The Minnesota Twins may not have much left to chase in 2026, but the last stretch of the season still matters for one big reason: it’s giving them a preview of what their outfield could look like in 2027.
Byron Buxton is officially shut down for the year. The veteran center fielder is set for arthroscopic surgery on his right hip September 18, and the organization expects him to be ready for the start of the 2027 season. If that holds, he remains the obvious centerpiece.
What surrounds him, though, is starting to take shape.
Walker Jenkins is already in the majors. Emmanuel Rodriguez has now joined him.
Luke Keaschall is part of the mix, too. Minnesota suddenly has a cluster of young outfield options getting real big-league reps before the front office has to map out the 2027 roster.
Rodriguez wasted no time making his presence felt. Called up from Triple-A St.
Paul on September 12, he homered in his first Major League plate appearance against the Cleveland Guardians. Statcast had the shot at 420 feet, and according to Theodore Tollefson of MLB.com, that made Rodriguez the first player since Eddie Rosario in 2015 to homer in his first career plate appearance.
He also threw out a runner trying to go from first to third in that same game.
For Rodriguez, the road to the majors has been anything but smooth. Injuries stretched his minor league career across 353 games over six professional seasons, and he missed significant time again this year. Once he returned, he hit .275/.411/.495 with five home runs in 24 games before getting the call.
Jenkins had already been turning heads before Rodriguez arrived, which is part of what makes this stretch so useful for Minnesota. The club now gets to evaluate two of its most talented young outfielders at once.
At Triple-A, Jenkins forced the issue. In August, he hit .406/.488/.768. MLB Pipeline listed him as the Twins’ top prospect and No. 15 overall in the Top 100.
His value is obvious: he can handle center field when Buxton is out, then shift to a corner spot when Buxton is back. That kind of flexibility matters.
And the young names don’t stop there. Keaschall is also an option in right field, while Austin Martin was activated from the injured list on September 10. That leaves Minnesota with a range of possible outfield combinations to sort through next spring.
Buxton still anchors the group when healthy. Before the hip injury ended his season, he was hitting .254/.319/.511 with 25 home runs in 93 games.
The Twins no longer have to build the whole outfield around him. They’ve got other pieces emerging now, and this final run of games is helping them see what comes next.
In Other News...
Twins Suffer Another Rough Night As Rookie Infielder Exits Early
Max Fried finally looked like himself again, and the Twins were on the wrong end of it. Fried went seven innings and allowed one run as the Yankees rolled to an 8-1 win, getting enough pop from Cody Bellinger and Spencer Jones to keep pace in the AL East chase while Minnesota spent another night trying to find answers against a quality arm.
The bigger concern for the Twins may have been the health of rookie shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, who exited with left hamstring tightness. In a stretch where every game seems to carry a little extra weight, losing a young infielder early only adds to the frustration, especially with the club already trying to navigate the fallout from another lopsided loss. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Just Got Another Painful Reminder Of Their Biggest Problem
The Twins were already trying to patch together the middle of the infield, and now they have to do it without another young piece they had hoped would settle things down. Rookie shortstop Kaelen Culpepper landed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain, a move that ends his season and adds another frustrating chapter to a year that has repeatedly been interrupted by injuries. When healthy, Culpepper has shown enough promise to make the organization believe there is something to build on.
In the meantime, Minnesota turned to Ben Ross, recalling the utilityman from Triple-A St. Paul with the expectation that he will start at shortstop in the next game. It is a familiar sort of shuffle for a club that has spent too much time adjusting on the fly, especially at a premium position where stability matters. Culpeppers absence leaves the Twins waiting again for a clearer look at one of their younger players, while the stopgap solution becomes the latest test of how long they can keep getting by without their preferred answer. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Just Took Another Brutal Hit In Their Stretch Run
Kaelen Culpepper gave the Twins a needed jolt when they brought him up Aug. 7 and handed him the starting shortstop job, and he held his own right away over his first 31 major league games. For a club trying to stay afloat through a second-half slump, getting a top prospect to settle in and contribute was one of the few positive developments worth tracking as the season wore on.
Now that lift has been interrupted. Culpepper landed on the injured list with a hamstring injury, and the timing could hardly be worse for a Minnesota offense that has already struggled after the break and watched its record slide with it. With the stretch run tightening up, the Twins are left trying to absorb another blow from a roster that has already had too few answers at the plate. [Read more 🡒]