Twins fans melted down after Walker Jenkins leaves game with injury
By Josh Hill
Let's spare hyperbole: there's simply no way to make up how bad the Minnesota Twins injury luck is.
A few innings into Opening Day the Twins lost Royce Lewis to a right quad strain that might keep him out until the All-Star Break. In a cruel parrallel, top prospect Walker Jenkins needed to leave his first game of the season with an injury of his own.
Jenkins made a leaping catch at the wall in the second inning of Friday's Opening Day game for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels and needed to exit shortly after.
It's a cruel twist of fate from the baseball gods, who seem to be confirmed Twins haters at this point given how much they've put the team through. Lewis was the biggest injury but he wasn't along, as Jhoan Duran, Juston Topa, and Caleb Thielbar all hit the IL before Opening Day. Anthony DeSclafani's season is already over after needing elbow surgery and Max Kepler has already gone through an injury scare after fouling a ball off his knee in the first game of the season.
To have Jenkins banged up is truly kicking the Twins while they're down.
Twins fans melted down after Walker Jenkins leaves game with injury
Twins fans rightfully threw their hands up and melted down after word spread that Jenkins had left his first game with an injury.
You can’t make this stuff up https://t.co/dWP1CIqxKg
— Nick Nelson (@NickNelsonMN) April 5, 2024
JUST ONE TOP PROSPECT STAY HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!!! JUST ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/TmLDxnpgE9
— Carl (@KirilloffRBW) April 5, 2024
Why?
— commissioner shayla (byron buxton enthusiast) (@shaylarz) April 5, 2024
Why do the baseball gods hate us so much?
Say it with me... We can't have nice things. https://t.co/fESzSqSYQe
— Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) April 5, 2024
https://t.co/wHhUcRnCWj pic.twitter.com/ZiuS0C4Gdp
— Greggory (@greggtmasterson) April 6, 2024
It's impossible to overstate how on-brand this is for the Twins and how bad the team's injury luck has always been. Lewis getting hurt was just the latest in a long string of injuries he's suffered, from two ACL tears to a couple of stints on the IL last season.
Even Brooks Lee, the No. 2 prospect in the Twins system, is starting the season injured with back spasms, something that might have prevented him from getting called up when Lewis went down.
Jenkins is still years away from being in Lee's position -- although Lee is knocking on the door of a call-up just two years after getting drafted -- so this injury is colored a bit differently. It still sets him back from what was going to be an exciting journey through Low-A ball this year and is unfortunately a strange sort of coronation.
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