The Minnesota Twins are coming down the home stretch of the 2026 season and while their eyes are on a playoff spot, a subplot is whether they’ll call up Walker Jenkins. The Twins’ top prospect has been raking at Triple-A St. Paul, but the team seems skittish about calling him up, preferring to lean on veterans like Austin Martin, Luke Keaschall and Alan Roden in right field.
Martin’s hamstring strain suffered in Sunday’s series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies could be an opportunity to get Jenkins to the majors. But if the Twins decide to go another route, Luke Keaschall’s performance in the outfield may force their hand.
The Twins’ Luke Keaschall outfield experiment is failing miserably
Entering Monday, Keaschall owns a minus-11 in the defensive runs saved metric (DRS) as an outfielder. According to FanGraphs, it is the lowest mark in MLB this season among outfielders with a minimum of 300 innings played. But it also comes with nearly a third of the innings (343.1) that Jakob Marsee of the Miami Marlins has played in the outfield (960.1) en route to owning the second-lowest DRS in MLB at minus-10.
Those numbers are rough but his struggles showed up frequently during the Twins’ series with the Phillies. Keaschall’s tough weekend began when a Kyle Schwarber fly ball clanked off his glove for a home run during the MLB Field of Dreams game on Thursday and a misplay on a ball down the right field line allowed Edmundo Sosa to record a triple in the third inning of Sunday’s loss.
While Dean Kremer was able to get out of that jam, the Twins weren’t as lucky in the top of the eighth inning. Royce Lewis initially had an error on an Alec Bohm pop up but Keaschall made matters worse by overrunning the ball and allowing the game-tying run to score. Had pinch runner Derek Hill not stopped midway between second and third base, there’s a good chance the go-ahead run would have scored. But two batters later, Bryan De La Cruz drove in the game-winning runs on a two-RBI single, putting the finishing touches in a game where the Twins led 5-0 at one point.
Keaschall’s bat has made up for it, hitting .321/.439/.514 with five homers, 12 RBI and two stolen bases in his past 35 games since July 1. But the Twins are hurting themselves by trotting him back out to right field. While that position is tough to play at Target Field with all of the angles and the giant overhang, it may be time to see if Jenkins can provide a better defensive solution.
The Twins are running out of excuses to keep Walker Jenkins in the minors
There are good reasons not to call up Jenkins as there’s no guarantee he’ll play every day with Keaschall, Martin and Alan Roden on the roster and the concept of breaking in two rookies during a playoff chase with Kaelen Culpepper already in the majors. But the reasons are running out as Roden and Martin haven’t contributed offensively and Keaschall looks completely overwhelmed in the outfield.
Defensive metrics are not available for minor leaguers but Jenkins’s bat should be good enough to warrant a call-up. As a 21-year-old at Triple-A St. Paul, Jenkins is hitting .289/.388/.477 with seven homers, 20 RBI and 13 stolen bases. The numbers have gotten better since he returned from a shoulder injury on June 23, hitting .310/.383/.531 with five homers, 11 RBI and eight stolen bases in his past 37 games.
The problem is the Twins need Keaschall in the lineup with their offense struggling. But that may not be necessary even if Jenkins provides replacement-level defense in right field. With Byron Buxton ailing in center field, the Twins are going to need reinforcements and they’re running out of excuses to keep Jenkins in St. Paul.
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