LoMo Unfiltered

Twins Designated Hitter Logan Morrison’s season has paralleled his team’s in many ways. He started poorly in April, showed signs of life in May, but has been fallen short of expectations overall.

With Tampa in 2017, the 6-3, 245-pound slugger posted an .868 OPS with 38 homers and 81 walks, but at age 30, could not find a lucrative, long-term deal on the free agent market. The thrifty Twins took advantage and inked Morrison to 1-year, $6.5 million contract in late February.

In April, Morrison struggled to a .145/.253/.250 slash-line with just two homeruns. The 9-year veteran fared better in May, hitting four long balls, but remains at .197/.309/.348. The Kansas City native, who has also played with the Marlins and Mariners, chatted with me candidly about his uneven season last week.

DZ: Well we’re about two months into the season now, how would you assess things, like team wise and personally, so far?

MORRISON: I mean kind of the same, I guess. You know, inconsistency, you know not hitting, not pitching, not doing little things correctly…The stuff to help us win tight games, things like that. You know, having said all that, you know, don’t look behind you, keep pushing forward, keep looking forward and focus on the task at hand.

DZ: Personally, you got off to kind of slow start too, especially like early on. Is it harder when you come to a new team, do you put more pressure on yourself?

MORRISON: I mean for sure, especially, you know, when you do struggle. You just think, oh my gosh am I ever going to hit again and all that kind of stuff. But it’s a constant, I just haven’t, I guess felt comfortable or comfortable on an everyday basis being able just to give myself a chance to be on time mechanically. Feel a little better now, but again, getting a good pitch to hit and then being able to put my body in the position to drive the baseball.

DZ: Did all those weather delays and everything, affect your timing?

MORRISON: No, I mean I don’t really look for any of that kind of stuff. It’s either you hit or you don’t. And you can either hit or you can’t. You know, it’s not weather related or anything like that.

DZ: Last year (in Tampa) you played mostly first base, DHed just a little bit. And this year, now it’s changed with Mauer being out, (but) in the beginning of the year it was kind of opposite…Is it different when you’re DHing? Do you have more time to think about it when you’re not doing well?

MORRISON: Sure, sure, yeah, I mean just for me it’s like trying to find a routine DHing where you don’t think about it so much between bats and just move on to the next at bat and playing defense kind of helps you do that. Make a play, make a pick whatever it may be to help your team win, kind of keeps you going, gets you going.

DZ: Going back to when you were a free agent this last season. What attracted you to the Twins? Why did you end up signing here?

MORRISON: Just I think it was honestly, just the way that they kind of handled the situation. They were up front with me. They were, they you know, they communicated with me, talked to me, kind of saw where their vision was, where I fit in with that and definitely ided to be a part of the Twins.

DZ: How long did that whole process take?

MORRISON: It was probably like, I couldn’t even tell you, four or five days. Six days, I don’t know, I don’t really remember.

DZ: I noticed on Instagram you have the Home Runs for Haiti drive going, how did that all come about?

MORRISON: Well, so Gibby (Kyle Gibson) actually bought it up right before opening day and asked me if I wanted to be a part of it and I said, “Yeah, sure.” You know it’s a great cause. There’s a lot of crazy stuff that’s going on down there and being able to keep kids in school, off the street, give them something to work towards, give them goals. Being able to provide facilities for them to want to stay in you know, it’s the least we can do.

DZ: And one last thing, how did you end up picking number 99?

MORRISON: Well, I was one of the last guys to sign, so there wasn’t really many options available and (Twins equipment manager) Rod (McCormick) was just like, “You should be 99, you could pull it off.” So, I was like, “Alright, I’ll be 99 for spring training.” He was like, “You can change it if you want.” The week after spring training, I was like, “Yeah I want to change my number.” (McComick said) “Oh you can’t, we already made banners.” That kind of thing. But it’s just a number, I don’t really look much into it.

See more of David Zingler’s 2018 player interviews:

June 4: Mitch Garver April 17: Brian Dozier April 15: Ryan LaMarre April 14: Addison Reed January 27: Chip Lohmiller

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