Ranking the Minnesota Twins First Round Picks of the Last Decade
By Kasey Kuhrts
Number 8: Minnesota Twins select Kohl Stewart 4th Overall in 2013
The first player who actually appeared in the MLB for the Minnesota Twins on our list is right-handed pitcher Kohl Stewart. Stewart was selected out of high school with the 4th overall pick in 2013.
Unlike the first two on our list, Stewart came out of high school, so he started at the lowest level of professional baseball the Twins offer, which is Rookie league. However, Stewart played only seven games of Rookie league ball in 2013 before moving up to Full Season A in 2014.
Stewart spent the entire 2014 season in Full Season A, and spent the entire 2015 season in Fort Myers for A Advanced. Stewart would start the 2016 season in Fort Myers, but moved up to AA after only nine starts. And after making 16 starts in AA in 2016, Stewart was 9-6 with a 3.03 ERA.
Going into 2017, Stewart was a top five prospect on MLB.com, and many who followed prospects knew about Stewart. However, he quickly changed the narrative around him.
Stewart spent most of his 2017 in AA, but he missed about a month in the middle of the season due to a knee injury. In 16 AA starts, and one AAA start, Stewart was 6-6 with a 4.28 ERA.
In 2018, Stewart made 14 AA starts, 5 AAA starts, and 4 MLB starts with the Twins. In total he appeared in eight games for the Twins, going 2-1 with a 3.68 ERA. Stewart had 24 strikeouts in his 36.2 MLB innings, but he did walk 18 batters, and hit three others, which saw his WHIP finish the season at 1.42.
Going into 2019, many thought Stewart would build on his MLB success from 2018, but that didn’t happen. Stewart only appeared in nine games for the Twins, two of them being starts, and he wasn’t good, going 2-2 with a 6.39 ERA. Stewart gave up 18 earned runs in his 25.1 innings in 2019, which was more runs in less innings than in 2018. Opponents also hit .290 off Stewart in 2019, when they only hit .246 off him in 2018.
After the 2019 season, Stewart was outrighted from the Twins, and he selected free agency over another minor league assignment.
In the offseason, Stewart signed a minor league deal with the Orioles and was going to compete for a major league spot in Spring Training before COVID-19 ending spring training early.
At only 25 years old, Stewart still has a chance to be a decent major league pitcher, but it won’t be with the Minnesota Twins. Now, the question must be asked, what could have been if the Twins didn’t select Stewart?
The very next pick was Clint Frazier, who has a career .254 batting average with 16 home runs in 123 MLB games with the Yankees. However, Austin Meadows, Dominic Smith, Tim Anderson, and Marco Gonzales all went in the first round after Stewart.