BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 20: A Minnesota Twins cap and glove in the dug out before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards at on August 20, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD – AUGUST 20: A Minnesota Twins cap and glove in the dug out before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards at on August 20, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
The Minnesota Twins have an exciting farm system. Here is our top 40 ranking of the Twins prospects as we continue onto prospects numbers 6-10.
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 next 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 11-15, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35 and 36-40. Here are numbers 6-10 of the Puckett’s Pond prospect rankings.
No. 10 Ryan Jeffers, C, Cedar Rapids Kernels
Nate’s Rank: 11, Gary’s Rank: 11
The Twins seemed to shock a lot of the baseball world as they selected catcher Ryan Jeffers out of UNC-Wilmington with their 2nd round draft pick, 59th overall, in this past edition of the draft. The reaction from the crew working the MLB Network coverage of the draft is one that will stick in one’s memory as the broadcast team was caught off guard when a player that wasn’t even on MLB.com’s top 200 pre-draft ranking came off the board.
What did eventually come out is that Jeffers was one of the better bats for a catcher coming out in the draft. He spent the past two seasons as one of the better hitting catchers in the college ranks and immediately carried that over to his pro career. The now 21-year-old made his first stop in the Appalachian League playing for the Elizabethton Twins and hit .422/.543/.578 and a 1.121 OPS in 28 games.
The young right-handed backstop is now in Cedar Rapids where he is hitting .296/.367/.478 with a .845 OPS. He also has nine doubles and four home runs. One of the trends that Jeffers will want to try and regain is walking more than he strikes out. That is something he did in the Appy league with 20 walks to his 16 strikeouts. That has been flipped a bit as he has 11 walks and 22 strikeouts in the Midwest league so far.
There is almost no doubt about Jeffers bat, but plenty about his defense. That is likely why it was such a surprise that he was selected when he did. The Twins had him ranked as the best backstop on their board when they selected him according to Twins scouting director Sean Johnson. If Jeffers sound a lot like Twins current catcher Mitch Garver to you, well he should as Johnson also confirms the similarities between the two players in an interview shortly after the draft.
The Twins will be working with Jeffers to continually improve in the defensive department so he can add some major value with his bat hopefully with the Twins someday from behind the plate. If not, there is a good chance the pop in his bat will be able to play at other positions as well.
No. 9 Wander Javier, SS, Elizabethton
Nate’s Rank: 8, Gary’s Rank: 10
The 19-year-old Wander Javier may be the prospect we know the least about among this top crop of Twins prospects. The Twins signed Javier out of the Dominican Republic for a franchise record $4 million signing bonus as a 16-year-old. That alone should speak to the level of talent and baseball ability the Twins saw from the young shortstop who cracked Baseball America’s Top-100 list entering the season.
What has been unfortunate is due to 1) being young and 2) injuries, we just have not seen a whole lot of Javier on the baseball diamond. In 2017, Javier spent the season with the Elizabethton Twins of the Appalachian League where he played in 41 games and had 180 plate appearances. Over that period of time, he hit .299/.383/.471 and had a .855 OPS. He struck out at a high rate (49 strikeouts to 19 walks) but that may have been because he was refining something in his approach at the plate as he worked with hitting coach Jeff Reed.
2018 was supposed to be Javier’s first full season of professional ball. A season where we could have seen Javier potentially with the Single-A Cedar Rapids Kernels. Imagine the prospect line up that team would have had if Javier hadn’t torn his labrum and had to have shoulder surgery. The injury ended his season before it started and now he is in the middle of a six to nine month recovery and will hopefully be ready for spring training.
One of the biggest questions for Javier is whether or not he will be able to stick as a shortstop as he climbs the minor league ladder. In his most recent baseball action, he was still holding his own at the shortstop position defensively. Thankfully, not unlike Jeffers, there is no question whether or not his bat will be good enough at other positions. Javier’s ability to hit continues to be his best tool as he utilizes the ability to make contact regularly and combines that with his great bat speed. Javier is certainly a player to keep an eye on.
No. 8 Lewis Thorpe, LHP, Rochester Red Wings
Nate’s Rank: 10, Gary’s Rank: 8
If we want to talk about what it means to have to persevere through injury and time away from the game, there are few athletes who know what that means more than Lewis Thorpe. Thorpe, who is now a 22-year-old, signed with the Twins out of Australia for $500,000 and is showing why he has been labelled a top pitching prospect once again after missing two full seasons of pitching.
Thorpe started his career in the Twins system with the GCL Twins and pitched in 12 games, held a 2.05 ERA, and had a 13.9 K/9 over 44.0 innings of work. The next season Thorpe moved to Cedar Rapids and started 16 games, pitched 71.2 innings, had a 3.52 ERA, and a still very impressive 10.0 K/9 as an 18-year-old. It was that fall that Thorpe first felt that gut sinking twinge in his elbow.
Thorpe would undergo Tommy John surgery and miss all of 2015 rehabbing. While he was on his way back to action Thorpe battled Mono and would go on to miss all of 2016 as well. Finally, in 2017 Thorpe made it back on the mound and pitched mainly in Fort Myers with a small taste of Double-A ball with Chattanooga. Thorpe saw action in 17 games, had a 3.36 ERA, and jumped right back into a 9.9 K/9.
What may be most important about his return is that Thorpe’s velocity has seemed to completely return as he is again throwing his fastball from 91-94 mph regularly and can ramp it up to 96 mph. His ERA sits at 3.74 after spending time in both Double-A and Triple-A this season. It is also impressive that Thorpe has had 11.0 K/9 this season and 11.7 K/9 since joining Rochester. MLB.com lists Thorpe’s upside as a number three or four starter and he may get a crack at the Twins pitching staff this season as he is positioned well to be considered for a September call-up.
As you can likely see by my personal ranking of Brent Rooker, he is one of the Twins prospects I am most excited to see. Rooker only recently came to the Twins as he was drafted 35th overall by the Twins in the 2017 Draft out of Mississippi State University. Now in his first full season of professional baseball, Rooker is close to knocking on the major league door after his 2018 spent at Double-A Chattanooga.
After hitting .281/.364/.566 with a .930 OPS in 2017 between Elizabethton and then making the jump to Fort Myers, the Twins were confident in Rooker’s ability to make another move up a level. The Twins minor league hitter of the year for 2017 got off to a slow start in 2018 but had rebounded well until experiencing a rough August.
June and July were very good months for Rooker as he slashed .314/.400/.623 with a 1.023 OPS along with 13 home runs, 18 doubles, and 40 RBIs. While the struggle on either side of those months can’t be ignored, it is clear that Rooker is only likely a step or two away from receiving a call-up to the major leagues. Before a down August, he may have even been in line for consideration for when rosters expand at the start of September in just a few days.
Rooker will likely always be a bat first player as he continues his journey to the major leagues. What is still to be seen is where Rooker will land defensively. He has still received plenty of time as a left fielder but if his defense will remain good enough to provide value as a major leaguer is yet to be seen. The future of players like Tyler Austin and Joe Mauer will also have an impact on Rooker’s timeline for arrival in the major leagues.
No. 6 Stephen Gonsalves, RHP, Minnesota Twins
Nate’s Rank: 6, Gary’s Rank: 7
We Twins fans have been awaiting the arrival of prospects to save the franchise a lot lately. More than we would like. Stephen Gonsalves is one of those from the pitching side of the roster that many of us have had our eye on for some time as he has topped the Twins prospect lists for several seasons now.
Gonsalves has often found himself in the top-5 of Twins prospect rankings and even in the top-100 of league wise prospect rankings. While he has dropped down those rankings some recently, it doesn’t mean his stock is truly falling. The 24-year-old has continued to pitch well in the minors in 2018 and just recently earned his first call to the major leagues.
In what seemed like a bit of a strange start to the season, Gonsalves began 2018 at Double-A Chattanooga, a league he had performed very well in just the season before. All it took was three starts a 1.77 ERA and 11.1 K/9 before moving up a level to Triple-A Rochester. While Rochester hasn’t been an absolute breeze for Gonsalves, he still has performed very well. With 18 starts (19 games pitched) Gonsalves holds a 2.96 ERA and an 8.5 K/9 over his 100.1 innings for the Red Wings in 2018.
While the major league start to Gonsalves’ career has not been good, there is no reason to be alarmed even though there is an 11.37 ERA next to his name. Gonsalves still has three good pitches to work with in a fastball, changeup, and curveball. Gonsalves will need to learn how to pitch to major league hitters and limit his walk rate, but for a pitcher who has done well through his career that is very doable. Last summer I watched Gonsalves start a game in Chattanooga and what stood out to me in that appearance is Gonsalves’ ability to adjust and be resilient.
Next. Applauding the Twins 2018 Trade Deadline. dark
That resiliency paired with the ability Gonsalves has as a pitcher to work an at-bat gives me plenty of reason to think that Gonsalves will be able to be a fixture in the Twins starting rotation relatively soon.
