After a return to the playoffs and a very successful season in the minor leagues for the Minnesota Twins organization, it’s time to examine top prospects!
As the Minnesota Twins built up the team that made the playoffs in 2017, they used excellent prospects, ranking as the top minor league system in the game at times along the way, boasting multiple top prospects, including the #1 prospect in all of baseball at time, and they were adept at acquiring players in multiple ways to create that farm system.
The Twins enjoyed the fruits of that farm system this season as young players truly carried the day for the major league team. On the major league team, there were 16 position players that returned positive Baseball Reference WAR value, and 12 of them were in their 20s. Pitching was a bit more volatile and top-heavy, as 12 pitchers contributed positive WAR values, and 7 were in their 20s. The 30+ pitchers outpaced the 20s pitchers in WAR contributed in total 6.5-5.4, but 4.6 of the 30+ group’s 6.5 came from Ervin Santana.
The list
This list is the product of the work of Benjamin Chase. He has taken time to do plenty of player video evaluation and contacting a number of scouts and others within the game to get opinion on players that he hasn’t seen himself in order to put this list together. The list itself is based on Ben’s opinion, so his own biases are to be noted in the viewing of the list. Specifically, production at a full season level will weigh more heavily on a list. Relievers will likely rank lower on a list.
This is a snapshot at this point in time, and many things could come out of winter workouts, winter league play, or even spring training that would make any of these rankings seem foolish. There are a number of players on this list that are eligible for minor league free agency, so there could be some guys here that end up in another organization through free agency or part of a trade. Disagreements are likely, and, frankly, encouraged! Please feel free to comment below on any disagreements you may have!
The list will come out with 20 players at a time, with #81-100 on Monday, #61-80 on Tuesday, #41-60 on Wednesday, #21-40 on Thursday, and #1-20 on Friday. Also on Friday will be a post that offers up the entire list in list format (no player evaluations on those players) and also will add a number more players to keep track of beyond the top 100 that could move up quickly or that had positive 2017 seasons.
With that, we will begin with today’s installment, #1-20….
Next: #16-20