2021 MLB Draft
Petty is one of the best draft picks the Twins made in recent years not because of what he provided on the field but what he provided off it.
Minnesota used Petty as the centerpiece of a trade with the Cincinnati Reds that landed Sonny Gray. It's yet to be seen how well this grade ages, as Gray deciding to leave the Twins in free agency this winter will knock it down a few pegs.
But it's hard to deny that Gray has been anything other than fantastic since arriving in Minnesota. He's been one of the team's best pitchers and helped blaze a trail that led to the phenomenal rotation the Twins have this season. He's been an ace the front office has been searching for, and puncuated the trade by being named to the AL All-Star team this season.
Pablo Lopez was traded for over the winter to be the Twins ace of the future, alongside Joe Ryan, but if there's a way to bring Gray back and form a three-headed monster in the rotation then drafting Chase Petty might be one of the best decisions the current front office has made since taking charge.
2022 MLB Draft
It's still super early but the hype for Brooks Lee is rivaling the kind we saw with Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis. He was drafted a few spots lower than both of those guys, but everything about Lee suggests he's going to be the next great Twins prospect to help carry the team into the future.
Knowing that, there's a fair amount of pressure on a kid who is only 22-years old, but fans are already trying to find ways to fit him into the lineup as soon as this season. He was drafted as a third baseman, which creates the kind of positional logjam a team would love to have.
Minnesota has Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, Austin Martin, and Brooks Lee as infielders that will almost certainly play sigifincant time in the Majors over the rest of the decade. Martin is the biggest wild card, as he could end up being the odd man out and become trade bait if the Twins want to make a move.
Lee is locked in, though. An ideal infield would have Correa moving to third base with Lee taking over at shortstop and Lewis moving to the outfield. The good news is that all three players are capable of playing the same positions -- aside from moving Correa to the outfield -- which means the Twins will have plenty of ways to fit them all into the same lineup somewhere in the near future.