ARLINGTON, Texas — As the 2025 Major League Baseball regular season draws to a close on Sunday, maybe the best way to characterize DaShawn Keirsey Jr.’s 2025 season is eventful. On one hand, the former Utah Ute appeared in a career-high 73 games with Minnesota this season after making his big-league debut and appearing in six games for the Twins last fall.
However, Keirsey Jr., 28, a fourth-round pick in the 2018 draft, shuttled between MLB and Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate in neighboring St. Paul four times this season. His latest callback to the show came on Tuesday, after Luke Keaschall suffered a season-ending thumb injury against the Rangers the night before. Since the Triple-A season was over, he was back in California visiting family when summoned.
“I was at my sister-in-law’s, which is about an hour inland from where I live in Newport (Beach). I had to fly to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) because that’s the only direct flight out here (to the Dallas area) and I live roughly 45 minutes (from LAX), but with traffic it turned into an hour, 45 minutes,” Keirsey Jr. said in the visiting clubhouse prior to the Twins’ 4-0 win against the Rangers on Thursday. “It was an hour drive home to throw a bag together to drive another hour, 45. Got the call a little after two o’clock and the flight was at 6:30.”
In March, Keirsey made the Twins’ opening-day roster for the first time and appeared in 45 games before being sent to St. Paul for the first time on May 31. On May 15, 2025, the ex-Ute clubbed his first big-league home run off Baltimore’s Tomoyuki Sugano in a 4-0 win against the Orioles at Camden Yards.
“Yeah, it’s definitely different. The first half of the year, I think I was solely in the big leagues and after the trade deadline, things happened and I went down to get more at-bats and back into playing more of an everyday role,” Keirsey Jr. said. “The last month and a half, I spent a lot of time back and forth. It’s part of the game and you’ve got to embrace it.
Embracing the journey
“There was never a saltiness (about it). Obviously, I’d rather be here, but getting the opportunity to play every day (in the minors) and get back into a rhythm as far as preparing to play every day helped a lot.”
Of course, before he became the 21st former Ute to reach The Show last fall, Keirsey Jr. had three very productive seasons at Utah. As a freshman in 2016, the San Diego native was named a freshman All-American and earned spots on the Pac-12’s first-team all-conference and all-defensive teams for the first of three straight seasons; he remains proud to have played on Utah’s 2016 Pac-12 regular-season championship team.
“It was awesome,” he said of his time as a Ute. “I honestly wish I’d enjoyed it more in the moment, as much as I do now. As athletes, you look on to the next thing. Always had that goal of going to Utah for three years and getting drafted. Ultimately was able to do that, it was such a great time.
“Met some of my best friends like Andre Jackson (there). He was one of my groomsmen,” he continued. “It helped shape the player I am today and gave me opportunity to be here (in the majors).
“I talk to Coach K (Kinneberg) and we have a group chat with some guys. Super grateful to him and to (Jason) Hawkins, who recruited me. Being able to step out and play as a Ute was awesome. I cherish it even to this day.”
Fond Utah memories
One thing which continues to stick with him most about his three seasons at Utah was how welcome he felt from the moment he arrived on campus in 2016 and how forthcoming his new teammates were with passing on the many lessons they’d already learned in the program.
“My freshman year, they were starting to get more quality recruits,” Keirsey Jr. recalled. “The upperclassmen were awesome.
“They were good, quality baseball players and that was good for a guy like me to be able to learn from them, guys like Kody Davis, the Carroll brothers (Dallas and Dalton), the Rose brothers (Jayson and Josh) go about their business (was great).
“We had a lot of brothers on that team. The Rose brothers were (also) San Diego guys. I see the quality of players they’re starting to get and it’s awesome. I’m grateful to be one of those guys.”
Rookie duties
During his longest stint as a Twin this spring, Keirsey Jr. had a rookie duty, a way for MLB newcomers to pay their dues, a role he fulfilled with enthusiasm.
“Before the trade deadline, I was the speaker guy. I was lugging around the speakers,” he said. “It was one of the big JBL speakers. Since the deadline, things have changed.”
However, whether he’s been playing for the Saints or for the Twins these past two seasons, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. has always approached baseball with absolute joy, something readily apparent to his teammates and fans.
“For me, it’s just an opportunity to glorify God, my little form of worship to him. He’s given me this opportunity to be in a big-league clubhouse and on a big-league field,” he said.
“Regardless of the situation or what my role on the team is, it’s a blessing. I’ve worked my entire life for this moment like every guy in this locker room has. That’s really what I do it for, being able to go out there and compete and have fun, we’re grown men playing a little kid’s game.
“Sometimes you lose that and forget that. It’s important to always remember it’s still the same game I played when I was 6, 7, 8 years old. The stakes are a little different but it’s still the same game, the fun game I fell in love with.”