Walker Jenkins was out of the Twins' lineup Tuesday against the Yankees, in part because they faced a tough left-handed pitcher in Max Fried and in part because the 21-year-old rookie has hit just .089 through 15 games. Jenkins is 1-for-33 with 15 strikeouts since homering off a position player in a blowout on August 31.
Baseball history is filled with elite-level prospects initially struggling to adjust to major-league pitching, so a few rough weeks is hardly damning for Jenkins. But it is unexpected given how well he was playing at Triple-A — batting .411 with eight homers and a 1.283 OPS in his final 18 games — prior to being called up.
"It's very hard to judge young players at Triple-A based on what they're doing, in terms of coming to the big leagues," manager Derek Shelton said. "I mean, Walker dominated at Triple-A. Everybody in this room was clamoring for him to come to the big leagues. And now he's scuffling a little bit. So how do we adjust off that?"