Minnesota Twins: Grading the Twins’ First 5 Picks the 2021 MLB Draft
By Otto Johnson
The 2021 draft is in the books and the Minnesota Twins made five selections in the first 128 picks, giving them the perfect chance to add to a farm system that’s seeing a lot of it’s top talent graduating to the big league ranks.
The team’s farm system has seen Top 30 Prospects from 2020 like Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, Ryan Jeffers, Nick Gordon, Bailey Ober all graduate to rookie status and Travis Blankenhorn and Dakota Chalmers playing elsewhere. The 2021 draft offered the chance to add some talent.
How did the team do? It’s hard to tell right away, as none of the teams top picks have signed yet, but the we can look at the players they did take and make predictions about whether they will sign, where they’d rank in the Twins’ system, and possible impact going forward.
We can also look at their skill sets, some past players the team has drafted that we can compare them to other players the team has drafted in previous years. With that in mind, we take a look at those first five players selected:
- Chase Petty, RHP
- Noah Miller, SS
- Steve Hajjar, LHP
- Cade Povich, LHP
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand, 3B
Each one has their own flaws and highlights, so we’ll break them down for you here and offer pros and cons of each player. Let’s get after it.