Per Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline, Twins top prospect Walker Jenkins will make his Minnesota debut this Friday against the Chicago White Sox. Jenkins is ranked #13 overall by MLB Pipeline, #4 by FanGraphs, and #9 by Baseball America. He is the highest ranked Twins prospect to debut since Byron Buxton in 2015.
Minnesota will need to add Jenkins to both the 40 and 26-man rosters before he can play. Both can be solved DFA-ing Alex Jackson again, who hasn’t touched the field since being re-added to the roster last week, but if Byron Buxton is headed to the IL, a player will need to be dropped from the 40-man. The likely casualty there would be Kyler Fedko, who is out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL a few weeks ago.
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Jenkins joins the Twins at a time where the lineup could seriously use a boost, which he is more than capable of providing. Minnesota was waiting to see his in-game power develop before he came up, and it finally showed through this month. Jenkins has hit an insane .411/.482/.795 in August with eight homers, seven steals, and nearly as many walks as strikeouts. He is more than ready and should slide into the middle of the lineup immediately.
Minnesota is a long shot to make the playoffs at this point, with their playoff odds dropping to a season low 11.1% after losing a series to the homeless Athletics. They’ll need a hot stretch from everyone on the team to make the postseason, which means regularly running out your best nine hitters. There’s no universe where that doesn’t include Jenkins at this point.
Regardless of the Twins’ October fate, this final month will be important for both Jenkins and the Twins moving forward. As with Culpepper, the goal for both of these highly-touted youngsters is to never play in St. Paul again, but development isn’t linear. Given his prospect profile, there are almost no scenarios where Jenkins isn’t a useful MLB player. However, GM Jeremy Zoll needs to gauge how ready Jenkins is to step into the limelight.
If he hits the ground running and his underlying swing decision and approach metrics remain strong, you can pretty much bank on an outfield of Buxton, Jenkins, and Keaschall heading into next season with Alan Roden as an overqualified fourth option. Emmanuel Rodriguez, meanwhile, becomes one of the most appealing trade chips on the market for other spots the Twins need to shore. If Jenkins needs more time in St. Paul, maybe there’s some logic to bringing back Larnach for his final arbitration season.
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It’s been a rollercoaster of a season, but getting to see the Twins’ best prospect in a decade is certainly worth celebrating. Welcome to Minneapolis, Walker! Let’s hit the ground running!
