Puckett’s Pond’s Minnesota Twins Top-40 prospects: #16-20

The Minnesota Twins have an exciting farm system. Here is our top 40 ranking of the Twins prospects as we continue onto prospects numbers 16-20.

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 21-25, 26-30, 31-35 and 36-40. Here are numbers 16-20 of the Puckett’s Pond prospect rankings.

No. 20 LaMonte Wade, OF, Rochester Red Wings

Nate’s Rank: 13, Gary’s Rank: 25

LaMonte Wade is a player that has been gaining more and more national attention as his career progresses. He has never truly been included in the list of the Twins top prospects but consistently is included on lists that are labelled in ways such as “guys to watch” or “under the radar.” Wade has made multiple appearances on the FanGraphs feature “The Fringe Five” as well this season.

After seeing time in the Arizona Fall League this past fall where Wade may remember more his scary collision in the outfield than his .238/.351/.413 slash line. The outfielder started his season back with Double-A Chattanooga where he performed exceptionally well. In 46 games, Wade hit .298/.393/.444, a .837 OPS, scored 30 runs, had two doubles and seven home runs.

Since moving up the level to Triple-A Rochester Wade has struggled in his first 60 games where he his 2.5 years younger on average than the rest of the competition at 24-years-old. Wade currently holds a slash line of .235/.357/.355 and has eight doubles and four home runs. It will certainly be Wade’s goal before the season is out to progress and move those offensive numbers in a positive direction.

Wade is anywhere from an average to just above average defensive outfielder. He can play some in centerfield but may wind up being a little better in a corner spot where he would likely become a plus defender. With his bat, Wade’s best attribute is that he is very good at getting on base. He may have the potential to display some power but ultimately will be a player with gap power, not home run power.

Wade has drawn comps to players such as Melky Cabrera here and Nick Markakis here. If Wade develops into either of those as a 9th round draft pick the Twins would be happy with that sort of development.