Walker Jenkins ended up spending exactly one year and one day down at Triple-A. He made his debut there on Aug. 26, 2025, and his final game came on Aug. 26, 2026, when he homered and went 2 for 4. In that year he hit .291/.386/.497 with 14 homers and 21 steals and looked for all the world like one of the most exciting hitting prospects in baseball.
But his time in Triple-A is over. According to multiple reports, the Twins are going to call Jenkins up to make his MLB debut Friday against the White Sox, and yes, you should be very excited about the potential this young outfielder brings to the table. Especially since this promotion comes when Jenkins has been at his hottest.
Jenkins actually only had six homers in his first 74 games at Triple-A. He was still a productive hitter, but he was mostly looking like an on-base specialist who should hit somewhere near the top of the lineup rather than an all-around threat. But something clicked this August as he homered eight times in 18 games this month, including three separate multi-homer games – he had none in his career before this month. He has done this without sacrificing the plate discipline that has made him such a notable prospect, and he's starting to look like the total package right at the moment the Twins are giving him the call.
And he's doing that despite missing a ton of time with injuries throughout his career, including with a shoulder injury earlier in 2026. That makes his 90.7 mph average exit velocity and 112 max exit velo even more impressive. With the power starting to play in games alongside the always plus-plus decision-making and solid athleticism that plays on the basepaths, Jenkins is looking like a potential difference-maker here for the stretch run.
He should get the chance to play every day for the Twins as they chase a playoff spot, and while there's no guarantee that he'll hit the ground running in a way that truly matters for Fantasy, his 30-30 pace down at Triple-A this season points to the kind of upside he has if he does. With his skill set, Jenkins seems well-situated to hold his own in, and he's the kind of hitter who could matter in every possible Fantasy format if it all works out – if you're looking for a potential comp, Randy Arozarena isn't a bad one.
That's a player worth getting excited about. Jenkins should be added in basically all Fantasy formats this weekend, and if he gets off to a fast start, prepare to pay a hefty price in FAB. He could very much be worth it.
Pre-game Lineup Card
Here's what you might have missed from CBSSports.com's MLB coverage in recent days:
Bullpen report. Mason Montgomery looks like he has emerged as an elite closer. Scott White takes a look at the other noteworthy bullpen situations around baseball.
Prospects Report. For Scott White's take on Jenkins' appeal, check out his latest look at the top prospects around baseball.
Prospects to know. With rosters set to expand next week, Mike Axisa takes a look at five other prospects who could still make an impact down the stretch.
NL MVP debate. CBS Sports' MLB team debates the Ohtani vs. PCA race.
Hitting the Wire
The top waiver-wire targets from Thursday's action:
Before we get to the waiver targets, a quick note: There were just seven games on Thursday's schedule and not much in the way of noteworthy performances, so we're pulling back for more of a 30,000-foot view of the wire today. Rather than just focus on standouts from yesterday's action, let's take a look at five widely available players who are primed for a potentially big impact down the stretch, starting with maybe the single most under-rostered player in Fantasy right now:
Jacob Lopez, SP, Athletics (49%) – Lopez is once again finding success, just like he did around this point last season. In his past seven starts, he has a 2.33 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 38.2 innings of work, and that would be enough to make him worth adding pretty much everywhere. What makes him a potential league winner is that he's rolling like that ahead of a stretch that sees him set to face the Rangers, Blue Jays, Mariners, Guardians, and either the Angels or Astros. He's as well situated as any pitcher to finish the season strong, and he's available in more than half of CBS Fantasy leagues.
Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Twins (39%) – There just wasn't enough hype for Culpepper when he got the call. He was overshadowed by George Lombard and Angel Genao's promotions, despite being a very similarly ranked prospect, and he's been the best of the bunch. He won't keep hitting .333, but his underlying numbers paint the picture of a hitter who is not at all overwhelmed, and if the average drops closer to his .267 xBA, you can live with that, especially when he's driving the ball with authority and has some untapped stolen base potential. Culpepper hit .271/.367/.478 with a 28-homer, 35-steal pace at Triple-A, so why not see if he can keep this up?
Andrew Painter, SP, Phillies (52%) – Painter's sample size of success at the MLB level is exceedingly small. It would be an overstatement to say it's a sample size of one, but it wouldn't be a huge overstatement, as Painter's most recent start is really the first time he looked like the potential ace he was supposed to be as a prospect. I went into the changes he made in last week's waiver-wire deep dive, and it all comes down to the fastball – it's been a terrible pitch for most of the season and then suddenly looked like an elite pitch last weekend. If that was sustainable, Painter could have as much upside as any waiver-wire pitcher this season. It's a big if, though.
Cole Young, 2B, Mariners (49%) – It hasn't been a massive breakout for Young, but he established himself as a fine hitter in his first season with the Mariners, hitting .248/.308/.390 with a 20-homer pace. That's solid but kind of marginal for a second baseman, and it doesn't help that he's been slumping lately. Still, this one comes down to the schedule, which features two series with the Athletics, two with the Angels, and another one in Colorado, among others. Young is in a good spot to finish the season strong.
Jordan Lawlar, OF, Diamondbacks (36%) – My biggest question about Lawlar comes down to the playing time. He has started seven of 10 games since coming off the IL, but he's been on the bench for three of four games against righties. Is that just because the Diamondbacks want to give him a bit of extra rest and figure the best time to do it is against tougher righties? Or do they truly view him as the short side of a platoon? If it's the latter, then Lawlar's ceiling is pretty low, because they won't keep facing as many lefties as they have. Given his age, prospect pedigree and productivity when healthy this season, I'm hopeful the playing time will be there for Lawlar, who has been super productive in the minors and is hitting .290/.362/.468 with solid underlying data backing it up in his 20 games in the majors this season. But those playing time questions are enough to be at least a bit of a hindrance on his value.
Three Up, Three Down
Three big performances that have players trending up, and three that have the arrow pointing in the opposite direction.
Three Up
Chris Sale was amped up
As if he's not already tough enough to hit, Sale was clearly reaching back for a little extra Thursday. He sat at 96.9 mph with his four-seamer, up 0.8 mph from his season average, and he hit 100 mph for the first time since 2018 – and for just the seventh time in his entire career. It's little wonder even the mighty Dodgers had no answer for him, as he tossed a complete-game shutout, allowing five hits and striking out 11, matching his season-best mark. It's remarkable how little Sale has lost over the years, given that he is 37 and has dealt with his fair share of injuries. But if you said he was as good as ever, it'd be awfully hard to argue with you, as he has a 2.06 ERA and 3.05 xERA for the season now. If not for Jacob Misiorowski, Sale would be strolling to his second Cy Young award. He'll have to settle for cementing his place as one of the best pitchers of his era and a future Hall of Famer. Ho hum.
Jackson Chourio's breakout is happening
Despite missing a month-plus at the beginning of the season with a fractured left hand, Chourio finds himself just three homers shy of his career high after he went deep twice against the Mets. He'll play his 100th game of the season Friday and he has 18 homers and 14 steals, putting him on a 27-homer, 21-steal pace over 150 games; he's also hitting a career-best .281 with a 100-run, 79-RBI pace, which means he's on a pace that would see him establish new career-best marks across all five Roto categories. Chourio is also sporting a career-high 24% strikeout rate, but the tradeoff is clearly worth it, as he has added two mph to his average exit velocity while jumping from a below-average .364 expected wOBA on contact in 2025 to a .420 mark this season, a 79th percentile mark among qualifiers. Chourio didn't take the big step forward many were hoping for in his second season, but he's done it in year three and is probably playing his way to a top-25 pick next season.
Jac Caglianone is on a heater again
Consistency remains an issue, but there's no doubt Caglianone has taken a big step forward this season. The latest evidence came during a huge game Wednesday against the Blue Jays that saw him go 5 for 6 with three runs, six RBI, a double, and a homer. He's now up to a 1.155 OPS in August heading into the final weekend of the season's penultimate month, and it's been a ride; over the past four months, he has put up an OPS of .638, 1.036, .615, and 1.155. But he has the strikeout rate down to 17.7% in the second half of the season without sacrificing his near-elite quality of contact skills, and if that proves sustainable, we're talking about a potential 40-homer guy without sacrificing batting average. Expect to pay a premium for Caglianone in 2027 drafts, but he's showing he could be worth it.
Three Down
Joshua Baez is looking overwhelmed
You're not going to see many more exciting debuts than Baez's, who homered three times in his very first MLB game. For a prospect with big power potential, that was about as much proof as you could ever hope to get in action. Unfortunately, basically everything we've seen since has been a highlight of the other side of Baez's game, which is the strikeouts. He went down on strikes three times Thursday (twice swinging!) and is now up to an even 20 strikeouts in his first 50 plate appearances. That swing-and-miss has always been there along with the big-time power for Baez, and right now the downside is showing up way too often for this profile to work. It doesn't mean Baez can't adjust and become a difference maker down the line, potentially as soon as this September. But he looks overwhelmed right now, whiffing at least 30% of the time against fastballs, breaking balls, and offspeed pitches of all types. As talented as he is, Baez probably doesn't need to be rostered in most Fantasy formats right now.
Trevor Rogers hit a bump in the road
The thing that's frustrating about Rogers is that the good starts and bad starts typically don't look all that different. His velocity was actually up Thursday, and while his pitch mix was a little off, it wasn't anything drastic – he threw about 13% more sweepers than he normally does and about 10% fewer changeups, but is that really enough to explain why he put together his worst start in three months, surrendering six runs in five innings to the mediocre Cardinals lineup? If it is, that only serves to highlight the point, which is that the margin for error for Rogers is just vanishingly slim. This start came in the midst of a strong run, so we can mostly write it off as just one bad start – he had a 3.52 ERA in four August starts before this one. Your expectations should remain around the 3.86 xERA he carried into the start, making him a fine pitcher, but not the difference-maker he can sometimes look like.
Sean Manaea is struggling again
For a few weeks there, it looked like Manaea was turning back into the exciting 2024 version of himself. He put together a stretch of four straight quality starts between late July and early August where he had 25 strikeouts to nine walks in 25 innings of work, and it looked like he was on the path to being a second-half difference maker. That feels like a long time ago after he was tagged for six runs in 5.2 innings Thursday against the Brewers, his third poor start in a row. In that stretch, he has just 14 strikeouts in 18 innings while allowing six homers and 14 runs overall. Manaea did try something different in this one, deprioritizing his four-seamer to throw more cutters, and that pitch actually wasn't terrible – he only had one whiff with it, but he also allowed just a 71 mph average exit velocity on four batted balls. The problem was the sweeper, which is typically such a weapon for him, but generated just two whiffs and a bunch of hard contact in this one. Ultimately, like with Rogers, I think what we're seeing here is that the difference between the good and bad versions of Manaea just isn't as wide as you'd like. That makes it awfully tough to know when to rely on him, and with the direction his season is taking, I'd lean toward sitting Manaea in Week 24 against the Rays, despite their pretty mediocre overall numbers against lefties.
Extra Innings
Yoshinobu Yamamoto lost the game on the first pitch
It wasn't just an incredible performance from Sale that lifted the Braves to a win over the Dodgers Thursday. They still needed to score off ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and they did that exactly one time. In the very first at bat of the game, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin took Yamamoto deep on the very first pitch he threw. It was the only mistake of the night for Yamamoto, and it was just the second time since 2000 that a game has been won 1-0 with the lone run coming on a first-pitch homer. Talk about a tough-luck loss.
