Twins General Manager Jeremy Zoll Explains Why Walker Jenkins Hasn’t Been Called Up

[Czelgert]

Honestly, Zoll’s explanation sounds like a litany of corporate speak to describe why they’re delaying Jenkins’s service time clock.  Is there any empirical evidence that Roden is more deserving of MLB playing time than Jenkins?

[MeleMouth]

22 minutes ago, MeleMouth said:

There may have been issues particular to Mientkiewicz, also. It sounded like he wasn't, shall we say, very "welcoming" to young Mourneau. To move him out of the locker room, the Twins accepted an OK A ball pitcher in return. 

To get back to the topic at hand, Dougie wasn't nearly as valuable as the players Jenkins would replace.

To exhaust the comparisons of Morneau's and Jenkins' situations, here are two final facts.

1. Dougie was traded on July 31, 2004, about 7-1/2 months BEFORE Jenkins was born.

2. That's more of an amusing fact, but it's relevant because a comparison between the situations should apply data that would have been applicable to the decision-makers of each era. We shouldn't compare OPS to OPS, because decision in 2004 usually didn't consider OPS. What they did consider was slugging. And in 2004, Morneau was slugging .615 in AAA, while Dougie was slugging .363 in Minnesota. It was quite hard for Twins management at the time to rationalize keeping Morneau and his extremely rare slugging on the farm while Dougie was producing like a 1970s bat control middle infielder.

Nuf said.

[chpettit19]

6 minutes ago, Czelgert said:

Honestly, Zoll’s explanation sounds like a litany of corporate speak to describe why they’re delaying Jenkins’s service time clock.  Is there any empirical evidence that Roden is more deserving of MLB playing time than Jenkins?

Well, Roden has better AAA numbers than Jenkins, if that matters. But it isn't even the point. The point is that Roden isn't worthy of real playing time. So, he doesn't get real playing time. Zoll's "corporate speak" was actually explaining why MLB team don't call guys up sometimes. Because you don't want Walker Jenkins getting 27 PAs in 16 games. Or, more recently since Buxton's been back, 6 PAs in 6 games. You want Jenkins getting 27 PAs in 9 games. In the last 6 games you want Walker getting 20+ PAs.

Walker Jenkins doesn't fill Roden's (or Martin's when he got hurt) role. He fits Larnach, Buxton, Keaschall, or Bell's.

[jimbo92107]

5 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Alan Roden is getting 10 plate appearances a week. He has already taken a seat. 

To which I reply, okay. Who else ya got that's a better outfielder than Walker Jenkins? They can take a seat, or play every day, somewhere else. That does include Keashall. If his weak arm is still suffering from his recent TJ surgery, then maybe he needs time off to rehab, and maybe retool his throwing mechanics, and learn how to play balls off the wall, in AAA. 

[Andy MacPhail]

Jenkins is  suffering from Twins' fetish of collecting & hoarding LH hitting cOfers. Outman was a lost cause but we still have Rodon & Emma ahead of him to find out what they have & what to do with them. I don't like this situation & I'd love to see Jenkins take that next step but until these two are given every opportunity to prove themselves, he'll have to wait.

[TheLeviathan]

I really don't understand why we kept Larnach.  He's a platoon player, who plays shoddy defense (in LF, where the Twins have openly stated the value of having a good LFer), has very little team control left, and was at peak value.

We kept him lodged in a spot that very clearly needs to have two of our top prospects playing there in the very, very near future.  

Our commitment, dedication, stubborn behavior about him (call it what you like) has been rewarded with a dreadful performance.  His OPS is under .600 in his last 90 at-bats.  At this point he's a significantly sub-replacement level player that we keep hitting at the top of our lineup and refused to trade to open a path for more talented player.

I just don't get it.  This is the guy that's the obstacle to seeing either of these young guys up.  It'd be hard for them to be worse than Larnach's been for about two months now.

[Vanimal46]

Seattle just called up Kade Anderson after 93 total innings in minor league ball. Teams are calling up their top prospects with no disregard about a lockout next season. I guess Zoll is smarter than every GM in baseball though. Let’s keep delaying prospects until they’re 25-28 years old 

[TheLeviathan]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

Seattle just called up Kade Anderson after 93 total innings in minor league ball. Teams are calling up their top prospects with no disregard about a lockout next season. I guess Zoll is smarter than every GM in baseball though. Let’s keep delaying prospects until they’re 25-28 years old 

I, for one, think it's very nice of the Twins to set our prospects up so that when their arbitration years are over they can transition smoothly to social security.

[HarmonK03]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

Seattle just called up Kade Anderson after 93 total innings in minor league ball. Teams are calling up their top prospects with no disregard about a lockout next season. I guess Zoll is smarter than every GM in baseball though. Let’s keep delaying prospects until they’re 25-28 years old 

And while I am not familiar with their situation, it doesn't appear they have a clear opening for another starter.  They traded Castillo at the trade deadline because of an excess of starting pitching and now they call up their top prospect and are finding room for him.

[GNess]

For whatever its worth the Twins promoted the following with stats for the season of promotion noted:

Buxton .272 .787 OPS

Larnach .271 .888 OPS

Roden .271 .909 OPS

Jenkins .292 .864 OPS

 

 

[Craig Arko]

They’re probably waiting to have the call up coincide with Alex Jackson bobblehead day.

[Coach]

3 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

We've been through this before, I'm not putting Keaschall at 2B for another game in his life. And I'm not benching Larnach twice a week for Jenkins. The guys in the clubhouse definitely know who's got them there and that absolutely has a very real chance of disrupting the team. Jenkins better perform or you're going to have some very cranky vets. 

But I ask again, can you name another team that has called up a Jenkins type prospect and moved a guy back to a position they already decided he couldn't field and benched one of their 4 or 5 best hitters multiple times a week to get that guy in? Your suggestion is not as mainstream as you seem to be suggesting it is.

I want to see Jenkins, too. I have no idea if he'll perform from the jump or not. I'm not forcing Keaschall back to the dirt and benching Larnach multiple times a week in the heat of a playoff chase to find out if he's going to be like most rookies (even the elite prospects) and struggle some out of the gate, or if he'll be an outlier and outperform nearly my entire roster.

Good points.