SCHREIER: Trevor Plouffe is Searching for an Identity

Written by Tom Schreier

As the Minnesota Twins try to recover from 2011’s epic collapse, they have turned to their prospects, in addition to the international market, to replace the likes of Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Denard Span and Francisco Liriano. Naturally, it is players drafted in the mid-2000s that are beginning to come into their own. Glen Perkins, a converted starter, has become the team’s closer, Anthony Swarzak has become a reliable long reliever while Phil Hughes became the team’s best free agent signing in recent history.

The common strand among all three players? They were all drafted in 2004.

It would make sense that players in that draft class have started to come into their own. All of them, regardless of if they were drafted out of high school (Swarzak, Hughes) or out of college (Perkins), are in the prime of their careers, and Swarzak and Perkins have been in the Twins’ system for over 10 years now.
 

The most mysterious of all these players, however, is Trevor Plouffe. At No. 20 overall, he was drafted ahead of Perkins (No. 22), Hughes (No. 23) and Swarzak (2nd round), but has yet to truly find an identity in the game. On the field he’s been shuffled around from shortstop, to second base, to the outfield before settling in at third. At the plate he has been a ground ball hitter, a fly ball hitter, a power hitter, a doubles hitter, a pull hitter and a guy that hits to all fields.
 

“I’m going to remind you once again, he’s about a 3-year player,” said Ryan in mid-August. “It seems like he’s been around forever, but he’s about a 3- or 4-year player, and this is about the time that guys start to really figure it out — I’m guessing he’s at that stage. We could expect this guy to be the type of player that drives in runs, makes the routine play, and somewhere in that 6-hole is probably where he belongs, with the right lineup. That’s kind of the right spot.”  
 

As a person, Plouffe has always been the same guy. He is a laid back California dude who loves USC football, rocks sandals and snapbacks, listens to classic rock and can grow a mean beard. But as a player, it took a while for Plouffe to discover who he was.
 

In high school he was a pitcher and a position player, and had he gone on to play to at the University of Southern California, where he committed to before being drafted by the Twins, he would have pitched in addition to playing in the field. Selected at No. 20 overall in the 2004 draft, Plouffe was expected to be a power-hitting shortstop once he reached the major leagues and played that position in his brief stint with the Twins in 2010.
 

He was a poor fielding shortstop, however and was forced into the outfield in 2011, where again, he was not a great fit. He did not put up power numbers and wasn’t a spectacular fielder, but he had forced his way back into the big leagues by putting up a .313/.384/.635 line with 15 home runs in Rochester. At the time, he looked like the proverbial Quadruple-A player: a star in the minors who couldn’t get it going in the majors.
 

“I think what you’re finding out is you’re adjusting to who you are as a hitter,” says hitting coach Tom Brunansky of young hitters in the major leagues. “How you hit in the minor leagues, other than power, you’re gonna put the ball on the ground, you’re gonna bunt, you’re gonna run, power guy is going to hit for home runs. But when you’re in between that and you don’t really have an identity yet, and then you come up there, then the league will dictate to you, and then the ballpark helps dictate it.”

That power manifested itself in 2012 when he hit 24 home runs, including 13 in a 24-game stretch during the middle of the season. During that time, he hit seven home runs in seven games. “2012 was a month-and-a-half, in reality,” says Brunansky. “He got hot, and home run hitters are streaky. You see a home run hitter with consistency, well that’s Cabrera, you’re looking at an MVP-type guy. So most home run hitters are going to get hot and do some damage, and Trevor had a great month-and-a-half.”
 

But he was only getting power from the pull side, and pitchers adjusted, pitching him outside more and quelling his power as the year went on. He failed to hit for average that year, with a .235/.301/.392 line, and struggled as he moved from the outfield to the hot corner.
 

Plouffe’s first year at third base was a learning process, to say the least. He committed 17 errors and had negative stats in just about every advanced defensive metric in addition to owning a .935 fielding percentage according to baseball-reference.com. He sailed throws over the first baseman’s head, let the ball play him and had trouble with decision making. He has made progress since, becoming an average third baseman with a better fielding percentage (.960) and better peripheral numbers.
 

“That’s certainly not easy, but there’s different phases of the game you have to excel at, you’re not just a one-dimensional player,” says Brunansky of changing positions. “Obviously when you’re playing better defense, it’s gonna make our ball club better. So for him to have to move around from position to position, yeah, you have to spend more time defensively than you normally would, which takes time away from getting your cage work down.”
 

More interesting than his movement around the field, however, is the changes he made at the plate. In the minor leagues, Plouffe was a ground ball hitter that didn’t put up power numbers. He had a 13 home run season in Single-A but was better known for drawing walks and on-base percentage than he was for hitting the ball over the fence. He progressed quickly through the minor league system, reaching Triple-A by age 22, but appeared to have stalled once he got there. Then, in 2012, he changed his batting stance and his swing, going from a ground-ball hitter to a fly-ball hitter.
 

“When I first came up – he’s more of a pull hitter, so I kind of emulated him a little bit and had some success doing that,” says Plouffe, in reference to former teammate Josh Willingham, who was traded to the Kansas City Royals late in the season. “I found myself, while doing that, still exposed to some pitches and a guy I lean to and talked to about that. He was a guy that was willing to help you make adjustments.”

Plouffe credits the lineup the Twins had in 2012 for his success that year. In addition to Willingham, Ryan Doumit, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Denard Span and Ben Revere hit well that year. “One thing that comes to mind is…a lot of people had good offensive years that year,” he said, “and it’s fun hitting with a group of guys like that. So when he would hit one, I would say, ‘Alright, it’s my turn,’ or same thing, if I came into the dugout, he would say, ‘Okay, I guess I’ve got to go do it, too.’”
 

“The good thing about him doing that is that we always have something that we can go back to,” says Brunansky. “When he starts feeling off, there’s always knowing that he’s done it and that there’s video to prove it, that you can go in there and look. And then you can say, ‘Okay, now you start looking at your swing compared to that to now.’”
 

“We know he’s capable of doing that because we’ve seen it. [In 2012] he had that six weeks where all he did was hitting home runs, and they were all to the pull side. This year he’s hitting a lot more balls to the opposite field, I’m guessing that’s by design because pitchers have been pitching away, and then he turns on that ball the other night and he smokes it,” says Ryan.
 

“He’s got power and he’s improving the defensive side of his game. His throwing is much more accurate; he’s getting there. Two years ago I’m not sure any of us would have said that he was a usable third baseman. We were bouncing him around every position on the diamond. Now he’s usable and he makes that slow roller play pretty dang good.”
 

In 2013, Plouffe’s hitting line improved (.254/.309/.392), but he hit fewer home runs, 14, than the previous season. He also drew fewer walks (37 to 34) and struck out more (92 to 112) than in 2012. His OPS+, which adjusts according to each ballpark, dropped from 106 to 92 despite his increased contact numbers.
 

Injuries also took a toll on him that year, especially a lingering calf injury and a concussion he sustained on the basepaths. The calf injury was a result of a ruptured plantaris tendon, which are rare in the human body, and in the offseason Plouffe had his surgically removed. “They’re useless, they don’t do anything for your body, they’re just there and eventually they tear,” he said at the beginning of the season. “So I got rid of those two on both my calves, and so those are feeling good.”
 

He entered the 2014 season feeling healthy, which aided a hot start. Externally, the team could tell he was confident. Recently fired manager Ron Gardenhire said that Plouffe had confidence and experienced less mood swings this year, helping to stabilize his play on the field. “Just the number of at-bats, confidence, finally believing in himself on an everyday basis, not going up and down with his emotions like what most players go through,” he said. “He cares about his performance, so he’d get a little emotional at times and he’d have to fight through that, but right now he’s pretty much the same guy every day.”
 

Plouffe finished the year tied with Detroit’s Ian Kinsler at 4th in the AL in doubles with 40, and his .258/.328/.423 line was a career high. He only hit 14 home runs, the same number as last year, but Gardenhire felt he was playing his best baseball at the end of the season. “He’s really improved,” said the former manager. “The kid’s had a good year, a solid year offensively, and defensively he’s caught the balls he’s supposed to, he’s been a lot more accurate, so he’s done very, very well for our baseball team. He’s really matured as a player, and that’s been fun to watch.”
 

“You have to trust the process,” says Plouffe, acknowledging that it can test a person’s patience every once in a while. “I know that it will pay off in the long run to be a hitter who uses the whole field. Once I really learn how to do that and it’s ingrained, then I’ll be able to start taking more chances and pulling some home runs or hitting the ball over the fence a little more.”
 

Really it all boils down to whether he can hit to all fields while also getting power to the pull side, where there is a shorter fence at Target Field, if he can be that .260 hitter with 20-plus home runs a year and hold down the 6-hole. Brunansky, his hitting coach, believes he can. “In Plouffey’s situation, the home run power will come. It’s there, it’s just in our ballpark, most of the time they’re going to pitch him more away than they will in, and open up the gaps to drive in runs,” says the hitting coach. “He’s at a career point right there, and he’s not done yet.”
 

For the Twins, the team just completed another endless summer in search of the perfect wave. For Plouffe, he’s just trying to be a part of the momentum and ride it once it peaks.