MLB Draft: 5 prospects Twins could target with No. 5 pick
- Twins have 5th overall pick in this year's MLB Draft
- MLB Draft will take place on Sunday, July 9th
With the MLB Draft right around the corner, the Minnesota Twins will have a few different options to choose from when they go on the clock at No. 5 overall.
Thanks to the new MLB Draft Lottery that was instituted as part of the new CBA, the Twins are selecting at their highest position since taking Royce Lewis with the No. 1 pick back in 2017. It's been a bit of a rough stretch since then, although last year's selection of Brooks Lee at No. 8 overall has caused some serious excitement.
Who will join Lee as the next young prospect to get hyped about?
There seems to be six players who are locked into being the top guys in the draft this year, but that doesn't guarantee they'll be picked in that order. Basbeall uses slot value and assigns each team a certain amount of money it can spend on bonuses for players it drafts. That usually doesn't complicate things too much but it's something taken into consideration when making a decision on which prospect to select.
For what it's worth, the Twins bonus pool amount this year is $14.3 million.
MLB Draft: 5 prospects Twins could target with No. 5 pick
5. Max Clark, OF - Franklin High School (Indiana)
The Twins have been connected to Max Clark for some time, and he's one of the most likley prospects to get to them at No. 5 overall. He's one of the best hitters in the draft and recently won National Player of the Year as the best high school ballplayer in the country.
Of the two top high schoolers in the draft, Clark is the higher-rated prospect and would be able to marinate in the Twins farm system for a season or two if he decides to sign. He's only 18 years old, which means there's a long road ahead before he gets the call to be a piece of the Twins core but he's an excellent investment at a position the Twins love to draft .
4. Walker Jenkins, OF, South Brunswick High School (North Carolina)
The other high schooler to keep an eye on for the Twins is Walker Jenkins, who is a close second to Max Clark.
Clark is the pick between the two, but there's a chance he ends up getting selected before the Twins go on the clock. If that happens -- and all of the other names to watch are gone as well -- Jenkins will be hard to pass on.
According to Keith Law, the Twins are leaning towards a college player if their top choices are gone but have Jenkins rated almost as highly.
Outfielder. Wyatt Langford. 526. Wyatt Langford. . . player. . Wyatt Langford. 3
One of the very best prospects in this year's draft is Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford. Depending on who you talk to, he's the best prospect and could go No. 1 overall when Pittsburgh goes on the clock.
If he doesn't, which is a possibility, the question becomes whether or not he gets to the Twins four picks later? He's one the best hitters in the draft and one of the best in the entire nation when looking at other college hitters. He checks so many boxes for the Twins that it's hard to believe he wasn't some ChatGPT creation specifically designed for scouts in Minnesota.
The problem here is that Langford is projected to be a Top 3 pick in most mock drafts, which is bad news for the Twins. Earlier in the process it seemed like Langford might slip down to Minnesota at No. 5, which is still a possibility but there's now a higher chance he gets scooped before then.
Adding an extra twist of the knife is the fact that most MLB Mock Drafts have Langford penciled in to the Detroit Tigers at No. 3 overall.
. OF // RHP. . Dylan Crews // Paul Skenes. Dylan Crews // Paul Skenes. player. 529. Dylan Crews. . 2
Similar to Wyatt Langford, the stock for outfielder Dylan Crewes is impossibly high heading into Sunday's draft. When you're picking in the Top 5, though, you have to set your sights on the best prospects in the class otherwise what's the point?
Strange things have happened in other drafts where top-rated players slip a bit once the action begins, and that's something Minnesota is hoping happens with Crews. Typically that happens with guys who have some sort of asterisk, usually involving something with their medicals. For Crews, it's the record-breaking $10 million signing bonus he reportedly wants from the team that drafts him.
Could that scare the first four teams in the order? A better question is would the Twins front office take the gamble and call his bluff, or actually pay him a $10 million bonus? Crews is considered the No. 1 prospect in the draft by most experts and Minnesota landing him would be an absolute steal.
If we're talking LSU prospects, perhaps the name to keep an eye on for the Twins is Paul Skenes. He's a hard-throwing right-hander who showed he can live in pressure situations during the College World Series. Given how well-positioned the Twins starting rotation is for the next few years, having Skenes join Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan a few years down the road feels like a pretty good spot for the team to be in.
532. . Shortstop. Jacob Gonzalez. Jacob Gonzalez. . . Jacob Gonzalez. 1. player
While he's not the top prospect on the board, Jacob Gonzalez might be the most realistic option for the Twins if everything plays out the way most believe it will. Crews and Langford are likely going to be gone with Skenes being the guy who has the highest chance of falling to Minnesota.
Keep in mind, those chances are not that high but if there's a top prospect who could get to the Twins at No. 5, it's Skenes.
If all of those guys are gone, Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez is a name to keep an eye on. Taking yet another shortstop when there's already a logjam of them in the farm system feels like those years when David Kahn couldn't stop taking guards, but he's a fantastic up-the-middle player who could help fill middle infield holes that emerge.
He started every single game of his college career at Ole Miss at shortstop, which might make it harder to move him somewhere like second base to fill a potential hole after Jorge Polanco's time is done (and it won't be Edouard Julien's glove at second). Minnesota has Brooks Lee, Austin Martin, and Jose Salas all in the farm system as shortstops, plus a guy named Carlos Correa occupying that spot in the Majors.
Then again, Royce Lewis was projected to be a shortstop for the Twins and he slid over to third base after Jose Miranda was sent down so it's possible that Gonzalez could learn a new primary position.
Any argument that could be made for or against Gonzalez making sense at No. 5 comes down to the Twins liking him more than any other college prospects -- which they apparently do. According to Keith Law at The Athletic, Minnesota has Gonzalez as the next prospect on their board after Langford and Crews. Depending on what happens, that could be the deciding factor assuming the front office isn't setting up some sort of smoke screen.
2 trade deadline deals that have impacted the Twins in 2023. dark. Next