Is Twins prospect Walker Jenkins the next big thing in baseball? According to Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB.com that could be reality by the end of the 2024 season.
In a recent episode of the MLB Pipeline podcast, Mayo and Callis predicted big things for the 18-year-old outfielder.
“I just think that Walker Jenkins has the chance to put up some pretty big numbers right away,” said Mayo when predicting his pipeline hitter of the year. “I have confidence in Jenkins to put up some big numbers.”
Minnesota selected Jenkins with the fifth overall pick in last July’s MLB draft. Coming out of high school in North Carolina, Jenkins didn’t wait long to make an impact slashing .362/.417/.571 in 105 at-bats across rookie league and Single-A, hitting three home runs and 22 RBIs while striking out 14 times in 26 games.
“I feel like, in general, fans maybe underappreciate him a little bit because he was only the fifth pick in the draft last year. He’d clearly be the No. 1 pick in a lot of drafts,” Callis said. “I mean, there’s not much this guy can’t do. He hits for average, hits for power, solid runner, good arm, you know we can quip, ‘Is he a center fielder or right fielder in the long run? OK, we’ll see.’ Make up is off the charts.”
Listen to the conversation below. Jenkins talk at the 10:13 mark and 26:30 mark.
Callis then took it one step further by predicting that Jenkins would be the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball by the end of the year.
“I think there’s a possibility the Padres push Ethan Salas further than he needs to be. I think there’s a possibility he gets challenged a little too quickly or pushed a little too hard. … If Salas goes out and hits .260 with 12 home runs and he’s in High-A, that’s actually a great year for a guy who started the year at age 17, but I don’t know that we’re going to rank that guy as the No. 1 prospect in baseball. That’s why I went with Jenkins over Salas.”
Currently Jenkins sits as the No. 16 prospect in MLB’s prospect rankings and No. 1 in the Twins’ farm system; Salas is the No. 5 MLB prospect.
Congrats to No. 5 overall pick Walker Jenkins (@WalkerJenkins6) for being named the Florida State League @MiLB Hitter of the Week 🏆
Over the last week, he is slashing .529/.556/.882 with a 1.438 OPS. In that timespan, he has a HR, a 3B, a 2B, a SB, a BB, and no Ks🤯#MNTwins pic.twitter.com/Lj6OsJg8vE
— Twins Player Development (@TwinsPlayerDev) September 4, 2023
