Baseball America Top 100: 6 Minnesota Twins prospects that can make an impact in 2020
By Chris Schad
Jhoan Duran
Age: 22
Position: Pitcher
Level: Double-A
2019 Stats: 5-12, 3.76 ERA, 23 G (22 GS), 115 IP, 136 K, 40 BB, 1.19 WHIP
The final player on the list is one that comes in the similar mold of last year’s minor league star, Brusdar Graterol. Acquired in the 2018 trade that sent Eduardo Escobar to Arizona, the Twins got a good piece in return by acquiring Jhoan Duran, who has begun to make waves in the Minnesota organization.
Like Graterol, Duran possesses a heavy fastball that has been clocked north of 100 MPH. He also has shown improvement in his control in recent years seeing his K/BB ratio go from 2.54 in the first half of 2018 with Kane County to 4.56 in his final seven starts at Double-A Pensacola last season.
While he also probably won’t wind up in Minnesota, he is beginning to have the look of a special pitcher as evidenced by his 14-strikeout performance against High-A Daytona on May 26. If there’s any more convincing, Twins catching prospect Ryan Jeffers had high regard for the right-hander in an interview with Puckett’s Pond contributor Otto Johnson.
"“I’ve caught [Jhoan] Duran at three levels ever since he got traded here,” Jeffers said. “He’s fun to catch with electric stuff.”"
Next. 6 Twins make Baseball America's Top 100 prospects list. dark
Could Duran be this year’s version of Graterol? Time will tell. But he’s part of a crop of Twins prospects who could have a major say on what happens in 2020.