Written By Brandon Warne
In just his eighth game as a big league manager, Paul Molitor is shaking up the batting order just a little bit. It’s not a huge change, but the rookie skipper has decided to flip-flop Brian Dozier and Torii Hunter in the batting order, with the latter batting second and the former batting cleanup, sandwiching the two around Joe Mauer.
“I thought a lot about it yesterday,” Molitor said about the team’s scheduled off day on Tuesday. “Just ways to approach the game today, and I didn’t want to do anything major. I told the guys I certainly wasn’t in a panic mode yet, but you gotta tweak it once in a while.”
Hunter is no stranger to batting second. In fact, he hit in that spot more times (70) in the Tigers lineup last year than he did anyplace else. It was also true in Hunter’s first year in Motown, as he batted almost exclusively — 135 games — in that spot.
This will be the first time Dozier has hit cleanup in his career, though the manager likes his versatility. He’s keenly aware, though, that it might not necessarily be all positive to move Dozier down in the order. “Flexibility is good,” Molitor noted. “But I think the downside of moving him down is you risk maybe not getting him a fifth at-bat, and he might get a bit locked up on the bases depending on who’s out in front of him.” Still, Molitor thought it was time to shake it up, even if it was just a little bit.
Hunter agreed with the manager, going as far as saying it’s pretty good for a manager to stir it up once in a while. And while teams will often cater to veteran players in an attempt to not ruffle any feathers, make no mistake about it: Hunter is totally amenable to moving around in the order.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Hunter said of Molitor trying to kickstart a sluggish offense. “For the last seven days, it’s been hell. So I think Mollie is trying to jump start something and give it a different look, and maybe with a different look, it gives us a different feel or different vibe.”
Don’t expect too big of a philosophical change from Hunter in his newfound digs, though he did say that subconsciously, a hitter may change things up when he moves up in the order. “You try not to,” Hunter said. “But subconsciously, it is different. But you have to trust in your swing and keep it the same. You just have to do different things with the baseball, depending on if the leadoff guy is on first and you want to hit behind him or give him a chance to steal.”
Hunter also noted that things can change based on batting in front of a lefty, especially depending upon the pitcher’s handedness. That’s before considering having an established big league lefty like Mauer behind him, he added. “If there’s a lefty behind you it’s different — period,” Hunter said. “If there’s a lefty on the mound, he wants to go after that lefty. But if there’s a righty pitching, he wants to come after you.”
In the end, who knows to what extent this change will take hold? This could end up a one-time thing, or it could spring the Twins to score a few more runs, and be a longer-term thing. Only time will tell if it’s a shuffling of the deck chairs, or manager Molitor massaging his newfound influence on his club. Ultimately, it’s not hard to see why he’s trying something new. The club came into Wednesday’s action last across the MLB in runs scored, isolated power (slugging percentage – batting average) and wOBA (weighted on-base average).