7 Twins prospects whose stock rose dramatically this season

Not much went right for the Minnesota Twins down the stretch of the season, but the recency bias of how badly the historic collapse stung has unfairly taken away from the good the team experienced.

It wasn't just Carlos Correa dunking on his haters, Jose Miranda going on a record-breaking hitting streak, or the way the Twins came alive over the summer to fill us with what was ultimately false hope. The youth movement that started in 2023 continued to wash over Minnesota's roster last year and the current building underneath the surface wasn't hard to see.

The Twins saw four top prospects make their debut last year, with Simeon Woods Richardson using his third time in the majors as the charm to finally stick a landing. While young players kept finding their footing with the Twins, the next wave of players weren't quiet about making a name for themselves as fast-risers through the farm system.

7 Twins prospects whose stock rose dramatically this season

It was another good year for young Twins players, with a handful watching their stock sore as the season went on.

Walker Jenkins, OF

His ascent through the farm system was delayed thanks to an early injury (go figure!!) but it was well worth the wait. Jenkins started the year with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels but ended the season in Double-A Wichita, needing under 40 games in each level between to move up.

Jenkins finished the year hitting a collective .282/.394/.439, and is rising up through the ranks at perhaps the perfect time. Minnesota seems as though it will be in a payroll bind until the Pohlads sell the team -- and who knows when that will be -- which means it might not be long before Jenkins is knocking on the door of an MLB promotion.

He's going to only be 20-years-old on Opening Day next season, but it seems like a certainty that he'll reach St. Paul at some point and given the Twins' outfield situation might be at Target Field around the same time we saw Brooks Lee get the call last year.

Emmanuel Rodriguez, OF

Jenkins getting called up is more possible than it's ever been, but Emmanuel Rodrgiuez feels like a stone cold lock to be with the Twins in 2025. There was chatter about him potentially making the leap last year, and he might have made it had he not run into some bad injury luck.

Despite missing a chunk of the season, E-Rod was a revelation at Wichita hitting .298/.479/.621 in 37 games. He did it all, from creating offense to using his glove to make electric plays in the outfield. He reached Triple-A right before the season ended and will almost certainly get invited to Spring Training in February.

Last year there was a case for Austin Martin and Brooks Lee to potentially make the Opening Day roster, and there seems like an even greater chance that E-Rod actually pulls off the feat.

Luke Keaschall, 2B/OF

A lot was made about the ascent of Jenkins and Rodriguez, but Luke Keaschall was part of a youth movement wave that built quickly out of seemingly nowhere. He wasn't a Top 100 prospect before the season and was on the fringe of the conversation, but ended up getting an All-Star Futures Game nod in July before finishing the season as the Twins' No. 3 overall prospect.

Tommy John surgery abruptly ended his season, but things are set up for him to be a big part of the future for Minnesota. The only question is whether that's as part of a third youth movement wave in the majors or as valuable trade currency in the winter.

Brooks Lee, INF

It's hard to fathom how quickly Brooks Lee arrived with the Twins. Last winter he was knocking on the door of an MLB promotion but missed making the Opening Day roster due to both an injury and simply getting edged out.

He was a first round pick back in 2022, and needed less than two full seasons in the minors to make his MLB debut. Twins fans are accustomed to waiting years for top prospects to finally make an impact, but Lee's unprecedented rise didn't dissapoint.

Stock doesn't rise any faster or higher than Lee starting the year as a Top 20 prospect in all of baseball and didn't take long to graduate from that status into a full-fledge member of the MLB roster.

David Festa and Zebby Matthews, P

Lee's rise was a spectacle thanks to the sheer amount of anticipation around his debut, but both Zebby Matthews and David Festa rose just as fast albeit with more stealth.

Matthews was specifically stunning to watch. Like Keaschall, he didn't being the year on many radars and wasn't a Top 100 prospect. That quickly changed, and a rash of injuries to the Twins' starting rotation expedited his rise to the Majors. He was a fast moving storm through the farm system wth his debut coming together almost as quickly as Festa's.

Fans were more aware of Festa than Matthews at the beginning of the season, and he was another young arm forced into a baptism-by-fire situation thanks to injuries. Both players lived up to the hype as best they could, and with the seal broken they might end up becoming part of the future sooner than expected.

Kaelen Culpepper, SS

There was a theme this season when it came to Twins prospects turning up the heat, and Kaelen Culpepper wasted no time joining the party.

He was Minnesota's first round pick in this year's draft, but has already passed players like Marco Raya and Gabriel Gonzalez as a Top 5 prospect in the farm system. He's unique among the other top prospects in that the Twins drafted him out of college, which naturally bumped his timeline up.

Culpepper needed just nine games with the Mighty Mussels before getting promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids where he polished off a collective .242/.330/.394 slashline. He's still a bit behind guys like E-Rod, Jenkins, and Kaeschall as far as knocking on the MLB door, but it's not a stretch to think that Culpepper will be the next fast riser we're all watching in 2025.

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