Kody Clemens has found his baseball home with the Minnesota Twins.
Clemens owned Friday’s game at Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. The Twins’ slugging, left-handed hitting first baseman in four at-bats opposite Seattle Mariners’ pitching,
Clemens, 29, smashed three home runs, collected four hits, scored three runs, and drove in five runs. It was the kind of offensive production that all hitters hope to experience. The 9–8 Twins’ victory, their 65th of the season, just may have answered questions front office personnel may have been debating about the future of their first baseman.
Now, one game doesn’t define a career, or solidify a starting position going forward. However, with a mere 15 games remaining on Minnesota’s schedule, Clemens is building a case for a future with the Twins.
Minnesota’s brass doesn’t seem to need to go shopping for a first baseman this winter. They could spend wisely elsewhere for the roster. Playing in MLB’s 16th most populated city, and for a club with the 18th highest payroll in 2025, the Twins need to play a cautious hand when making decisions on player acquisitions.
But when the Philadelphia Phillies in April designated Clemens for assignment after playing in just seven games, the Twins picked up his contract in exchange for cash considerations. This was a no-risk pick up for Minnesota that continues to pay off well into the twilight of September’s calendar.
Minnesota’s manager Rocco Baldelli, club general manager Jeremy Zoll, and president Derek Falvey have to be impressed by what they are seeing in Clemens’ game. An assessment on Clemens’ overall abilities, both in swinging the bat and defensively at first base, will be, at the end of the season, the most accurate of his four-year MLB stay. Saturday’s rematch with the Mariners will be Clemens’ 100th game of the season, the most of any of his previously brief stints with the Detroit Tigers; first in 2022, followed by in Philadelphia for the past three years. Of his 252 MLB game appearances, 153 games were spread out over four seasons with franchises other than the Twins.
Baldelli has had the luxury of playing and plugging Clemens at a number of positions, depending on who from Minnesota’s roster was available, and for what games. Defensively, Clemens has been a sure-handed fielder, while logging only three errors since coming aboard the Twins. Add only five other errors total since making his debut with the Tigers, and the Twins have a future first baseman that the club’s infield coach Ramon Borrego could form into a Rawlings Gold Glove Award recipient.
Playing on the Twins with a one-year deal that will expire at season’s end, Minnesota needs to evaluate their options for who will come to their spring training complex in Fort Myers, Florida, come February. Unless Zoll takes a peak at who’s up for the take among free agent first basemen, Clemens seems to have the starting job for 2026, by assessing from the club’s internal choices.
On the Twins’ depth chart, for now, Clemens is in the lead. There are two other potential choices that Minnesota will give long looks to at their spring home—Hammond Stadium at Lee Health Sports Complex. Edouard Julien and Mickey Gasper will in all likelihood be given long looks at first base. Julien, in 54 games this season for the Twins, like Clemens, has been a super utility plug-in for Baldelli. He’s played first base, second base, and shortstop.
In his 257 games as a Twin over the last three seasons, Julien is hitting an anemic .227. In 40 games so far this season with the Twins, Gasper has 13 hits in 84 at-bats. His .155 batting average has done little to win the hearts and minds of the Twins’ hierarchy to land a full-time gig at first base or catcher. Gasper has been learning both positions in St. Paul, Minn., home to the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate in the International League. 47 games with the St. Paul Saints and 40 with the Twins, Gasper has his work cut out for him over the winter, should he have his eyes on taking over Minnesota’s first base position.
With Minnesota 18.5 games behind the American League Central leading Detroit Tigers, and 14.5 games back from a Wild Card position for postseason play, everything done on the field, for management, and for players in the dugout is auditioning for next season. Of the Twins’ top 30 prospects, there are no dedicated first basemen. There are no first basemen listed on Minnesota’s injured list. Last season, Carlos Santana, a veteran of 16 MLB seasons, played 150 games for the Twins. The 71 RBIs Santana registered in 2024 for Minnesota is missed this season in Baldelli’s lineup, and especially by the pitching staff. Clemens has 48 RBIs since joining the Twins. A full season with Minnesota could very well see him duplicate or exceed Santana’s output of 2024.
When you’re the youngest of four sons to one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history, it’s impossible to escape a constant, albeit unfair, comparison to your father. Roger Clemens’ name rests in third place in MLB history among all-time strikeout leaders (4,672), and is the only pitcher to have won seven Cy Young Awards, while being recognized as the best pitcher for a given season.
Kody Clemens could start looking ahead to the 2026 Grapefruit League schedule with growing confidence. The six weeks spent in Southwest Florida, and touring opposing clubs’ ballparks for a 31-game schedule just may bring Clemens the one element of his MLB tenure that continues to elude him—a permanent home.
