Kody Clemens’s Career Year Has Hit a Major Roadblock

[Sam Caulder]

Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

The 2026 campaign has been a career year for Kody Clemens, coming right on the heels of what looked like a career year in 2025. After being acquired from the Phillies last spring for cash considerations, Clemens has turned himself into a staple of the Twins’ lineup. He’s provided Minnesota with defensive versatility, while his bat has taken a significant step forward.

In 445 plate appearances, Clemens is hitting .233 with a .291 on-base percentage. Those numbers certainly aren’t going to jump off the page, but his impressive power output has his OPS sitting north of .750. He’s already set career highs in doubles (20), triples (5), and home runs (21), giving the Twins some short-sequence offense on a team that often seems to be cobbling together runs too slowly. However, his bat has gone cold of late—and not cold like “a little chilly”. It's more like a Minnesotan winter.

Since the start of August, Clemens is hitting just .185/.254/.296. After posting an impressive 115 wRC+ during the first half of the season, he's hitting .208/.257/.406 since the All-Star break. When he's not hitting in good luck, things can get very ugly; his aggressive approach rapidly makes him an out machine.

It’s worth noting that Clemens has already shown that he can bounce back from a slump this season. He had a pretty rough first month of the year: .197/.296/.366 through the end of April, when the Twins had that strangely lefty-heavy stretch early in their schedule. He eventually found his rhythm, started making better contact, and became one of the more productive hitters in Minnesota’s lineup. So what’s actually going on with Clemens, and dare we hope for another recovery?

For starters, a lot of his success this season has come from his ability to hit line drives. During the first half of the year, Clemens posted a 17.5% line-drive rate. Line drives are the most productive type of batted ball, and the more often a hitter produces them, the more opportunities he gives himself to do damage. That 17.5% clip isn’t an absurdly high number, but so far in August, Clemens’ line-drive rate has dropped to 8.6%. Instead, Clemens has been putting the ball on the ground quite a bit more, and he’s also not pulling the ball nearly as much as he was earlier in the season.

For a lot of hitters, that might not necessarily be a bad thing. In Clemens’s case, though, it is. Of his 21 home runs this season, 19 have come to his pull side. Among his 46 extra-base hits, 36 have been hit to right field. Clemens has found a lot of his success by leaning into his pull-side power. When he’s able to get the ball into the air and turn on it, he can do some serious damage. That part of his game simply hasn’t been there in August, and the result has been considerably worse contact.

Clemens’s 90.1 MPH average exit velocity this month isn’t bad on its own. There are plenty of hitters who would be more than happy with that number. But it’s well below where his season-long numbers sit, and it’s more than a mile per hour slower than the exit velocity he produced during his first slump back in April. His hard-hit rate is also 6.7 percentage points lower than his season-long mark, while he’s producing barrels at roughly half of his normal rate.

Call it a blip, but don't call it a fluke. His batted-ball data and quality-of-contact numbers are lining up almost perfectly, and they’re telling the same story. Clemens isn’t hitting the baseball with nearly as much authority as he was earlier in the season. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s some major issue that needs to be addressed. Slumps happen, especially over a small sample size like 59 plate appearances. Considering that Clemens has already demonstrated that he can make adjustments and work his way out of a slump this year, there’s reason to believe he can do it again.

The Twins also don’t have much reason to take him out of the lineup. Clemens’s defensive ability and versatility provide Derek Shelton with plenty of flexibility, and his power gives Minnesota a legitimate threat in the middle of the lineup. Even with his recent struggles, the prior three months are a perfect example of just how valuable his bat can be when he’s right. Shelton has also made it clear in word and deed that he trusts Clemens more than Trevor Larnach against left-handed pitchers. But there’s no denying that his bat has run completely cold over the last few weeks.

Clemens needs to start hitting the ball in the air more often, and perhaps more importantly, he needs to get back to pulling the baseball with authority. When he’s doing those things, he’s a dangerous hitter. In a way, though, those are results, just like hits are. The process—the input—that needs to change lies a layer deeper. He's at his best when achieving a fairly steep attack angle, which indicates that he's getting out and beating the ball to its spot with his barrel. Early in the season, he wasn't doing so. When he got hot, he was. Lately, he's back to catching the ball deeper and working uphill less at contact. That needs to change, and since nobody suddenly finds renewed bat speed during the peak of August's grind, it probably means starting a hair earlier in his swing.

Teams have spotted the best way to attack Clemens. Since the start of July, over 60% of the pitches he's seen have been fastballs; he does most of his damage on mistake breaking and offspeed offerings. By speeding him up, pitchers are forcing him to hit deeper in his hitting zone and to flatten out his swing, which has robbed him of his ability to lift and pull for power. The best version of Clemens is the one who can foul off the fastball or lay off it when above the zone, and who obliterates secondary pitches. By giving him a steadier diet of heaters, pitchers have challenged Clemens to show he can be that guy even when timing himself to barrel the fastball.

If the Twins are going to make a legitimate push for the playoffs, they’re going to need that version of Kody Clemens to show up again. He'll have to prepare in a way that allows him to anticipate more and attack the ball again, getting around and through it so he can hit it with more authority. That's much easier said than done, but it needs to be done if Clemens is to help the club down the stretch.

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[DJL44]

He’s one of their best defenders. They can handle a 650 OPS to get his glove on the field.

[thelanges5]

His last seven games  have been better. 
.269/.367/.500 hopefully he is warming back up. He has certainly been good for the Twins, but I hope the roster construction for 2027 pushes him back to more of a utility role than an everyday guy.

[Saxophone Joe]

Probably should've had an RBI in the 8th last night. Possibly saved the game in the field on Monday. Sure, he's been cold lately, but Clemens is pretty much indispensable to this team. Pretty low on my Twins worry list at the moment. 

[Dman]

Looking at his year to date stats it's hard to find many guys hitting better than he has. Larnach. is the only one who like Clemens has been healthy all year that has a higher OPS.  Jeffers and Buxton are better but have been out with injuries so not the same grind IMO, but they are better.

Clemens still has a 106 WRC+ and almost 2 WAR so he's holding his own.  I do agree with the OP that it looks like he might need to make an adjustment.  He seems to waiting for off speed so might need to be more ready and or sit on the fastball if that is what they are going to throw more often.

Still with his ability to play defensively at multiple positions he looks like a really solid player IMO.

[bean5302]

I don't know... I don't see the change in pitch type here.

4 seamer 37.5% first half, 41.7% second half.
sinker 12.6% first half, 14.2% second half.

It's not a huge shift. The other pitches seem to be about where they were too so it's probably mostly sample size.

Clemens seems to have expanded his zone a little. He's swinging at more pitches outside the zone, whiffing a little more, walking a little less, hitting the balls a little softer (91mph vs 92mph EV), barreling a little less. It's pretty much across the board. 

Clemens doesn't have a lot of leeway since he doesn't take walks and contrary to the article, he's never been even mediocre with line drives. That combo is pretty guaranteed to generate low AVG/OBP. Clemens' production value comes from power. His 30pt reduction in power has largely what has tipped him from above average to below average for production. He hasn't been a black hole at the plate, but he's been pretty rough. A couple home runs changes the results because of the SSS.

[LA Vikes Fan]

Clemens is a solid player for this team, more because of his glove than his bat. He can hit 6 or 7 on a good team playing 3-4 days a week as a super UTL. He's been exposed at the plate this year and last) because we don't have enough middle infielders and good glove OFs so he has to play every day. We also have needed him to hit in the middle of the order, which he really isn't good enough to do. If he were a good glove guy playing multiple position and hitting 7 we all be thrilled with what he provides. As an everyday player hitting 4 or 5, he's adequate at best. And the man needs to learn to take his walks. They're there for him but he insists on swing at stuff in his eyes rather than taking the walk. 

I'm hoping that we find an everyday 2B for next season, maybe through a trade of Larnach or as part of a Ryan trade. Then Clemens can be what he' best suited for IMHO - a UTL that's an above average fielder at 1B, 2B, LF, and RF and adequate in CF, getting 350-400 ABs a year, hitting .240/.290/.450 with 15-20 HRs mostly against RH pitching. and a good LH bench bat/pinch runner for the Catcher. That's a valuable guy who plays on your team as long as he can provide that value. He's the 10th guy on a contending team's 9 starters. With Clemens, Kriedler as the glove man UTL who can play SS, and Martin as the 4th OF, we'd actually have a bench that can accommodate a full time DH or just a big bat, no field guy. Unfortunately, we are at a least a 2B away from that now so Clemens has to be more than he really is.

[ashbury]

Please write more of these articles.  Given the likely lead-time in getting articles published, I'm going to guess that the past three games for Kody (OPS 1.227) are a direct result of your anti-jinx.  Kudos.

[rdehring]

51 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

His last seven games  have been better. 
.269/.367/.500 hopefully he is warming back up. He has certainly been good for the Twins, but I hope the roster construction for 2027 pushes him back to more of a utility role than an everyday guy.

Why would you want to talk about his last 7 games being good when the author clearly wants to talk about his being bad since August 1, which is what, 15-16 games?

[Cris E]

On the one hand he was freely available for a reason and this is the first season he's been above average at all.  He's not Vlad Guerrero not hitting in Toronto. 

And on the other hand it seems he can sustain a better level of play,  Most guys on the roster have hit flat spots this year (everyone every year, TBH) so it's just something to work through.  It happens all the time, so no big deal.

They don't have a better option at 2B right now so they need him to figure this out. In fact he might be fighting through it already.  

[bjorks]

What's the alternative? Gray/Kreidler/et al? We could do a lot worse than KC in the super utility, Willi Castro role.  

[LA Vikes Fan]

13 minutes ago, Cris E said:

On the one hand he was freely available for a reason and this is the first season he's been above average at all.  He's not Vlad Guerrero not hitting in Toronto. 

And on the other hand it seems he can sustain a better level of play,  Most guys on the roster have hit flat spots this year (everyone every year, TBH) so it's just something to work through.  It happens all the time, so no big deal.

They don't have a better option at 2B right now so they need him to figure this out. In fact he might be fighting through it already.  

Yup. Gotta hope he fights through this because we got nobody else to play 2B every day. Keaschall can't field the position, Kriedler can't hit, and the pickings are slim in AAA. Morisette and Schobel are old for prospects (26 and 25) and neither can hit at the AAA level. Ben Ross has really hit this year at a AAA (.261/.369/.481(.850)) but he's struck out 26.7% of the time and he's also 26. He looks a lot like a guy who might come to the Majors and strike out 30% plus of the time with an OPS below .700. We should give him a chance but he's a longshot. My fantasy is that for 2027 w trade Larnach and/or Ryan (re-sign Lopez long term), and one of the things we get back is a full time starting 2B. 

[Cris E]

19 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

Yup. Gotta hope he fights through this because we got nobody else to play 2B every day. Keaschall can't field the position, Kriedler can't hit, and the pickings are slim in AAA. Morisette and Schobel are old for prospects (26 and 25) and neither can hit at the AAA level. Ben Ross has really hit this year at a AAA (.261/.369/.481(.850)) but he's struck out 26.7% of the time and he's also 26. He looks a lot like a guy who might come to the Majors and strike out 30% plus of the time with an OPS below .700. We should give him a chance but he's a longshot. My fantasy is that for 2027 w trade Larnach and/or Ryan (re-sign Lopez long term), and one of the things we get back is a full time starting 2B. 

Ha! Over in another thread I just speculated that they'd package a bunch of the AAA youth for Xavier Edwards! 

[SE23]

22 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

Yup. Gotta hope he fights through this because we got nobody else to play 2B every day. Keaschall can't field the position, Kriedler can't hit, and the pickings are slim in AAA. Morisette and Schobel are old for prospects (26 and 25) and neither can hit at the AAA level. Ben Ross has really hit this year at a AAA (.261/.369/.481(.850)) but he's struck out 26.7% of the time and he's also 26. He looks a lot like a guy who might come to the Majors and strike out 30% plus of the time with an OPS below .700. We should give him a chance but he's a longshot. My fantasy is that for 2027 w trade Larnach and/or Ryan (re-sign Lopez long term), and one of the things we get back is a full time starting 2B. 

I'm dreaming of Houston at short, Culpepper at 2nd and Clemens as the super utility.

[LA Vikes Fan]

3 minutes ago, SE23 said:

I'm dreaming of Houston at short, Culpepper at 2nd and Clemens as the super utility.

Me too but that's probably the August 2027 or 2028 lineup, not the 20027 Opening Day lineup. 

[Parfigliano]

Roadblock=Reality. 

A utility player is a TC All-Star.  Serious MLB organization's would see a problem.

[MeleMouth]

This is a well-written article that makes interesting points and supports them with data. Clemens' drop-off is something to pay attention to.

BUT - and it's a big but - it is based on relatively small sample size and could also be an example why we shouldn't get either too high or too low based on short-term results. 

That said, one thing noted by the author was his recent drop in exit velocity and hard hit rates. Again, it could be a small sample size error - his rates in July were fine - but it is also worth watching. Sometimes, players just get tired in August. As an anecdote, August was also Clemens' least powerful in 2025. 

Edited 25 minutes ago by MeleMouth
Add 2025 data.

[MMBoys93]

Baseball players go through hot and cold streaks more than they’ve ever gone through in the history of baseball.
 

It’s up to the coaching to identify them and use that kind of stuff to their advantage to rest players up a little bit and coach them up a little bit