Matt Wallner and Louie Varland named 2022 Twins Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MN — The Minnesota Twins announced today that outfielder Matt Wallner has been named the 2022 Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins Minor League Player of the Year and right-handed pitcher Louie Varland has been named the 2022 Jim Rantz Award winner as the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Wallner and Varland become the first pair of Minnesota natives to win the awards in the same season.
Wallner, 24, split the minor league season between Double-A Wichita and Triple-A St. Paul, combining to hit .277 (127-for-458) with 32 doubles, four triples, 27 home runs, 95 RBI, 90 runs scored and a .953 OPS in 128 games. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound outfielder was selected to start in the 2022 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, was named Texas League Player of the Week on June 26, and was named Twins minor league Player of the Week four times during the season (May 1, June 26, July 10 and September 4). He ranked first among all Twins minor leaguers in RBI (95), doubles (32) and total bases (248), second in home runs (27) and walks (97), and third in hits (127), runs scored (90) and games played (128). Wallner earned a promotion to Minnesota and had his contract selected by the Twins on September 17, making his major league debut that day in Cleveland, going 1-for-3 with a solo home run.
The Forest Lake, Minnesota native was selected by the Twins in the Competitive Balance Round A (39th overall) of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Southern Mississippi. In three minor league seasons in the Twins organization, Wallner has hit .269 (262-for-974) with 67 doubles, eight triples, 50 home runs, 176 RBI, 173 runs scored, a .382 on-base percentage, a .508 slugging percentage and an .890 OPS in 261 games. He becomes the fourth Minnesota native to win this award, joining Kent Hrbek (1981), Michael Restovich (1999) and Joe Mauer (2003).
Varland, 24, split the 2022 minor league season between Wichita and St. Paul, combining to go 8-5 with a 3.06 ERA (126.1 IP, 43 ER), 42 walks, 146 strikeouts, a 1.26 WHIP and a .242 (117-for-484) opponent batting average in 24 games (23 starts). The 6-foot-1, 205-pound pitcher was named Twins minor league Pitcher of the Week four times on the season (June 12, July 3, August 14 and August 28). He led all Twins minor leaguers in strikeouts (146) and innings pitched (126.1), tied for first in games started (23) and was second in ERA (3.06), second in winning percentage (.615), fourth in opponent batting average (.242) and WHIP (1.26), and tied for fifth in wins (8). Varland made his major league debut for the Twins in a start on September 7 at Yankee Stadium, striking out seven batters over 5.1 innings pitched.
The St. Paul, Minnesota native was selected by the Twins in the 15th round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of Concordia University (St. Paul) and has gone 18-10 with a 2.61 ERA (238.0 IP, 69 ER), 76 walks, 298 strikeouts and a 1.19 WHIP in 47 games (42 starts) over parts of three seasons in the Twins minor league system. He is just the second Twins farmhand to win this award in consecutive seasons, joining José Berríos in 2014 and 2015.
The Sherry Robertson Award, named in honor of the Twins’ first farm director, was established in 1970 to recognize the top Twins minor league performer each season. Since 2002, the award has recognized the Twins Minor League Player of the Year while an additional award has been created to recognize the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year. This award was named in honor of former Twins Minor League Director and Twins Hall of Famer Jim Rantz. Past winners of the Sherry Robertson Award include Butch Wynegar (1974), Kent Hrbek (1981), Gene Larkin (1986), Paul Sorrento (1989), Denny Neagle (1990), Marty Cordova (1992), LaTroy Hawkins (1993 and ’94), Todd Walker (1996), David Ortiz (1997), Michael Cuddyer (2001), Joe Mauer (2003), Brian Dozier (2011), Byron Buxton (2013), Max Kepler (2015), Alex Kirilloff (2018), Trevor Larnach (2019) and Jose Miranda (2021). Past winners of the Jim Rantz Award include Jesse Crain (2003), Scott Baker (2004), Francisco Liriano (2005), Matt Garza (2006), Kyle Gibson (2010), José Berríos (2014 and ’15) and Randy Dobnak (2019).
Wallner and Varland, along with the other Twins 2022 award winners, will be recognized at the 18th Annual Diamond Awards later this winter.