The Twins' Collection of Lefty Bats Has Reached the Breaking Point

[Cody Pirkl]

Image courtesy of Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

 

The Twins should be in the news with several other teams who are calling up top prospects for the playoff push. Instead, the Twins don’t have room—or at least, don’t want to make room—on the MLB roster for Walker Jenkins. Intentionally or not, the front office has spent over a year setting itself up for this exact scenario.

The Twins' hoarding of left-handed hitting outfielders is not a new development. The team seems to be constantly searching for more players of this type. As a result, the big-league roster is poorly built, lacking right-handed hitting complements as the team tries to stuff as many left-handed hitters onto the active roster as they can. It's also led to a lack of opportunity for deserving players.

Last season’s trade deadline made plenty of negative headlines, but an underrated decision worth criticism was the team’s decision to target three more left-handed-hitting outfielders as they conducted their fire sale. There was zero reason to add in this way, as the major and minor leagues were already oversaturated with these types of players. The team then chose to tender a contract to Trevor Larnach in the offseason and carry James Outman on the Opening Day roster, ensuring they were 10+ deep in that department.

The first problem, in a day-to-day sense, is an obvious one: The roster is not equipped to hit left-handed pitching. Not only do they lack internal options to platoon, but they also didn’t target players in the offseason to address this problem. Josh Bell and Victor Caratini are switch-hitters who have historically been better from the left side. This roster-building choice is a big reason the Twins are in the bottom third of the league against southpaws, even with their season-long OPS in those matchups being inflated by uncharacteristic success in the first few weeks of the season.

At the individual player level, targeting so many left-handed hitters has created a mess that the front office has to clean up this offseason. After Alan Roden made up half of the Louis Varland trade return, the team optioned him to Triple-A at 26 years old. Why? Because parting with James Outman, who hasn’t posted a .600 OPS since 2023, was out of the question. They couldn’t afford to let a left-handed hitting outfielder get away without seeing him perform as a below-replacement-level player for a third season in a row.

Now that Roden is finally on the MLB roster, the way they’ve built it has left him with almost no opportunity. Starting two games per week or so, the Twins don’t even have consistent at-bats for him against right-handed pitching a year after acquiring him in his physical prime. As he struggles to capitalize on his few chances to perform, the team is weighing whether it’s time to swap him out for another left-handed hitter.

It’s difficult to imagine calling up someone like Jenkins without completely pulling the plug on Roden, so he can play every day. The Twins are struggling to make this decision, and it’s understandable. A much-maligned trade to acquire Roden has only looked worse and worse over the last year. Demoting him may be the end of his time with the Twins, and they’re not going to recoup anything close to the value they invested in him. Trading away Varland and giving up on half of the return after just over 100 plate appearances would be a terrible look for the Twins’ decision-makers.

Meanwhile in Triple-A, Jenkins continues to mash. A halfway functional roster would have made room for him some time ago, but not the Minnesota Twins. Emmanuel Rodriguez is another problem the Twins have to solve. After missing part of the season yet again, he’s healthy and performing, and is out of minor league options next season. This means he’ll have to make the Opening Day roster without taking a single at-bat at the MLB level. It will be yet another left-handed hitting outfielder for the Twins to split playing time between.

Also worth noting, Matt Wallner would have likely earned one last shot on a normal MLB roster after posting a .928 OPS in St. Paul with 20+ homers and a reduced strikeout rate. Instead, there is quite literally no path for him back to the MLB roster this season. Hendry Mendez is another left-handed outfielder acquired at the trade deadline. He’s talented enough to carve out an MLB role for himself someday, but if he remains with the Twins, it may require four or five injuries for him to even have a chance.

The Twins’ obsession with left-handed hitters has come back to bite them in a major way in 2026, and this is just the beginning. Their choices have limited the offense's ceiling all season and are now limiting their ability to call up top prospects to provide a jolt to the roster when they need it most. They won’t be able to stash four or five left-handed hitters in Triple-A in 2027, and the MLB roster will already be full with them even if they can somehow restrain themselves from acquiring even more over the offseason.

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For the betterment of the roster, and in the best interest of their individual players, the Twins need to figure out how to get their left-handed hitting logjam under control. Do you agree?

 

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[Riverbrian]

First off... the first graph you use includes Outman and Julien who are no longer on the roster.

2nd... 7 players on the current 40 man roster are pure left handed. That's 17.5%

3rd... If you look at all major league teams -- 25% of major league hitters are pure lefty swingers. 

4th... Despite 25% of players being left handed - 48% of at bats are handled by someone standing in the left handed batters box.

5th... 28% of major league pitching is right handed. 

6th... Left handed hitters vs Right Handed pitchers is the best matchup amongst all platoon splits and it occurs 72% of the time. 

7th... Left handed hitters vs left handed pitchers is the worst and it occurs 28% of the time.   

8th... More left handed hitters is how to play the split correct because of 3 to1. 

9th... The platoon splits become thin margins on a per AB basis or per game basis. Platoon splits only stabalize over time... in the meantime... time can be used for development. 

10th... STOP TRYING TO MATH THIS THING TOGETHER with platoon splits with lesser players. Find talent regardless and quit caring what side of the plate they stand. Develop them fully. 

[gman]

Most of the people who built this roster are gone. So what's left is to deal with it.

Keep Buxton, Keaschall, Jenkins, Rodriguez & Roden on the Twins and Mendez, Gonzalez, Rosario, Kendle & ? on the Saints roster. The others you bite the bullet and get whatever you can for them. Too late to say you should have done something else.

[thelanges5]

[Linus]

21 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

First off... the first graph you use includes Outman and Julien who are no longer on the roster.

2nd... 7 players on the current 40 man roster are pure left handed. That's 17.5%

3rd... If you look at all major league teams -- 25% of major league hitters are pure lefty swingers. 

4th... Despite 25% of players being left handed - 48% of at bats are handled by someone standing in the left handed batters box.

5th... 28% of major league pitching is right handed. 

6th... Left handed hitters vs Right Handed pitchers is the best matchup amongst all platoon splits and it occurs 72% of the time. 

7th... Left handed hitters vs left handed pitchers is the worst and it occurs 28% of the time.   

8th... More left handed hitters is how to play the split correct because of 3 to1. 

9th... The platoon splits become thin margins on a per AB basis or per game basis. Platoon splits only stabalize over time... in the meantime... time can be used for development. 

10th... STOP TRYING TO MATH THIS THING TOGETHER with platoon splits with lesser players. Find talent regardless and quit caring what side of the plate they stand. Develop them fully. 

I thought there was a distinct possibility that someone on the other side of the Red River might have an opinion on this topic 😀. I believe for #5 you mean left handed pitching. 

[MikeNC]

I think that our farm system is absolutely working to fully develope hitters.  Unfortunately, when you are trying to cobble together an effective lineup from Bargain Basement world, you get 1/4 to 1/2 the total skills sets.  So you look to platoon hitting, and have late inning D specialists.  I said it LY when it happened, and I'll say it for a long time: Trading away 800k/yr Varland was the dumbest Twins trade I can ever remember. (And I'm talking 2025 Varland, not 20/20 hindsight of NowSuperVarland).

[DJL44]

They would be better off if some of their lefty bats could play 2B or 1B. They're all corner outfielders.

[DJL44]

At some point you need to recalibrate your internal value metrics to better reflect market value.

[Paul Walerius]

27 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

First off... the first graph you use includes Outman and Julien who are no longer on the roster.

2nd... 7 players on the current 40 man roster are pure left handed. That's 17.5%

3rd... If you look at all major league teams -- 25% of major league hitters are pure lefty swingers. 

4th... Despite 25% of players being left handed - 48% of at bats are handled by someone standing in the left handed batters box.

5th... 28% of major league pitching is right handed. 

6th... Left handed hitters vs Right Handed pitchers is the best matchup amongst all platoon splits and it occurs 72% of the time. 

7th... Left handed hitters vs left handed pitchers is the worst and it occurs 28% of the time.   

8th... More left handed hitters is how to play the split correct because of 3 to1. 

9th... The platoon splits become thin margins on a per AB basis or per game basis. Platoon splits only stabalize over time... in the meantime... time can be used for development. 

10th... STOP TRYING TO MATH THIS THING TOGETHER with platoon splits with lesser players. Find talent regardless and quit caring what side of the plate they stand. Develop them fully. 

The only issue I have with it is, most of the lefties cannot hit.  

 

 

[HarmonK03]

14 minutes ago, gman said:

Most of the people who built this roster are gone.

This is absolutely not true.  The only change in the front office was the person who makes the final call changed from Falvey to Zoll.  All the same personnel that worked on the trading and drafting of this roster are still here.  What we don't know is how much Falvey took input from his staff.  And from his comments, I feel he was a consensus builder, so this roster many people still in the building had a major say in its construction.

[HarmonK03]

4 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

At some point you need to recalibrate your internal value metrics to better reflect market value.

Is our front office capable of doing this when these are the metrics they have built.  I personally don't think so and really hope we get an overhaul of the front office so we can get a fresh perspective.

[Cory Engelhardt]

Larnach has been really bad for a month plus now and is a worse defender than Jenkins. And guaranteed he won’t be back next season. I assume Jenkins will cut into his playing time while also spelling Buxton. In that world, Roden still have time.

That said, if Emma is also coming up, then that changes things for Roden no? Well, and Larnach too. And Clemens time in the outfield.

The offense needs more help than Larnach and Roden have provided over the last month(s). Make the promotion(s) of Jenkins and even Rodriguez and can figure out next year next year 

[DJL44]

10 minutes ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

Larnach has been really bad for a month plus now and is a worse defender than Jenkins. And guaranteed he won’t be back next season. I assume Jenkins will cut into his playing time while also spelling Buxton. In that world, Roden still have time.

That said, if Emma is also coming up, then that changes things for Roden no? Well, and Larnach too. And Clemens time in the outfield.

The offense needs more help than Larnach and Roden have provided over the last month(s). Make the promotion(s) of Jenkins and even Rodriguez and can figure out next year next year 

Assuming a full 162 game season, they have 648 games between OF and DH. I am assuming Larnach, Bell and Wallner will not return.

Keaschall 140G, Jenkins 100G, Buxton 90G, Rodriguez 90G, Martin 80G, Roden 80G. That leaves 68 games for Clemens, Gonzalez, Fedko, Mendez, Kendle, etc.

 

[Cris E]

Bah. This place needs editors so every bad article idea doesn't just go directly to print without justifying itself first. Is there anything new in here? Still talking about opening day roster, Julien, Outman, complaining that we don't have a good mix of players. This is pointless trash, particularly coming after a draft and a trade deadline where changes were made. 

They dumped Julien. They kept Outman to have one good CF glove on the roster. He can't hit, of course, but when they cut him everyone complained about how bad the CF defense got. They've all but cut Wallner. Clemens is mostly a 2B these days, Mendez is a hundred miles from being a competent MLB outfielder and he has a full suite of options so he's not in the way.  Which is to say the terrible situation has mostly been sorted during the season they were going to dedicate to... seeing what they had on the roster. OK.

@Riverbrian has mathed out the ratio of ABs that call for more left handed hitters, but from my reading this whole piece comes down to still complaining about the Varland trade, still complaining that Jenkins is parked until next year to allow him to play during a lockout, breaking new ground in complaining that Buxton is hurt too often, and maybe that we could miss the playoffs.

You know what old trope you missed? They're still #2 in the Al in runs scored.

[JADBP]

Wait...Julien is still on the team?  WTH?  Did I miss a trade back to the Twins????

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

First off... the first graph you use includes Outman and Julien who are no longer on the roster.

2nd... 7 players on the current 40 man roster are pure left handed. That's 17.5%

3rd... If you look at all major league teams -- 25% of major league hitters are pure lefty swingers. 

4th... Despite 25% of players being left handed - 48% of at bats are handled by someone standing in the left handed batters box.

5th... 28% of major league pitching is right handed. 

6th... Left handed hitters vs Right Handed pitchers is the best matchup amongst all platoon splits and it occurs 72% of the time. 

7th... Left handed hitters vs left handed pitchers is the worst and it occurs 28% of the time.   

8th... More left handed hitters is how to play the split correct because of 3 to1. 

9th... The platoon splits become thin margins on a per AB basis or per game basis. Platoon splits only stabalize over time... in the meantime... time can be used for development. 

10th... STOP TRYING TO MATH THIS THING TOGETHER with platoon splits with lesser players. Find talent regardless and quit caring what side of the plate they stand. Develop them fully. 

Not sure about your #4 & #5 statements?

#4???

#5……had to mean that 28% of major league pitching is LEFT handed.

The Author pointing out a player mix (cited by Gleeman 8-9 months ago) of LH hitting OF last Fall, to where they are now, is misleading & ridiculous. Clemens is squarely the Second Baseman & only plays OF maybe 20% of his playing time. As you point out above, Outman has been gone a couple months & Julien hasn’t been on the roster for the entire year.

Jeffers - Caratini - Jackson - Lee - Lewis - Bell - Kreidler - Keaschall - Culpepper ……..that’s 9 of 13 guys on current 13-Man that can hit RH……….Martin (another RH batter) has been there nearly all year until recent injury.

If MATT WALLNER & EMMA & Mendez cannot beat out Roden, that’s their problem., not the organization’s. they have Jenkins is 21…….he was hurt for weeks ………he’s been hitting very well for 3-4 weeks. They don’t think he should be in MLB, probably until Sept. 1st Roster Expansion……baseball people’s judgment.

Emma’s dilemma for the organization & himself are squarely at Rodriguez’s feet. He’s averaged 53 games per year over the past 5-6 years. He’s perpetually hurt! Getting him prepared for a ‘27 debut while in a Playoff Race isn’t, nor should it, be a priority!

Nobody’s worried about Roden’s future ……he was an “attractive throw-in” as part of the Varland for Rojas trade. He’s gotta play a bunch better to force Team to take much more of a look.

Bottom line - we agree in principle that 8-9 RH hitters is plenty and the “too many LH hitters on 40-Man” is not really an issue.