2026 Team Previews: Minnesota Twins
A detailed fantasy baseball oriented team preview of the 2026 Minnesota Twins
Minnnnesooootttaaa! Let’s not dilly-dally this time!
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Podcast Version
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Hitters
Byron Buxton
Age: 32
Pos: OF
You might have thought that you’d never have to make the tough Byron Buxton decision on draft day again. The ADP bottomed out last year after another injury-riddled season in 2024.
But then Buxton ripped off the best season of his career at the age of 31. He hit the IL just once and played in 126 games. And it was pretty:
542 PA, .264/.327/.551, 35 HR, 24 SB, 27% K%, 7.6% BB%
That season should not have shocked you. Buxton has always been a very good per-game fantasy player. At some points, he’s been one of the best in baseball when healthy. You could argue that he was in that category in 2025. His 2.37 fantasy points scored per plate appearance ranked #4 in the league.
Buxton’s health not only kept him on the field more than usual, it also pushed his stolen base attempt rate up to 21%.
His .551 SLG was his best work since 2021. Doing that mostly from the lead-off spot made him a monster in run-scoring (97 runs in 126 games) and also gave him a very positive RBI total (83).
Buxton is a very good baseball player. This is nothing new. His power (108.6 EV90, 88th-percentile bat speed) and speed (100th percentile sprint speed) combo is a thing few players can rival. He was the fastest player in the league at the age of 31. Really exciting and incredible stuff. We might as well show all of the red:
The one thing he doesn’t do well is make contact. I do think that’s mostly by design. The Twins are happy to trade 150 strikeouts for 35 homers. His zone-contact rate was poor at 79.6% and you saw that near 28% K% already.
You’ll typically get some cold streaks with these high-K% guys. That wasn’t true for Buxton last year. His worst month was August with a .782 OPS. Interestingly, that was his best K% month (24%).
The dude went bonkers in June (.310/.408/.678, 9 HR, 6 SB). May wasn’t far off. We had elite months without any poor ones.
But we’re going to have to pay a real cost for him in 2026 as a result of all of this. I’ve seen some early draft results, and he goes in the 4th-5th round. The guy returned top-20 hitter value last season (he’s #19 on my roto player rater), so if we knew he’d stay healthy, getting him in the fifth round would be a nice value. But we don’t know that. It seems pretty unlikely that he’ll play another 125 games next year. I’m not saying it can’t happen! But using a 4th-5th round pick for a 32-year-old with this injury risk seems like a questionable thing to do.
THAT SAID, injury risk strategy is league-dependent. If you’re in a league where replacement outfielders are easy to find, you should like Buxton more. If you’re in a spot where you’ll have trouble replacing him if he hits the IL, you should like him less.
In a vacuum, I’ll (sadly) be out on Buxton. But the choice very much depends on what sort of league I’m drafting in.
Projection
490 PA, 76 R, 27 HR, 60 RBI, 13 SB, .263/.324/.515
Rank
I’ll take James Wood over Buxton and Buxton over Dylan Crews. That makes him my current OF2 with about a bajillion outfielders left to rank.
Luke Keaschall
Age: 23
Pos: 2B
Keaschall was a crazy interesting fantasy player in 2025. We talked about fantasy points per plate appearance in that Buxton section. Well, Keaschall has something to say there! In his 207 PAs, he scored 2.15 FPts/PA. That was #18 in the league if you set the PA criteria to 200 PA.
You have some very small sample sizes at that point, and it’s dangerous to think anybody around 200 PAs will repeat the next year.
But hey, good numbers in small samples are better than bad numbers in small samples. Let’s look at it:
.302/.382/.445, 4 HR, 14 SB, 14% K%, 9.2% BB%
Elite K% and a great steals pace with non-zero power and a high OBP. You like that. Let’s take a look at 2024-2025 in the minors:
582 PA, .295/.411/.454, 17% K%, 14% BB%, 16 HR, 34 SB
Keaschall is no stranger to a high batting average. He has a .297 batting average in his 917 PAs as a professional. Let’s check the minor league fScores for the kid:
Above 100 in everything but durability. His career best is 102 games played in 2024, but he’s only been in pro ball for three years.
The injury last year was a forearm fracture from a hit by a pitch. He hit the IL during the last week of the season as well, with a thumb sprain that came from sliding into a base. We aren’t talking about repeated hamstring strains or something more concerning like that. I wouldn’t worry about injury stuff with him at this point.
Let’s try to get a feel for these skills.
The good news:
87% Zone-Contact%
81.5% Contact%
40% Sweet Spot%
26% LD%
The bad news:
100.78 EV90
109.2 MAX EV
5.2% Brl%
His barrels and homers will come from proper launch angles and backspin rather than the guy just loading up and murking the ball. But he’s 23, so there’s some room for power growth.
We should view Keaschall as a batting average and steals source. The .259 xBA was well below the .302 actual, and he benefited from a .340 BABIP. As a speedy guy with good launch angle stuff, we can expect a high BABIP, but I don’t know about .340. Any decline in the sweet spot rate is bad news, and there’s a lot of room for decline there, and the guy does not hit the ball hard.
I never want to lean too heavily on a BABIP bet. There are guys who reliably give you a .330+ BABIP every year, but with Keaschall there’s little room for fantasy value if he drops to .290 or something.
Let’s run that player comps tool:
Those names, in case you can’t see them:
Maikel Garcia
Bryson Stott
Whit Merrifield
Tyler Freeman
Xavier Edwards
High contact, middling walks, high speed, low power. That’s who Keaschall is.
He can be pretty valuable in roto, but I don’t know, I’d rather see it for more than 200 PAs before I start counting on it. I think I’ll be out on Keaschall, but he’ll be on the list for those times later in drafts when I’m looking for some steals and batting average.
Projection
480 PA, 57 R, 12 HR, 57 RBI, 23 SB, .262/.378/.412
Ranking
Luis Garcia is a decent comp here. I would put Keaschall around there. Daylen Lile is also very similar, albeit at a different position. You get a boost for being a 2B. I’ll slide Keaschall in behind Garcia and in front of Lile and Beck.
