Luke Keaschall’s Position Next Year: The Answer Lies with Luis Arraez

[Coach]

48 minutes ago, Coach said:

Target field's right field is smaller than left.  Sure, move him to left in larger ballparks.  How often does a right fielder throw all the way from right to third base?  He has been on target for hitting the cut-offs.  He knows the limestone.  Plus, he's righthanded.

BTW, Wallner's arm is way stronger than Keaschall's, how did that work out?

[Nashvilletwin]

Keaschall (LF), ERod (RF), Jenkins (CF), Buxton (DH, 4th OF), Martin (5th OF, late inning sub, PR).   Gonzalez and Rhoden are the first OF call ups. Larnach is gone.

Just make the investment and play that lineup every day possible during the strike shortened ‘27 season.

It’s not complicated.

Btw, except for 1B, the infield isn’t complicated either. Lee (3B), Culpepper (SS), Clemens (2B). When Houston arrives, he plays SS, Culpepper moves to 2B, and Clemens either goes to 1B (if Lewis is still in that role) or is utility IF #1/DH/PH.  Kreidler is fine as utility IF #2.  Re-sign Jeffers (C) to a three-year deal; Caratini is C2 until one of the prospects (Diaw or Lackey) arrives (likely not until ‘28).

Those are our 13 position players/DH. Other than figuring out what to do with Lewis and 1B, is that so hard?

 

[gman]

I don't think anyone should plan on Buxton starting more than 2 games a week, except as a emergency fill in. Let him DH otherwise. Your regular starting outfield could then be Rodriguez, Jenkins and Keaschall. This should hopefully keep Buxtons bat in the lineup throughout the year.

After 2 years of starting in left field, we'll know if he has become a good fielder or not. Otherwisee, there are a half dozen other minor leaguers looking for an outfield spot by then.

Second position for Keaschall to fill in at would be first base. Since that is normally held for a slow moving slugger type, I'm not sure he is a particulary good fit there. 

[rdehring]

When I read the headline I thought, "oh no, here we go again."  After reading it, Greg, I found your article both rational and fair.  Thanks.

The one line out of the entire piece that caught my eye was a sentence in the first paragraph when you are talking about his playing every day in the outfield.  It's when you mention he has play 717 innings in the outfield as a professional.  That's less than 80 games.  I recently checked his minor league stats and saw he played 20 games in the outfield before arriving with the Twins.  

The fact is the guys all these stats compare him to had played more in the outfield as him by the time they were freshmen in high school.  As several have mentioned above, the guy is athletic and seems to be a hard worker.  Get him the coaching he needs and put him in either left or right and leave him there.  As for 4 guys for three spots, injuries will take care of that problem.  

[Hugh M]

Luiz Arraez is not a bad second baseman.  He is an average second baseman defensively, and always has been.  Nothing changed this year.  Baseball reference has him as -3 in defensive runs saved for his career in 499 games at second base.  That's about 4 full seasons as a second baseman.  So he is costing his team one out over an entire season compared to the average MLB second baseman, not a replacement level bad fielder but an average fielding MLB second baseman.  

[Coach]

53 minutes ago, Cris E said:

Glad the specific defensive numbers were added, as it adds some nuance to the discussion. But it does introduce another topic that overlaps this one pretty firmly.  

Those numbers are based on types of plays, and they definitely reward some types of plays over others.  When Ty France came here his in 2025 defensive numbers had never been great and he talked to Correa about it. Carlos showed him how the defensive stats were built and specific things France could do to improve his. Similarly, Arreaz spent last winter with Ron Washington getting ready for 2026 and has sparkled, showing real improvement in his defensive stats and passing the eye test as well.  (OK he was outstanding in April and above average the rest of the season, but it's a real improvement.) 

So I guess that's two points (work toward the metrics, or just work to improve) that both support a larger discussion of how much, how often, how difficult it is to improve defense.  It's been a while since this franchise put much emphasis on defense, even at glove-first positions, so the discussion has to include both do we have the right people and are we teaching them effectively?

Keaschall is having more than just trouble with the metrics like France was. He's legitimately not passing the eye test as a fielder. (I personally think he can be improved at either LF or 2B if he spends the winter grinding like Arreaz did last winter. It's a bad year for a work stoppage in that regard.)  But have we improved anyone's fielding lately? Is the org teaching well? ERod looks really good in the OF, Culpepper at SS seems OK but could fine tune the little things, and so  on.  But has anyone gotten better beyond a "teach to the test" improvement like France? 

But has anyone gotten better beyond a "teach to the test" improvement like France?

I said this before in a previous post; Clemens was five defensive runs saved at first base at the end of May leading all major leaguers.  We only moved him out to give the streaking Lewis a place. How'd that work out?  We could have had a threepeater gold glove at first base. 

Our coaches are doing great!

[HerbieFan]

I'm on the record on this.  In 2027 I want Keaschall as the primary LF.  Jenkins in CF.  Rodriguez in RF.  Buxton is the primary DH.  When Buck plays, Keaschall can slide to DH the majority of those days.  Buck plays LF most of his days in the OF.  Obviously there can be variations...Buck in CF with Jenkins in RF and Rodriguez in LF.  Or one of the rookies can DH as well.  Clemens gives the flexibility to sit one of the four periodically.

[Cory Engelhardt]

2 hours ago, SteveLV said:

Only options seem to be LF, 1B or DH.

He can supplant Lewis at 1B as far as I am concerned, but don't know if he can field that position either.

Agreed on this. I’m not at all certain why Lewis is penciled in at 1b.

I also don’t know how much you can trust Buxton’s hip full time. 
 

Hopefully Keaschall works on his defense in the offseason

[DJL44]

50 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Keaschall (LF), ERod (RF), Jenkins (CF), Buxton (DH, 4th OF), Martin (5th OF, late inning sub, PR).   Gonzalez and Rhoden are the first OF call ups. Larnach is gone.

Based on how they have played this season, I would burn an option on Jenkins and start him in the minors with Roden in the majors. With the Twins injury history Jenkins will be up in 2-3 weeks anyway.

[Andy MacPhail]

Keaschal was moved to 1B/DH after his injury & that was where he should have stayed. Falvey's idea of hiding players at 2B, just shows how absurd his defense philosophy was. Quit experimenting with him & keep him at 1B & let him finally learn the position. Being a Boras client, I'm ready to move on from Lewis.

 

[LA Vikes Fan]

6 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Buck, Jenkins, Emma, Keaschall - 3 OF positions and can all rotate through DH. 

This is far and away the best answer. By the way, this assumes that both EmRod and Jenkins are ready to play every day from April next year. So far, EmRod looks like a possible, Jenkins looks like a not yet. I think it's way too early to go on the assumption that both of those 2 will even break camp with the team, much less play every day. I know I'm going to get pilloried by the "play the kids, they were good in the Minors" crowd, but my guess is that EmRod starts the season with the Twins since he has no options, plays RF most days and CF when Buxton sits or DHs, with Keaschjal in LF and Roden and Martin on the bench. If you look at the hitting stats and the eye test at the plate, Roden has far outperformed Jenkins so far. Jenkins may not be ready at age 21. He may start the season as the St. Paul CF waiting for the inevitable Buxton injury or underperformance by Roden or EmRod for his next chance. 

[DJL44]

1 minute ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

. If you look at the hitting stats and the eye test at the plate, Roden has far outperformed Jenkins so far. Jenkins may not be ready at age 21. 

If you look at the stats, Outman has outperformed Jenkins this year.

[Andy MacPhail]

At the end of last season, I campaigned for Hunter to be our manager. Now, I'm not saying that he'd be a better manager than Shelton; I'm just saying that with Hunter, more likely we'd get his good friend, baseball INF guru, Ron Washington injunction. Still, there were much better candidates at 2B than Keaschal that Washinton could spend his time with. Yet Washington could devote his time to help Keaschal at 1B. We have much better OFers than Keaschal, so let's focus on them.

[HarmonK03]

2 hours ago, Cris E said:

When Ty France came here his in 2025 defensive numbers had never been great and he talked to Correa about it. Carlos showed him how the defensive stats were built and specific things France could do to improve his.

This is interesting, I just saw a blurb about a player who had been playing in Mexico how the use of analytics here in the states vs. Mexico in that players here are more with improving the individual analytics instead of their play.  Now I get the assumption is that by improving certain aspects of analytics that their game is improved but is anyone reviewing the end results other than bat speed improved, but their average or OPS increase.  Did it lead to favorable results, I think that is the question that needs to be asked or are they just chasing numbers.

[Nashvilletwin]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Based on how they have played this season, I would burn an option on Jenkins and start him in the minors with Roden in the majors. With the Twins injury history Jenkins will be up in 2-3 weeks anyway.

Why?  So we can chase another delusional playoff spot in a strike shortened season?  So we can postpone the development of one of our key future cogs?   The kid needs ABs against major league pitching.  All the young guys do.  Look at how Lee and Keaschall responded this year as they started to accumulate ABs.

Just for once, this inept franchise needs to pull their heads out of their rear ends and invest for the future.  Play the young guys. Build for the future.  They’ve mangled their ability to trade their best assets already.  

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, Coach said:

BTW, Wallner's arm is way stronger than Keaschall's, how did that work out?

Better than if you'd put Wallner in left!

Wallner isn't quick (he can actually run faster than you might think once he gets going) and takes poor routes, but you'd much rather have him in RF where his arm at least has more value and he's less likely to hurt you as much by never getting to anything. At least some hitters stopped trying to go first to third with Wallner out there in right. Literally no one is pretending Wallner is a good defender, but putting him in RF minimized his weaknesses as much as possible (poor range) while playing up his strengths (plus arm). Yes, he was still a poor fielder: but he would have been waaaay worse in left!

It's the same theory here. Keaschall could at least get up to average in left because his speed plays up better there. Even if Target Field was the only park where LF was substantially larger (it's not) he's still playing half his games there. Having a good arm is more useful in RF than in LF and has been since God was a Corporal. Keaschall doesn't have a good one, even if he can hit a cutoff man, but Jenkins & Rodriguez do have good arms.

It's part of why Austin Martin was a solid LF in 2025. Sure, he covers things just fine in RF in terms of catching the ball, but he's better at covering LF than Larnach is, who would do better in RF.

(Rodriguez and Jenkins are both fine OF and will do well in whatever spot we put them in; this is about trying to minimize keaschall's weaknesses so he gives away less of what he provides with his bat, because he's clearly a good MLB hitter who should be leading off for the Twins)