Puckett’s Pond Top 20 Minnesota Twins Prospect List: Prospects #16-20

#20 Brusdar Graterol 

Brusdar Graterol is an 18-year-old, right handed pitcher from Venezuela who has spent this season playing Rookie Ball in the Gulf Coast League. Signed for $150,000 in 2014, Graterol hasn’t seen much professional action due to undergoing Tommy John surgery 4 games into his 2015 season. This season he has appeared in 3 games, starting one of those games. In 14 innings he has held a 1.29 ERA striking out 16 and walking only 3.

While we don’t have much for numbers, those who have seen Graterol are very impressed by the young Venezuelan. Eric Longenhagen wrote this about Graterol over at Fangraphs:

"“Well built and owner of god-like arm acceleration, Graterol sits 93-98 and throws are tight, short-breaking slider in the 84-88 mph range. At times, his fastball lacks plane and his delivery lacks fluidity, but it’s pretty easy to dream on Graterol as a back-end bullpen arm even if those issues are never solved.”"

That description, paired with reports that Graterol has hit 100 mph on his fastball, is getting him attention. While he is still young and has a lot of room to grow there is plenty of excitement buzzing about Graterol possibly putting on a Twins’ jersey some day.