Danchat

Y'know, I happened to be looking through the Twins Fangraphs Depth Chart earlier today wondering which prospects would need to be protected for the Rule 5 draft... I couldn't find a single one that I'd call a lock, which for most years is rare. The only ones I can see a real argument for is Yasser Mercedes and Sam Armstrong. Mercedes is only going to be 22 next year and hasn't crushed A+, I could see Armstrong being the only new addition to the 40 man. Fedko, Acton, and Orze are easy DFA's. Fedko might not play next year if he did have an ACL tear, Orze will be out of options and there's no need to keep him around, Acton is just a guy. I'd hang onto Adams as he's shown some upside. Conclusion, they have plenty of room to add to the 40 man roster.

I'm basically the same, more B on Hoffman because I'm not high on Hill and they get the extra year of control of Hoffman. On Kremer, if anything the extra year of control is not helpful. Do we really want to lock in on Kremer at $7M next year when he's a total question mark, and at age 31 who knows if he returns to what he was in his 20s? Would they start him over Abel if they keep Ober? The one argument I can give is that other teams treated extra year(s) of control similarly to the past, teams seem to expect that even if they are locked out in 2027, the contracts would toll to 2028. He's pitched every bit as poorly as Ryan this July, why should we expect him to pitch at a career high level suddenly in August? He's a career 4.37 ERA starter who is clearly not right this season. I could get being bullish on him rebounding in the offseason (a la Taj Bradley last year), but I don't see where this optimism is stemming from.

Uh, Shoemaker's career ERA is lower than Kremer's...

Looks like he is eligible for his second year of arbitration.

Laweryson cleared waivers and was released. Given the quality of relievers that get claimed these days, color me surprised.

A little reminiscent of Matt Belisle, they just can't cut him because of his "veteran prescence"... and isn't this one of the oldest teams in baseball?

I can already see it now, there will be several articles on Twins Daily about how Culpepper and Jenkins can be Opening Day Starters despite how these team never trusts rookies to do that. They'll hit well in spring training, then won't make the team and get called up late April.

This aged well... unfortunately.

Hoffman has been activated, Rojas optioned. A 40 man move wasn't needed since Klein was traded.

I just spotted it on the Twins Transactions page - Rojas optioned, Hoffman activated.

From what I've heard, Jenkins can play CF well enough and should certainly have more range than Roden (of whom the team hasn't trusted to play CF a single time in the majors this year) so it'd be more than just a better arm. Y'know, I'm reminded of a past prospect of ours who was once called up from AAA after only hitting .660 OPS in his first 100 PAs there, some here thought the team was rushing him, but he ended up seizing a starting OF job and was a 2.5 WAR player his rookie year. That was Eddie Rosario. Oh, and Luke Keaschall had a .710 OPS in his first 120 PAs at AAA before getting called up... and while these are two anecdotes and not proof of anything, Jenkins is definitely a better prospect than both of them. And neither of the two I mentioned were hitting HRs, Rosario had only 12 HRs in over 600 PAs at AA before hitting just 3 at AAA... and by your strategy of being held at AAA for "a while", Rosario and Keaschall would never have helped the 2015 or 2025 teams. Keaschall may never hit for much power, but that might just be who he is - if that is what Jenkins is, why sit on him at AAA indefinitely (I interpret "a while" as several more months / indefinitely) rather than getting him acclimated at the MLB level and getting what you can from him? I get this team not wanting to have Jenkins take his lumps while the team is [supposedly] in a pennant race and the whole other aspect of putting him on the 40 man roster early, but I don't find the strategy of "sit on your prospects indefinitely until they hit for power at AAA" to be convincing or productive for the team.

Not to mention this Yankees top prospect only hit 6 HRs in 262 PAs at AAA, only hitting .845 OPS, and he's 21 just like Jenkins and doesn't need to be added to the 40 man until Winter 2027. Very interesting comparison...

But that's the thing, since I assume you're using OPS to judge him against the rest of AAA, then the issue is power. He already has a high 13.5% walk rate and fairly low 15% strikeout rate. Compare that to Fedko and Sabato who are striking out 23-24% of the time. I don't know how realistic it is to expect him to draw more walks, his OBP is already over .380. And to be clear, my original point was that this is better than "barely holding his own", I'm not arguing for him to be promoted ASAP. But his lack of HRs seems to be the only problem here and that is something that might develop over several years, it's not something he needs to hang around in the minors to wait to develop.

I understand the concept of why HRs are important, I don't need a lecture on it. It doesn't disprove my point that Jenkins' approach at the plate is being undersold, and also how I'd argue his AAA profile suggests he'd fare better at the plate in the majors than Sabato, despite the OPS difference and massive gap in HR hitting. As some have mentioned, it could take some time for Jenkins' power to develop. How long do we leave him at AAA while we wait for this?

I think that's a bit disingenuous, he's hitting .272 with a .382 OBP, the primary thing he's not doing well at is hitting for power (4 HRs in 228 PAs) but he's nearly walked more than struck out (35 Ks to 31 BBs). If called up now I think he could hit in the style of Keaschall of whom also lacks power. Methinks we are relying too heavily on OPS and HRs, Sabato is striking out 10% more than Jenkins and walking 4.5% less. Personally I'm not clamoring for him to be called up, but I do think he'd be an improvement from what they're getting out of Roden. I don't think it'd hurt to give him a couple weeks to see if he can provide the lineup a spark. But methinks the FO is going to wait to put him on the 40 man roster since they don't have to do so until Winter 2027.

...isn't there a Superman villain that can make the sun go nova? 😉

Interesting, Hoffman has been quite good and his peripherals suggest his ERA is higher than it should be. He's under contract for $12.67M next year according to Spotrac, that's a big number for the bullpen - at least, the Falvine regime was terrified to pay any reliever that much. I am a-okay with moving Hill, I don't believe in him as a prospect and I would assume his stock might fall given the rough year he's had. Of course he's still young for the level of competition, but I don't see him as being close to a top 10 prospect of ours. I would have liked to see Klein get moved to the pen full-time, but it's better to move him than not to use him. IMO his ceiling is a middle reliever in the majors. Pena is listed as Fangraph's #48 prospect for us, I am fine moving a guy like that. Gotta say though, I wish the 2023 team had acquired a couple good relievers at the deadline like Minter and Hoffman. It really isn't that hard to do, any that base team was a lot better than the 2026 squad. Zoll > Falvine for now... I just don't like the Kremer trade.

Uh, "no different"? Bradley was 6 years younger last year compared to Kremer now. Kremer has already pitched 700 innings in the majors, he's not a young arm like Bradley. I don't see much in common other than both were at their lowest point in their careers when traded.

27 PAs in A ball, by the way...

The Twins flipping Kiner-Faelfa within 24 hours might be the record, or close to it?

Looks like Rutschman comes with another year of control, though.

It's kinda stunning how often this team has failed to have a CF to back up Buxton in the past 10 years.

I noticed that Daniel Duarte, a brief Twin who made the 2024 Opening Day roster but needed season-ending surgery after only pitching 2 games, has made his major league return with the Mets.

Taillon was DFA'd, but acquiring Soriano now is strange.

The White Sox landed a pretty good reliever in Brazoban. Tyler Mahle got traded again, lol. Plenty of starters who are sub-replacement level getting traded in the past week.