Should the Twins Consider Sending Luke Keaschall Down for a Reset?

Coming into his second MLB season, expectations were sky-high for Twins second baseman Luke Keaschall. The former second-round draft pick and top-50 prospect was incredible in a smallish sample as a rookie, posting an .827 OPS and 14 stolen bases in 49 games sandwiched around a lengthy absence caused by a broken forearm. He then followed that up by absolutely raking in spring training this year, leading the Twins in almost every major offensive category.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, Keaschall's spring success hasn't carried into the regular season. Roughly a month into his 2026 campaign, he's mired in a major sophomore slump. It's gotten bad enough, when watching him hit, that it feels reasonable to wonder if the Twins should consider sending Keaschall down to Triple-A so he can hit the reset button and make some adjustments away from the big-league spotlight.

Through 106 plate appearances, Keaschall is hitting .202 with a .508 OPS. Among the 96 players with at least 100 PAs this year, as of Thursday's games, his OPS ranks 95th. TJ Friedl of the Reds is the only player below him on that leaderboard. Keaschall has 20 total hits, just four of which have gone for extra-bases (including one home run), and six walks.

One of Keaschall's great strengths is his ability to make contact, and that hasn't gone away. He still isn't striking out or whiffing very often at all. The main issue is that his batting average on balls in play has dropped from .340 last year to .226 early this year. Some of that might be due to bad luck, but his expected numbers are also down noticeably. The quality of his contact has gotten worse.

Luke Keaschall | Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Anecdotally, it feels like a very high percentage of Keaschall's at-bats this season are ending in pop-outs to the infield or lazy, routine fly balls, often to right field. The numbers back that up. He's got a fly ball percentage above 42 and an infield fly ball percentage of 14, up from 34 and 6 last season. His line drive and ground ball rates are both down. He's making a lot of non-threatening contact.

Keaschall is probably never going to be a player who posts big-time exit velocity numbers. His bat speed is on the low end. But he hit .302 as a rookie because he squared up a lot of balls for line drives or grounders through holes. When you hit a ball on a line or on the ground, you give yourself a much better chance to get a hit than when you make weak contact and get under the ball.

The other issue is that Keaschall's walk rate has dropped from 9.2 percent to 5.7 percent. He's 5 for 5 on stolen base attempts and remains dangerous with his speed, but he hasn't been getting on base enough to really make an impact in that area.

In the Twins' most recent series against the Mets, Keaschall came up with a couple big RBI singles on Tuesday but then went 0 for 9 over the next two games. He popped out to an infielder three times in a one-run loss on Wednesday, including twice with multiple runners in scoring position in the later innings. He then went 0 for 5 on Thursday, stranding the bases loaded with a weak fly out to right in the opening frame.

Keaschall hit third in the batting order in 18 of his first 19 starts this season (and he hit second in the other). Since then, recognizing he's slumping, Derek Shelton has hit him fifth once, sixth three times, and most recently seventh on Thursday. He's getting a day off for Friday's series opener in Tampa.

If Keaschall's slump continues, the next step could be to option him to St. Paul for a bit so he can get himself back on track. To take his spot, the Twins could call up either veteran Orlando Arcia or No. 2 prospect Kaelen Culpepper, who has a .773 OPS with the Saints. There's still a ton to like about the 23-year-old Keaschall's future, but it hasn't been pretty at the plate lately, so a trip down to the minors might be needed if he doesn't snap out of his skid soon.

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