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Players the Minnesota Twins Should Look at the Rest of 2017

By Benjamin Chase

LOUISVILLE, KY - OCTOBER 23: 2015 World Series bats of Daniel Murphy of the New York Mets lay on a rack ready to be shipped out at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory on October 23, 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY - OCTOBER 23: 2015 World Series bats of Daniel Murphy of the New York Mets lay on a rack ready to be shipped out at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory on October 23, 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Jonathan Rodriguez, 1B

The one “wild card” is a guy who was signed as a minor league free agent this past offseason by the Minnesota Twins after spending 8 years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

At 6’2″ and 250 pounds, you would imagine Jonathan Rodriguez to be a formidable power hitter, though he’s never posted above a .500 slugging percentage in his minor league career (posting exactly .500 with Batavia in the New York-Penn League in 2010). He’s hit 20 home runs just one time and while he’s exhibited a high walk rate, he’s struggled with his contact rate, hitting .309 in rookie ball in 2009, but never hitting even .290 at any level since.

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The former 17th round selection out of JuCo in Florida shortened his lead to his swing this season, and he’s seen a tremendous result, with not only a career low ground ball rate (by almost 7%), but also a career high line drive rate, which has led to a career best season.

While the Twins do have ByungHo Park and Kennys Vargas that have been filtered between AAA and the major leagues all season, but Rodriguez’s significant right-handed power due to his swing change could be the type of career change in swing that allows Rodriguez to have a late-career explosion into a possible major league career, a la Edwin Encarnacion or Justin Smoak. He’s currently hitting .316/.417/.513 with 24 doubles, 15 home runs, and a 62/88 BB/K ratio over 420 plate appearances.

Rodriguez will be a minor league free agent this season again, and another team could see this improvement and give him a chance. It would be wise to see what the team has in Rodriguez before possibly losing him.

Next: Appreciating an underrated former Twin

Obviously this is not a comprehensive list of the players who will be eligible for Rule 5 or minor league free agents. In fact, Seth Sohs put together a tremendous list of that over at Twins Daily. However, these are the guys that we would like to see up for the rest of this season so the Twins can know better how to address free agency and roster construction in 2018.

Anyone we missed? Who would you most like to see from this list? Comment below!!

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