Puckett’s Pond Minnesota Twins Top 20 Prospects: 6-10

7. Wander Javier, SS, 18 years old

To know how much the Twins love this kid, all you really need to know is that they paid Miguel Sano roughly $3M. Javier received a $4M signing bonus when the Twins signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2015.

The Twins opened Javier in the Dominican Summer League last summer, and he showed in just 9 games that he was really a man among boys in the league, hitting .308/.400/.654 with 3 doubles and 2 home runs before a hamstring injury shortened his season.

Skipping him over the Gulf Coast League, the Twins put the 18 year-old shortstop into the advanced rookie Appy League to provide him with a challenge. While he’s not dominating like he did in the DSL, he’s certainly not in dire straights by any means. Javier is hitting .288/.373/.441 with 4 doubles, a triple, a home run, and 2 steals. The biggest concern is a 27% strikeout rate, which isn’t surprising in jumping a teen up a level.

Javier has been considered to have a future ability to have a plus contact and plus power tool to go along with a plus arm. His fielding needs some work, as he has the athleticism and arm to handle short, but his reads off the bat are sometimes lacking, and without elite speed, that hurts his ability to get to balls.

He’s definitely raw, but Javier is an elite talent that Twins fans should be very excited about.