The Minnesota Twins would love to find a value like the Minnesota Viking did in Adam Thielen. Who are some players to watch that fit a “Thielen” profile?
The Minnesota Twins enjoyed their own successful 2017 with their first playoff appearance since 2010. Now the Twins look down the road from their beautiful stadium and can celebrate in the success of the Minnesota Vikings football team in their own new, beautiful football stadium who earned themselves the second seed in the NFC side of the NFL playoffs.
A lot has gone into the Vikings success this past season and certainly, Adam Thielen‘s breakout season has played a big role in that success. The thing is Thielen was never supposed to be where he is today as part of a 1a and 1b receiving option for a top playoff team. It has been well documented how the Detroit Lakes, MN native attended Minnesota State at Mankato on a $500 scholarship and then went undrafted from there only to work himself onto the Vikings roster.
Vikings fans have had a front seat to Thielen’s emergence as he began his tenure with the Vikings in 2014 with 8 receptions and concluded the 2017 season with 91 receptions. Those 91 receptions lead to Thielen gaining 1,276 yards for the Vikings on the way to his first Pro Bowl and a 2nd Team All-Pro selection. Thielen is also just flat-out fun to watch as he matches his steady hands with Byron Buxton like speed!
As a site that writes about the Twins, our question is who could become the Twins version of Adam Thielen. The Twins have seen that type of player breakthrough in the past. Kent Hrbek was a 17th round pick in the 1978 draft and accumulated a 38.4 WAR over his career. Current Twins bullpen coach Eddie Guardado was drafted in the 21st round of the 1990 draft. There was also former Twins third basemen Corey Koskie who was drafted in the 26th round of the 1994 draft.
The Twins are young and continue to look and build on their season of contention in 2017. What seemingly helps every championship level team is it has someone contribute from out of nowhere. In the paragraphs to follow, we will try to identify some current players in the Twins organization that would fit a similar mold as the undrafted Adam Thielen does. It is hard to fully translate that to baseball standards, but we will primarily look at players who were drafted in the 15th round or later of the MLB draft.
Trevor Hildenberger was drafted by the Twins in the 22nd round of the 2014 MLB Draft out of the University of California, Berkeley. In 2017 we saw our first glimpse of Hildenberger in the majors and he did nothing but impress after making his way through the Twins minors.
In 42 innings, Hildenberger had an ERA of 3.21, a K/9 of 9.4, and recorded one save. While Hildenberger didn’t take on that coveted closer role, he was clearly the Twins best and most relied upon starter down the stretch. Manager Paul Molitor continued to turn to Hildenberger in some of the biggest spots of games as the Twins secured the second American League Wild Card position. His performance caused many before any offseason signings happened to wonder out loud if Hildenberger may become the team’s closer in 2018.
Hildenberger’s ability to change his arm angle from his primary sidearm deliver to a more over the top angle, paired with the sinking movement he is able to create of his sinker allows him to be successful even without great velocity. Hildenberger took over as the Twins resident worm killer with a near 60% ground ball rate after Brandon Kintzler was traded to the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline.
With the addition of Fernando Rodney, Zach Duke, and most recently Addison Reed, Hildenberger should become a very solid 7th inning guy for the Twins. If he truly breaks out in Thielen style, he might challenge for some of those other high leverage situations as well.
Clark Beeker came to the Twins organization after he was selected in the 33rd round of the 2016 draft out of Davidson College. After being drafted he was able to record 43.2 innings between Elizabethton and the Gulf Coast League Twins. This past season Beeker opened the season with the Cedar Rapids Kernels and spent most of the season there but had a brief 3 game stint with Fort Meyers.
2017 was a monumental season for Beeker’s prospect status as he turned in one of the best pitching performances in all of the Twins minor leagues. Between the two leagues, Beeker held a 2.94 ERA over 23 starts and recorded two complete games. Within the season he also turned in an incredible 34.1 inning scoreless streak.
Beeker is known for his command. He does not throw the baseball hard so it his ability to command the ball and mix in his offspeed stuff that allows him to see the sort of success that he saw this past season. Beeker’s BB/K ratio of 92/23 shows just good he was at not giving up any free passes to batters in his first full season of professional baseball.
In all honesty, saying that Beeker can make it to a Thielen type level in major league baseball might be a little strong. His ceiling is a back of the rotation starter, but if Beeker turns into that after being a 33rd round draft pick that is some tremendous value for the Twins organization. It is also almost certain that the story of his 34.1 innings scoreless pitching streak will be told as often as Thielen’s story has been told this football season.
Left-handed reliever Andrew Vasquez was drafted by the Twins in the 32nd round in the 2011 MLB draft. The California native was drafted out of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California when the Twins selected him and sent him to the GCL Twins to begin his professional career.
Vasquez spent his 2017 splitting time between low-A Cedar Rapids and high-A Fort Meyers performing well at both stops. Over the season Vasquez pitched 58.0 innings had a 1.55 ERA and an incredible 85/21 K/BB rate. Like Beeker, Vasquez had his own streak of 20 appearances where he didn’t give up an earned run.
At 6’6″ and 220 pounds, Vasquez has quite the presence from the mound. His slider is what allows him to effectively get batters out. It has great break to it which at times has gotten it confused with being a curveball (which he also occasionally throws) but he most often relies on that slider and a fastball mix. While his fastball sits in the low-90s and isn’t extremely intimidating to hitters it is that slider that Vasquez turns to in order to get batters out.
Vasquez is beginning to look like he could be a real steal as 32nd round selection. Conservatively, Vasquez will likely need some more time in the minors and could even spend a lot of time at high-A Fort Meyers this next season. He also has the profile of a guy that could surprise and make some big leaps of the minor league levels and knock on the doors of Target Field sooner than later.
Jaylin Davis fell to the Twins in the 24th round of the 2015 MLB Draft. This is a good case of an unfortunate situation for a player turning into a potential lottery win for the club. Davis truly had the talent to be considered much higher in the draft, somewhere in the range of the 3rd to 5th round. Instead, Davis had an untimely shoulder injury in his draft year causing him to plummet to the Twins pick in the 24th round.
After working back from injury, Davis made his professional debut in 2016 with the Elizabethton Twins. In 2017, Davis split his time up between low-A Cedar Rapids and high-A Fort Meyers. Spending time in all three outfield spots defensively as well as some as the designated hitter, Davis slashed .253/.303/.416, 15 home runs, and 21 doubles.
Davis’ strikeout rate sits at 31.2% for his career causing a little cause for concern about his ability to judge pitches and make contact. At the same time, he should remain built well to continue as an outfielder and be a decent baserunner as well.
In Puckett’s Pond writer Benjamin Chase’s scouting report of Davis posted this past summer, he chose Carl Everett as a potential player comp for Davis. As Chase highlights, if Davis can match some of Everett’s career totals including a career year in 2000 of .300/.373/587, 34 home runs, and 11 stolen bases. That is very Thielen type value for Davis.
