arby58

He wouldn’t be the first pitcher to return from a long injury lay-off. Jose Rijo missed 5 seasons because of arm injuries before returning for a couple years (at age 36). Even more incredibly, Daniel Bard was out of baseball for 7 (!) years before returning and earning NLComeback Player of the Year in 2020.

Comparing Edwards to Jenkins in terms of age and development is apples and oranges. Dozens of teenagers play (and many star) in the NBA every year. There are currently no teenagers on a MLB team roster - and only a handful of players younger than Jenkins.

Lackey’s following a similar path as Culpepper (9 games at Ft. Meyers) and Houston (12 games) before getting called up to Cedar Rapids.

I agree on Larnach, but if you get the same type of season out of Bell, you stick him at DH and don’t worry about it. He leads the team in runs, hits, and RBIs. He’s also a veteran whose good in the clubhouse.

Even if he’s traded, there is an excellent chance he will play at Target Field.

And last night he scored 4 of the Twins 9 runs.

And how poorly Quentin Young is performing. 5 Ks last night - now struck out in 45% of his plate appearances. He also has 30 errors in 278 chances. By contrast, Culpepper had 4 in 229 chances at St. Paul. He certainly looks like a DH, in the field at least.

Some day, we’ll get to watch robots play - sure will be nice to finally get the human element out of the game.

Excellent analysis. Encouraged by the bounce back from a 1 for 9 start - of course, the 1 was a HR. Demonstrates a bit of mental toughness, which is important for a young player.

Fans fixate on recent events. 3 of the 4 drafted ahead of Jenkins were college players. Clark, the one HS player drafted ahead of him, has been up for 18 games. He had 418 plate appearances at AAA, more than Jenkins.

Jenkins is 21 - there are just a handful of players his age on MLB rosters. He’s also only played 86 games at AAA. His stats for the year are trending in the right direction, but he still isn’t blowing the doors down. Playing him every day at AAA sounds better than 3-4 times a week with the Twins. I doubt Larnach will be with the Twins in 2027 - and even less likely he blocks a healthy Jenkins.

He leads the team in WAR, HRs and slugging percentage, and is second in runs scored. Pretty good for a ‘part time player.’

My guess is we’re seeing Larnach’s ceiling. That makes him an appealing trade chip. Emma’s ceiling is way higher, and he has to be on the roster next year (unless, of course, he’s on the IL), as his trade value is down. For all there is to like about Larnach this year, he is not the regular DH on a team looking to do more than scrape into a wildcard spot.

Walker JenkinsKaelen CulpepperVahn LackeyMarek HoustonEmmanuel RodriguezHendry MendezEduardo TaitRiley QuickGabriel GonzalezCharlee SotoCarson TinneyKhadim DiawBrandon WinokurRyan GallagherEthan WachsmannBrett RenfrowJames EllwangerEnrique JimenezYasser MercedesQuentin Young I’d put Ross in the top 20

The article could more realistically been titled Three Trades I would Have Liked and We’ll Never Know if the Twins Could Have Made. Reverse engineering made trades and suggesting a set of similar prospects would have got it done is sheer conjecture. Using external prospect rankings isn’t convincing: teams have their own scouts and form their own opinions. We also don’t know if the other teams even like these proffered players. Finally, it’s entirely possible the Twins made plays for at least one of these players. When working with so much incomplete information, any judgements are futile