Minnesota Twins release struggling former first round draft pick
By Josh Hill
Things are going realtively well for the Minnesota Twins at the big league level. After getting swept by the Yankees and dropping two out of three to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Twins have seven of their last eight games and are coming off back-to-back series victories.
Not everything is rosey throughout the organization, though.
On Monday the Twins made the difficut decision to release a former first round draft pick after a brutal stint in High-A Cedar Rapids. Keoni Cavaco was the team's top draft pick in 2019, but failed to reach Double-A and ended up bottoming out recently by hitting .144 this season for the Kernels.
Minnesota Twins release 2019 first-round pick Keoni Cavaco
Cavaco was drafted with the No. 13 pick back in 2019 as a high school prospect. He never developed in the farm system, though, failing to make it past Single-A and stuggling at almost every turn. He's only 23-year old so there's still hope he can figure things out, but if he does it will be with another team.
This wasn't a case of the Twins DFA'ing a player, as Cavaco was outright released and the team is moving on completely.
#MNTwins released 2019 first-round pick Keoni Cavaco.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) June 17, 2024
#13 overall pick out of high school, but hit .172 in rookie-ball and never advanced past Single-A, hitting .212 overall.
Cut from High-A Cedar Rapids, where hit .144 this year.
At no point did he look like a legit prospect.
His struggles were magnified by how well some of the other players in his draft class have developed over the years. The Twins used the No. 13 pick on Cavaco, and in doing so passed on both Corbin Carroll and George Kirby -- two players who have since named All-Stars.
Anthony Volpe, Michael Busch, and Korey Lee were also in that draft class and have since become key pieces of their team's future. Lee is someone the Twins might be seeing a lot, as he was acquired by the Chicago White Sox last July and figures to be a cornestone of whatever they're building on the Southside.
It's easy to look back with the gift of hindsight and argue that someone else should have been the pick, but Cavaco wasn't a terrible gamble to take. Royce Lewis was coming up as an infielder of the future, Jose Miranda was starting to rise, and the Twins didn't need an advanced player at either position for the immediate future.
Still, it's tough to see what the Twins missed out on, and it's even more of a bummer now that bait has been completely cut on Cavaco.
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