Road to 2026 Contention: Clearing the Kody Clemens Bar

[LambchoP]

I think we stick with Lee at SS next year, at least until Culpeper is ready to take over full-time. Our OF is suddenly getting real crowded. Outman and Roden shouldn't be in MLB, and Larnach could probably net us a solid reliever in a trade. Martin has been playing and hitting well enough to be a starting left fielder or 4rth OF. I'd go with Martin, Buxton and Jenkins, with Gonzalez and Rodriguez following. Wallner should be a DH. At first base I'd see if Fedko can be an option along with Clemens. I'd rather see them sign someone, but I don't think that'll happen until our prospects are all in the majors and the team looks to be competing.

[AKTwinsFan]

I think Gabby Gonzalez gets on the 40 man to avoid the rule 5 draft. He's been the one centerpiece besides Topa of the Polanco trade. Losing him would make the trade a loss.

[LA Vikes Fan]

3 hours ago, TL said:

It’s great to see 6 players with > 100 wRC+ since the deadline, plus Lee and Lewis who for some reason I continue to think can be average and above average respectively. Larnach already looked like a release/trade candidate before Martin got up here and started hitting - now it looks even more certain that Martin can take over in left. Put Jenkins in right, move Wallner to DH and add a first baseman and we have a chance!

Amen, brother. Wallner can hit for power and could be a real asset if he can hit .240/.350 so he needs to play, just not in RF. He's just not good there. Move him to 1B or DH. Trade Larnach for a reliever or a blocked 1B prospect or make him the 1B and trade Wallner. Bottom line, do not run either Wallner or Larnach in the OF every day. 

Who plays RF? Jenkins and/or Gabriel Gonzalez. Those are the 2 guys performing this year in the minors. Both have performed at every level. Roden performed in AAA as well. Get them up and play them in some combination, especially since Jenkins and Roden can spell Buck in CF so no need for guys we know can't play like Outman and Keirsey.  Emma hasn't shown well enough in AAA yet so he has to start there. Next year's 5 OFs out of ST should be Buxton, Martin, Jenkins, Gonzalez, and Roden. I like Wallner at 1B but would be happy with Larnach there, but I don't want one of them also at DH. The DH should be one of the 5 OFs I listed so all 5 of those these guys get their 4-5 ABs at least 4-5 days a week.  

[thelanges5]

Clemens can stay, Outman can go

Move Wallner to 1B/DH

Trade Larnach for the best MLB reliever possible

Roden gets a chance in ST to show what he can do

Need to find some RH power if there’s any money available

[Robert Gauthier]

With all the back-and-forth on this, I would remind everyone that some hitters prosper when they leave the twins. Some don’t, it does seem, however that they are quick to give up on young hitters. Earlier this year, everyone was talking about how Austin Martin wouldn’t make the team next year, suddenly he’s very productive. Why? Because he decided not to hit the way the twins wanted him to. He went back to what made him a top rated prospect, top rated by a number of organizations. We are constantly shuffling, hitting coaches, thinking that will make the difference. I think an organizational shift, which means a new general manager or POBO is what is needed. We’ve had a 10+ year experiment that has not worked very well. I’d say pitching development is kind of average for the bigs, the real killer is the roster constraints by the Pohlads, which prevents any sort of signing of major league, quality pictures or position starters. Or constantly forced to shop in the scratch and dent bins of baseball. We saw what happened when we got a team of Corea, Gray and some smart trades, which are about to be undone by the cheap ownership.  The Pohlads simply do not get that the fans will not put up with a terrible product because they think that they need to make up their losses, business ventures. Attendance dropped after the roster cuts, it’s dropped drastically sense, and their solution will be to amputate an arm because it’s not productive. The future of baseball is good starting pitching and decent defense with a couple of really good hitters. It seems like the plan for the off-season to get rid of the really good pitching, rather than making some real cuts in the front office. For example, the Pohladsrunning the twins have taken salaries in the range of $10 million a year, for what I’m not sure. Maybe that would be a good place to cut first. Real business people focus on the company and the product not themselves. This kind of thinking is why their other ventures are horse crap

[Riverbrian]

1 hour ago, old nurse said:

It is an outlier, but not such an outlier the clubs don’t pick up the DFA people. If you look, you will find the clubs do have out liars. Milwaukee has Isaac Collins, their outfielder who has put up over 2 WAR

Just to piggy back on the spot on point you are making. 40 Man space decisions are going to make players available and if the clubs were right or wrong on these hard line decisions are just plain often undetermined. 

Rooker was DFA'd by the Royals. Before that he was traded to the Royals for a player that the Padres DFA'd a month later. Before that he was what I assume was a 40 man roster space clearing addition in the Rogers/Paddack deal that made room for Pagan.  

When you consider the opportunity that is typically provided to players like Rooker or Collins or Clemens once the 26 and 40 man space restrictions cut them loose due to predetermination. 

It's amazing that any outliers like Rooker or Collins or even Clemens happen at all... Yet against the opportunity restricted odds... they happen. People will say it's a rarity and not the norm. It is a rarity but quite possibly rare because of they stay on the edges watching others. The fact that it happens at all only points how bad these misses are and if they can miss... you wonder how many just faded off that could have been.  

How many of these Rooker roster space cuts just drifted off into the baseball wind with the potential to be a Rooker all along unrealized. It's impossible to answer. I'm sure many got the fate that was going to happen eventually but every Rooker or Clemens makes you wonder. 

Nobody is ever going to know the answer to that question because they are cut, gone. The organization will always be right when they control the outcome. Told ya they wouldn't make it. 

Clemens is getting opportunity now. Kudo's and Good Luck to him. He gets to represent a small group of outliers that just happened to land in the one spot where they get a chance. 

[jorgenswest]

Slash stats need large samples. A  full season isn’t enough. It would be tremendously foolish to make decisions based on a partial season of slash stats. Even more foolish to throw out the best games or worst games. All of that doesn’t make mathematical sense.

Instead of in season slash stats I think Statcast offer a better picture of how a player has hit the ball with their expected stats. Clemens and Keaschall are tied for third on the Twins behind Martin and Buxton by xwOBA. Clemens ranks 16th among first basemen with over 300 PAs.

1B - AL Central xwOBA

.347 Clemens (16)

.346 Torkelson (17)

.345 Pasquantino (18)

.342 Manzardo (20)

.319 Vargas (30)

I suppose we can ignore the quality of his contact this year. We can ignore how he started with the Twins. We can ignore his best game. Maybe that was all luck. 

 

[Mike Sixel]

Clemens is how old? Just say no . 

Move Wallner to first or DH. Promote one of the AAA outfielders, or two. Trade Larnach for anything. Lee at short. Martin in left. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

55 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Clemens can stay, Outman can go

Move Wallner to 1B/DH

Trade Larnach for the best MLB reliever possible

Roden gets a chance in ST to show what he can do

Need to find some RH power if there’s any money available

I'm with you. Gonzalez may be ready and he's Rh power. 

[old nurse]

42 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Just to piggy back on the spot on point you are making. 40 Man space decisions are going to make players available and if the clubs were right or wrong on these hard line decisions are just plain often undetermined. 

Rooker was DFA'd by the Royals. Before that he was traded to the Royals for a player that the Padres DFA'd a month later. Before that he was what I assume was a 40 man roster space clearing addition in the Rogers/Paddack deal that made room for Pagan.  

When you consider the opportunity that is typically provided to players like Rooker or Collins or Clemens once the 26 and 40 man space restrictions cut them loose due to predetermination. 

It's amazing that any outliers like Rooker or Collins or even Clemens happen at all... Yet against the opportunity restricted odds... they happen. People will say it's a rarity and not the norm. It is a rarity but quite possibly rare because of they stay on the edges watching others. The fact that it happens at all only points how bad these misses are and if they can miss... you wonder how many just faded off that could have been.  

How many of these Rooker roster space cuts just drifted off into the baseball wind with the potential to be a Rooker all along unrealized. It's impossible to answer. I'm sure many got the fate that was going to happen eventually but every Rooker or Clemens makes you wonder. 

Nobody is ever going to know the answer to that question because they are cut, gone. The organization will always be right when they control the outcome. Told ya they wouldn't make it. 

Clemens is getting opportunity now. Kudo's and Good Luck to him. He gets to represent a small group of outliers that just happened to land in the one spot where they get a chance. 

Position players might be harder to find, any bullpen would be the first spot to look. I could have also used the Brewer’s CF also. Lest someone thinks they can’t be a star after release, try Max Muncy. 

[Riverbrian]

2 minutes ago, old nurse said:

Position players might be harder to find, any bullpen would be the first spot to look. I could have also used the Brewer’s CF also. Lest someone thinks they can’t be a star after release, try Max Muncy. 

Exactly. Justin Turner is another. J.D. Martinez and what's his name... Umm... David Ortiz. Those are just the loud ones.

[RpR]

57 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

 How many of these Rooker roster space cuts just drifted off into the baseball wind with the potential to be a Rooker all along unrealized. It's impossible to answer. I'm sure many got the fate that was going to happen eventually but every Rooker or Clemens makes you wonder. 

Clemens is getting opportunity now. Kudo's and Good Luck to him. He gets to represent a small group of outliers that just happened to land in the one spot where they get a chance. 

     Rooker was/is a massive chasm in the outfield; a ball hit where Rooker was,,l had little chance of being a danger to the batter who hit it.

     Comparing him to Clemens is a bogus analogy.

 

[Riverbrian]

22 minutes ago, RpR said:

     Rooker was/is a massive chasm in the outfield; a ball hit where Rooker was,,l had little chance of being a danger to the batter who hit it.

     Comparing him to Clemens is a bogus analogy.

 

1. I'm not comparing him directly to Rooker. You are. 

2. Rooker was being used by another poster as an example of players who were tossed aside by other teams and also by the fans of those teams. Only to become something extraordinary after receiving the break of landing on the exact team that could actually provide opportunity and just happened to hit the ground running at the exact moment of that opportunity leading to another game followed by another game and eventually a long term contract and a future in the game of baseball. The comparison is that Rooker like Clemens was inches from selling cars and now he's home free. Not saying Kody is home free... not saying he will be a Rooker. These are two players who were inches from out of the game of baseball entirely. 

3. I get it... you didn't like Rooker's defense. As far as I'm concerned... He can DH or just let balls fall around him in the OF... if he can hit 30 plus home runs three years in a row like he's done... I just don't care. 

If the A's want to give him back to the Twins. I'll take him. The A's don't want to give him back... they signed him to a 5 year deal so he can call Coldwell Banker and talk real estate in Las Vegas. 

[joefish]

4 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Lewis has not had a good season, but he's been a far better player than Lee by just about every measure. He's still only 26 and has been healthy for the last half of the season and his defense is more than satisfactory at third base. I'm not saying the club should be built around him, but I think he has showed enough to be the Twins' starting 3B in 2026.

On the position player side, having Clemens and Lee as regulars to start 2026 wouldn't be optimal, but I think they are major league players with pedigree (lee) and some performance (Clemens). In Clemens' case, he has performed at roughly league average for 100 games with the Twins (1.1 WAR), not what you want for a starting first baseman, but pretty good for a bench player, particularly one who can cover both corners in the outfield as well as first and second base. Lee's been a better defender as a shortstop and he's displayed some pop. As a starter the Twins would need more, but this version of Lee wouldn't be a bad backup and there are reasons to expect improvement next year. 

Lewis needs to spend this winter fixing his swing

 Call P Molitor to work with him

 And nail his back foot down.

[Larry Janisewski]

2 hours ago, old nurse said:

It is an outlier, but not such an outlier the clubs don’t pick up the DFA people. If you look, you will find the clubs do have out liars. Milwaukee has Isaac Collins, their outfielder who has put up over 2 WAR

 

[Larry Janisewski]

IMO, the Brewers should be the model the Twins aspire to. With payroll almost 1/2 of the Twins opening day payroll they have the best record in baseball and have won each of the series with the other current 5 division leaders: Blue Jays, Astros, Tigers, Dodgers, and Phillies. At one time they had all 5 opening day starters on the IL and now have 5 relievers, including their 2 frequent closers, out with injuries. By the way, the Brewers very effective closer use to be a Twin: McGill.

[RpR]

33 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

1. I'm not comparing him directly to Rooker. You are. 

2. Rooker was being used by another poster as an example of players who were tossed aside by other teams and also by the fans of those teams. Only to become something extraordinary after receiving the break of landing on the exact team that could actually provide opportunity and just happened to hit the ground running at the exact moment of that opportunity leading to another game followed by another game and eventually a long term contract and a future in the game of baseball. The comparison is that Rooker like Clemens was inches from selling cars and now he's home free. Not saying Kody is home free... not saying he will be a Rooker. These are two players who were inches from out of the game of baseball entirely. 

3. I get it... you didn't like Rooker's defense. As far as I'm concerned... He can DH or just let balls fall around him in the OF... if he can hit 30 plus home runs three years in a row like he's done... I just don't care. 

If the A's want to give him back to the Twins. I'll take him. The A's don't want to give him back... they signed him to a 5 year deal so he can call Coldwell Banker and talk real estate in Las Vegas. 

They can keep him.

[ashbury]

The Cody Klemens Bar is an interesting metric, but not an especially useful one.  The bar we should be setting is the Byron Buxton Bar.  Right now the Brewers have 10 batters who have 100+ PA in the second half.  Of those, 6 have an OPS above Buxton's .808 second half.

It's necessary but not sufficient to discard the sub-replacement level players.   Don't just put mediocrities in their place.  We need difference makers.

IMO we're a long, long way from that in September 2025.   But show us differently, Front Office; sorry if that's too much pressure, seeing as you've had only 9 years to prepare for this off-season.

[jorgenswest]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Clemens is how old? Just say no . 

Move Wallner to first or DH. Promote one of the AAA outfielders, or two. Trade Larnach for anything. Lee at short. Martin in left. 

Clemens was born in 1996. Larnach and Wallner 1997. The span between the three is about a year and a half. Rooker was just less than half year younger than Clemens when he got his first shot. He was good but not great that year with 2.1 WAR over a full season and a xwOBA of .343. That is pretty similar to Clemens. Clemens WAR is less but that is weighted by playing time. Rooker had his real breakout in his second full season. 

Wallner isn’t going to play 1B. I am certain it has been tried in college or summer league or the minors and wasn’t good enough to put in the game. There are no easy positions on the diamond. All positions take talent and skill. He fits best as a starting RF or DH. The challenge with Wallner is left handed starters. He isn’t very helpful on the bench when a lefty starts. He isn’t going to pinch run. He isn’t going to be a defensive sub. He isn’t the hitter you want pinch hitting with runners in scoring position and you need a ball in play. He hasn’t been successful coming in as a sub over his career with a .362 OPS.

The challenge with Clemens is you have to believe that this season is not an outlier. He is much more helpful off the bench with his average or better defense at multiple positions. He is also 4th in the team in BSR. Like Wallner he is prone to long slumps as a hitter.

The challenge with Larnach is that he has had enough plate appearances to believe that he isn’t going to be better. He isn’t that helpful off the bench either but probably a better option than Wallner to put the ball in play with a runner in scoring position.

Clemens and Wallner would both be in my roster next year. I would not plan to tender Larnach and try to find a trade partner with a similar player at catcher, reliever or middle infield that might benefit from a fresh start. 

[IndianaTwin]

6 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

I think the ...

<<snipped for brevity>>

...as a good bar to try and clear. 

 

I'm curious your thoughts on Kody Clemens relative to the rest of the roster... 

[nicksaviking]

3 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Exactly. Justin Turner is another. J.D. Martinez and what's his name... Umm... David Ortiz. Those are just the loud ones.

 .391, .404, .358 and .369. Those were the breakout year OBP of Muncy, Turner, Martinez and Ortiz. Being able to work the count and get on base was the reason that after years of toiling it all clicked for them, and this was a skill they all had going back to the minors. 

Kody Clemens OBP is .289 here in his 'break out' season and his prior MiLB and MLB numbers track with that. That number in itself is a DFA'able offense on a capable team. He doesn't have the skill set to be a reliable everyday player. It's why many of us were saying not to bring back a guy like Michael A Taylor; it was a fluke season and you can't be a reliable player year in and year out without that skill. 

Unlike Taylor, Clemens is pretty much free, and in the Twins case there is no chance they can fill their 40-man with actual MLB talent next year, so he may stay. But all things being equal, I don't want him here if only to prevent Baldelli from over-using him at the expense of more talented players.

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

The Cody Klemens Bar is an interesting metric, but not an especially useful one.  The bar we should be setting is the Byron Buxton Bar.  Right now the Brewers have 10 batters who have 100+ PA in the second half.  Of those, 6 have an OPS above Buxton's .808 second half.

It's necessary but not sufficient to discard the sub-replacement level players and put mediocrities in their place.  We need difference makers.

IMO we're a long, long way from that in September 2025.   But show us differently, Front Office; sorry if that's too much pressure, seeing as you've had only 9 years to prepare for this off-season.

Yup.

 

[Riverbrian]

32 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

I'm curious your thoughts on Kody Clemens relative to the rest of the roster... 

Based on performance in 2025 and performance alone. Maybe just Buxton and Keaschall would out rank him on the Twins. 

Just looking at some cherry picked stats. (Using 233 Plate appearances as a marker... I wanted to make sure that Stanton and Varsho are included).

Only 22 players have a better AB/HR Ratio (Two are Twins Buxton and Wallner). 

He has a strikeout rate of .232. From those 22 players... Only Caminero, Juan Soto, Langaliers, Grisham, Springer and Carpenter have a better strikeout rate. 91.8 exit velocity, 49% hard hit rate. Only Buxton is better in both categories and not by much. 

Home Runs, Decent Contact, Strong exit velos and hard hit percentage. He runs well, aggressive on the bases and his defense is decent at multiple positions. If you keep hitting like that, the balls are going to find more grass. 

What's not to like about that? Streakiness? Age? 

When the clean up begins... he's not the first area to clean.  

 

 

[old nurse]

2 hours ago, Larry Janisewski said:

IMO, the Brewers should be the model the Twins aspire to. With payroll almost 1/2 of the Twins opening day payroll they have the best record in baseball and have won each of the series with the other current 5 division leaders: Blue Jays, Astros, Tigers, Dodgers, and Phillies. At one time they had all 5 opening day starters on the IL and now have 5 relievers, including their 2 frequent closers, out with injuries. By the way, the Brewers very effective closer use to be a Twin: McGill.

I don’t know that anyone here is saying follow the Milwaukee blueprint but it has been an effective for at least getting into the playoffs 7 out of the last 8 years.  Don’t know this McGill fellow, but there is a Megel who played one year for the Twins  He got traded for a not good minor league reliever and somebody mysterious that goes by the name of cash. Probably goes by the nickname of 50K

[old nurse]

2 hours ago, RpR said:

They can keep him.

Nobody said to do so. The argument was about picking up the scrap heap players

[old nurse]

12 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Based on performance in 2025 and performance alone. Maybe just Buxton and Keaschall would out rank him on the Twins. 

Just looking at some cherry picked stats. (Using 233 Plate appearances as a marker... I wanted to make sure that Stanton and Varsho are included).

Only 22 players have a better AB/HR Ratio (Two are Twins Buxton and Wallner). 

He has a strikeout rate of .232. From those 22 players... Only Caminero, Juan Soto, Langaliers, Grisham, Springer and Carpenter have a better strikeout rate. 91.8 exit velocity, 49% hard hit rate. Only Buxton is better in both categories and not by much. 

Home Runs, Decent Contact, Strong exit velos and hard hit percentage. He runs well, aggressive on the bases and his defense is decent at multiple positions. If you keep hitting like that, the balls are going to find more grass. 

What's not to like about that? Streakiness? Age? 

When the clean up begins... he's not the first area to clean.  

 

 

[Riverbrian]

12 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

 .391, .404, .358 and .369. Those were the breakout year OBP of Muncy, Turner, Martinez and Ortiz. Being able to work the count and get on base was the reason that after years of toiling it all clicked for them, and this was a skill they all had going back to the minors. 

Kody Clemens OBP is .289 here in his 'break out' season and his prior MiLB and MLB numbers track with that. That number in itself is a DFA'able offense on a capable team. He doesn't have the skill set to be a reliable everyday player. It's why many of us were saying not to bring back a guy like Michael A Taylor; it was a fluke season and you can't be a reliable player year in and year out without that skill. 

Unlike Taylor, Clemens is pretty much free, and in the Twins case there is no chance they can fill their 40-man with actual MLB talent next year, so he may stay. But all things being equal, I don't want him here if only to prevent Baldelli from over-using him at the expense of more talented players.

No argument.

OBP is what will show up on the negative side of his ledger. .071 BB% is on the low side. Buxton BTW has an .077 BB%. Juan Soto leads the way with a .180. So basically double the walks for the top of the pile in that statistic.

His .220 batting average isn't helping that OBP. But, with his hard hit rate and fairly decent K percentage... I like a guy at the plate who doesn't K a ton and hits the ball hard as someone who can trend upward.

And maybe... just maybe... No way of telling... but maybe... just maybe... As he gets more AB's... that eye gets a little sharper. We are still talking about someone who has 740 Career PA's over 4 years.  

At the end of the day... High OPS is driven by Slug primarily. You'll find a handful of guys like Austin Martin who have close to equal OBP to Slug and end up with a decent OPS out of it but there are not many. 

I'm not going to spend a lot of energy fighting for the guy... but... we got a lot worse on this roster. A lot worse.  

 

[IndianaTwin]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Based on performance in 2025 and performance alone. Maybe just Buxton and Keaschall would out rank him on the Twins. 

Just looking at some cherry picked stats. (Using 233 Plate appearances as a marker... I wanted to make sure that Stanton and Varsho are included).

Only 22 players have a better AB/HR Ratio (Two are Twins Buxton and Wallner). 

He has a strikeout rate of .232. From those 22 players... Only Caminero, Juan Soto, Langaliers, Grisham, Springer and Carpenter have a better strikeout rate. 91.8 exit velocity, 49% hard hit rate. Only Buxton is better in both categories and not by much. 

Home Runs, Decent Contact, Strong exit velos and hard hit percentage. He runs well, aggressive on the bases and his defense is decent at multiple positions. If you keep hitting like that, the balls are going to find more grass. 

What's not to like about that? Streakiness? Age? 

When the clean up begins... he's not the first area to clean.  

 

 

Actually, my comment was supposed to be a joke based on your writing style in the post I quoted (which I liked, by the way), but I realized that in some ways it was actually a legitimate question, since though you referenced him, you didn't actually analyze him. 

I'm think you're generally on target on where he's been, particularly in your summary statement. When a guy's been DFAed a couple times, fan perception is that they can't be any good. And I wonder if the Clemens name both helps and hinders in fan perception. Some fans probably say, "He's Roger's kid. He might be pretty good so let's give him another chance." And others are saying, "He's the son of a dirtbag -- I hope he fails." 

Rooker is referenced above. I have to imagine fans on Athletics Daily took a while to warm up to him. I'm not suggesting that's what Clemens is going to be, but the similarity is there in terms of finally getting a chance. 

[karcherd]

Wallner and/or Larnach are not moving to 1B, that would have been done by now if the geniuses in the front office thought it would work.  I do not understand on every thread everybody keeps beating this drum.

Clemens would be a good fit at the 26th man on the bench  I would love to see us have higher expectations for the front office.  We keep talking up these retreads who have a very low ceiling.  Let's ask and expect for impact players that can contribute to a winning team. 

If they are not going to contend next year, play the kids and see if they can be difference makers.  Guys like Clemens are not going to be difference makers.  Honestly I would rather see Julien at 1B right now at least he has more history than Clemens of success.  It appears the Twins do not believe in Julien, if this is then why he is on the roster.  I can understand why people are skeptical of him, but if he is up here he should be playing over Clemens.

 

[Cody Schoenmann]

12 hours ago, Brett said:

I’m fine with this as long as we add a “Cole Sands bar” to the bullpen.

this is actually a good threshold lol