching, or solid prospects. In both cases, I think that’s a trade worth making. Kirilloff replaces Sano, Larnach or Miranda replaces Kepler, or Kirilloff and Larnach play the corner OF spots with Miranda/Arraez at 3B and Donaldson at 1B. Upgrade defensively and at the plate at first base, downgrade defensively in right field but probable upgrade at the plate. Worth doing if we can get young, controllable players or good prospects at positions of need.

Most likely result, though, is that they both stay with the Twins for most of their career. We frankly value them higher than the rest of the league does and so they’re likely to stay.