LA Vikes Fan

Wow, I'm always amazed at how quickly people like to put players in a box as though they can never improve. I do get it, it beats actually thinking and is a whole lot easier. Keaschall is young and athletic. There is a real chance that he will improve enough to be viable as an outfielder, perhaps even get to neutral or slightly above. We won't know that for at least another year. Give the guy a chance for Chrissakes. Bottom line though is he plays every day to get his bat in the lineup and he is not going to DH at age 23 with perhaps the best speed on the team now that Buxton is slowing down. There will be plenty of plodding, bat first types (think Bell or Larnach) on the team would need to be the DH. Keaschall will play every day because he can hit and he will play somewhere in the field. We all just need to accept that as a given moving forward. The other thing that amazes me is how so many have decided that our best outfield next year consists of a declining Buxton in center and two rookies who have never had an at bat at the MLB level. I am all for trading Larnach and giving Jenkins a shot and also trying to find at least some playing time for Emma to see what he can do. I'm also a realist; I think the chances of both being average to above average MLB hitters out of the box in 2027 is less than 50%, probably less than 35%. We will be thanking our lucky stars if one of them is an above average MLB bat in 2027 and get really lucky if Emma ever gets to the point where he can play more than 100 games a year without getting injured. The outfield next year is Buxton center, Keaschall in one corner, and probably Jenkins in the other with Emma and Martin on the bench. One of the latter three will get 500+ at bats, the other two probably 400 or less. I'd like to contend next year and I think we have a good enough team to do it. I don't want to derail our season by force-feeding rookies into the lineup.

What the Padres example shows us is that you have to take risk to get reward. The Pads took risk and sometimes got burned. They shook it off and kept trying. That's what you have to do; keep trying. Act like you care if the team wins or loses. Fans will reward effort. They'll will get in the trenches with an owner who lives and dies with the team and really cares. They won't reward bottom line watching hand wringing like Joe P. did. Best comment made many times here is the way we learned how much this team cares is when they went from a $150m payroll, winning a playoff series, to a 30M drop in payroll. Nothing says I don't care better than following up success by turning to the accountants for advice. Is Tom Better? We'll see. He's starting from behind. The best thing he can do is show that he cares. I will say that the day the former players were handing out $20 bills to fans in the OF to pay food and beer on their own volition and Tom P. showed up with what - MORE 20s TO HAND OUT - gave me some hope. Maybe he does get it. We'll see.

I agree with the decision not to trade Ryan, question the decision not to trade Jeffers, but your point is well taken. If posters here want to follow the Tampa Bay or Cleveland model, we need to be trading guys at their highest value before reaching free agency. That certainly meant trading Jeffers this year. Ryan is a little more debatable, at least to me, because I personally think we will do just as well in the off-season as we would have done at the trade deadline but the point remains. Tampa Bay and Cleveland developed their pitching pipeline by making frequent trades of established MLB players for well scouted prospects, including pitchers. If we want to follow that blueprint, we need to be doing the same by trading guys like Jefferson Ryan for young pitchers to develop. We can't have it both ways.

You may be right. You hate to see a guy who apparently was worth Abreu walk away for nothing, but that may be the verdict on his off season value. I would hope we could at least get a 40 or 45 prospect or two for him. I either event I agree with you that there's no place for him on the 2027 roster Same for Wallner. A new corner OF era is about to start.

Larnach represents a real conundrum for the rest of 2026. I think it’s highly unlikely he is on the team in 2027. I hope that’s accomplished via trade and I think that’s what the Twins intend to do in the off-season. The problem is that the more he plays the more he tanks his trade value, but sitting him on the bench effectively accomplishes the same thing. I don’t really think that there’s a solution to this other than Larnach going on a hot streak and the odds of that don’t look very good. I think at this point the rest of this year and the 2027 roster has to have a much higher priority than getting Larnach going to keep his trade value. I think you’ve got a demote Roden, call up Jenkins, and reduce Larnach’s playing time to two, maybe three games a week. Maybe he rebounds and Jenkins doesn’t hit, maybe Buxton has to go back on the IL, or maybe both Jenkins and Larnach both hit or don’t hit. You can deal with all of those situations. What’s hard to deal with is playing a guy 4 to 5 days a week who simply isn’t Performing. It would be so much better if we had a right handed hitting outfielder in AAA to bring up and be the right handed hitting side of a platoon, but we don’t. Bring up Jenkins, give him four days a week at the expense of Larnach and one day at the expense of Buxton, see what you got, and hope Larnach comes around to make a contribution down the stretch. There’s nothing else that really makes any sense.

I don’t think he holds either one back if Laranach is gone. There are plenty of games for four outfielders to play regularly in the three spots, particularly with Buxton getting a DH or off day each week. I think this narrative that we have to get rid of Bell to play Jenkins and Emma is a false premise. We can and should have all 3 plus Buxton and Keaschall on the roster and there’s plenty of at bats for all those guys. They can all get 500 to 550 at bats a year, more if they can hit left-handed pitching and we don’t need to give Martin much time.

I think this is actually a fairly simple question with a very difficult answer. The only spot available is to play instead of Larnach. Keaschall has been our best hitter since May 1. Bell has been clutch and hitting very well since July 1. Buxton is the one guy we have that can carry the team and is unlikely to ever sit more than one day a week. The open spot is in LF. So that’s the question. Do you bench Larnach or at least drop him to two games a week so Jenkins or Emma can come up and play regularly?. If you do that, Jenkins or Emma could come up and play five days a week, one in CF and four in LF (or RF if you want to move Keaschall to where he’s likely to play next year). It’s a very tough call because although he’s slumping now, Laranach has hit well all year and if you bench him any trade value he might’ve had is gone, and I think they will trade him in the off-season. Also, there’s no guarantee that the co-op would hit any better than Larnach is hitting now. Most guys really struggle with their first shot at MLB pitching.. Still, despite all that, I would send Roden back to AAA, call up Jenkins (not Emma) and play him five days a week in the outfield with Larnach grabbing some pine. Emma can come up on September 1.

I agree and wonder if you are right about Bell not coming back. I would not at all be surprised if that $10 million mutual option was one of the few that actually got exercised by both sides. Bell starts as DH and if the young guys actually show something, we trade him at midseason. In the more likely scenario that we call up Jenkins and Emma and only one of them can actually hit major league pitching in his first year, Bell provides a great security blanket. I think the team is poised to be a division title contender next year, with 2027 not another developing team year, and I think Bell actually has a position on the team.

Right on. I would make re-signing Minter a priority for next year. He, Banda and Funderburk form a solid to very good LH side of a bullpen. Add in RHs Morris, Gomez, Hoffman, and Nance, and we have everything except a long(ish) man with several existing guys to choose from and to create depth. Hey, Adams was bad to start the season but much better lately. He could be that guy. So could Matthews. I'm with you, if we can re-sign Minter we don't have to spend any FA money on the bullpen and can go into 2027 with the bullpen as a strength. We can spend any FA money we have on another need, like Jeffers or another starting Catcher, a RH OF with pop, or a starting 2B. What a change from last off season.

Wow, we actually have a lights out bullpen now. One where if we can get a lead after 6 innings, you feel like we should win 80-90% of the time. All without giving up a lot other than Dasan Hill (that may bite us later). Actually, pretty impressive work by the FO.

I never suggested Bell was irreplaceable and wasn't clear if that was what you got from my post. My point is we don't need to get rid of Bell or another guy like him so that we can get available ABs for both Jenkins and Emma next year. Bell is definitely replaceable with another guy will give us 20+ HR's and 80+ RBIs from the middle of the order with a strikeout rate below 30% (Bell's is 28%). We do not have that guy on the current roster and it is very unlikely that any of the guys currently in AAA will be that guy in 2027. I do not subscribe to be frothy belief that some appear to have that both Jenkins and Emma will come up next year and hit better than Bell. That certainly could happen, but it's not likely that even one of the two will do that, and it's highly unlikely that both will. I saw another post where people suggested replacing Bell in 2027 with Yandy Diaz. That would be great! I'm all in favor of getting a bat better than Bell to be the primary DH. I don't see a whole lot of them out there other than Diaz but maybe there is someone who could come in and take that spot. I'm fine with jettisoning Larnach for Jenkins over the winter, and wish they had done that at the trade deadline like they tried to do. I'm just not in favor of jettisoning a productive player to try to create ABs for a guy in AAA on the blissful assumption the new guy will be as good or better. They're usually not as good, and are often times much worse. Besides, if we trade Larnach over the winter there will be spots for two of Jenkins, Emma, and Roden on next year's roster. The two that make it will get significant opportunities with the major league club in 2027.

These are good points although I have to admit I disagree with your conclusion. I'm in favor of calling up Jenkins but I think the only if you have a good plan for getting him regular playing time, at least 4 days a week. That's really the rub here is much as anything. He could get a day a week in CF but to get much more he either has to displace Keaschall, our best hitter since May 1, Bell, who leads the team in RBIs and has an over 1.000 OPS in August, or Larnach. He's not going displace Keaschall or Bell, and he would not displace guys like that on anybody's team. This is why it made so much sense for the Twins to trade Larnach for a reliever but the Astros owner shot that idea down and apparently there wasn't another option. Larnach was great in the first half, not so great in the second half. Are we ready to bench him and basically play him at most 2 days a week so Jenkins can get regular playing time in the OF? As tempting as I think it is to try that, there may be some serious locker room implications and it is quite possible that Jenkins will be worse at the plate (not possible he'll be worse in the field, he'll be an upgrade). I don't think they're ready to make that call. I would; I would call up Jenkins and play him regularly in RF, move Keaschall to LF, demote Roden, and play Larnach 1 day a week at DH and I day in week in the OF. Unfortunately, I don't think the Twins are going to do what I would do. I think it takes an injury for Jenkins to come up before September 1 and I think on September 1, Emma is probably the call since he is at least theoretically out of options for next season. I think it's the wrong choice but I think that's what's going to happen.

Guys, I think we already know what's going to happen. Next year's Opening Day DH is ... Josh Bell. Not only is that the likely answer, it's the right answer. Absent injury, he's going to finish this year with 20 plus HRs, 90 plus RBIs, and a slash line of roughly .260/.325/.435 (or better). Bell is our best run producer this year, likely to be one of our best next year, and he's already shown us that he will be one of if not the best clutch bat we have down the stretch. He's an experienced bat who can hit 4 or 5 in a contending team's lineup aginst both RH and LH pitching with neutral platoon splits. He's a leader and well liked in the clubhouse. He likes it here. We don't need another bench glove with the versatility of Kriedler and Clemens so we can carry a full time DH who can fill in at 1B in a pinch. There is a mutual option at $10m with a $1.25m buy out so his real cost is $8.75m with the option. The Twins are likely to exercise their half of the option if only to avoid the buy out cost and I doubt if he will get offered much more than $10m anywhere else. Bell just makes too much sense to be gone unless he gets a big money offer elsewhere OR we think all 3 of Keaschall, Jenkins and EmRod are going to hit better than Bell and the DH rotation will provide more than 20 HRs, 100 RBIs, and a .775- .800 OPS. Keaschall looks like a likely yes, but the other 2 - who knows? They are pretty unlikely to have an OPS above .750 in their first year in the bigs, much less the .775-.800 necessary to be as good or better than Bell. And that's before look at what were getting get out of the DH spot with some sort of rotation. We don't need top lose Bell to give plenty of ABs to the OFs. These guys don't have to play 160 games to get a shot, nor should they. No one plays that much for a reason - for most guys it limits their effectiveness because they are playing dinged up or exhausted. The sweet spot for most players is 140-150 games, 500-550 ABS. You also have to add in the fact the Jenkins and EmRod are both LH and haven't really hit LH pitching so well in the Minors so we might want to protect them against quality LHs as they adapt to the Majors. By the way, as young players, watching from the bench occasionally actually helps them learn something and adapt. We don't need to keep the DH spot open so the big 4 OFs get enough playing time. The 3 OF spots give them plenty of playing time, especially with Buxton on the IL for at least 20-30 games a year. DocBauer has identified the most likely 4 OFs with Larnach traded. I think Martin also will be on the team as the RH OF starting against LH pitching and occasional pinch runner. At 4.5ish PAs a spot, there are roughly 730 PAS per OF spot, 2190 for the season. Buxton will play 120 games in the OF if we're lucky. This year has been a good one for him on injuries and he has 375 PAs now and is likely to finish with below 500 PAs, maybe below 475. Martin takes 200-225 as the RH OF. That leaves 1500-1550 OF PAs for the other 3 guys plus an occasional day at DH (Bell won't play very day). In short, there will be 500 plus PAs for Keaschall, Jenkins and EmRod even if they don't ever DH, with another 20-25 from the DH spot the more likely result. That's 550 plus PAs, 500 plus ABs per guy. And that's assuming they earn them or we divide them evenly. More likely Keaschall earns 600 plus PAs, with Jenkins and EmRod earning more like 450-500 PAs in their first year IF things go well. The whole point of this diatribe is that we don't need to starve ourselves of a good hitting DH that we already have to free up ABs for two young guys who may or may not actually perform. What we need to do is play the best players that can help us produce the most runs so that we can take the next step from this year's team into a truly contending team next year. If Jenkins and EmRod each get 450 to 500 PAs next year as their first taste of the Majors and actually perform decently that would be a major development coup for the Twins. They are not going to come up and be high performing everyday MLB players their first year at ages 22 and 24, respectively, unless we are incredibly lucky. People point to Milwaukee as a great development organization. Jackson Chourio is probably better than either Jenkins or Emma but let's say they're even and both play the same way he did in his first year. Wow, that would be great and it's pretty damn unlikely. Chourio had 528 ABs in his first year, 557 PAs, in 148 games for 3.75 PAs per game played. That means he didn't play 148 full games, more like 130-135 or so full games another 10 – 15 where he met Kukla Dr. started but was subbed out against a tough relief pitcher, came in during the late innings, pinch ran, pinch-hit, etc. We can keep Josh Bell as a full-time DH starting 150 games a year, still give BOTH Jenkins and Emma at least that much playing time, AND get 20+ HR's and 80+ RBIs from a guy who can hit in the four or five spot and is making roughly $10 million year. Why on earth wouldn't we do that? This is a no-brainer. Let's not overthink this. We don't need the DH spot to create ABs for Jenkins and Emma. For create those ABs, what we need to do is trade Larnach and either trade or demote Roden. I think a LArnach trade is likely and if we don't trade Roden in the off-season, he will fight it out in Spring Training one of these two spots and either win the spot or get demoted to AAA. We don't need an open DH spot for any of this.

Me too but that's probably the August 2027 or 2028 lineup, not the 20027 Opening Day lineup.

Yup. Gotta hope he fights through this because we got nobody else to play 2B every day. Keaschall can't field the position, Kriedler can't hit, and the pickings are slim in AAA. Morisette and Schobel are old for prospects (26 and 25) and neither can hit at the AAA level. Ben Ross has really hit this year at a AAA (.261/.369/.481(.850)) but he's struck out 26.7% of the time and he's also 26. He looks a lot like a guy who might come to the Majors and strike out 30% plus of the time with an OPS below .700. We should give him a chance but he's a longshot. My fantasy is that for 2027 w trade Larnach and/or Ryan (re-sign Lopez long term), and one of the things we get back is a full time starting 2B.

I'm with you except there is no "insert player here" for RF. Luke Keaschall is our best hitter. Period. Has been since May 1. He has to play, every day, somewhere, and will probably get 600 ABs as the leadoff man next year. I too wish he could play 2B so we could make Clemens a UTl, but that experiment did not work. At all. The only other places are LF or RF. Royce Lewis is the starting 1B for the rest of this decade. Same for Lee at 3B. Locking those 2 spots down is one of the things that's happened this year. I really think next year's roster is pretty close to set already after the try out camp that started Aug 1, 2025. The only open spots are 2B, one starting OF spot, and one or two bench OF spots. The starting IF is Lewis (1B), Culpepper (SS), Lee (3B), and either Clemens at 2B or Clemens as a super UTL if we can acquire a 2B. There's no one in the Minors ready for that job - Houston is at least a season away. Buxton and Keaschall start in the OF. Jeffers is he C if the heavens part and we re-sign him (I could see them offering 3-4 years at roughly $15-18M a year, but he might get more elsewhere), otherwise it's Caratini and Jackson in a time share. Kriedler is the glove first UTL that can play SS. Martin, Roden, Jenkins, ERod, GG and Mendez are either fighting for the 3, 4, and 5 OF spots, or for those plus a DH spot but I bet they bring Bell back as a fulltime DH so it's 6 guys for 3 spots. My money is on Martin as a 4th OF/RH platoon guy who hits RH, Jenkins because he looks like the best of the 6, and then either Roden if he hits well the rest of 2026 and/or EmRod is traded, or EmRod because he's out of options. We either trade for a 2b or there's one more UTL/bench bat spot with Clemens at 2B. Done.

Clemens is a solid player for this team, more because of his glove than his bat. He can hit 6 or 7 on a good team playing 3-4 days a week as a super UTL. He's been exposed at the plate this year and last) because we don't have enough middle infielders and good glove OFs so he has to play every day. We also have needed him to hit in the middle of the order, which he really isn't good enough to do. If he were a good glove guy playing multiple position and hitting 7 we all be thrilled with what he provides. As an everyday player hitting 4 or 5, he's adequate at best. And the man needs to learn to take his walks. They're there for him but he insists on swing at stuff in his eyes rather than taking the walk. I'm hoping that we find an everyday 2B for next season, maybe through a trade of Larnach or as part of a Ryan trade. Then Clemens can be what he' best suited for IMHO - a UTL that's an above average fielder at 1B, 2B, LF, and RF and adequate in CF, getting 350-400 ABs a year, hitting .240/.290/.450 with 15-20 HRs mostly against RH pitching. and a good LH bench bat/pinch runner for the Catcher. That's a valuable guy who plays on your team as long as he can provide that value. He's the 10th guy on a contending team's 9 starters. With Clemens, Kriedler as the glove man UTL who can play SS, and Martin as the 4th OF, we'd actually have a bench that can accommodate a full time DH or just a big bat, no field guy. Unfortunately, we are at a least a 2B away from that now so Clemens has to be more than he really is.

Interestingly enough, Shelton started Roden last night against a LH and sat Larnach. Maybe he's taking the Austin Martin spot. Hey, he went 1-3 and had a very good sacrifice bunt. He could be the other half of the LF platoon and also play once a week when Buxton needs to sit and once a week for Keaschall. By the way, Roden is in RF tonight against Mahle, a rightie, with Buxton on the bench, He's going to get 3-4 games a week. That's enough to see what he can do.

Hey, the midst all the negativity I really like two things about today's lineup. Keaschall is actually leading off. Should have happened a couple of weeks ago, really glad it's happening now. Keep him there for the rest of the season. Second, I like that Roden is playing even though we are seeing a LH. Maybe it's just because we didn't really have anyone else and Larnach can't hit LH pitching. Still, I hope that Roden is basically playing every day for the next two weeks. It's time to give the young guys a shot. He isn't the guy would've given the shot to but he's the guy the FO chose the let's give him a real shot. This team is cooked absent a miracle run. Time to find out what we have.

I grant you the question on Mendez, but not the other two. Gonzalez is not having a very good year at AAA and didn't impress in his extremely brief weekend when Tristan Gray was on paternity leave. I do not understand this obsession with Matt Wallner. Yes, he hits a lot of home runs and has had some real moments for the Twins. He also strikes out more than 35% of the time at the MLB level and over 40% of the time in 2026. Moreover, he simply cannot play in the outfield. At all. Keaschall in right field is a huge improvement over Wallner and we all know how well that is working. In my view, Mendez is probably a 2027 issue if he continues to hit. Same for Gonzalez if his hitting comes back to what it was last year. Neither is really a 2026 option. I really think the choice right now is Roden or Jenkins, with maybe Emma in the conversation if he wasn't hurt all the time and hadn't missed most of the season already. I would've chosen Jenkins over Roden but I think you can make a principled argument to give Roden the first shot.

Guys, I think the reason for this is pretty obvious. The Front Office believes that Alan Roden is the best choice to get additional ABs over the next two weeks until September 1, or maybe even for the rest of the season, as compared to Jenkins or Rodriguez. I suspect there is more than just baseball potential in the decision matrix with Rodriguez just getting back from 100 days on the IL and Jenkins not yet on the 40 man. Still, we may be overthinking this. To be fair, Roden is actually coming on a little. His overall line isn't good at .236/.323/.291 (.614). Still, in the last 15 to games where he had 34 at-bats, the line improves to .265/.350/.353 (.703), which is not too bad, and in the last 7 games were he had 16 ABs, it's .313/.400/.500 (.900), which is an incredibly small sample size but is pretty damn good. He also has an 8:9 at BB:SO ratio, also pretty damn good, so he's not a strikeout machine like Kyler Fedko was. Calling Jackson back also allows Shelton to keep Jeffers in the batting order as either a DH or 1B when Caratini catches every third day. It's not hard to see the baseball justification if you believe that Roden is as ready as or more ready to get a full MLB tryout than Jenkins or Emma. That's a case you can actually make. I can see them having a conversation where someone said something like "Let's give these additional at-bats to Roden so we can really see what we have. We can always call up Rodrigues on September 1 get his feet wet and evaluate his MLB readiness since he is out of options next year. We can evaluate Jenkins in spring training, if there is a spring training. That also leaves open the option of starting Jenkins at AAA if there is a strike or lockout." Look, this is not what I would do. I would call him Jenkins and play him every day. I'm much less enamored of Emma than some of you guys are but he can come up September 1. Like I said, this is not what I would do but I do think it's defensible.

You missed one other reason to keep Jenkins and Emma in AAA - to see what Roden can do. I think we're going to find out. In today's news; Martin goes to the IL and Jackson is back. That leaves open playing time for Roden AND gives us a chance to see Keaschall in LF, his likely 2027 home, or even back to 2B, God help us. Hey, Roden is hitting 236/.323/.291 (.614) overall in 55 ABs. But, hold on a minute, he's .265/.350/.353 (.703) in his last 34 ABs, and .313/.400/.500 (.900) in his last 16 ABs. I could see the FO thinking, "Why rush Jenkins or Emma up, maybe there's something there with Roden. Let's give him 75-100 more ABs in the last 37 games and see what we got. We can bring Emma up for a taste in a couple of weeks and see Jenkins in ST, if there is a ST. If there isn't, at least Jenkins get AAA ABs while we wait out the strike/lockout." Not what I would do, but defensible.

Cris E - The Jackson recall tells us that the FO either thinks Roden is a better bet than Jenkins or Emma or at least wants to find out. With Martin down for at least a couple of weeks , and probably more with a hamstring, I expect to see Roden starting a lot days. Maybe it will be Roden in RF, Buxton in CF, Keaschall in LF some days and Larnach in LF, Keaschall in RF on some others. Some days Bell will move to 1B and Clemens to the OF to get Jeffers DH ABs or maybe Jeffers will play 1B with Lewis moving to 2B some days. Bottom line is more ABs for Roden the rest of 2026. This his big shot at showing he belongs in MLB. He either hits now or starts to wander team to team. Hope he makes it.

C'mon guys, this shouldn't be and frankly isn't that hard. Starting with the basics, here are Luke Keaschall's hitting stats since May 1: Batting Average - .292 - since June 1 - .301 On Base Percentage - .387 - since June 1 - .390 Slugging Percentage - .415 - since June 1 - .436 OPS - .802 - since June 1 - .826 That guy plays and he plays every day, somewhere. Remind me, who are our other OFs or even other players who have hit like that for the last 3.5 or even 2.5 months? Oh, that's right - NOBODY. Closest is maybe Lewis since his June recall - .278/.340/.475 (.815), or Ryan Jeffers since he came off of the IL on July 10 - .268/.365/.425 (.790). No one else is even on the same planet as those 3 and Keaschall is ahead of the other 2. And, he's done it for 3.5 months, not just a few weeks. Conclusion, he has to play. Every Day. Those who say his offense isn't good enough to play him with his defense are smoking something I wish I could buy a pound of, and are smoking too much of it. So where can we play the guy and where should he hit in the order? 2B didn't work out very well, that's for sure. Lewis is now the 1B and between he and Clemens, that position is spoken for. RF? So far, not so great but not horrible for a guy who has literally almost never played there professionally until this year. Why not LF which is easier and would be less of a team burden? Oh that's right we have the lumbering Trevor Larnach, pretty good hitter but not as good as Keaschall and can only play against RH pitchers, and Austin Martín, good OBP against LHs, doesn't hit RHs very well, and looks like Keaschall in the field holding down LF. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Keaschall is faster and a better base runner/base stealer than either of them. Wait, what's wrong with this picture? Pretty much everything. The answer is relatively simple but probably won't and can't be implemented until next year given the roster we have. Keaschall plays LF for 120-130 games and DHs for 40 games, and hits 1 or 2, every day. Larnach either plays RF, is a primary LH DH/occasional OF or is traded, most likely one of the latter 2. Martin is the 4th or 5th OF behind Buxton, Keaschall and 1 or 2 of Jenkins/Emma/Roden if only so we have a RH bat either for LH starters or on the bench. Bell is playing for somebody else. Part of me frankly wants to call up Jenkins, put him in RF, put Keaschall in LF, and roll with those two plus Buck as the OF every day for the rest of the year. Martin and Roden can spell those 3 with Jenkins sliding over to CF when Buxton sits. Larnach and Bell can alternate at DH and grab some bench as a pinch hitter/bench bat when not starting. If we aren't going to do that then Keaschall plays RF every day. He's got to learn the OF somewhere because he's going to be there for the next few years. See, told you this was easy. There it is. Done. What else you got?

I agree except I wouldn't put those 3 as checking all 4 boxes either. Lee can't hit RH, Clemens is "up" to .230 this year so I wouldn't say he's mastered the hit category, same for Caratini. I would say the one guy who meets the criteria you gave is actually the guy we are going to lose - Jeffers. He's missed part of this year but pretty durable before then at a demanding position. Your point is well taken. We do not have any position that couldn't be upgraded.