New Twins hitting coach comes from Dodgers’ Class A affiliate

The Twins reached into the Dodgers organization for a new hitting coach Thursday, hiring David Popkins.

Popkins, 31, was hitting coach for the Great Lakes Loons last season. The Loons are a high Class A affiliate of Los Angeles based in Midland, Mich.

The hiring was first reported by Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

Popkins played college baseball at Cal-Davis and was in the St. Louis Cardinals system from 2012-14, reaching Class AA Springfield in 2014. The 6-3 outfielder played three seasons of independent baseball – two with the Washington Wild Things in the Frontier League and one with Sioux Falls in the American Association – before retiring after the 2017 season.

He spent the past three seasons coaching in the Dodgers organization.

Twins hitting coach Edgar Varela was re-assigned following last season. Rudy Hernandez also has a title of hitting coach with the team.

The Twins production dropped over the past two seasons after a 2019 where they set a major-league record with 307 home runs and had a team batting average of .270, slugging percentage of .494 and OPS of .832. Last season, those numbers were.241, .423 and .738.

Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco are the only two returning regulars who batted higher than .250.