There's Still Time to Move Luke Keaschall Off Second Base

[jorgenswest]

42 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

If you believe Clemens current state continues into the future. He’s 30 and a minor league journeyman, not sure I believe it or that I would prefer said 30 year old journeyman get time on this roster over a 23 year old who had a 123 wRC+ last year

Clemens is prearb and providing a lot of value. His xwOBA last year was solid and it continues to be solid. I would expect he can contribute next year. He is 29th in all of baseball in slugging percentage and would be the leader on several teams. He is 59th in wRC+. He has played just over a year as a Twin and has 30 home runs and a wRC+ of 106. The league average at 2B is 97.

The premise of the article is that Keaschall will not play an adequate major league second base. The Twins happen to have a guy that has performed better with the bat than any other AL 2B and has shown to have an above average glove. If Keaschall can’t play an adequate 2B the Twins have a solution for this year and probably next year. That might get them to Culpepper and Houston up the middle.

Clemens is going to play somewhere. He has earned it. It doesn’t have to be 2B if Keaschall can handle the position. The Twins have given Keaschall plenty of time there and I am hoping he is the 2B of the future. It is a hope though. The last three times the Twins had a lead in a close game Keaschall was replaced late in the game. That isn’t a good sign.

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Necessity is the mother of invention. 

The context of the roster is what will determine if invention is necessary in the case of Keaschall and others.  

Royce Lewis went down to St. Paul and played in 2 games at 1B and 1 game at 2B.

Then he was called up and with Brooks Lee after shifting off SS to 3B... this necessity produced this Brooks Lee invention with produced a necessity that Royce would be reinvented as a 1B/2B on the fly because I'm not sure 2 games at 1B and 1 game at 2B in St. Paul is a decent enough time frame for a position change.   

Ultimately... Royce Lewis will hit or not hit and that will determine his fate. Ultimately Luke Keachall will hit or not hit and that will determine his fate.  

If Lewis takes over 1B and Clemens take over 2B or vice versa because they are hitting the ball and playing better than Luke is... Keaschall will have to find another spot or he will be sent down to the minors and wait his turn. It's his hitting that will keep him alive and determine if he is worth the effort of playing some LF and in LF he will need to out play Larnach or Martin or Erod or Jenkins or Kyle Fedko. 

It's the context of the team that will determines the necessity of the invention of Luke Keaschall. 

The most wins in team history occurred in 2019 with Jorge Polanco manning the SS position for 142 games that year. Mitch Garver was our most played Catcher that year. Apparently Polanco was a better option than Adrianaza and Garver deserved more time behind the plate than Jason Castro did. 

Fortunately, the team context in 2019 was 10 players with over 359 Plate Appearances and 9 of those 10 players produced OPS higher than .777. Marwin Gonzalez was the one out of those 10 who was a slacker with a .736 OPS. 

Fast forward to 2026 and the current Twins team has 4 guys out hitting the 2019 Marwin. Jeffers, Buxton, Clemens and Larnach are the 4. Actually 5 if you count Kriedler in 78 plate appearances. 

If you can't hit... I guess the defense is going to matter a little bit more. With Jeffers injured... We have 9 guys who need to hit better. Keaschall is absolutely one of those 9 guys.   

 

Preach!!

100% correct.

Anybody here remember a TWIN that made the All-Star game at 3 different positions over the years? Harmon something……

I left Minnesota in ‘91 for Cincinnati. They had a guy named Rose here that eventually was an All-Star at 5 spots over the years. (2B, RF, LF, 3B, 1B) He was a hitter first.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Building muscle and improving throwing mechanics can help. Pitchers do this all the time.

Pitchers add velo through major mechanical motion changes involving a long wind up, extension off the mound, etc. I don't know of success stories for infielders who need to get rid of the ball without all the pre-delivery work.

That said, 2B isn't throwing that far. Most of their throws are 60 feet or less and the time between an 80mph (weak) throw and a 85mph (median) throw doesn't matter nearly as much. (0.03 sec) difference over 60 feet.

If the 2B gets to the ball, it's almost always going to be an out.

[Riverbrian]

47 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Clemens is prearb and providing a lot of value. His xwOBA last year was solid and it continues to be solid. I would expect he can contribute next year. He is 29th in all of baseball in slugging percentage and would be the leader on several teams. He is 59th in wRC+. He has played just over a year as a Twin and has 30 home runs and a wRC+ of 106. The league average at 2B is 97.

The premise of the article is that Keaschall will not play an adequate major league second base. The Twins happen to have a guy that has performed better with the bat than any other AL 2B and has shown to have an above average glove. If Keaschall can’t play an adequate 2B the Twins have a solution for this year and probably next year. That might get them to Culpepper and Houston up the middle.

Clemens is going to play somewhere. He has earned it. It doesn’t have to be 2B if Keaschall can handle the position. The Twins have given Keaschall plenty of time there and I am hoping he is the 2B of the future. It is a hope though. The last three times the Twins had a lead in a close game Keaschall was replaced late in the game. That isn’t a good sign.

Great post.

Clemens is simply playing better than Keaschall by a fairly large margin at the moment. Will that be the case in the future... I don't know and the Twins front office doesn't know either. We are all hopeful that Keaschall surpasses Clemens in the future but the possibility that he doesn't is still a possibility especially with Clemens performing on par with many highly thought of... highly paid, highly ranked players.  

If Clemens continues doing what he is doing or even a little less than what he is currently doing this year next year. He has value to the current club in 2027 and increased trade value to the rest of the league because now we have a certain level of sustainability. 

It's my opinion that it doesn't matter if you are losing 100 games a year in 2026 or losing 60. You don't just toss away players who have hit 30 home runs in 617 Plate appearances with three years of control left. The current version of Clemens is what we hope Keaschall can become. It's what we hoped that Julien could become. If Julien would have hit like Clemens is hitting he would be considered an absolute development success.

Why would you toss what Clemens is doing for a player that might. And this is coming from me... someone who constantly talks about the need for better development and is happy when a Fedko gets called up.  

30 Home Runs in 617 plate appearances. That's 2025 Jose Ramirez Power Numbers, It's 2025 Yelich Numbers. It's Cody Bellinger Numbers. It's Yandy Diaz production.  

I'm content to just let Kody Clemens hit as a member of the Minnesota Twins. I wasn't happy with his initial pick up because I didn't like the need to continually grab from that pile but I'm grateful for his hot streak that occurred at the exact moment he got opportunity last year because if he would have started slowly when opportunity knocked he would have faded into the sunset like Jonah Bride. 

And I will continue to insist that Clemens performing at this level doesn't have to get in the way of Keaschall playing time... even if Luke is also performing at the same level... there will be room and playing time for both and a good problem to have.  

 

[hitterscount]

6 hours ago, MinnInPa said:

knock it off ..quit nitpicking on this kid. every 2B is not an all star at the position. This kid is a ball player ....period. Always the same negativity towards Brooks Lee too. they are young..give em a little slack 

I hear what you're saying.... however this isn't high school ball. Defense is important, given teams extra outs doesn't win games... extending innings through poor defense adds to pitch counts, extra AB’s, extra runs, and often losses. The opposite is true from playing better than average defense. Keaschall just needs to be average, making the plays that should be made. The same was true for Lee at SS and Wallner, who was so bad in RF he should never be put in that position again, at least for this organization. Expecting competent defense isn't piling on, it's what should be expected . Lee has become that defensively at 3rd, I would give Keaschall another month or two but he needs to make the basic plays.... which why is somewhat surprising with how athletic he is. Hopefully he can turn it around.

[Linus]

37 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Preach!!

100% correct.

Anybody here remember a TWIN that made the All-Star game at 3 different positions over the years? Harmon something……

I left Minnesota in ‘91 for Cincinnati. They had a guy named Rose here that eventually was an All-Star at 5 spots over the years. (2B, RF, LF, 3B, 1B) He was a hitter first.

I’m not sure I understand your point. Are you comparing Keaschalls situation with Killebrew and Rose?

[ashbury]

5 hours ago, Old Twins Hat said:

 it's a fair question to figure out where he is best.  Could well be Left Field given his leg speed.

Seems to me he overlaps uncomfortably with Austin Martin.  Both are

• 2B washouts at this point,
• corner outfield candidates (CF in emergency only),
• right-handed batters,
• putting up bad numbers this season against RHP.

I'm not sure there is room on the roster for two on the short side of an outfield platoon.  Neither one provides enough pop with the bat to be an asset at first base or DH, either.

[Linus]

12 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Seems to me he overlaps uncomfortably with Austin Martin.  Both are

• 2B washouts at this point,
• corner outfield candidates (CF in emergency only),
• right-handed batters,
• putting up bad numbers this season against RHP.

I'm not sure there is room on the roster for two on the short side of an outfield platoon.  Neither one provides enough pop with the bat to be an asset at first base or DH, either.

You are correct sir!  Johnny what do we have as a prize for Mr Ashbury?

[jkcarew]

Definitely something that will need to be figured out with Culpepper and Houston on the way. Don’t see much urgency on it right now, though. This season should be used to let guys like Keaschall and the younger pitchers play it out to get more data points for future roster construction. If that means moving Keaschall around some…fine.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

6 hours ago, Linus said:

Certainly but I’m not sure that is an apt comparison. Pitching in a defined set of mechanics allows improvement in replicating the same delivery over and over and allows for muscle strengthening to support those mechanics. Almost none of it applies to position players, especially infielders who must throw from a variety of positions. I just can’t recall a position player who had a weak arm transform it to an average arm. Maybe it has been done I just don’t recall it. I suppose it’s possible he is still building strength from his injuries but it’s been almost a year for the broken arm and it’s going on two from the TJ? Seems like the recovery would be complete. 

To your very valid point, The mechanics of throwing a pitch versus throwing a pick off for a pitcher are very different.

pitchers tend to struggle with the live game transitions between the two. 
 

the “how” in the mechanics and the “what” in the muscle groups in the throwing motion are different and would need to be practiced and developed differently, but Miguel Sano recovered from Tommy John surgery and regained his throwing mechanics and strength to throw very well across the diamond. His waist line never recovered, but his a did 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Just now, Richie the Rally Goat said:

To your very valid point, The mechanics of throwing a pitch versus throwing a pick off for a pitcher are very different.

pitchers tend to struggle with the live game transitions between the two. 
 

the “how” in the mechanics and the “what” in the muscle groups in the throwing motion are different and would need to be practiced and developed differently, but Miguel Sano recovered from Tommy John surgery and regained his throwing mechanics and strength to throw very well across the diamond. His waist line never recovered, but his arm did 

^Arm

[stringer bell]

I don't think it's fair to show a "worst of" Keaschall any more than it is for any player. They all make errors and a great majority of players can be shown on blooper reels. That said, the numbers aren't kind for Luke at this time. He has the foot speed to have better than average range, although that hasn't shown up at this point. Second base and first base are the two best places to hide a suspect arm and I don't think his current rating is necessarily permanent. Austin Martin has moved from having a very weak arm after surgery to slightly above average and it took more than a year. Keaschall's recovery was interrupted by hit HBP injury, so there may be room for improvement. On the whole, I thought Keaschall's pivots on double plays has been decent, perhaps better than that. 

[stringer bell]

Brooks Lee has improved his arm strength from 28th percentile to 30th and this year 40th percentile. I don't recall exactly what his arm injury was, but it took quite a while to improve. I am not sure what Keaschall's arm upside is, but I think there is room for some improvement. 

[DocBauer]

11 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

I think it depends on whether Keaschall just has a terrible arm or if it's injury-related. Does he still need more time to build up strength in his arm and work on his throwing, or is this as good as it's going to get? I don't know the answer to that (and neither does anyone on this board, frankly).

A good arm is a benefit at every position, so wherever he plays it could be a deficit. We saw what a bonus it was to have Correa's arm at SS. You need to have an arm to play 3B to make those long throws and get it to the 1B with some accuracy. It's a benefit at 2B to turning DPs. It's a benefit at 1B to turn the DP. A weak arm will be a deficit at every position. The question is whether or not Keaschall can be passable with his arm. Don't know.

In terms of range and glove, I think Keaschall can be just fine; he's got the speed and quickness and more reps will help even out the mistakes and let him react rather than think about it. (you can definitely see some of the plays where he's thinking about it and it goes sideways)

Should Royce get some time at 2B? Maybe...just to get his bat in there more? But frankly, Royce's bat and glove play better at 1B than 2B, and 10 games into any stint he plays at 2B I suspect people will be complaining about him there too. Considering how much better Royce has looked since coming back up and how much of a confidence player he is...do we really want to mess with that?

I think more important than moving Keaschall off 2B is moving Gray off SS and getting Culpepper up in the mix. I'll worry more about Keaschall in a month.

This!

I think it's a mistake to say Keaschall has had enough time for his arm to heal from TJ. Maybe, maybe not. He also had a broken arm in 2025 after about 20 games. Has he had enough time to recover arm strength from BOTH injuries? Again, maybe, and maybe not.

I've seen him.make some bad plays. But I've also seen some really good plays from him as well. No video clips of those available? And I tend to agree with @jmlease1that at times it looks like he's thinking more than reacting at times. You know can fix that? Repetition and experience.

You know what can also help compensate for an average or even poor arm? Just being more fluid in every thing you do, improve the glove to hand transition...something Lee does very well for example...and get rid of the ball quicker.

I don't want to open up a can of worms, but in 2024 Julien actually improved his defense from poor to solid/average simply through experience and hard work. Now, his bat AND his defense later went in to the tank, but he DID show real improvement. Keaschall is a better athlete. Lineup wise, he's just a better "fit" at 2B. Plus, currently, while not everyone will work out as hoped for or dreamed on, the OF/DH is looking like Buxton, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Mendez, and Roden plus an eventual winner between Martin and Fedko. (That's not a shot at Martin, but he doesn't appear to be a daily player. Fedko MIGHT end up being the better player in the same role).

So is there really room for Keaschall in the OF? Could he be a similar player to Marwin Gonzalez as a Twin, more or less, where he plays daily at 2B/1B/LF/DH? Maybe. That wouldn't stink. He could be an offense first player who can play almost daily but move around. Sort of a "6th man" in baseball terms. 

FWIW, I've ALWAYS viewed 2026 as a transition season where the team could be anywhere from a 75-85 win team depending on injuries, and if a few things went right. But at SOME POINT, we were going to see K-Pepper in the INF, and a combination of ALL of the OF candidates I mentioned. Well, the pitchers have debuted early than expected, and 3 of the OF got hurt, one struggled early but is starting to heat up, and one began the season at AA. And now there MIGHT be a potential battle between Martin and Fedko as to who is the best 4th-5th RH OF who can do a little bit of everything, and at least be a solid RH bat against LHP. Don't kid yourself here. No insult given to Martin, but Fedko is slightly younger, has more power, and Martin seems to have proved he's a 4th or 5th OF, not a full time starter. It's possible, given half a chance, that the slightly younger and more powerful Fedko might be the better option.

I digress only to point out that the OF might be too crowded for Keaschall to be a full time OF. So again, MAYBE he's a "decent" glove at 3 spots...could he MAYBE be a CF option as well?...who can still play daily if his offense continues to improve. I think he's a consimate #1 hitter who's just settling in to his potential. 

Or have we forgotten that he was brought up early in 2025 simply because injuries decimated the INF and not because he was tearing up AAA? Do we all remember that?

Do we also remember he wasn't allowed to play 2B in ST as he was still recovering from his TJ surgery? He ONLY started playing 2B when he joined the St Paul ST. Do we remember that? Again, his debut with the Twins was AWESOME and offered real hope and potential for the future before his arm was broken and he missed multiple months. 

Let's rewind just a little further. Drafted in 2023, he actually played around the field at multiple positions for 31 games. That's somewhat unusual, but he performed very well. Come 2024, the Twins knew he was going to need TJ surgery.  But they calculated he couldn't hurt his arm more by being allowed to play and HIT, so he was allowed to play 1B/LF/DH, and then shut down so he could have surgery. 

That brings us back, full circle, to being nursed back in to playing 2B for the first time in well over a year to begin 2025, before an early promotion, and THEN a broken arm.

So with respect, I have to ask again, has he REALLY had time to build his arm back again? Are his 2B really supposed to be so honed at this point that we shouldn't expect some growing pains?

Look, I WANT better defense throught the lineup. But like it or not, hopeful for a 85 win team vs a 75 win team, this was always going to be a transition season.

I've seen too many young players being labeled as poor defensively before they turned out to be solid, if not better. It's a long list, and I'm not going to go there.

Keaschall "fits" at 2B. He's got the talent to be OK there at least. He needs to play there daily, not be messed with, and let the instincts start to take hold. When he reacts more than thinking, there will be improvement. When he's not thinking too much, experience and hard work should make the glove to hand execution to throwing should also improve. And MAYBE, his arm gets even a tiny bit stronger the further removed he is from TJ and a broken arm. For HIS future, and the Twins future, he needs to play 2B ALL SEASON to gain experience and confidence to improve. What else are we REALLY playing for in 2026 but trying to improve and get ready for 2027 and beyond?

For NOW, I think any idea of AAA or moving Keaschall anywhere is just a fools exercise. His DEVELOPMENT is what's most important. So let's just drop any more articles about the negative, focus on the positive, let the kid play, and let's give the kid a chance to improve and develop. 

[TL]

15 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Great post.

Clemens is simply playing better than Keaschall by a fairly large margin at the moment. Will that be the case in the future... I don't know and the Twins front office doesn't know either. We are all hopeful that Keaschall surpasses Clemens in the future but the possibility that he doesn't is still a possibility especially with Clemens performing on par with many highly thought of... highly paid, highly ranked players.  

If Clemens continues doing what he is doing or even a little less than what he is currently doing this year next year. He has value to the current club in 2027 and increased trade value to the rest of the league because now we have a certain level of sustainability. 

It's my opinion that it doesn't matter if you are losing 100 games a year in 2026 or losing 60. You don't just toss away players who have hit 30 home runs in 617 Plate appearances with three years of control left. The current version of Clemens is what we hope Keaschall can become. It's what we hoped that Julien could become. If Julien would have hit like Clemens is hitting he would be considered an absolute development success.

Why would you toss what Clemens is doing for a player that might. And this is coming from me... someone who constantly talks about the need for better development and is happy when a Fedko gets called up.  

30 Home Runs in 617 plate appearances. That's 2025 Jose Ramirez Power Numbers, It's 2025 Yelich Numbers. It's Cody Bellinger Numbers. It's Yandy Diaz production.  

I'm content to just let Kody Clemens hit as a member of the Minnesota Twins. I wasn't happy with his initial pick up because I didn't like the need to continually grab from that pile but I'm grateful for his hot streak that occurred at the exact moment he got opportunity last year because if he would have started slowly when opportunity knocked he would have faded into the sunset like Jonah Bride. 

And I will continue to insist that Clemens performing at this level doesn't have to get in the way of Keaschall playing time... even if Luke is also performing at the same level... there will be room and playing time for both and a good problem to have.  

 

Clemens is the perfect complement to Keaschall and Lewis. At least the right side of the infield is starting to make sense from a roster construction standpoint. And if the future looks like Culpepper/Houston up the middle then Clemens and Keaschall can both add value as 4th OFs + 1st and 2nd. 

[Riverbrian]

16 hours ago, ashbury said:

Seems to me he overlaps uncomfortably with Austin Martin.  Both are

• 2B washouts at this point,
• corner outfield candidates (CF in emergency only),
• right-handed batters,
• putting up bad numbers this season against RHP.

I'm not sure there is room on the roster for two on the short side of an outfield platoon.  Neither one provides enough pop with the bat to be an asset at first base or DH, either.

Keaschall hasn't been hitting either hand this year but he was making right handers pay last year. His development has to extend beyond his first 200 plate appearances. 

Mainly though... there just isn't room on the roster for anybody who can't hit the 72% majority. Injuries or players performing poorly like Wallner is just going to pull them into the light. The majority of our rostered hitters are below major league average. You can't fix that on the edges. 

Martin is going to have to get better at hitting RH's or he won't matter.

He's getting to the point of a larger sample of consistently hasn't hit righties.

Wallners demise was his opportunity. He failed. 

 

 

 

[Riverbrian]

1 hour ago, TL said:

Clemens is the perfect complement to Keaschall and Lewis. At least the right side of the infield is starting to make sense from a roster construction standpoint. And if the future looks like Culpepper/Houston up the middle then Clemens and Keaschall can both add value as 4th OFs + 1st and 2nd. 

Other than C and SS... Clemens can flow into almost any opening.

And I've never seen a Twins team that didn't have openings. 

If Lewis can keep hitting and of course stay healthy. Lewis may have solved the 1B revolving door. 

Keaschall... I love his speed and grittiness. It was too soon to believe he was the answer last year and it's too soon to believe he can't do it after his results so far this year. 

With Clemens becoming an outfielder for the time being. Keaschall will have a little time. Additions in the OF could push Clemens back to the infield and then... well... Keaschall's ground gets a little shakier.