{"id":102897,"date":"2025-06-26T15:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T19:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=102897"},"modified":"2025-06-26T15:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T19:43:10","slug":"twins-prospects-looking-jolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/26\/twins-prospects-looking-jolt\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Prospects Looking to Jolt the Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following a measly 38-42 start to the season, the Twins recently committed another year to their manager. This came amid a 2-8 stretch with inconsistent performances left and right. However, there may be hope in the future, as according to Baseball America, the Twins have the 8th-best farm system. This is highlighted by outfield prospects <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/top100\/walker-jenkins-805805\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Walker Jenkins<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/top100\/walker-jenkins-805805\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Emmanuel Rodriguez<\/a>, both top 30 prospects.<\/p>\n<h3>The Journey Here for Twins Prospects<\/h3>\n<p>After being signed out of the Dominican Republic for $2.5 million in 2019 at the age of 16, the Twins struck gold with the talent. After losing his first season due to COVID-19, he made his debut in 2021 at rookie ball. Over 37 games, Rodriguez slashed .214\/.346\/.524 with 17 XBH and 23 RBIs. He then began the 2022 season in Low-A, where he saw success with a 1.043 OPS in his first 4 games. Unfortunately, he would suffer a torn meniscus sliding into a base, losing the rest of the season. Despite that, he started the next season with the High-A Cedar Rapids Kernels. In 99 games, Rodriguez managed to hit .240 with a .863 OPS, walking 92 times and securing 55 RBIs. Now at the Double-A level, Rodriguez tore it up with a 1.100 OPS before another injury shut him down. Despite this, he managed to reach Triple-A for the 2025 season, where he once again came down with an injury, slowing his progression.<\/p>\n<p>With the 5th pick in the 2023 MLB draft, the Twins <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/15\/walker-jenkins-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">selected Walker Jenkins<\/a> out of high school. He quickly made it to Low-A ball after only 14 games at Rookie Ball, where he had a .927 OPS. Now at Low-A, Jenkins hit .392 in 12 games, striking out 6 times while drawing 4 walks. Unfortunately, he suffered a hamstring strain to begin the 2024 season, missing two months in the process. When he returned, he didn&#8217;t miss a beat, allowing him to advance to High-A. In 34 games, he slashed .290\/.382\/.481 with 17 XBH and 8 stolen bases in the process. This success then led him to Double-A by the end of the 2024 season. Jenkins has struggled to start the year with only a .590 OPS before suffering another injury.<\/p>\n<h3>What Does the Future Hold for the Twins<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the injury worries, the Twins&#8217; prospects have shown the ability to be elite-level outfielders. This comes as the Twins&#8217; outfield has an average age of 29 years, highlighted by <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/buxtoby01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Byron Buxton<\/a>. With Jenkins at the Double-A level, it is unlikely we will see him with the Twins this year. However, once fully healthy, it is very possible that Rodriguez makes it all the way before the season&#8217;s end. Once both make it, Jenkins could anchor in center field with Rodriguez in right, which will give the Twins a formidable outfield for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Landon Bost\/Naples Daily News\/USA TODAY Network-Florida \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a measly 38-42 start to the season, the Twins recently committed another year to their manager. This came amid a 2-8 stretch with inconsistent performances left and right. However, there may be hope in the future, as according to Baseball America, the Twins have the 8th-best farm system. This is highlighted by outfield prospects [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5552,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,926,1071],"tags":[660,28336,6472],"class_list":["post-102897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twins","category-milb","category-mlb","tag-byron-buxton","tag-emmanuel-rodriguez","tag-walker-jenkins"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5552"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102897"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102912,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102897\/revisions\/102912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}