St. Paul – It’s not every day you see a top prospect filling in as a first base coach. However, over the last week, Walker Jenkins and his St. Paul Saints teammates, Aaron Sabato and Tanner Schobel, have been filling that role.
Why is that? Well, the Saints have been short a coach for the first week of the season while hitting coach Shawn Schlechter and his wife welcomed their first child into the world. Because the Saints are down a coach on paternity leave, they asked a player not in the starting lineup to fill in.
This isn’t a first for the Saints, either. They’ve been doing it every year since 2022, when Toby Gardenhire was first on paternity leave with his wife, Sara, when their son Bodie was born. Back then, veteran players such as Elliot Soto or Derek Fisher largely went unnoticed while filling in.
But when a name like Walker Jenkins stands in at first, people tend to notice, as they did in the later innings of the Saints’ 19-3 loss, where they allowed 20 walks last Tuesday.
“We only have one hitting coach in the dugout right now,” said Saints manager Brian Dinkelman. “We know it’s more beneficial for him to be in there and give the hitters reports on the pitcher, and plans. You have to have someone at first base, so an extra player in the dugout is always the one that goes out there.”
With several players having to step into the role in Schlechter’s absence, how did they enjoy spending their off-day in the coaches’ box?
“It’s fun,” said Jenkins. “I like being engaged in the game when I’m not playing, or not able to do something, still being able to contribute in some way.”
“When you’re coaching first, you’re really in the game still,” Schobel said. “For me, it’s a really good way to see tendencies, especially from pitchers. I have a stopwatch on me, all of their home to the plate times, I pretty much get. Especially with bullpen arms that we’re going to see throughout the week.”
While the results on the field throughout their first homestand were far from what the Saints had hoped, the players who took over as the first-base coach said it benefited their games in ways they would not have gotten otherwise if they had been sitting on the bench regularly.
In Schobel’s case, clocking a pitcher’s movement time from wind-up to delivery gives him a better idea of how to clock his swing on different pitches from them. For Jenkins, it’s built up more situational awareness he wouldn’t otherwise have had from playing in the outfield or reaching first as a base runner.
“When you’re coaching first, you’re trying to think through, ‘Okay, this guy gets on, or this happens here. What am I going to tell this guy when I get on base?’” Jenkins said. “So thinking through it through that perspective and not being so focused on hitting or something else, or like really thinking through the game. I think it helps you when you are playing, so it’s been awesome.”
“For me, it’s just like being in the game and being able to get those times helps me, and also it helps our teammates,” said Schobel. “I’m very vocal with the guys that get on base, telling them what the times are. I think it gives us a little bit of an edge. I know we didn’t have the best week, but little things like that are good to pay attention to, I think.”
The first homestand of the season may not be the only time Saints players get to step into the first-base coach role. Each season, minor-league coaches typically get a series off to catch up with family. If another coach takes that up this season, then Walker Jenkins could make a return as the first base coach.
“They don’t mind it,” said Dinkelman. “They feel like they’re part of the game with the base runners, information on the pitcher, outs, things like that.”
