In his sixth season with the Twins, Trevor is creating a tremor
Former Oregon State star Trevor Larnach is having his best season with the Minnesota Twins
SEATTLE — As he leads a sportswriter he has known for some time out of the visitors clubhouse and into the dugout at T-Mobile Park, Trevor Larnach looks out at a blue-sky, picture-perfect Northwest day and exclaims, “Man, I love it up here.”
We take a seat to begin an interview, and I ask the Pleasant Hill, Calif., native why he feels that way.
“I just love coming back to this area,” says the Minnesota Twins left-fielder, who spent three years in Corvallis playing his college ball at Oregon State. “I have an appreciation for it, right? California has different weather than most places in the country — sunshine, a little rain and cold, but you don’t get true seasons.
“When I come back here, it reminds me of my first breath of fresh air going to college. Came up in August and it was really nice and I thought, ‘Man, it’s beautiful up here.’ You see the seasons change through the fall and winter. In the summertime, you come back and it is sunny, but everything is green. It is like California sunshine with the geography of the mountains, the greenery, the trees — I love it.”
Larnach’s return to the Northwest for a three-game series with the Mariners produced a mixed bag of results. The 6-4, 225-pound lefty swinger blasted home runs on Saturday and Sunday — both at key times — but they came in back-to-back walk-off losses as the Twins dropped two of three games.
Trevor, 29, and wife Jessica — the former Jessica Garcia, a four-year starting outfielder during her days playing softball for OSU — are now making their offseason home in Nashville.
“That is where I start my training after every season,” he says. “We do love the Napa (Calif.) area. It reminds us of the Northwest, just slightly different.”
It has been a breakout season for Larnach in his sixth year in the big leagues, all with Minnesota after being taken by the Twins with the 20th pick in the first round of the 2018 MLB draft. He is on pace for career bests in several offensive categories, slashing .286/.373/.821 with 19 doubles, 49 runs and 41 RBIs in 92 games. Larnach has only 10 homers — he belted 17 last season and 15 in 2024 — but is trending in the right direction after last weekend’s long-ballery.
“I try not to look at the numbers until the season is over,” he says. “(Statistics) at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, the end of that year, those are all a byproduct of what you are doing every single day incrementally — each at-bat, each inning, each game, each series. All the stat stuff stacks up, and that is what you see at the end of the year. I put all my focus into what I have to do every day to prepare and get ready. I give it my best on the field and, we’ll see where it takes me.”
Larnach hit .333 in four games in March, then batted .282 in April. He hit only .241 in May, jumped to .342 (with a .405 OBP) in June and finished July at .281 despite going hitless in 10 at-bats in the last four games of the month.
“Trevor has been very consistent at the plate this year,” Minnesota pitcher Bailey Ober says. “He looks really dialed in. His routine has been really good. He has been a dependable, solid player for us.”
“For the first couple of months, I was getting on base quite a bit and getting hits here and there,” Larnach says. “At the beginning of a season, I am trying to get my bearings, trying to find my groove, to find a rhythm. As you move toward the middle of the season, the game out on the field shows you everything. It shows you what you are not doing well, what you are missing, or what you are doing well and what you are on top of. I pay attention to that, taking my positives but also looking at things that I am maybe not succeeding at.
“I adapt and adjust with my routine and the process of preparation. As the season goes on, I try to stay on top of all these little things, whether it is my timing or routine or something that gets out of whack, so that I am aware of that and getting it where it needs to be. This season has been a byproduct of me adjusting to what I should be doing to get better. It is a battle every single day of grinding and making sure I am staying where I need to be to finish the season.”
Since first-year manager Derek Shelton is mostly sitting Larnach against left-handed pitching, he has played in only 93 of Minnesota’s 113 games heading into Tuesday’s opener of a series against Kansas City. To qualify for MLB batting leaders, a player must average 3.1 plate appearances for each of his team’s games. Larnach has 335 plate appearances, 15 shy of qualifying for league leaders. If he were qualified, he would rank eighth in the AL in batting average (.286) and ninth in on-base percentage (.373).
“That’s cool,” he says. “That is awesome to hear. It’s a big positive. But my mind goes, ‘What goes into that?’ The other part of that is, I’d love to have more at-bats to see where it would take me.”
This season, Larnach is 6 for 36 (.167) against southpaw pitchers. Shelton left him in the game in a crucial situation Saturday, however, with lefty Gabe Speier on the mound and one out in the eighth inning and the score tied 3-3. Larnach drew a walk but was stranded on third base in a 4-3 loss.
“Anybody on the team wants to play every single day, but that is completely out of my control,” Larnach says. “(Twins management) sculpted their team for what they think best fits their model and the product they want to put on the field. If that requires me to platoon, I am going to give it my all to do that. You control what you can control and prepare the best way that you can, so you are taking advantage of the opportunities you are getting.”
Larnach had launched a solo home run to right-center in the sixth to draw the Twins within 3-2. On Sunday, Minnesota fell behind 6-0, but Larnach swatted a two-run homer to right to spark a five-run eighth. After the Twins tied it at 6-6 in the ninth, he singled to center to put the go-ahead run on base, but the Mariners pulled out a 7-6 victory.
Though he is still being platooned, Larnach has gained Shelton’s trust on the defensive end. Under Rocco Baldelli last season, he was used as a designated hitter in 81 of his 142 game appearances. This year, he has DHed only twice, playing almost exclusively in left field, where he has only one error in 151 chances.
“Trevor has been unbelievable for us this year,” Shelton says. “He has become a better outfielder and hasn’t had to be used as a DH. Especially against right-handed pitching, he has been one of the better outfielders in the game this season.”
Larnach’s college coach thinks Larnach has always been a quality outfielder.
Larnach was one of the key pieces on Oregon State’s College World Series championship team of 2018 (courtesy OSU sports communications)
“Trevor is a way better defender than people think,” Pat Casey says. “He gets a great jump on the ball. He more than holds his own.”
Casey — now in his second season in a part-time gig in player development with the Milwaukee Brewers — also has an opinion on Larnach being platooned.
“It’s true that left on left is more difficult than right on right, because it doesn’t happen nearly as often,” Casey says. “When you only get to do it once in awhile, it becomes not the norm. Some players put a little pressure on themselves, like, ‘I have to hit lefties so I can play every day.’
“I know if Trev played every day, he would hit left-handed pitching. He might not hit .286, but he would be adequate, and it would help his overall game, because he wants to play. He loves being on the field.”
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Larnach wasn’t an instant success at Oregon State. Six weeks before the start of his freshman season, he broke a foot. He never got to full strength, nor did he win a starting job, hitting .157 with no homers in 28 games and 59 plate appearances.
“He wanted to know why he wasn’t playing every day,” Casey says. “I told him, ‘That’s what I want to know. Why aren’t you playing everyday? I believe in you, man, but you gotta do it.’ ”
Casey’s adage through the years was always, “I don’t determine the lineup; the players do.”
“Trev pressed a little bit that season,” Casey says.” It was the first time he ever failed. But he never gave in. The player he became is a credit to him. He wants to be the best. He and (Steven) Kwan and (Adley) Rutschman were in the batting cage all the time. He was all about baseball.
“After his first year, I told (radio broadcaster) Mike Parker, ‘Once this guy gets it figured out, he will put up better numbers than (former Beaver great) Michael Conforto.’ ”
As a sophomore in 2017, Larnach hit .303 with a .421 OBP, with 48 RBIs but only three homers in 60 games on the Beaver team that went 56-6, including 27-3 in winning the Pac-12 title, and reached the College World Series. The next year he was sensational, blasting 19 four-baggers with 77 RBIs and 72 runs scored in 62 games, slashing .348/464/1.116. (As a junior in 2014, Conforto hit .345/.504/1.051 with seven homers, 56 RBIs and 52 runs in 59 games. Advantage Larnach.)
It was Trevor’s clutch two-run homer in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the best-of-three final series with Arkansas that paved the way for the Beavers to claim the national championship.
Larnach had one of the biggest hits in Oregon State history, a two-run, ninth-inning homer against Arkansas in Game 2 of the 2018 College World Series championship series (courtesy Dave Nishitani)
“There is no doubt that, if I am talking about the biggest hits in Oregon State history, that one comes to mind every time,” Casey says.
Larnach climbed up the ladder quickly in the Minnesota farm system, hitting .300 or near it at every stop before joining the Twins for the first time in 2021 at age 24. He spent some time at the Triple-A level through ’23 before becoming a full-time major leaguer in ’24. Larnach played 142 games in ’25, hitting 17 round-trippers with 60 RBIs in 567 plate appearances, many of them in the DH role.
This season, Larnach has batted in several spots in the order, most often in a leadoff role. Conventional wisdom these days is to put the better hitters at the top, getting them the potential opportunity for more at-bats.
“It’s only different at the beginning of the game, when you are starting the team off,” he says. “After that, like any other spot in the order, the game is rolling. I prepare to be ready for wherever they put me. But it’s cool, man. I love it up there. I love getting the first swings.”
Larnach is now Minnesota’s fourth-longest-tenured player, behind veterans Ober, Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers.
“It is crazy to even think about, but it is a byproduct of where the game is going,” Larnach says. “It is getting younger and younger. Nothing wrong about that. The best players play.”
Larnach points out that he will only have five years of official MLB service when this season is completed.
“That is middle tier,” he says. “The guys who are around eight, nine, 10 years are veterans. I am not close to that. But (his spot on the Twins’ seniority list) is awesome to hear. I want to be around a long time. I am trying to play as long as I can.”
Larnach smiles and shakes his head.
“The age thing is tricky,” he says. “The older you get, the more experience and wiser you get. You want to continue to play, because you have this sharpness and clarity you didn’t have as a younger player. You want your body to be with you at that level.”
Trevor would seem to be in his prime physically.
“I feel great,” he says. “I have a team around me off the field that helps me with my hitting, my health, my performance, my strength and conditioning. They have done an unbelievable job. It also requires me to put in the effort to do that. I put in an immense amount of work to be my best on and off the field. But I don’t get anywhere without the people in my circle. It is cool to talk about, because it has been quite the journey.”
Casey believes the best is yet to come.
“Trev is a very good hitter, and when he is hot, he is really hot,” he says. “I have always said if somebody would play this guy every day, he would go off, and I think he will. He will hit 20 home runs (in a season) in his career, be a .275 to .300 hitter, drive in runs and play a good corner outfielder. Above all, he will be a great teammate.”
Ober says that is already the case.
“Trevor is one of my really good friends on this team,” he says. “He is a great teammate and a good person to be around, for sure.”
Minnesota stood at 32-40 on June 13 but has rallied to get back into a race for the playoffs that involves all but three of the 15 teams in the AL. Tampa Bay, the White Sox and Houston are the division leaders, and the Yankees and Red Sox are out front for two AL wild-card spots. With two months of the regular season remaining, it is a mad scramble for the final wild-card berth, with Cleveland (57-56), Minnesota (56-57), Texas (55-57), Seattle (55-58), Detroit and Baltimore (both 54-58) and Toronto (52-60) in contention.
The Twins have made in the playoffs only once during Larnach’s time with the club, in 2023, when they beat Toronto in the wild-card series, then lost to Houston in the AL Division Series. This season, the Twins are in third place in the AL Central but only four games back of the division-leading White Sox.
Larnach likes the feel of a pennant race.
“It’s fun, man,” he says. “It’s a blast. We have a super good group all around. We mesh well together and have good chemistry. That goes a long way when it comes to playing a long season with a group of guys. You want to go out there and fight for each other. It has been exciting.”
After last season, Larnach signed a one-year, $4.75 million contract with the Twins to avoid arbitration. He will have one more year in that situation before becoming a potential free agent after 2027.
“It is not a topic I talk about much,” he says. “I get asked about it, but I am not thinking about where I want to go two years from now. I am taking it one year at a time. After this season, I will break down what I liked and didn’t like. I will work hard in the offseason on the things I need to adjust to, and from there I will take the next step forward.”
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Trevor and the former Jessica Garcia, who played outfield for the Beaver softball team, were married in November 2024 (courtesy Trevor Larnach)
Larnach is proud to be an Oregon State alum, one of nine Beavers currently on an MLB roster. There is a fraternity that extends even beyond those who have made the big leagues. He had breakfast with former OSU teammate Kyle Nobach and his wife in Seattle last Friday.
“We got to hang out for a little bit,” Larnach says. “Any time I can see a college teammate, I am going to go for it. We share an unbreakable bond. The stories between Kyle and me are no different than I share with any of those guys I played with. It is all the same experience and fun times.
“I am blessed to have had that time there with those guys, to be able to grow, to be around guys like (Rays pitcher) Drew Rasmussen. He deserves every bit of what he has accomplished. He is a beast, man, and he has been that since his first day of college. I am super happy for him.”
Casey and Larnach have exchanged texts through the season. Casey texted him after both home runs last weekend, congratulating him and telling him to “keep on truckin’.”
“Case is a busy man, with his family, his foundation, his work with the Brewers, his fund-raising for Oregon State baseball,” Larnach says. “That guy is not going to sit still. But we keep in touch and whenever we cross paths, it is amazing. Our stories at Oregon State always start with Case.
“One thing Case would always say: ‘We don’t just breed baseball players, we breed guys who grow into quality human beings.’ To become fathers and sons and brothers and uncles or whatever within their families. That’s what we have seen come out of that program. I would like to think I am part of that.”
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