The Minnesota Twins are in the middle of a playoff push but most fans are thinking about Walker Jenkins. The Twins' top prospect has been white-hot at the plate recently and many believe that Jenkins is on the verge of making his major league debut. But the Twins have yet to pull the trigger for a few reasons.
The preference to keep catcher Alex Jackson on the roster for late-game flexibility and giving Jenkins the chance to play every day are two of the main arguments that have the 21-year-old stuck in St. Paul. But the biggest factor may be that he’s not on the 40-man roster, leaving him eligible to play in the minors in case MLB has a lengthy lockout next season.
For a young player, the Twins likely wouldn’t be happy if Jenkins spent the summer of 2027 waiting for MLB to figure out their labor issues. But there’s also a chance it may not matter based on several players who went through the cancellation of the 2020 season.
Twins’ 2020 prospect development could play a role in Walker Jenkins decision
The 2020 minor league season was wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic and without minor league games, the Twins used CHS Field in St. Paul as a 60-man alternate training site which split their top prospects and left the lesser ones at home.
For prospects like Ryan Jeffers, it accelerated their arrival to the major leagues. Jeffers didn’t play a game above Double-A prior to the 2020 season and before he was promoted that summer. Since then, Jeffers has been a foundational player for the Twins and is starting to blossom into one of the top backstops in the league ahead of free agency next winter.
Jhoan Duran was another prospect who thrived after the 2020 season. A flamethrowing starter in the minors, the Twins added Duran to the major league roster as a reliever to limit his innings in 2021. The move turned the right-hander into a shutdown closer and he hasn’t started a game in his five-year major league career.
While Duran and Jeffers are two success stories, the results were different for Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff.
Lewis’s development was stunted by injuries, first tearing his ACL during a winter storm in Texas in 2021 and tearing it a second time after playing center field during the 2022 season. While Lewis succeeded initially after becoming a full-time major leaguer in 2023, his lack of adjustments has made him an average player since, even requiring a trip to the minors earlier this season.
Kirilloff’s career ended early due to a back injury but he may have been promoted too early. Kirilloff made his unofficial debut with the Twins during the 2020 American League Wild Card Series with the Houston Astros, but was inconsistent in his first major league season, hitting .251/.299/.423 with eight homers and 34 RBI during the 2021 season. More injuries followed, but he never got into a rhythm before retiring after the 2024 season.
Twins may be overthinking Walker Jenkins’ potential call-up
Looking at how the 2020 season impacted player development, it could be the one way to determine if calling Jenkins up now and having the lockout extend into next season could hold him back. But there are a few important distinctions to make.
In some ways, the situation is flipped. Jenkins could play in the minor leagues next season but he can’t be promoted until MLB’s season resumes. At age 21, it could be a way to have Jenkins refine his approach in game situations and be ready to storm out of the gates when he finally gets the call.
But he could also follow the same path that Jeffers followed to success if he’s called up this season. Jeffers has battled for playing time with Christian Vazquez earlier in his career but that was largely because the Twins overpaid Vazquez with a three-year, $30 million contract in free agency.
The current outfield group also feels like a similar situation but it’s hardly set in stone with Luke Keaschall struggling defensively as Alan Roden and Austin Martin don’t carry a bat big enough to justify their playing time.
As mentioned before, Lewis and Kirilloff also dealt with injuries that may have limited their performance. But the biggest thing is that Jenkins may no longer have anything to prove at the Triple-A level. In 68 games, Jenkins is hitting .305/.406/.521 with 11 homers, 27 RBI and 16 stolen bases and he’s only getting better, hitting .406/.488/.768 with seven homers, 12 RBI and six stolen bases in August (17 games).
With the way Jenkins has been playing, would a few months of hitting .400 at Triple-A really help him for the majors? Or is it overcompensation for a scenario that could happen but could likely find a solution when owners and players start losing money over canceled games next spring?
That’s a question for the Twins to answer. But if they’re fearing Jenkins’s development, the best decision may be to just call him up and find out.
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