Twins Call-Up Debate: Which Prospects Are Ready, and Who Should Be Demoted?

Kaelen Culpepper's third home run in four games has him up to a team-best eight at Triple-A St. Paul, once again generating buzz from fans who want to see the Minnesota Twins start calling up top prospects.

Whether it's Culpepper, Walker Jenkins, or Emmanuel Rodriguez, fans have been clamoring for the Twins to send the consensus top three prospects in the organization up to the big leagues. Another top-10 prospect in the organization, Gabriel Gonzalez, is also knocking on the door. But how many of them are actually deserving of the call?

Gonzalez is tied with Culpepper and fellow Saints outfielder Kyle Fedko for the team lead with eight homers, but he's slashing .191/.247/.397. His .644 OPS is fourth-worst on the Saints, so he still has work to do at Triple-A before being ready.

You might be seeing highlights of Jenkins and his sweet swing ripping doubles on social media, but that's only a glimpse and doesn't provide the full scope of his success and failures through 25 games this season. You can compare Jenkins to Joe Mauer until you're blue in the face, but when Mauer made his MLB debut in 2004, he was coming off a 2003 season in which he hit .338 in the minors, and then he started the 2004 season hitting .400 before getting the call.

Jenkins is slashing .256/.396/.389. It's also a moot point with him at the moment, as he suffered a Grade 2 AC joint sprain in his left shoulder by crashing into an outfield wall last weekend. He's expected to miss multiple weeks and likely at least a month.

Rodriguez seems to be the most ready of the bunch, but he's currently on the 7-day injured list with a thumb strain suffered on a headfirst slide into first base. He's sporting a .247 batting average in 25 games with the Saints, but his six homers and .923 OPS are better indications of his production.

Culpepper has been streaky, so it's hard to gauge whether he'd be ready for MLB pitching. He's 7-for-21 with three homers, two doubles, and nine RBIs so far in May, but he slashed .205/.297/.386 with four homers and 12 RBIs in April. He played four games in March and hit .368 with a homer.

While Culpepper and Rodriguez would be welcomed with open arms by a starving fan base, there are a few other hitters in Triple-A who might be more deserving: Aaron Sabato, Orlando Arcia, and Kyler Fedko. Alan Roden would be on this list if he wasn't on the IL with a labrum tear in his throwing shoulder.

Sabato: .306/.353/.710 with 6 HR, 5 2B, 14 RBIs, 19 SO, 4 BB
Arcia: .290/.353/.516 with 6 HR, 8 2B, 19 RBIs, 28 SO, 12 BB
Fedko: .250/.300/.565 with 8 HR, 3 2B, 23 RBIs, 27 SO, 5 BB

Sabato was Minnesota's first-round pick in the 2020 draft. Arcia is a former All-Star who is clearly deserving of a chance with the Twins. Fedko hit 28 homers and stole 38 bases last season in the upper minors.

Who should be demoted?

If performance actually matters to the Twins, then Matt Wallner, Kody Clemens, and Royce Lewis should be on a bus to St. Paul right now.

Waller is hitting .185 with a .609 OPS, and he's struck out 43 times in 108 at-bats. Lewis is hitting .169 with an even worse .581 OPS. Clemens has a .193 batting average and a .606 OPS. That's three players who are striking out between 32.5% and 39.8% of their at-bats, while producing very little power.

Coincidentally, Sabato could replace Clemens as a first baseman, Fedko could take Wallner's spot in the outfield, and Arcia could play infield in place of Lewis.

There's no excuse at this point for Wallner and Lewis. Both have minor league options remaining, whereas Clemens can't simply be optioned to Triple-A without first giving him the opportunity to be released and sign with another team. The same goes for James Outman, who has only four hits in 33 at-bats while playing primarily as a pinch runner for the Twins.

Wallner and Lewis are packed with potential, but until they start producing, the Twins are deliberately sending two guys to the plate four times a night with the knowledge that they'll probably fail.

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