In a somewhat surprising move at the end of the season, the Twins let go of hitting coach Tom Brunansky, despite the continued ascension of Brian Dozier, and the development of Miguel Sano and Max Kepler as reputable power threats. Still, there were way too many strikeouts, even for this era of baseball, and the new front office felt a new voice would benefit the young Twins prospects.
Rowson comes from the minor league system of the New York Yankees, which have recently produced batters like Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge, but before that, he was the major league batting coach with the Cubs, helping to prepare Anthony Rizzo to be the player he is today. Really, the biggest problem Rowson had in Chicago was timing. He got there before Theo Epstein, and was pushed out when Joe Maddon took over the team.
Rowson promises a philosophy of adapting to his hitters, rather than pigeonholing hitters into the role the team defines for them, which is a refreshing change of pace, remembering how many recent players have been mismanaged in their development (I always think of Carlos Gomez first, though he was way before Brunansky came to the coaching staff). He is also only 40 years old, and has been doing this now since he was 31 in his original stint with the Yankees, and speaks rudimentary Spanish, according to the Pioneer Press. These are all things that provide an edge over Brunansky, so it’s easy to see Derek Falvey’s line of though.
What is interesting is the Twins’ assertion that they cast a wide net for a new hitting coach, which suggests that they let Brunansky go based on Brunansky’s merits or philosophy, not because they had Rowson in mind. Maybe the offense was worse than I thought. Here is hoping that Rowson is able to expedite the development of several young Twins at the plate.
In other news, the Twins also re-upped with Eduardo Escobar, which seems like a pretty good move to me.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
