The Minnesota Twins have an exciting farm system. Here is our top 40 ranking of the Twins prospects starting with prospects numbers 36-40.
The Minnesota Twins have had a disappointing 2018 season. Out of survival, we as fans have to find something to root for when our teams are not performing well. Which causes us to often then turn our attention to what is next for our favorite team, for baseball that means the prospects in the minors. That special attention gives added intrigue to this series which takes a unique look at the Twins current crop of prospects as we at Puckett’s Pond put on our talent evaluating caps to rank the Twins prospects.
What else makes this not only an intriguing but also an exciting group to rank is that the Twins have made several additions to their prospect ranks during their sell-off at the trade deadline. All those new faces are players we haven’t gotten much of a look and learning about those new players can always be a fun exercise as well.
This list is a group effort by several writers here at Puckett’s Pond. Know that we each have our own opinion on players but have put our rankings together to compile this list. Some or all of us will have ranked certain players in a much different place than where they will land on this ranking. That is just how this sort of exercise works.
With that here is the first instalment of our rankings as we look at what is now often regarded as a top-10 farm system in baseball. Here are numbers 36-40 of the Puckett’s Pond prospect rankings.
No. 40 Deshawn Kiersey, OF, 21 years old
To kick things off on our top-40 prospect list is the Twins 2018 fourth round draft selection outfielder DeShawn Keirsey, Jr. The Twins drafted Keirsey out of Utah where he was recognized as an impact player for the Utes and in the Pac-12. Keirsey left Utah with several honors including Pac-12 All-Conference and All-Defensive team selections and as a freshman he was the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American in 2016.
The Twins had to be excited about Keirsey falling to their pick in the fourth round. Keirsey is a very athletic player. Keirsey has good speed which helps him as he patrols the outfield where he is regarded as a good defender. Before the draft, 2080 baseball described Keirsey’s ability to hit by saying, “Keirsey has feel for the barrel with a contact-oriented approach, though it pushes his power more to the gaps than over-the-fence pop.”
Since becoming a professional baseball player, Keirsey has been assigned to the Elizabethton Twins where he now has logged 20 games and 82 at-bats. While it is very early to make too many evaluations on his performance the results have been very positive to this point. Keirsey is slashing .317/.374/.463 with an .873 OPS and has collected six doubles and three triples. He also has a 13/8 K/BB ratio and is 3-3 in stolen base attempts. If he keeps that type of performance up the 21-year-old could begin to move quickly through the Twins system.