The Twins are heading into a three-game set with the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Friday at 6:05 p.m. CDT, and the roster news around the club is starting to pile up.
The biggest step forward belongs to Ryan Jeffers. The catcher will begin a rehab assignment tonight as the St.
Paul Saints’ designated hitter, according to the Twins’ transaction log. Jeffers has been out since May 19 with a left hamate bone fracture.
Before the injury, he was swinging one of the hottest bats on the team, hitting .295/.408/.541 with seven home runs and 26 RBI in 37 games, good for a 164 wRC+.
Byron Buxton, meanwhile, is still waiting to get back into the lineup. He’s out again against the Yankees, which will make it four straight games on the bench.
The Twins’ center fielder is day-to-day with a right hip impingement, according to The Athletic’s Dan Hayes earlier in the week. Even with the injury, Buxton has put together a big season at the plate, hitting .268/.325/.573 with 25 home runs.
There’s also an All-Star angle to watch. Phase 2 of MLB’s voting process is now closed, and Buxton sat second among AL outfielders in the latest update with 20% of the vote.
Mike Trout was first at 23%, followed by Aaron Judge at 19%, Cody Bellinger at 16% and Jesús Sánchez at 12%. If Buxton finishes among the top three outfielders and is healthy, he would start in the Midsummer Classic.
The Twins will also be represented in the All-Star Futures Game by two of their top prospects, Walker Jenkins and Kaelen Culpepper. MLB announced that Jenkins, an outfielder, and Culpepper, a shortstop, will take part in the event. Derek Shelton will be part of Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider’s American League staff for the All-Star Game.
There’s a chance Jenkins and Culpepper won’t end up playing in the Futures Game at all if they’re on the Twins’ 26-man roster instead.
Culpepper, Minnesota’s No. 2 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has played 63 games with Triple-A St. Paul and is hitting .272/.376/.492 with 14 home runs, 43 RBI and 15 stolen bases. Jenkins, the club’s No. 1 prospect, has hit .272/.390/.430 with two home runs, 11 RBI and seven stolen bases in 31 games with the Saints.
In Other News...
Twins Farm Gets One Needed Boost Amid Another Concerning Update
The Twins farm system got a little healthier in one spot and a little thinner in another, a familiar tradeoff at this time of year. Christian Becerra was back on the mound for High-A Cedar Rapids after a stint on the 7-day injured list, while the broader minor league picture also brought a few encouraging signs across the organization, including another strong day from St. Pauls offense and some useful innings from pitchers trying to steady their seasons.
Kaelen Culpeppers addition to the Futures Game roster added a brighter note to the systems midseason outlook, giving Minnesota another prospect to track on a bigger stage. But the update also came with a setback elsewhere in the pipeline, a reminder that depth in the minors can change quickly even when one player is moving back into the mix and another is earning a spotlight. [Read more 🡒]
Twins May Finally Have A Real Opening For Kendry Rojas
Kendry Rojas has given the Twins enough to dream on since arriving from Toronto, even if the picture is still blurry. The left-hander brings real velocity and a slider that can miss bats, but the command has not always matched the stuff, which is why Minnesota has been shuttling him through a hybrid mix of starting and relieving without settling on a firm lane.
Now the Twins have to decide whether the best path for Rojas is to keep stretching him out or narrow the job and let the arsenal play up in shorter bursts. Louis Varland has become the obvious reference point from the same trade, and that kind of bullpen conversion is at least on the table as Minnesota weighs what Rojas can be long term. [Read more 🡒]
Two Unexpected Twins Could Be In Real Deadline Danger
The Twins have spent much of the season in that uneasy middle ground where neither path is fully closed off. At 42-46, they are still close enough to the playoff race to justify staying patient, but not so far ahead that the front office can ignore the possibility of shifting directions if the next few weeks go sideways.
If Minnesota does end up leaning toward a sell-off, two unexpected names could surface in the conversation: Kody Clemens and Ryan Kreidler. Both have been useful this year and bring the kind of defensive flexibility teams like to target at the deadline, which makes them more than simple depth pieces even with years of control still attached. For a club trying to balance the present against its next wave of talent, that kind of value can become hard to overlook. [Read more 🡒]