Jamie Cameron

Image courtesy of Thieres Rabelo In episode 94 of Destination: The Show, Jeremy and Jamie run through a Twins minor league mail bag. They start with news and notes from around the system, including Connor Prielipp adding a new pitch, Dasan Hill striking out even more hitters in Cedar Rapids, organizations debuts, and Walker Jenkins settling in at AAA. The guys dig into questions on the first base situation, the best right-handed hitting prospects in the system, and who might be available to the Twins at the top of the 2026 MLB Draft, including trying to prognosticate their bonus pool. 0:00 Intro/Housekeeping 4:50 Connor Prielipp's New Pitch 13:09 Dasan Hill Looks Great at Cedar Rapids 20:59 Quentin Young and Bruin Agbayani 23:38 Walker Jenkins at AAA Listener Questions 27:05 Hidden Gems in minors 34:21 John Klein 38:39 Top 5 right-handed hitting prospects 42:40 Will there be ten guys getting time at first base in St. Paul next year? 46:43 2026 Draft Questions You can support the show by downloading it from wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes and Spotify. If you enjoy the content, consider leaving us a five-star rating and review in addition to sharing or retweeting DTS-related content. You can follow us on Twitter @DTS_POD1, @Jeremynygaard, @J_D_Cameron, and @TheodoreTollef1. We’re now on Bluesky @destinationtheshow.bsky.social. You can also find full episodes and clips of our shows on our YouTube page @DestinationTheShow. View full article

Walker JenkinsLuke KeaschallEmmanuel RodriguezKaelen CulpepperEduardo TaitConnor PrielippMick AbelKendry RojasDasan HillCharlee SotoMarek HoustonRiley QuickMarco RayaAndrew MorrisGabriel GonzalezBrandon WinokurKyle DeBargeKyler FedkoRicardo OlivarHendry Mendez

Walker JenkinsLuke KeaschallEmmanuel RodriguezKaelen CulpepperEduardo TaitConnor PrielippMick AbelKendry RojasDasan HillCharlee SotoMarek HoustonRiley QuickMarco RayaAndrew MorrisGabriel GonzalezBrandon WinokurKyle DeBargeKyler FedkoRicardo OlivarHendry Mendez

Image courtesy of Thieres Rabelo In episode 93 of Destination: The Show, Jeremy and Jamie talk through Walker Jenkins promotion to AAA. They ask if the Twins top prospect is now underrated by national lists, in addition to what to expect from him when he makes his MLB debut. The guys talk through Luke Keaschall’s continued offensive excellence, asking where he might fit defensively long term, before digging into interesting comments in The Athletic from former hitting coach David Popkins. The guys finish by digging into notable MiLB performances, in particular Kala’i Rosario who has earned a call up to AAA before finishing with listener questions. 0:00 Intro 3:10 Housekeeping 3:49 Walker Jenkins 10:17 David Popkins 17:19 Luke Keaschall 25:12 Kala'i Rosario 31:05 Notes Roundup - Kyler Fedko, Aidan Miller, MLB Draft Lottery 39:55 Listener Questions You can support the show by downloading it from wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes and Spotify. If you enjoy the content, consider leaving us a five-star rating and review in addition to sharing or retweeting DTS-related content. You can follow us on Twitter @DTS_POD1, @Jeremynygaard, @J_D_Cameron, and @TheodoreTollef1. We’re now on Bluesky @destinationtheshow.bsky.social. You can also find full episodes and clips of our shows on our YouTube page @DestinationTheShow. View full article

I'd rather see Fedko as an option at 1B instead of Sabato. Sabato at AAA: .256/.297/.461 with a 5.6% walk rate, 33.3% strikeout rate, a 90wRC+, a 33% chase rate, and an overall contact rate of 67% Don't get the love here. Like the rest of the list quite a bit though.

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge Consensus top prospect Walker Jenkins is a step away from the majors. Twins Daily learned that the 20-year old outfielder is being promoted to AAA St. Paul after a strong showing at AA Wichita. Jenkins was quietly outstanding in AA. He hit .309/.426/.487 (.913) with 7 home runs (19 extra base hits) in 52 games in the Texas League. Jenkins continued to showcase his strong approach, walking 14.3% of the time and striking out just 18.5%. The beginning of Jenkins' 2025 season mirrored 2024, injury trouble. He landed on the injured list on April 9th, missing close to two months of playing time before beginning a rehab assignment with Fort Myers on June 5th. Since returning to Wichita on June 17th, Jenkins has played consistently and excellently. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many national prospects lists dropped him several spots due to back-to-back seasons impacted by muscular injuries. He's quietly reminded the industry why he's one of the premier prospects in the game. Despite being one of the younger prospects at the level, Jenkins has done a little bit of everything well. Jenkins' 156 wRC+ ranks third in the Texas League among prospects with at least 200 plate appearances. His 14.3% walk rate ranks 10th, his .420 wOBA ranks third. The one 'ding' industry lists and analysts have attached to his profile is a lack of in game power. While not fully fledged, Jenkins is on a 21 home run and 57 extra base hit pace over 150 games. While I'd argue that a judgement on his power grade could be reserved until hits his age-22 season, it's certainly a fair critique and likely, the one aspect of his game that will be most scrutinized in AAA. Thankfully, we'll have ample StatCast data giving us launch angles, exit velocities and more, that will allow for a thorough and robust comparison to his peers. For now, it's an exciting tonic to an uninspiring week of Twins baseball on the major league side. More to come... View full article

Image courtesy of Thieres Rabelo In episode 92 of Destination: The Show, Jeremy and Jamie walk through the Twins' messy ownership situation in light of Pohlad's taking on ‘limited partners’ to erase debt currently held by the team. They talk through the outlook of the 2026 roster and who is more likely to be moved this offseason, Joe Ryan or Pablo Lopez. The guys then catch up with every Twins prospect acquired at the trade deadline, including a hot start for Enrique Jimenez and digging into the tweaks Mick Abel and Taj Bradley need to make to feature with the big league club. 1:55 Twins Ownership Mess 15:52 Kyler Fedko 16:50 Connor Prielipp 24:04 Enrique Jimenez 33:09 Eduardo Tait 34:32 Mick Abel 42:03 Geremy Villoria 45:36 Hendry Mendez 49:47 James Outman 53:58 Garrett Horn 56:45 We're not talking about the Carlos Correa trade 57:20 Ryan Gallagher and Sam Armstrong 1:01:15 Taj Bradley 1:08:08 Kendry Rojas You can support the show by downloading it from wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes and Spotify. If you enjoy the content, consider leaving us a five-star rating and review in addition to sharing or retweeting DTS-related content. You can follow us on Twitter @DTS_POD1, @Jeremynygaard, @J_D_Cameron, and @TheodoreTollef1. We’re now on Bluesky @destinationtheshow.bsky.social. You can also find full episodes and clips of our shows on our YouTube page @DestinationTheShow. Destination__The_Show__Episode_92__Twins_Ownership_Mess_and_Trade_Deadline_Acquisitions.mp3 View full article

Image courtesy of © Jonah Hinebaugh/The News-Press/USA Today Network-Florida / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images It’s time to start paying Kyler Fedko some attention. If the season ended today, he’d undoubtedly be an organizational top three minor-league hitter in 2025. He even has an outside shot at a 30/30 season; that's the scale of his power-speed blend. Fedko was an unheralded draft selection. He was taken in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of UConn and was signed to a $125,000 bonus. He ranked 497th on Baseball America’s pre-draft big board. He was a standout player in college, winning the Big East player of the year in 2021 while hitting .410 and cranking 12 home runs. His pre-draft scouting report noted that ‘scouts are unsure whether he’ll be able to sustain his production with wood bats or against better pitching’. The young outfielder has fallen into a strange pattern throughout his five-year minor-league career. Time and again, he goes to a new level of minor-league ball and struggles. The next year, he repeats it—and crushes it. Level Year wRC+ A 2021 82 A 2022 155 A+ 2022 98 A+ 2023 136 AA 2024 84 AA 2025 140 AAA 2025 183 (through 08/20) That pattern persisted in the early going in 2025, when Fedko made the adjustment to Double-A pitching. In 88 games, he hit .253/.375/.494, with 20 home runs, 26 stolen bases, and a walk rate north of 15%. Sheesh. Only, something is different this time around. For the first time in his career, Fedko has stepped up a level and hasn’t skipped a beat. It’s only been 16 games at Triple-A St. Paul, but Fedko hasn’t taken long to adjust. He’s hitting .358/.429/.687, with 5 home runs, 5 stolen bases, and a 183 wRC+. He’s done that while maintaining a respectable 20.8% strikeout rate. So, what’s the outlook here? Well, he’ll almost certainly cool off. Fedko is running a .404 BABIP since his promotion. His 98th-percentile wOBA is outpacing his 36th-percentile xWOBA significantly. But what might the role be here? He’s at least given himself a chance at reaching the big-league level. (Insert your own joke about the Twins never acquiring a right-handed hitting outfield bat here.) Actually, the joke's on you, Fedko has reverse splits, with an .824 OPS against lefties in 2025 versus a .925 OPS against righties. Even so, I think he’s earning an audition as a bench bat for 2026. What are the warts in Fedko’s profile? First, he doesn’t hit the ball very hard. These are limited sample sizes from Triple A, but a MaxEV of 107 mph is pretty uninspiring for the level. How, then, has he gotten to so much power? Fedko is a master at pulling the ball in the air. Entering games on Tuesday night (in which he went 5-5), Fedko had a Pull Air% of 22.7%, good for 95th percentile in Triple A. Combine that with a line drive rate that’s up about 7% in 2025, and excellent in-zone contact (87.5%) and Fedko punishes anything in the zone to the pull side. There’s a tendency to expand the zone, though. Fedko chases at a rate north of 30%. This is likely something that big-league pitchers would exploit. He chases breaking pitches plenty, offspeed pitches even more, and he’s vulnerable at the top of the strike zone. Defensively, it's a solid profile. He's played the majority of his reps in Triple A in left field. It's a good (and accurate) but not outstanding arm. Even so, I think he clears Austin Martin, Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner in defensive value. The outfield for 2026 seems fairly set, but there's an opening there. Byron Buxton and Wallner are locks. Alan Roden (underwhelming debut aside) should get the first crack at the final starting spot. Larnach doesn’t hit well enough to outpace his supplementary tools. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. doesn’t hit enough, period. Martin’s supplementary tools aren’t that supplementary. Enter Kyler Fedko. I don’t think he’d need to hit that well to be useful. An outfielder with positional versatility, some speed, and pop is a viable candidate to be a fourth outfielder in 2026. View full article

Image courtesy of Thieres Rabelo In episode 91 of Destination: The Show, Jeremy and Jamie walk outstanding performances from prospects in each level of the Twins farm system. They start with comps for Luke Keaschall and ask if Zebby Matthews can make the leap to playoff caliber starter before digging into Kyler Fedko’s incredible breakout season. The guys talk through Walker Jenkins being over-faded by the industry and Kaelen Culpepper’s incredible 2025 season. They finish by digging into new catching prospect Eduardo Tait, and a pitching prospect known as ‘La Bazuca’. 0:00 Intro/Housekeeping 3:23 Luke Keaschall and Zebby Matthews 13:18 Kyler Fedko and Payton Eeles 23:50 Walker Jenkins and Kaelen Culpepper 35:58 Eduardo Tait and Adrian Bohorquez 44:17 Marek Houston 47:03 Notes on system You can support the show by downloading it from wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes and Spotify. If you enjoy the content, consider leaving us a five-star rating and review in addition to sharing or retweeting DTS-related content. You can follow us on Twitter @DTS_POD1, @Jeremynygaard, @J_D_Cameron, and @TheodoreTollef1. We’re now on Bluesky @destinationtheshow.bsky.social. You can also find full episodes and clips of our shows on our YouTube page @DestinationTheShow. View full article

Sam Armstrong was the second arm acquired in the Willi Castro trade with the Chicago Cubs. What should Twins fans expect from their new pitching prospect? View full video

Twins added a borderline top 100 prospect in left-handed starter Kendry Rojas. Who is he? How might he help the Twins? View full video

Image courtesy of Thieres Rabelo In episode 90 of Destination: The Show, Jeremy and Jamie walk through an incredibly busy trade deadline for the Minnesota Twins. The guys discuss feeling reengaged in Twins baseball with the magnitude of the changes on the MLB roster. From there, they discuss trades they liked and struggled to see the value in. The guys finish by discussing what the roster might look like in 2026, talking through who the lineup will be built around and handicapping a rotation that should have plenty of depth. 0:00 Intro 2:35 Housekeeping 3:47 Post deadline feelings 13:45 Jhoan Duran Trade 20:12 Harrison Bader Trade 23:33 Brock Stewart Trade 31:44 Willi Castro Trade 34:42 Griffin Jax Trade 44:11 Louie Varland Trade 56:27 40-man roster crunch 1:02:38 Lineup pillars? 1:09:00 Promote AA Studs? 1:20:00 Next year's rotation You can support the show by downloading it from wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes and Spotify. If you enjoy the content, consider leaving us a five-star rating and review in addition to sharing or retweeting DTS-related content. You can follow us on Twitter @DTS_POD1, @Jeremynygaard, @J_D_Cameron, and @TheodoreTollef1. We’re now on Bluesky @destinationtheshow.bsky.social. You can also find full episodes and clips of our shows on our YouTube page @DestinationTheShow. View full article

Usual caveats apply about prognosticating about a class a year out, but, yes, 2023 caliber class.

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images What a mess. It’s been a few days since the Twins decided to commit ritualistic sacrifice on their entire bullpen. I’m not sure that I have any more clarity on how to square that as a whole. What has gnawed at me since Thursday is a lack of coherence between some of the trades made. A lack of coherence on which light is starting to be shed. If the Twins had stopped trading players away prior to the Griffin Jax and Louie Varland deals, there’s a good chance fans view the deadline in a different light. In that reality, you have two high-leverage arms around which to build your future bullpen. It’s also a more explicit statement of intent around competing in 2026, one that makes acquiring Taj Bradley and Alan Roden more palatable. That’s not what the Twins did, though. They traded Griffin Jax to Tampa Bay for Taj Bradley in a puzzling one-for-one swap, adding to their stable of almost-very-good young MLB starting pitchers. Varland was flipped to the Blue Jays in a stunner for outfielder Alan Roden and left-handed pitching prospect Kendry Rojas. This is a trade of tensions for me. For some, trading a hometown kid made good, under team control until 2030 hurt. For others, trading a former 15th round pick who came to the organization throwing 90 mph and left touching 100 mph was the source of the regret. Both of those feelings resonate with me on some level. I also think the Twins got good value. The front office has been criticized for not being cold and calculating enough during their tenure. Whether that was sticking with veteran players when younger ones deserved more playing time, or not catalyzing even moderate turnover of a stagnant hitting core. That’s why this trade felt tough. We went from no change, to all the change. I believe bullpen arms are volatile and expendable. I believe you should trade them at peak value. I don’t believe bullpen arms are expendable to the point you should trade them all at once. Even today, we are learning that Griffin Jax requested a trade. I’m guessing more revelations are afoot. This won’t be a defense of the organization's approach at the trade deadline. Rather, a simple appraisal of the value that Varland returned. Let’s start with Kendry Rojas, who will make his debut in the Twins organization starting for the Saints on Thursday. Rojas signed with the Blue Jays out of Cuba in 2020 for $215,000, and has enjoyed a convergence of improving stuff and excellent results at each stop on his minor league tour to date. 22-years old and listed at 6’2, 190 pounds, Rojas has a lean frame with some projection left. It’s a clean, repeatable delivery with some moderate crossfire in his stride. Rojas has a longer arm stroke and keeps the ball hidden well behind his head, adding to some deception in his delivery. In 41 2/3 innings of work in Toronto’s system in 2025, he’s managed a 3.46 ERA (2.45 FIP), struck out 37.1% of hitters, walked just 5.4%, and maintained a ground ball rate north of 51%. That’s extremely impressive production. If we want to crudely compare Rojas with Mick Abel, you’re getting more strikes and consistency with the former, more explosive stuff with the latter. But what of Rojas’ stuff? What might the Twins focus on with him? It’s currently a sinker/slider dominant profile (yes, the Twins seem to be leaning into that more and more), with a more sparsely used four seam fastball and changeup to round out a four-pitch mix. Both varieties of Rojas’ fastball sit 94 mph but will touch 96 mph. Rojas’ changeup is thrown hard, around 87 mph. It generates some cut and plenty of swing and miss, although there’s likely room for more velocity separation between his fastball and changeup. Finally, the power slider, which averages 87 mph doesn’t have a ton of depth to it and results in ground balls more than swing and miss. That’s a really strong platform on which to build. I can see the Twins adding a tick or two more to Rojas’ fastball, tweaking the shape of his slider, and even toying with adding an additional pitch prior to 2026. I’d expect him to get plenty of run at Triple-A throughout the remainder of this season. He’s a borderline Top 100 type prospect for me, with the upside of a mid-rotation starter who should get a look in the majors in 2026. Alan Roden, from a bird's eye view, seems like a weird fit. The Twins now have Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach, Roden, James Outman, and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. as left-handed hitting outfield options in, or close to the majors. My bet would be that this portion of the acquisition makes more sense after the bookend of offseason roster moves which result in a couple of the aforementioned names no longer being in the organization. Roden was Toronto’s third round pick in 2022 out of Creighton, and does a lot of things well. In three minor-league seasons in Toronto’s system, he’s managed a wRC+ of 151 (2023), 138 (2024), and 150 (2025). In 125 games between AA and AAA in 2024, he walked 12.1% of the time and struck out just 14.2% with a .388 wOBA. He gets on base, and he can hit. There are supplementary tools here too. Roden has a good arm (86th percentile arm strength) and is likely around an average defender (which makes him better than both Wallner and Larnach). There’s also above average speed (66th percentile). While you’re not getting slug, you’re getting a little bit of everything else. If Roden is a productive major league starter, there’s plenty of value there. This value is, of course, dependent on the Twins being right. I think anyone can be forgiven for not feeling confident about that right now. While the Varland trade was a shocker given the context, the return of an everyday player and a back end starter is the type of value I expected to recoup in other deadline deals (Brock Stewart cough). For me, it’s a trade where I can see the logic in the value, if not the logic in the timing. View full article

The Twins added a skillful bat in Hendry Mendez from the Phillies. What are his strengths and opportunities? How does he fit into the Twins system? View full video