Minnesota Twins: Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff receive end of season awards

The Minnesota Twins have a pair of great prospects in Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff and both received end of season awards from the Midwest League.

The Minnesota Twins farm system has been attracting a lot of attention as the summer has gone on. Some of that comes from the fact that the Twins have made a lot of trades and added a lot of new names to their system. With that comes a near top-5 ranking among MLB farm systems from many outlets. There are also individual performances that have been getting attention this season as well.

Two of those players who continue to turn heads are top prospects Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff. The pair of them received more praise than the usual they receive from scouts or prospect writers. They have each been included in the end of season awards assigned by the Midwest League. Both made the MWL postseason all-star team, while Lewis was also named the MWL Prospect of the Year.

Lewis has continued to be as advertised after the Twins made him the number one overall selection in 2017. He has all the tools you want to see in a baseball player and is already harnessing them to make one very good baseball player. Before his July promotion to Fort Myers, Lewis played 75 games for the Kernels in the MWL and hit .315/.368/.485 with a .853 OPS. Lewis also added 23 doubles, nine home runs, and 53 RBIs.

After following the whole Lewis’ season it seems as though I caught the only glimpse of negativity from his season. Early June I took in the Kernels facing the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers just before Lewis hurt his leg. In the game and an at-bat of another, my eyes saw all the tools on display but the execution just wasn’t there in that limited look. Clearly, the injury had to be doing something to cause that.

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Kirilloff has been a bit of surprise this season. Many knew that Kirilloff would be good, but just how good he has been is turning a lot of heads. Kirilloff has also gained a promotion to Fort Myers but before he did he played 65 games with Cedar Rapids. In those games he slashed .333/.391/.607 and a .999 OPS and added 20 doubles and 13 home runs.

I wrote a lot about Kirilloff after seeing him in person, but to sum it up quickly he looks the part of a major league player. His arm has recovered nicely from Tommy John surgery and he as the ability to throw runners out or at least keep them honest on the base paths. Now slashing .375/.402/.558 in Fort Myers it seems reasonable he might be considered for Double-A Chattanooga to begin 2019.

These two players, Lewis and Kiriloff, simply are the top reasons why fans can be excited about the young players in the Twins farm system. The Midwest League agreed as they handed out their end of season awards.