The Minnesota Twins have rewarded their organizational soldiers by calling them up to the big leagues.
The Twins drafted Michael Helman and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. out of college in 2018. They’ve battled through the minors to get their first opportunities in MLB, and the Twins have rewarded them by calling them up when rosters expanded in September.
“It was crazy because I had been talking to family outside of the locker room, and I was the last one to leave,” said Helman, who found out about his call-up after the Saints game in Omaha, near where he grew up, on August 31.
“Then Tyler Smarslok and Matt Tramp came, actually they were standing there and I was really confused, walking toward me with a couple of beers and I thought they were just going to give me one,m” he said. “They were like, ‘You’re going to need to take another shower,’ and dumped them all over me and told me I was going to the big leagues.”
Keirsey was in a different setting when he learned he’d be playing in the big leagues. The Saints were home and just beat the Iowa Cubs 2-1. Kiersey’s teammates surrounded him in the clubhouse when Gardenhire told him he was headed to the big leagues.
“First off, I just have to give that glory to God, and I just thanked him for that opportunity,” said Keirsey. “It was definitely a great feeling to share that with my girlfriend and being able to call my family, it’s something I’ve thought about and dreamt of since I was four years old. Just being able to have that experience was a full circle moment, but also I don’t think I responded the way I was expecting.”
The aftershock of the moment for Helman and Kiersey still took time to settle in for both of them. It’s a moment every baseball player dreams of accomplishing in their careers. However, no matter how often they imagine the moment to play out, something unexpected always happens.
“I was like, ‘No way,’ and all my family had just left,” said Helman. “So it was like I had a 15-minute drive, and every minute I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, how am I going to tell them this? I’m freaking out a little bit because I don’t even know if this is real, but it was a cool moment to tell them all in person, and they were immediately all ready to drive up to Minnesota.”
“It didn’t feel real for a while,” said Keirsey. “My girlfriend and I had an early flight out that next morning and so it was packing all night, trying to figure out her flight, figure out my family’s plans. Then we both couldn’t sleep all night, it was a fun couple of days, that week was awesome and it was just a blessing.”
Fortunately for Helman and Keirsey, they’d played with most of the teammates they joined in the Twins clubhouse. They played with veterans like Christian Vázquez and Kyle Farmer in Spring Training and David Festa and José Miranda in St. Paul.
The greater familiarity with all these teammates made their adjustments much easier for their first big league clubhouse experience.
“It’s nice when you’re talking to some of the older veteran guys like Correa and Buck,” said Keirsey. “They’re telling you you deserve it, and they notice the things we’re doing down here, so they made that transition easier. I just wanted to go out there and play my game and not try to stress too much about anything.”
There may be only 8 games remaining for the Twins on the season, making it harder for every player on the 40-man roster to get another opportunity in the majors this year. However, in Helman and Keirsey’s case, their first chances in the big leagues before 2024 concludes have made all the ups and downs of the minors all the more worthwhile.
