It's Time for the Twins to Send Luke Keaschall Back to Triple-A St. Paul

[karcherd]

17 minutes ago, William K Johnson said:

Keaschall is struggling with both hitting and fielding.   As I mentioned some time ago, there seem to be more popups to the right side of the field than solid contact.    Slide Clemens into second base where both his offensive and defensive are better.

Yes a 30 year old journeyman is the answer.  Keaschall has been hitting fine just not for power.

[karcherd]

51 minutes ago, mluebker said:

Maybe it’s time for someone in the front office to ask whether it’s how the Twins develop young players that actually needs a reset. They’re getting consistent results, but not good ones.

The problem is the front office hasn't changed other than the top position.  Everyone else including his replacement is still there who believes in how they are operating.  Zoll needs to go now, not at the end of the season.

[DJL44]

14 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

For sure. That’s the only transaction I’d look at and say alright. If we’re calling up some random 28+ year old for Keaschall I will hate it. 

How about Tyler Fitzgerald? He was a decent starter for the Giants in 2024 and was tearing up AAA before the Dodgers released him. He has adequate range at 2B and adds speed on the bases.

[4twinsJA]

Hitting always drops off the year after a wrist fx, look at Rooker, took him a couple of years to get back to hitting like he was before the injury. Confident Luke's hitting will improve 2nd half.

[Saxophone Joe]

Would his thumb injury from late last year (same as Emmanuel Rodriguez, I think) typically have any lingering effects? Haven't heard it mentioned at all. 

[jmlease1]

predicating a "regression" for Keaschall based on his June results is a bit silly on June 11.

Keaschall had a bad start to the season, hit pretty well in May, and has been wobbly all year on D. If he struggles at plate all June, maybe you send him down for a re-set, but if he gets on a heater for a week he's back to making good progress at the plate, so feels like a hasty judgment right now. There's better choices to send out if Culpepper gets called up (I'm pretty bored with the Tristan Gray Experience, and the Arcia innings aren't exactly doing much for me either; certainly neither has an impactful future with the Twins)

I'd hoped for better from Keaschall so far, but let's give him a little more time to succeed or fail, eh?

[bean5302]

Keaschall wasn't good in May, either, he was just getting lucky. Based on the comments, we've got another Brooks Lee fan-fest going. Can't hit, can't field, we love him!

Apr xwOBA .268 (very poor)
May xwOBA .293 (very poor)

[hitterscount]

At first thought this headline was a joke….. Keaschall is hitting around 80 points higher than Lewis and Wallner when they were sent down. His OPS is significantly higher than what Wallners was, not sure about Lewis. The fact is you are not going to reset against AAA pitching, unless you’re a head case that needs a mental reset to build confidence, that isn’t the case here. He’s fine, more worried about his defense… hopefully it improves. Finally, calling Culpepper up to play second? No thanks. It’s past time Culpepper replaces Gray, Arcia at SS. This lineup has issues, Keaschall is near the bottom of them.

[bean5302]

I don't think Keaschall is going to "reset." I think he needs to learn how to hit in a way which will allow him to be successful against MLB (and AAA) caliber pitching. I think he'll struggle in AAA right now.

[hitterscount]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

I don't think Keaschall is going to "reset." I think he needs to learn how to hit in a way which will allow him to be successful against MLB (and AAA) caliber pitching. I think he'll struggle in AAA right now.

He was hitting MLB pitching when called up last season, pitching has adjusted how they pitch him, now comes the crossroad for most MLB players, is he able to adjust, he certainly has the tools to do so …. he’s not correcting anything at AAA because 90% of the pitchers aren’t at a MLB level.

[twinstalker]

19 hours ago, LyleCole said:

...but I would also add Kyle Fedko to the list, or maybe Ben Ross.

Either the Twins have the greatest farm system ever, or you're getting fooled by park effects on top of bad pitching on top of too old vs level for real prospectdom.

[TheLeviathan]

Why?  Like....people are aware this team is trash right?

Play the future and coach them up.

[LyleCole]

5 hours ago, twinstalker said:

Either the Twins have the greatest farm system ever, or you're getting fooled by park effects on top of bad pitching on top of too old vs level for real prospectdom.

I am not fooled by anything.   But I also will state that there is a progression of prospects and that certain members of your organization can earn their chance to make it to the big leagues.   Aaron Saboto has earned a promotion.  WIll it be a long one?   IDK.  But I don't see how promoting him and giving him 100 plate appearances would hurt anything.  If he strikes out 60 times, well.....  

But that is better than bringing in another waiver wire replacement level player.

[bean5302]

6 hours ago, hitterscount said:

He was hitting MLB pitching when called up last season, pitching has adjusted how they pitch him, now comes the crossroad for most MLB players, is he able to adjust, he certainly has the tools to do so …. he’s not correcting anything at AAA because 90% of the pitchers aren’t at a MLB level.

He played 7 games before he was injured.

After that, his August was mostly luck with an xwOBA 60pts higher than expected (which was already below average) but then came September when pitchers stopped throwing him meatball challenge pitches. After that, Keaschall's been consistently very poor at the plate.

It's not like the Twins have some amazing 2B lined up, but Keaschall isn't playing well.

[RpR]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

Why?  Like....people are aware this team is trash right?

Play the future and coach them up.

That has worked so well the past five years. 😵‍💫

But then, Twins Triple A does not seem to be occupied by all the wonder boys so many here want to see turn into new versions of Julien and Wallner.