Walker Jenkins is drawing an MVP comparison from MLB scouts
The Twins top prospect is being compared to a pair of top MLB stars.
By Josh Hill
Right now the Minnesota Twins are trying to balance the present while also keeping an eye on the future. It's a pretty normal thing for the team to do, as they've typically tried to spin both plates evenly at the same time, but things haven't looked this bright in the farmsystem for quite some time.
Last year the Twins benefited from the first ever MLB Draft Lottery, moving up from No. 13 overall to the Top 5. That helped them land Walker Jenkins, who likely would have been the top pick in almost any other draft.
Jenkins gave an instant boost to the Twins crop of top prospects, a group that already included Brooks Lee and Emmanuel Rodriguez. All three players are being ranked in the Top 100 in most prospect lists, but it's Jenkins who is drawing the most attention and is now getting some pretty fantastic MLB comparisons to boot.
Walker Jenkins is already drawing comparisons to a pair of MLB stars
ESPN ranked the Top 100 prospects in baseball and listed three Twins inside of the Top 30. That's better than how Minnesota made out in MLB Pipeline's most recent and to take things step further we have a pair of player comparisons to get everyone extra excited about what the future holds.
Prospect guru Kiley McDaniel compared Jenkins to Houston Astros star Kyle Tucker while passing along another comp he heard from MLB scouts leading up to last year's draft.
"In his draft spring, Jenkins' power exploded to 70-grade and he was still showing solid-average speed with a similar physique to MLB outfielder Hunter Renfroe while putting on batting practice displays that had scouts mentioning the name Bryce Harper in hushed tones," McDaniel wrote.
Definetly not going to complain about any of that.
It's lofty to compare a teenager to a former NL MVP, but it's the type of ceiling you love to see. From everything we've heard about Jenkins, it's totally believable too. He slashed .362/.417/.571 in 105 at-bats in Rookie League while hitting three home runs, driving in 22 runs and striking out just 14 times.
This isn't the first time the bar has been set high for Jenkins. Former Twins player and Team USA coach Doug Mientkiewicz said he saw shades of Larry Walker in the youngster while working with him during U18 tryouts.
Minnesota has seen its fiar share of highly touted prospects, from Joe Mauer to Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis, and it seems Jenkins is the next in line to carry that torch.
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