You may have noticed that Eddie Rosario has been hitting higher in the order of late. Part of it has been that the Twins have faced a number of lefties lately, and he’s one of the few batters on the team holding their own against them. Part it is also that Miguel Sano has been sidelined for the past few days after getting hit on the hand with a pitch against the Texas Rangers.

But perhaps a large part of it stems from the fact that Rosario is having a nice offensive season, too. For the season, Rosario is hitting .284/.323/.464. The on-base percentage is a career-high by nearly 30 points. He set his career-high in walks for a season on July 5 with 16. That’s not a misprint — he drew more walks in the first half of 2017 than he did in all of 2016 or the year prior.

We’ll come back to that in a bit.

It’s not as though Rosario has stung the ball all season long — at least not from a results standpoint. The 26-year-old left fielder headed into June hitting a very Rosario-like .269/.302/.431. He then hit .291/.341/.519 in the month of June and has been swinging well since, with a slash line of .297/.342/.492 over his last 54 games. His K/BB ratio is 41-13 over that stretch, and while that won’t make anyone forget about Joe Mauer, it is important that he controls the strike zone better — as we noted this offseason when we projected a possible breakout.

From the surface, it’s not hard to see that Rosario is taking a better approach at the plate. While he’s still susceptible to swinging at pitcher’s pitches early in counts or getting himself out, he’s done a much better job laying off pitches outside of the zone. Rosario’s chase rate in his rookie season was 45.6 percent. In other words, he swung at pitches out of the zone nearly half the time — a staggering figure. That improved to 41.7 percent last year and now 36.7 percent this season. The American League average is 29.7 percent, so while there has been some improvement, more could still be justified.

The improved discipline also shows up in his swinging strike rate. That rate peaked last year at 15.3 percent, but is down to a career-low 12.1 percent this season. Again, while that’s progress, it’s still a bit off AL average (10.4 percent).

Rosario is also swinging less often. That isn’t a win in isolation necessarily, but it helps when he’s also making more contact in the zone. Rosario swung 58.9 percent of the time in his rookie season, 56.9 percent last time and 54 percent this season. Meanwhile, his contact rate in the zone is up to 81.1 percent this season — about in line with his rookie season and almost two percent higher than last year. Of course, he’s also making contact on more pitches out of the zone, and not by a small margin as he’s seen nearly six percent increase from last year to this year.

That’s an important balance for a hitter to find. If it’s aggressiveness that has made a hitter successful to this point, how much does the hitter stand to lose with forced patience? Similarly, we’ve seen the pitfalls of what chasing pitches out of the zone can do to an otherwise talented hitter, so it’s certainly not an easy question to answer.

“I don’t think you ever want to lose your strength to fill a weakness,” manager Paul Molitor said on a recent homestand. “I think if you put the time in to understand that you can maintain your strengths and make other parts of your game better. That’s part of the challenge of trying to understand, when he watches guys like Joe (Mauer), Robbie (Grossman) or Miggy (Sano). People that do a lot of damage with their bats, but they’re maybe a bit of ahead of him in terms of letting the game come to him. I think he understands that.”

With that said, Rosario’s improvement is measured and clear, and Molitor has seen that as well.

“I think he’s aware that there are more ways to help your team on the offensive side of the game besides just swinging the bat,” Molitor added. “It’s been a challenge for him, being a free swinger as he is, trying to understand the zone and using counts and keeping his swing short even when they’re favorable. But we like to see the on-base increase where we can. His hits are great; his homers are great. Those walks can play a big part too. I think as long as we’re seeing some sort of progress in that regard, then that’s probably good for how Eddie’s playing.”

These improvements don’t come without a tireless work ethic, something hitting coach James Rowson praised Rosario for recently in an exclusive podcast with Zone Coverage.

LISTEN: James Rowson and Brandon chat about Rosario’s evolution as a hitter

“First of all, his work ethic has been really consistent,” Rowson said. “He’s made a strong effort this year of trying to get good pitches to hit. He’s looking to really try to get strikes and get balls he can drive. You’ve seen the walk total, and there are still at-bats from time-to-time where you can tell he’s continuing to work at that. But I think you can see his drive to really want to get better at getting good pitches to drive as opposed to just going up there and swinging the bat. He’s putting together professional at-bats a lot more consistently is what I’d say this season.”

Rowson also agreed that the team has to be careful with Rosario, because despite the obvious need for improved plate discipline, the youngster’s identity as a hitter is largely tied to how aggressive he is.

“I think the one thing you have to do is keep him aggressive,” Rowson said. “You’ll find that most guys that get walks are aggressive at the plate. They know where they want the ball. So they’re attacking, whether it’s a specific pitch or area of the zone. They’re in hunt mode. I think Eddie’s still in hunt mode, but the key is being able to lay off pitches that don’t show up in that zone. Or pitches that come in that aren’t the particular pitch you’re looking for. I think experience helps him get better at that over time. I know he and (assistant hitting coach) Rudy Hernandez talk a lot, and Rudy’s been extremely important in this process with Eddie. They communicate on a daily basis on exactly what they’re going to do routine-wise and cage-wise.”

But how do you train a batter’s eye? After all, if a hitter wants to work on outside pitches, they set up the machine or tee on the outside of the plate. For velocity, they simply turn up the heat on the machine. Some machines even throw offspeed pitches or curveballs.

But the eye? That’s a little bit different.

“I know Rudy makes Eddie make decisions, even in toss drills,” Rowson said. “So we’re trying not to put balls in the same spot every time. We’re trying to mix in balls and strikes. Different things so he’s always feeling like he’s got to look for a specific area to drive the ball in and not have it pre-determined that every pitch will be a strike. There has to be a decision on whether the pitch will be a ball or a strike.”

Specifically, Rowson wants to make hitters think when they’re training. He does not want them on autopilot, mindlessly flailing away at the same pitch without a plan.

Rosario seems to be the perfect case study, in this writer’s estimation.

“I think really it comes down to always wanting to make your hitters make decisions,” Rowson said. “You never want the decisions made for them. Whether it’s batting practice, working in the cages or even machines, from time to time you kind of change the trajectory of the machine in the middle of the session to make them always differentiate a strike from a ball. If you throw 100 balls right in the same spot, you start assuming to a certain extent every ball is going to be there, you may swing at some pitches that come off that. So there are some drills and different things you can do along the way to help guys make decisions at the plate without having the decision made for them already.”

Another thing Rosario has done well this season — at least relative to his peers — is hit left-handed pitching from the left side. While outfield mate Max Kepler has struggled to a .128/.194/.163 line against southpaws, Rosario has held his own with a .280/.291/.420 line. Again, that’s just a .711 OPS — in fact, not far from the Eddie of old overall — but on a team that has struggled to hit lefties all season long, it’s a relative breath of fresh air.

So what goes into Rosario’s success against lefties — or any left-handed hitter, for that matter?

“I think the guys that stay in there long against lefties, that aren’t looking to bail out and can keep their focus on driving the ball to the center of the diamond, keeps them in a lot better shape and position to hit lefties,” Rowson said. “I think Eddie’s done that at times versus lefties. He kind of stays in there. Sometimes you see him take balls up and away and stay on them and drive them the other way off lefties.”

That’s all good and well, but is it a trait players simply do or do not have, or can they get better as they move up the ladder? For instance, Kepler struggled mightily in the lower levels against lefties before throttling them in 2015 when he won the MVP of the Southern League. Now he’s back in a tough spot against them. Is all hope lost?

Not necessarily, says Rowson.

“I think you can make leaps at this level,” Rowson noted. “The more times you face them, the better you get at it — like anything. The more chances you get, the better you get. That’s why, early in a guy’s career, you try to stay away from platooning them much. When I say early, I mean like when guys are in the minor leagues coming up. When guys first start out in the minor leagues, you like to let left-handers face as many lefties as you possibly can so they can get that experience. As they get to the major-league level and they start to play matchups and things of that nature, at least you have a history of having some at-bats against lefties so it’s not foreign to them. The more experience you get, the better you’ll be against them.”