When Luke Keaschall came up to bat in the bottom of the third inning against the Kansas City Royals Saturday night at Target Field, Twins color commentator Justin Morneau, who won the 2006 American League MVP Award, gave Keaschall the ultimate compliment.
Twins legend Justin Morneau compares Twins' No. 3 prospect Luke Keaschall to three-time MVP Mike Trout
As Keaschall prepared to take the at-bat against Royals starter Noah Cameron, Morneau brought attention to similarities between Keaschall's and Trout's swings on Twins TV with side-by-side slow-motion videos of both players' swings.
"The position [Trout] gets to to hit, he's so tight to his body with his hands, it allows him to let the ball travel," Morneau said. "Keaschall puts himself in a tremendous position. Both strong lower halves, let the hands work out front. It's impressive."
In April of 2024, @SethTweets wrote this. 👀👀
— John Lano (@JohnLanoVoice) August 9, 2025
(No one is saying he's the next Mike Trout but you love to see it) https://t.co/ehwGXYWqPP pic.twitter.com/QoSbyOFzXK
Keaschall, the Twins' No. 3 prospect and MLB's No. 41 prospect per MLB Pipeline, will most likely not be as good as Trout has been at his best. In fact, one could argue that no one ever has or ever will be as good as the legendary Angels outfielder. Still, it cannot be denied that Keaschall has a similar approach at the plate to Trout, which has allowed him to be extremely successful during his short stint in the major leagues.
If Keaschall had never fractured his right forearm in late April, the Twins may have been in a position to buy instead of sell at the trade deadline. Before his injury, Keaschall went 7-for-19 with five walks, three doubles and five stolen bases in six games with the Twins after earning a promotion from Triple-A St. Paul one week prior. Since returning from the injured list on Monday, Keaschall has continued to dominate major-league pitching, going 6-for-13 with his first big-league homer and eight RBIs across three games before Saturday's matchup between Minnesota and Kansas City.
While Keaschall is only 22 years old and has limited big-league action, his dominance thus far has been nothing short of incredible. Maybe Keaschall is the spark the Twins need to crawl their way back into playoff contention.