The popular prospect news and rankings site revealed their take on the Minnesota Twins’ 10 best prospects, which features a pair of the league’s best.
Baseball America, a prominent group that covers baseball prospect news and rankings, has released their list of the top 10 prospects in the Minnesota Twins organization. The list is as follows:
- Royce Lewis
- Alex Kirilloff
- Brusdar Graterol
- Wander Javier
- Trevor Larnach
- Brent Rooker
- Jhoan Duran
- Blayne Enlow
- Ryan Jeffers
- Yunior Severino
The full article with the list and more information is available to Baseball America subscribers, but a chat page with Mike Berardino is accessible for non-subscribers.
Highlighted by consensus MLB-top 10 prospects Lewis and Kirilloff, the Minnesota Twins again have one of the better farm systems in the league. After a few down years of prospect excitement following the graduation of Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, and others, the Twins have rebuilt their pipeline and created a group of prospects with a lot of depth. Akil Baddoo, Lamonte Wade, Lewin Diaz, Luis Arraez, and Jorge Alcala are, among others, all players that have arguments to be included among the top 10 in the organization, but got pushed out of this list in part due to how many talented players the Minnesota Twins have in the minors.
The two most notable omissions from this list are Nick Gordon and Stephen Gonsalves. Berardino explained excluding Gordon by saying his stock has fallen while others in the organization have risen:
"[Gordon’s] value has been dinged due to widespread doubts about his ability to play shortstop. He also continues to struggle against lefties and has yet to fill out physically, which adds to the questions about his everyday ability. There’s still belief in the hit tool overall, but at this point I could see him turning into a super-utility type once he reaches the majors."
As for Gonsalves:
"There’s still a lot to like about Gonsalves, especially the competitiveness and the pitchability. The command issues that nagged him this year were problematic, and scouts believe those were attributable to a decrease in velocity. Trying to be too fine, the lefty labored too often to keep his once-lofty spot on this list. There’s still plenty of time for him to figure things out."
Gordon and Gonsalves will still both have opportunities to prove their worth in the MLB this season, as both are expected to get big league reps at some point in 2019. Gonsalves made his MLB debut in late August last season, while Nick Gordon spent 2019 with AA and AAA.
Baseball America has not yet released their ranking of best farm systems in the MLB, but their comprehensive list of top 100 prospects in the game will be posted after the finish revealing each team’s top 10. They are currently a third of the way through the top 10 lists. Links to each team’s list are available on their website.