Palindrome Bob

To the OP — that makes two of us! I’m so tired of the infield defense costing games. Something’s gotta give; yesterday’s game was one of the worst, defense-wise, I’ve seen in my life as a Twins fan. I will agree that we should say good night to Bell (it’s the end for him) and Luke Keaschall should get back to AAA to find his bat. You won’t see me clamoring for Lee to move to 2B (because his defense won’t be getting better there) but with Lewis at DH, Culpepper at SS, and Fedko replacing Outman, the offense should be more high-flying, while simultaneously fixing a hole (or two) on defense. I don’t expect a revolution, but the Twins have a more exciting batch of ready and near-ready prospects than they’ve had in a long, long, long time, and tell me why we shouldn’t see them in 2026!

Kaelen CulpepperEmmanuel RodriguezWalker JenkinsConnor PrielippDasan HillRiley QuickEduardo TaitMarek HoustonKendry RojasCJ CulpepperHendry MendezCharlee SotoQuentin YoungGabriel GonzalezKhadim DiawBrandon WinokurRyan GallagherKyle DeBargeAndrew MorrisJames Ellwanger

I definitely wouldn’t call it hatred, at least in my case — I’m just disappointed with his performance this year. With the next crop of outfield prospects breathing down his neck, next year is the definition of make-or-break for him, at least with this organization.

I completely agree, on all of these points. These are not the three players I expected this article to feature, either. I was thinking Julien, Martin, and either Larnach or Wallner.

Indeed. Ian Daugherty's performance at C (11 SBs allowed, 3 errors on throws) makes me grateful they traded for a few catching prospects after they didn't draft any this summer. I thought Daugherty was a fine undrafted free agent pickup at the time -- college catcher and all -- but yikes, that's a nightmarish box score for him, on a day where's there's competition for that honor. And nice to see Holland get back above the Mendoza line. I've always liked him, and I can't help but think that he'd have made his major league debut by now if he'd been healthy during the earlier Gasper/Fitzgerald/Bride roster churn. At this point, I hope he's around in 2026 to audition for a Castro-style super utility role, and provide depth in St. Paul, if not.

I’d love to see Will Holland get a shot.

What happened to Jaylen Nowlin? He was a young (24) LH pitcher who seemed to be on the rise through the system last year, and had a scoreless spring, but now I don't see him on either the Saints or Wind Surge rosters.