Puckett’s Pond’s Minnesota Twins 2018 Top-40 prospects: 26-30

The Minnesota Twins have an exciting farm system. Here is our top 40 ranking of the Twins prospects as we continue onto prospects numbers 26-30.

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. We have already covered prospects numbers 31-35 and 36-40. Here are numbers 26-30 of the Puckett’s Pond prospect rankings.

No. 30 Griffin Jax, RHP, Fort Myers Miracle

Nate’s Rank: 33, Gary’s Rank: 31

Many fans likely learned first about Griffin Jax more because of his off the field service to our country than his on the field baseball contributions. That is to change soon as he is beginning to make his mark on the Twins minor league system now that he has been able to get some regular games in.

The Twins drafted Jax in the 3rd round of the 2016 draft out of the United States Air Force Academy. It was a bit of a surprise to see Jax drafted that early as major league teams liked Jax’s talent, but were concerned about how is military commitment might affect his ability to work on baseball.

The right-handed Jax, has worked primarily as a starter in his three seasons connected with the Twins. 2018 has been the season where he been able to get the most work on a minor league mound as he has qualified for the World Class Athlete Program as he fulfils his Air Force duties. In 2017 as a member of the Cedar Rapids Kernels, Jax started 4 games and tossed 26.1 innings while holding a 2.39 ERA and 0.987 WHIP. This season Jax has climbed the ladder to Fort Myers where he has started 11 games, tossed 74.0 innings, holds a 3.16 ERA and 1.108 WHIP.

Jax’s mid-90’s fastball is his best pitch. He has also employed a curveball, changeup, and slider to compliment it. There is nothing fancy about Jax’s approach but as Benjamin Chase points out he his simply consistent and disciplined in his approach on the mound. Jax may not be a top line starter but could certainly develop into a mid to back-end of the rotation starter for the Twins after some years of development.