Minnesota Twins May Not Hold Instructionals This Fall
After Hurricane Irma led a path of destruction through Florida, teams are cancelling fall instructs. Will the Minnesota Twins be one?
The Minnesota Twins have their spring training facility in Fort Myers, Florida, a facility that they share with the Boston Red Sox. During Hurricane Irma, that facility sustained “moderate” damage.
As reported by Baseball America, multiple teams are either delaying or cancelling fall instructs altogether due to damage from the storm, with the Red Sox and Twins still making a decision on their plans. Then Twins fan and Fort Myers baseball enthusiast Bob Sacremento on Twins Daily had this quote from the team in his recent article:
Unfortunately with Hurricane Irma hitting us we have had to delay instructs and at this time are trying to assess if we can even have them. We have not decided on anything yet except that we are unable at the time to fly players in so we know for sure they will be delayed at least until Monday.
What are fall instructs?
The Minnesota Twins, as many teams, use fall instructionals to introduce new draftees and new international signees to their coaching staff, specifically the minor league hitting and pitching coordinators to begin working with them on the philosophy of the entire organization.
Players that would make a lot of sense to attend fall instructs would include high school draft picks like Royce Lewis, Blayne Enlow, Landon Leach, and Ricky De La Torre. Along those lines would be signings from the 2017 or 2016 international free agent class of the Twins, which would include top prospects Jelfry Marte and Carlos Aguilar from the 2017 class and Wander Valdez and Estamy Urena from the 2016 class among others.
Players that were injured and did not get the innings or at bats that the team would like are also excellent candidates. Two of their most prime candidates from the season are headed to the Arizona Fall League to get those extra reps in pitcher Tyler Jay and infielder Chris Paul.
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Australian pitchers Lewis Thorpe and Lachlan Wells would make excellent candidates in that case, as both had shortened seasons, Thorpe as he was coming off of two seasons missed due to injury, and Wells due to an in-season injury that caused him to miss significant time. Tyler Wells missed some significant time as well due to injury, so he’d be a prime candidate if instructs happen.
The last category of players that you often see at fall instructs is a guy that you see are guys who are working on either a conversion in position or pitching role (starter to reliever, vice versa). Last season, the biggest news was Caleb Hamilton getting work at catcher. He ended up going from playing primarily 3B/OF in 2016 to spending the most time behind the plate in 2017, with 40 games there, while he spent 12 games in the OF, and 34 games at 1B/3B.
Next: Twins 2018 schedule breakdown
Hopefully the Twins can still have instructs, if a bit delayed, as they are an important part of player development for organizations. The Red Sox and Twins have put together a fund to raise money for the area around their spring training home. If so inclined, check out their joint fundraising page!