What’s Happening with the Twins Outfielders That Have Left Since 2020?

[Theodore Tollefson]

The Twins have let six outfielders walk away over the last three seasons in favor of keeping Max Kepler. Where have they gone and what have their careers been like compared to the Twins right fielder? 

Image courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The Twins have let six outfielders walk away over the last three seasons in favor of keeping Max Kepler. Where have they gone and what have their careers been like compared to the Twins right fielder? 

The Twins have seen several outfielders leave the organization since 2020, and in that time, they have kept a struggling and deep-declining Max Kepler. Who are these outfielders the Twins let go over the last three years, and how have their careers been over the last three seasons? 

Jake Cave 
The Twins put Cave on the waiver wire at the end of the 2022 season and after the Baltimore Orioles grabbed him and did the same, he ended up with the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Cave saw some playing time with the Phillies early this season playing in 20 games for them but didn’t provide much offensive production as a fourth outfielder. His numbers at Triple-A have been an entirely different story as he’s torn up pitching at that level posting a triple slash of .374/.454/.728 and an OPS of 1.181 with 10 home runs and 38 runs batted in across 36 games.

While these are numbers from Cave’s production at Triple-A, they’re still better than any 36-game stretch Kepler has had since 2019, and his 20 games in the Majors are still that of a fourth outfielder. He hit .222/.286/.333 with a .619 OPS in 63 at-bats, and while Kepler has had better stretches of 20 games than this 

Rob Refsnyder 
Refsnyder became a full-time outfielder while he was with the Twins in 2021 after every other man who could play center field got hurt. Refsnyder parted ways with the Twins at the end of that season and has become a bench player for the Boston Red Sox in the two seasons since. 

There he’s played the most games he has with any franchise in his career at 102 and has proven to be versatile in his role with the team. Refsnyder has accumulated a triple slash of .296/.399/.451 and a .849 OPS with seven home runs and 42 runs batted in 295 plate appearances with the Red Sox over the last season and a half. 

In Kepler's last 102 games dating from June 18, 2022 to June 18, 2023, Kepler has had a .201/.278/.328 triple slash and a .605 OPS with 10 home runs and 33 runs batted in across 348 at-bats.

Brent Rooker
Rooker had a chance to show some of his talents with the Twins as their 2021 season crumbled in the latter half. He didn’t get anywhere near the same playing time in 2022 after being traded to the Padres a day before the season started, and later playing in 14 games with the Royals after the Padres designated him for assignment. 

Rooker is now a member of the Oakland Athletics, has seen the majority of his games at DH, but has still played 25 of his 65 games in outfield. In the first month of the 2023 season, Rooker was a whole new ball player as he had a .353/.465/.779 (1.245), nine home runs, and 22 runs batted in. Rooker slumped at the plate after the month of May hitting only two home runs, driving in 10 and posting a .198./.290/.327 (.616). 

Rooker has been hitting slightly better in June than he did in May and his numbers during the month of April top every month of a season Max Kepler has had since 2020 in those statistical categories. While trading Rooker away is starting to look bad now, the place where he is shining into his potential as a player is much more needed in Oakland with a fan base dealing with much worse circumstances. 

Eddie Rosario 
He may not have had the best strike-zone judgment, but his hitting abilities over the last three season has landed him an NLCS MVP and a World Series ring. 

Rosario’s 2022 season was bad. He played in only 80 games and hit well below league average, .212/.259/.328 (.587). This season has been another story at least. In 61 games, he’s been back to his regular self posting a .256/.294/.479 (.773) with 11 home runs and 31 runs batted in. 

The full season totals since 2021 though show a different picture as Rosario has a .246/.291/.423 triple slash and 91 wRC+ to Kepler's .214/.304/.379 triple slash with a 92 wRC+. 

LaMonte Wade Jr. 
When the Giants acquired LaMonte Wade Jr. from the Twins in 2021, he was coming in as a fourth outfielder on the roster. Three years later, he’s now their everyday first baseman and successor to Brandon Belt. 

Wade Jr. is fulfilling the potential he showed as a prospect in the Twins farm system years ago. He ranks second in the big leagues this season in on-base-percentage (.416) to his old teammate, Luis Arraez (.440). His OPS+ this season is at 145, which is good enough to place him ninth-best in the National League. 

Even with the positional change, Wade Jr. joins this group as showing much more production in 67 games at the plate this season than the Twins have seen from Kepler over the last three years. 

Looking at it all now, the majority of these six players who have left the Twins outfield core over the last three years have had month-long or career-best stretches that eclipse any offensive production Kepler has shown in the last three years combined. 

Over 281 games since 2021, Kepler has a .215 batting average, a .305 on-base percentage, a .380 slugging percentage, and a .685 OPS. That places him below average in all these categories. His highest OPS+ in the last three years hasn’t even reached the league average of 100, falling two points short at 98. 

While many of these players provide positive what-ifs from their performances since leaving Minnesota. There’s no telling if they would have replicated the same results staying here. Either way, it may be safe to say that Refsnyder, Rooker, Rosario, and Wade Jr. would have been safe bets to keep than Kepler at this point. 

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[Brett]

Safer bets, hitting-wise, to be sure. Not sure I’d want Rooker or Rosario playing OF, maybe not even Wade.

[RpR]

Title of this thread should be why I hate Kepler.

[DocBauer]

Refsnyder as a reserve would be nice to have around. He was solid when with us, but sure wasn't great.

Out if everyone else listed, Wade is the only one who's been anything close to consistent and the one guy from the whole bunch I'd like to still have.

That doesn't mean I want to keep Kepler. I'm just saying it's a pretty weak competition.

I can't think of anyone in any sport, or any occupation, performing below average for 3 straight years and declining further each year, but still keeping their job. Especially when there are younger, less expensive candidates with actual upside waiting in the wings.

[RpR]

19 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

Refsnyder as a reserve would be nice to have around. He was solid when with us, but sure wasn't great.

Out if everyone else listed, Wade is the only one who's been anything close to consistent and the one guy from the whole bunch I'd like to still have.

That doesn't mean I want to keep Kepler. I'm just saying it's a pretty weak competition.

I can't think of anyone in any sport, or any occupation, performing below average for 3 straight years and declining further each year, but still keeping their job. Especially when there are younger, less expensive candidates with actual upside waiting in the wings.

Wishful thinking that the Twins rookies/quasi-rookies have shown to be just that.

Miranda and Wallner are a couple of Lurches in fielding skills, while none of the gents up from AAA have shown to be more than at best barely average fielders.

Solano, Taylor and Castro have been far more important than any from Twins AAA.

[rv78]

No need to look at who is gone, look at who is here.... Wallner is available and probably a much better option than Kepler but the Twins won't make the move that is so glaringly obvious. This FO is so narrow minded that they need to go down with the ship and yes that ship is sinking.

[Fezig]

Those players are very fortunate to get out of Minnesota before Rocco's philosophy of "strike out at all cost" set in. They've learned plate discipline, the strike zone, but most importantly, making contact with the bat. Go Rocco! Seriously, go. Just leave.

[chpettit19]

I'm with @DocBauer on this one. That is not an impressive list. Which goes to show how terrible Kepler has been, and how mind blowing it is that he's still on this team.

Nobody could honestly say they'd be happy to have Cave around. Cave over Kepler? What's the point? Neither are worthy of the job.

Refsnyder would be a better fit as a right handed utility guy on this roster. But, again, is that really some saving grace for this team?

The Rooker trade has looked bad for 1 month. It was an otherworldly month, but he's back down on earth, and back to being the Brent Rooker he's been since he was a Twin. There's a reason 2 other teams, including the offense starved Royals, waived him last year. I don't miss Brent Rooker 1 bit. He'll be 29 before the end of this season, too. No loss there.

Eddie Rosario was fun, and I enjoyed his ability to make contact with pitches he had no business hitting, and how clutch he was (or at least it felt like he was clutch). He was unplayable in Cleveland. Barely playable in Atlanta before destroying everyone in his path in the playoffs. Back to being bad in Atlanta. And is now back to being pretty good. I'd certainly take him over Kepler, but he's not a difference maker for this team, either.

Wade for Shaun Anderson has not turned out well. He was a heavy platoon guy his first year out there, and was really good against righties. He was flat out bad last year. But seems to have had some things really click this year. He'd be really nice to have back for sure.

Wade, Refsnyder, Eddie, Kepler, Cave, Rooker would be my order on these guys. Wade being the only one I'd really want. Refsnyder just being a better roster fit as a righty bat. And Eddie just being a slightly better all around player who was more fun to watch.

[Karbo]

IMO it may show us that the Twins approach to hitting (and acquiring hitters) is flawed. When you see the other players seem to at least marginally improve, it tells me our coaches are flawed teaching the players a flawed system.

[sftwinsfan]

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

IMO it may show us that the Twins approach to hitting (and acquiring hitters) is flawed. When you see the other players seem to at least marginally improve, it tells me our coaches are flawed teaching the players a flawed system.

I think you may be on to something there, look at their minor league system too. Emmanuel Rodriguez .217 (has moved that up a bit lately), Jose Salas .167, Noah Miller .205, Yasser Mercedes .167, Bryan Acuna .194, Misael Urbina .178, Rafael Cruz .180, Ariel Castro .119. I realize some are young, some are small sample size, but that's 8 of the 18 hitters on MLB's top 30 prospect list. Batting average may not be everything, but I believe they've overcompensated because the percentage chance of someone getting a hit does matter in many situations. How many times have they had the bases loaded where just a single could have possibly scored 2 and changed the game, yet they're swinging for the fences? Rough count the Twins have scored 2 runs or less in 27 of 74 games this season, that's crazy. 

[mikelink45]

I remember the dream. Kepler, Buxton and Rosario and nothing but raindrops. And we got rid of the only one producing. Of course many people disagreed with the pro Eddie posts.  

[Nashvilletwin]

1 hour ago, sftwinsfan said:

I think you may be on to something there, look at their minor league system too. Emmanuel Rodriguez .217 (has moved that up a bit lately), Jose Salas .167, Noah Miller .205, Yasser Mercedes .167, Bryan Acuna .194, Misael Urbina .178, Rafael Cruz .180, Ariel Castro .119. I realize some are young, some are small sample size, but that's 8 of the 18 hitters on MLB's top 30 prospect list. Batting average may not be everything, but I believe they've overcompensated because the percentage chance of someone getting a hit does matter in many situations. How many times have they had the bases loaded where just a single could have possibly scored 2 and changed the game, yet they're swinging for the fences? Rough count the Twins have scored 2 runs or less in 27 of 74 games this season, that's crazy. 

I just hope Lee keeps listening to his dad……

[Reptevia]

This says more about the Twin’s ability to help prospects and manage MLB players than it does about these individuals. 

[Seth Stohs]

None of these guys were even competing with Kepler for playing time when they were let go. 

Cave was a 4th outfielder, and a fine 4th outfielder, but I don't care about his AAA numbers this year. 

Rooker wasn't going to play RF. 

Rosario hasn't been better than Kepler. 

Refsnyder was a career journeyman, and good for him for locking down two years with the Red Sox, but that's at utility man money. 

LaMonte Wade... That was a bad trade, we can all admit. That was a choice between him and Cave, and at the time, it was probably justifiable, and I'm always going to be biased toward Wade. He had a nice breakout in '21. Struggled in '22, and he's been an on-base machine this year again. If he was still around, I'd like to think he'd be playing over Kepler by now. 

But the bigger thing too was they already had Kirilloff, Larnach, Gordon, and now Wallner for the spot. 

Wade is the only question mark in the group. 

[Trov]

I agree they all had better hitting stretches than Kepler, and I am not a big Kepler fan, but if you look just a slightly better bats over Kepler, you ignore the other half the game, that of defense.  Kepler is a very good defender, and ones you listed are all worse than Kepler and some by far much worse on defense.  I know many like to look at the offense, because you can quantify it easy, compared to defense, but defense should not be overlooked. 

[saviking]

None of this is Kepler's fault. He is what he is. It's managements fault for running him back out there over and over and signing Gallo when we had/have a stable of young outfielders ready for the bigs.

[weitz41]

After Kepler's 2019 I highly doubt any team would have held onto any of these over him. They're either platoon or depth outfielders.

Rooker had a great month and a half. Now looks a lot like the guy who was traded, released and a free agent this offseason. Put Kepler in Atlanta's line up and I'd be shocked if his number didn't improve. Cave..no comment..Wade's a platoon 1b, as if we don't have enough of that going on already. Refsnyder, ok he'd be a nice 4th outfielder to have.

[Minny505]

22 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I can't think of anyone in any sport, or any occupation, performing below average for 3 straight years and declining further each year, but still keeping their job. Especially when there are younger, less expensive candidates with actual upside waiting in the wings.

Government employees would disagree with you on that, especially the good ones.

[Minny505]

Surprised there was no mention of Rosario getting eye surgery in the past offseason. It hasn't seemed to help with that strike-zone judgement, but it has helped him square up the baseball again on a more regular basis. 

[adorduan]

22 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

I'm with @DocBauer on this one. That is not an impressive list. Which goes to show how terrible Kepler has been, and how mind blowing it is that he's still on this team.

Nobody could honestly say they'd be happy to have Cave around. Cave over Kepler? What's the point? Neither are worthy of the job.

Refsnyder would be a better fit as a right handed utility guy on this roster. But, again, is that really some saving grace for this team?

The Rooker trade has looked bad for 1 month. It was an otherworldly month, but he's back down on earth, and back to being the Brent Rooker he's been since he was a Twin. There's a reason 2 other teams, including the offense starved Royals, waived him last year. I don't miss Brent Rooker 1 bit. He'll be 29 before the end of this season, too. No loss there.

Eddie Rosario was fun, and I enjoyed his ability to make contact with pitches he had no business hitting, and how clutch he was (or at least it felt like he was clutch). He was unplayable in Cleveland. Barely playable in Atlanta before destroying everyone in his path in the playoffs. Back to being bad in Atlanta. And is now back to being pretty good. I'd certainly take him over Kepler, but he's not a difference maker for this team, either.

Wade for Shaun Anderson has not turned out well. He was a heavy platoon guy his first year out there, and was really good against righties. He was flat out bad last year. But seems to have had some things really click this year. He'd be really nice to have back for sure.

Wade, Refsnyder, Eddie, Kepler, Cave, Rooker would be my order on these guys. Wade being the only one I'd really want. Refsnyder just being a better roster fit as a righty bat. And Eddie just being a slightly better all around player who was more fun to watch.

To be fair to Rosario, he had to have eye surgery last year. Hard to hit a ball when you can't see it clearly.

[chpettit19]

9 minutes ago, adorduan said:

To be fair to Rosario, he had to have eye surgery last year. Hard to hit a ball when you can't see it clearly.

Totally fair. But that doesn't mean he wasn't really bad for the vast majority of the 2 years immediately following the Twins non-tendering him. I like Eddie. He's a fun player. But he's one of the many guys I feel get what I'd call the "Twins mediocre boost." They're solid players that hit in the heart of mediocre lineups, on mediocre Twins teams, and they get this reputation around Twins Territory that they're better than they are.

I'd take Eddie on my team, but as a 6 hole through bench player, not the top/heart of the order guy he was forced to be here. He's a 1 to 2 win type player (if you're a WAR fan), and that's incredibly replaceable. Unless you're on a team full of 0 to 1 win type players like he was here. Example given: He hits 6/7 hole for Atlanta when they're going right.

[Shaitan]

Misleading headline, as this is really all about Kepler, isn't it?