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Twins' Larnach takes home weekly honor

No. 5 prospect went 10-for-20 with two home runs for Fort Myers
Trevor Larnach finished May with a 1.075 OPS over 26 games for the month. (Gordon Donovan/MiLB.com)
June 3, 2019

Three hundred and sixty four days ago, Trevor Larnach heard his name called as the 20th overall pick in the 2018 Draft as the Twins' first-round selection. Now, he's backing up Minnesota's hopes for him at Class A Advanced Fort Myers. The Twins' No. 5 prospect has been named Florida

Three hundred and sixty four days ago, Trevor Larnach heard his name called as the 20th overall pick in the 2018 Draft as the Twins' first-round selection. Now, he's backing up Minnesota's hopes for him at Class A Advanced Fort Myers.

The Twins' No. 5 prospect has been named Florida State League Offensive Player of the Week, the first such honor of his brief professional career.

Larnach went 10-for-20 (.500) with two homers, two doubles and seven RBIs over five games to nab the award for May 27-June 2. He led the FSL in total bases (18), slugging percentage (.900) and OPS (1.422) over that span. The left-handed-hitting right fielder was particularly hot in the middle of the week, going 9-for-13 (.692) with three of his four extra-base hits over three games between Tuesday and Friday.

View the Pitcher of the Week winners »

"I'm just sticking with the process and doing what I always do," Larnach told MiLB.com after a three-hit, five-RBI showing on May 29. "Baseball is a game of failures, so if you fail it's just part of the game. You just have to keep grinding through it and keep doing what you do best and just stick with your process. When you do that, things are gonna happen naturally. So I'm just in my constant routine and trying to do all the things I need to do, stay healthy and keep plugging away."

As a result of his big week, the 22-year-old pushed his season line from .282/.360/.431 to .304/.377/.479 through 51 FSL games. His .856 OPS ranks fourth in the pitcher-friendly circuit, while his 93 total bases are tied for second. (Only teammate Lewin Diaz has more with 96.)

Most notable about Larnach's growth in his first full season has been his power surge in recent weeks. The former Oregon State Beaver went homerless and slugged just .322 over 23 games in April but went deep four times while slugging .619 over 26 games in May. He's shown few signs of slowing down in June, already going deep once over his first two games this month.

That's a positive development for a player who was considered to have above-average power coming out of college. Larnach went deep only three times in his first two seasons at Oregon State but exploded to hit .348/.463/.652 with 19 homers his junior season, helping to lead the school to an NCAA title. After signing for $2,550,000, he carried that solid bat to Rookie Advanced Elizabethton and Class A Cedar Rapids, hitting .303/.390/.500 with five homers in 42 games between those two stops last summer.

Now after a slow start, Larnach is again beginning to show the offensive potential that makes him one of the most exciting bats in the Minnesota pipeline alongside Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff.

"I'm hitting the ball hard right now, and sometimes it goes and sometimes it doesn't," he told MiLB.com last week. "That's just part of the game. If it goes, great; and if it doesn't and ends up as a double, that's great, too. You just keep plugging away.

"I take every day as a new day. Whatever happened yesterday, just erase it and start a new day and focus on what I need to do that day. You can't live in the past. For me, that doesn't work. I try really hard not to be streaky -- living in past success doesn't help your mind-set on game day. So I just focus on each game at a time: a new day, is a new day."

Below is the complete list of Minor League Offensive Players of the Week for May 27-June 2:

League Player Team MLB Stats
International Phillip Ervin Louisville CIN .423/.516/1.077, 7 G, 11-for-26, 2 2B, 5 HR, 10 RBI, 10 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 CS
Pacific Coast Matt Szczur Reno ARI .545/.538/1.000, 7 G, 12-for-22, 1 2B, 3 HR, 11 RBI, 8 R, 2 BB, 3 K
Eastern Forrest Wall New Hampshire TOR .571/.636/1.000, 7 G, 16-for-28, 6 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 10 R, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 SB, 1 CS
Southern Trent Grisham Biloxi MIL .409/.517/1.136, 6 G, 9-for-22, 5 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 8 R, 6 BB, 2 K
Texas Jake Fraley Arkansas SEA .440/.481/.920, 6 G, 11-for-25, 3 2B, 3 HR, 13 RBI, 8 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 SB, 1 CS
California Austin Beck Stockton OAK .478/.536/.783, 6 G, 11-for-23, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 7 R, 4 BB, 6 K
Carolina Diosbel Arias Down East TEX .579/.680/.737, 6 G, 11-for-19, 3 2B, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 7 R, 5 BB, 2 K
Florida State Trevor Larnach Fort Myers MIN .500/.522/.900, 5 G, 10-for-20, 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 4 R, 2 BB, 3 K
Midwest Will Benson Lake County CLE .409/.500/1.000, 7 G, 9-for-22, 1 2B, 4 HR, 8 RBI, 7 R, 5 BB, 5 K, 4 SB
South Atlantic Frankie Tostado Augusta SF .360/.385/.920, 6 G, 9-for-26, 0 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 5 R, 1 BB, 2 K

Sam Dykstra is a reporter for MiLB.com. Follow and interact with him on Twitter, @SamDykstraMiLB.