The Minnesota Twins are finally making the move fans have been begging for. According to MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo, Minnesota will call up Walker Jenkins for Friday night's game against the Chicago White Sox.
It's obviously an exciting development for Twins fans. Jenkins, 21, is the Twins' consensus No. 1 prospect and has slashed a remarkable .411/.488/.795 with eight home runs and 13 RBI at Triple-A St. Paul this month.
Hello #MNTwins, @WalkerJenkins6 is on line 1. Lefty on lefty and he goes deep the opposite way. His 12th of the season, and his 8th home run in his last 15 games. He entered play with a slash line in August of .406 (28-69)/.488/.768/1.256. He's 2-3 tonight with that homer pic.twitter.com/HYJgesLBRn
— St. Paul Saints (@StPaulSaints) August 27, 2026
The Twins could've used Walker Jenkins much sooner
Jenkins' promotion may have come too late. After sweeping the Atlanta Braves in three games last week, the Twins held the third American League Wild Card spot. Then, Minnesota lost three games to the San Diego Padres and two of three games to the Athletics, worsening their record to 64-70.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Guardians have won their last seven games, putting them in the third Wild Card spot with a 68-66 record. Minnesota is now four games behind Cleveland for the final Wild Card spot.
While the Twins' offense hasn't been the team's biggest issue, it also hasn't been a strength lately. Since the All-Star break, the Twins' offense ranks 23rd in runs (144), 21st in wRC+ (93) and 20th in batting average.
Minnesota proved it is serious about winning this year by acquiring several arms at the trade deadline and promoting top shortstop Kaelen Culpepper to the majors. So why didn't general manager Jeremy Zoll call up Jenkins sooner?
It seems plausible that the Twins would be closer to a postseason position if they had promoted Jenkins to the majors a month or two ago. Now that they are four games back of the final Wild Card spot, it feels that the Jenkins promotion came too late.
There's still plenty of time for the Twins to reclaim the final Wild Card spot, but they're going to have to play at a 98-win pace for the rest of the season just to finish with a winning record. That's a difficult but not impossible task.
Unfortunately, Jenkins' promotion likely means that Byron Buxton is headed to the IL. He has already been on the injured list twice this season with a hip issue and was removed from Tuesday's loss to the Athletics with soreness in that hip.
Minnesota will also have to make room on the 40-man roster for Jenkins. If Buxton isn't going to the IL, then there's a strong chance Minnesota would designate catcher Alex Jackson for assignment as the corresponding move to Jenkins' promotion. But if Buxton is going to miss time as many expect, the Twins will likely DFA a minor-league player who is on the 40-man roster, such as infielder Tristan Gray. The Twins could also bring Gray back up and DFA Jackson.
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