The Minnesota Twins 2019 Top 30 Prospects, Five Years Later
I saw a Twitter thread and I got curious
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I don’t even have Twitter on my phone anymore. I’m there a couple times a week at most, exclusively on browser and always when I’m seeking up-to-the-minute updates from sources I already trust.
Last time I logged on, in the brief moment of time between my feed loading and my mouse making its way to the search bar, I saw this thread.
This thread is from a fed-up Brewers fan and was meant to convey that most of the organization’s “top talent” guys in recent years have not actually made significant contributions to the major league club. Corey Ray—their first round pick in 2016 and #2 prospect in 2019—ended up playing exactly one game with the Brewers in 2021, going 0-for-2 with a walk. He retired from playing a year later.
For the most part, this has not been true of the Twins, I think. It feels to me as if most of the club’s top prospects in recent years have either performed in the majors or been traded directly for players who have.
But I had some time on my hands, so I figured I’d dive a little deeper into the Twins’ top 30 prospects from 2019 to see a) whether my inkling was correct, and b) what everyone’s up to these days.
From Royce to Rijo, these were the Twins’ top 30 prospects of 2019.
The Prospects
1. SS Royce Lewis
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 3.0
Royce Lewis needs no introduction; he just needs to stay healthy. Since debuting on May 6, 2022, the 2017 #1 overall pick has taken just 282 plate appearances in 71 regular season games.
He’s slashed .313/.369/.564 (159 wRC+) in that limited action—and as of this writing he’s literally batting 1.000 in 2024, so jot that down—so when he’s healthy he’s been a potential MVP candidate. And who could forget that incredible Game 1 of last year’s Wild Card series against Toronto, when he hit two solo homers in a game the Twins won by two runs?
The best ability is availability, but as soon as Royce can stay on the field, he’ll be the clear face of the franchise.
2. OF/1B Alex Kirilloff
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 0.7
The low WAR total for Alex Kirilloff can also be attributed to injury.
After becoming one of just six players to make his major league debut in the postseason (half of which, including him, did so in 2020), Kirilloff played well enough for a rookie to begin 2021, but then he suffered an injury to his right wrist and had it surgically repaired, limiting him to just 59 games.
Kirilloff’s wrist clearly hadn’t healed in time for the 2022 season, and his hitting declined as a result. He spent the season splitting time between the majors, AAA, and the injured list.
Through 2022, Alex Kirilloff’s career fWAR was -0.2. But he was finally ready midway through 2023 and he’s been hitting like a middle-of-the-order presence ever since (120 wRC+ in 88 games last year; 145 wRC+ in a small sample so far this year).
Finally coming into his own at age 26, the future is bright for Alex Kirilloff.
3. RHP Brusdar Graterol
Current organization: Dodgers
Departure from Twins: Trade for Kenta Maeda and Jair Camargo (February 10, 2020)
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 3.0 (0.1 with Twins)
A September call-up less than a week after his 21st birthday in 2019, Graterol flashed impressive potential in 10 appearances totaling 9.2 innings for the Twins; though he lacked a true second pitch, he routinely touched triple digits with the fastball, and when it was on, it was nearly unhittable.
That 2019 Twins team was swept out of the ALDS despite winning 101 regular season games and setting the all-time MLB record for home runs, and the reason for that was clear: their starting pitching depth was not playoff-caliber in the slightest. So they swung a deal with the Dodgers for the consistently solid Kenta Maeda and sent Graterol over as the key piece in the return,1 which also included a middling outfielder we’ll get to in a little while.
With the Dodgers, Graterol got off to an inconsistent start, but has since honed his secondary slider and cutter to become one of the most feared, hard-throwing relievers in the sport.
Meanwhile, Maeda notched 2.1 fWAR in just 11 starts in the shortened 2020 season, pitching to a 2.70 ERA and 10.8 K/9 and finishing second in the AL Cy Young voting. Over the next three years, he would earn just 3.1 fWAR total, as he went under the knife for Tommy John surgery in late 2021 and missed all of 2022. But when he did pitch, he was still pretty good, and he served as a great veteran leader for the Twins even when he was injured. He became a free agent after the 2023 season and signed with Detroit.
I say all that to say that I think the Twins won the trade. A good starter is always more valuable than a great reliever. Minnesota got good value out of Graterol, though he’s not a free agent until 2027, so if he keeps pitching like he did last year, he could at least make it close.
4. SS Wander Javier
Current status: Retired
Departure from Twins: Minor league free agent (following 2022 season)
Highest level: AAA
Wander Javier was supposed to be a stud.
He signed with the Twins as an international free agent in 2015 for a hefty $4 million bonus. That’s the same international free agent class that gave us Juan Soto, Fernando Tatís Jr., and Andrés Giménez, and Javier’s bonus was bigger than those three’s combined.2
Javier made his professional debut in the 2016 Dominican Summer League, where he slashed .308/.400/.654 in 30 plate appearances. Then, in 2017 at age 18, he played for Elizabethton, the Rookie League affiliate. There, he slashed .299/.383/.471 in 180 plate appearances. The potential was obvious.
A torn labrum cost Javier all of 2018, and that brings us to the 2019 preseason, when Wander Javier—who signed with tremendous hype and had hit well when he’d played—was ranked #4 in the Twins system.
He spent 2019 with Low-A Cedar Rapids and…eesh: .177/.278/.323 in 342 plate appearances. Bad. Then there were no minor leagues in 2020, so he just had to sit and marinate in that for a full year. In 2021, the Twins sent him to Cedar Rapids again, but due to some minor league reorganization, that became the High-A team. The result: .225/.280/.413 in 411 plate appearances. Still bad.
At 23 years old, Javier repeated High-A in 2022 and was somehow even worse: .209/.273/.362. He was set to become a minor league free agent at the end of the season, so the Twins threw a Hail Mary and called him up to AAA St. Paul in September. He went 2-for-20 with 13 strikeouts and that was the end of his time in the Twins organization.
He signed a minor league deal with the Padres in January 2023, but just before the regular season was set to begin, he decided he’d had enough. He retired. It’s anyone’s guess what he’s doing now. He’s still only 25 years old.
5. OF Trevor Larnach
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 1.2
Trevor Larnach is currently hiding on the minor league injured list, rehabbing with Low-A Fort Myers. The way this season is going with injury luck, he might be called up to the big leagues as soon as he’s ready to go, but as of this writing, he is a minor leaguer. (Editing to add that he was activated and called up to the majors between when I wrote this and when I published it.)
He’s taken 693 plate appearances in the major leagues—a full season’s worth—spread somewhat evenly across the past three seasons. In his Twins career, he’s been a pretty unremarkable lefty platoon corner outfielder. He’s got a promising power stroke, but he also strikes out more than a third of the time he comes to the plate, and his defense has been mediocre to bad.
His career 96 wRC+ is serviceable, but if he can only hit righties and he’s not a good defender, he’s gonna have a tough time sticking around an organization rich with lefty outfield depth.
6. OF Brent Rooker
Current organization: Athletics
Departure from Twins: Trade with Padres for Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagán (April 7, 2022)
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 1.6 (-0.2 with Twins)
Brent Rooker was the Twins’ other first round pick in 2017, coming to Minnesota in the competitive balance round, 35th overall.
Another power-swinging corner outfielder, the right-handed Rooker mashed in the upper minors in 2018 and 2019 and earned a brief cup of coffee with the big club in the screwy 2020 season before getting a longer look in 2021.
He disappointed, hitting for a 91 wRC+ in 213 plate appearances while striking out 32.9% of the time. Heading into his age-27 season in 2022, the Twins saw no path to regular playing time for him, so they shipped him with former closer Taylor Rogers in a somewhat baffling trade to San Diego the day before Opening Day, getting floundering starter Chris Paddack and volatile reliever Emilio Pagán in return.
Rooker spent 2022 as a AAAA guy, hitting poorly in the majors but crushing in AAA. He did this for two different clubs, as the Padres traded him to Kansas City at the deadline. The Royals then designated him for assignment following the 2022 season and the Athletics scooped him up immediately.
With Oakland, Rooker finally broke out in 2023 at age 28, to the tune of a 127 wRC+ with 30 homers in 526 plate appearances, culminating in an All-Star selection. As of this writing, he’s injured, but he’s Oakland’s starting right fielder when healthy.
In a vacuum, it’s kind of impossible to tell if the Twins made the most of Brent Rooker’s value, but I think trading him to make way for better, younger prospects was the right move.
7. RHP Jhoan Durán
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 2.5
Jhoan Durán is currently rehabbing an injured oblique, but when he returns at some point in the next few weeks, he should reclaim his position as Minnesota’s primary closer.
The Twins acquired Durán from the Diamondbacks in 2018, one of three minor league pieces returned for veteran utilityman Eduardo Escobar (and we’ll get to one of the other two later). When he arrived with the Twins, he was a starter, not a reliever. He’s always had the pitch mix we know and love today, but he didn’t throw it quite as fast. His 2019 MLB Pipeline scouting report honestly looks cute.
“Durán has an exciting repertoire that points to a future in a big league rotation. He relies heavily on two distinct fastballs, a four-seamer that sits at 94-96 mph and touches 98 mph and a two-seamer that’s a cross between a sinker and a splitter, thrown 90-93 mph, that misses a ton of bats and drives his strikeout rate. He can spin a curveball, flashing a plus breaking ball, and it’s a point of focus for him in 2019.”
On July 19, 2023, Jhoan Durán threw a fastball 104.8 mph.
8. LHP Lewis Thorpe
Current status: Playing in the Mexican League (Dorados de Chihuahua)
Departure from Twins: Released (April 21, 2022)
Highest level: MLB
Career fWAR: 0.4
Lewis Thorpe is the definition of a crafty lefty, with a fastball that hits 92 on a good day and three secondary pitches—a slider, changeup, and curveball—to throw hitters off.
Against minor league competition, he thrived, as his ERA usually sat in the 3s and he usually struck out more than one batter per inning. In 59.1 innings against major league competition, he got hit a lot harder (5.76 ERA) and the strikeouts were much rarer (7.13 K/9).
Thorpe made his major league debut in 2019 and spent the next three seasons bobbing up and down between the majors and AAA. When the Twins ran out of options on him in 2022, they outrighted him to AAA St. Paul. His first start of the season was a disaster—1.2 IP, 6 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K—and the Twins immediately released him from the organization.
He pitched for the independent American Association’s Kansas City Monarchs in 2022, appears to have taken 2023 off, and just last week signed with the newly re-established Dorados de Chihuahua of the Mexican League.
9. RHP Blayne Enlow
Current organization: Giants
Departure from Twins: Minor league free agent (following 2023 season)
Current/highest level: AAA/AAA
Blayne Enlow’s career has thus far been defined by a rather unfortunate split. In 352.2 innings below AAA, his ERA is a shiny 3.50; in 53.0 innings at the AAA level, it’s a nightmarish 7.98.
Knowing 2023 was Enlow’s final season before qualifying for minor league free agency, he Twins first called him up to AAA St. Paul in June, after he’d pitched to a 3.17 ERA in 54.0 innings for AA Wichita. Over the remainder of the season, he was hit abnormally hard: in 45.1 innings, he allowed a 7.94 ERA and 1.99 HR/9.
The Twins didn’t add Enlow to the 40-man roster, he elected minor league free agency, and the Giants signed him as a reclamation project. He’s still only 25 years old, so he could very well figure something out and reach the majors, but in his first two starts for AAA Sacramento, he’s pitched to a combined line of 7.2 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 7 K. That won’t get it done.
10. SS/2B Nick Gordon
Current organization: Marlins
Departure from Twins: Trade for Steven Okert (February 11, 2024)
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 1.4 (1.3 with Twins, including -0.2 pitching fWAR)
It’s rare that a first round MLB draft pick is easily the third most impressive baseball player in his own family, but that’s the reality for Nick Gordon: the fifth overall pick in the 2014 draft, and yet obviously not as dynamic as older brother Dee Strange-Gordon or father Tom Gordon.
Nick would complete his slow climb to the majors in 2021 and become a serviceable superutility guy for the next three seasons, playing every position on the diamond except first base and catcher. That includes pitcher, as Gordon was brought on to pitch in mop-up duty four times in 2022.
We didn’t know it at the time, but Nick’s Twins career would end on May 17, 2023, when he fouled a ball off his leg and broke his tibia. He would stay out for the rest of the season, but he remained a consummate hype man, sticking around the Twins dugout for the playoffs and going nuts when Royce hit those homers in the Wild Card series.
With Gordon out of options and the Twins having no room for him on the major league roster, the team shipped him to Miami in the offseason in return for lefty reliever Steven Okert.
11. LHP Stephen Gonsalves
Current organization: Dodgers
Departure from Twins: Claimed off waivers by Mets (November 4, 2019)
Current/highest level: AAA/MLB
Career fWAR: -0.1 (-0.2 with Twins)
Unlike any of the previous 10 players on this list, Stephen Gonsalves had already debuted in the majors at the time this ranking released.
He wasn’t really…good. In fact, many would say his performance was “bad”, as his 24.2-inning cup of coffee saw him allow 18 earned runs and walk 22 while only striking out 16.
Gonsalves comes from the same school of crafty leftyism as Lewis Thorpe, as his fastball averages a paltry 90 mph but he complements it with two breaking balls and a changeup. The problem: he can’t control any of them. Bad control + no velocity = unplayable.
After spending pretty much all of 2019 injured and not appearing in the majors in the short time he was healthy, Gonsalves was waived by the Twins and claimed by the Mets. He was originally slated to make the team in 2020, but just before the regular season, the Mets surprisingly called up top prospect Andrés Giménez—somehow the second time Giménez has been mentioned less than halfway through this list—and designated Gonsalves for assignment.
Now a journeyman, Gonsalves has since bounced around to the Red Sox (for whom he made three MLB relief appearances in 2021) and the Cubs (for whom he never appeared in the majors) before landing this year with the Dodgers. A righty would have flamed out of affiliated ball ages ago, but everyone’s always looking for left-handed pitching, so Gonsalves continues to get second chances despite poor performance for the past half-decade.
Gonsalves turns 30 in July.
12. OF Akil Baddoo
Current organization: Tigers
Departure from Twins: Taken in 2020 Rule 5 draft
Current/highest level: AAA/MLB
Career fWAR: 2.1 (none with Twins)
The Twins have recently never lacked for outfield depth, so they didn’t really have an issue leaving Akil Baddoo off the 40-man roster following the 2020 season. Some fans were upset when he was thusly claimed by the division rival Tigers, but he’d never played above High-A, and with Byron Buxton and Max Kepler holding down two outfield spots forever, and Brent Rooker and Trevor Larnach (among others) on deck, a clear path to the major leagues was not imminent.
Naturally—forced by Rule 5 to remain on the Tigers’ major league roster for the entire season—Baddoo hit for a 108 wRC+ in 461 plate appearances and stole 18 bases in 2021.
With Buxton spending much of the season injured, Kepler struggling, and the Twins shuffling through a cavalcade of underperforming prospects and uninspiring journeymen to fill the gap, many fans retroactively became furious at the team for letting Baddoo go. But Baddoo would prove to be a one-season wonder, at least to date, as he’s hit for a 64 and a 88 wRC+ in the two seasons since.
The Tigers appear to have run out of patience, as Baddoo began 2024 with AAA Toledo. He’s still only 25 and he has two options remaining, so he’ll probably stick around a while.
13. 3B/1B Yunior Severino
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: AAA/AAA
At #13, we reach our first player who’s still working his way to the majors in the Twins organization.
Yunior Severino was originally signed by Atlanta in their huge 2016 international free agent class. However, following the 2017 season, Major League Baseball nullified the contracts of most of Atlanta’s recent international free agents—including Severino—due to gross violations by the organization.3
Atlanta’s loss was Minnesota’s gain, as the Twins signed him a couple weeks later. He was 18 then, and the Twins started him out in rookie ball in 2018. In the six years since, he’s gradually crawled his way up the minor league ladder, hitting at a league average level or better wherever he goes.
In 2023, Severino slashed .287/.365/.560 in 375 plate appearances for AA Wichita, then got called up to AAA St. Paul, where he slashed .233/.320/.511 in 153 plate appearances. To begin 2024, Severino is still on the Twins’ top prospect list, now at #23. He’s off to a slow start, but he’s expected to finally make his major league debut this year, at age 24.
14. 3B/2B/1B José Miranda
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 0.8
José Miranda rose through the Twins’ minor league system on the strength of his smooth swing and his good contact tool. He rode the bat all the way to the majors, where he debuted on May 2, 2022, but his lack of any other distinguishing skills has prevented him from truly breaking out.
Miranda saw some success at the dish in 483 plate appearances in his rookie season, hitting for a 117 wRC+ and knocking 15 homers. But once the league zeroed in on his tendencies, he had a tough time adjusting and began hitting a ton of soft ground balls. A 57 wRC+ in 152 plate appearances to begin 2023 was bad enough to get him sent down to AAA for the remainder of the season, and he’s only in the majors right now because half the lineup is injured.
The ceiling for Miranda with the Twins seems to be as an organizational depth piece, as Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff have locked down 3B and 1B, respectively, and Miranda’s defense isn’t good enough for him to stay up as a utility guy.
15. OF Gilberto Celestino
Current organization: Pirates
Departure from Twins: Minor league free agent (following 2023 season)
Current/highest level: AAA/MLB
Career fWAR: -0.3 (all with Twins)
Gilberto Celestino signed with the Astros in the 2015 international free agent class. He joined the Twins in 2018, coming over (with a pitcher we’ll get to in a second) as a return piece in the Ryan Pressly trade.
Celestino, a speedy, defense-first outfielder, flashed a hit tool in the minors and played well enough to debut with the big club in 2021, becoming a regular part of the outfield shuffle then and in 2022.
Unfortunately, at the major league level, Celestino just couldn’t hit: a 73 wRC+ in 409 plate appearances across those two seasons led to him falling on the depth chart in 2023, never appearing in a major league game, and being designated for assignment following the season.
The Pirates picked him up as organizational depth, and he’s currently chillin’ in AAA Indianapolis.
16. C Ryan Jeffers
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 5.5
The Twins drafted Ryan Jeffers as a power-hitting catcher in 2016, and they got a power-hitting catcher: with a .195 ISO in 966 plate appearances since his debut in 2020, Jeffers has been a consistent presence behind the plate for this Twins core.
After two down years in 2021 and ‘22 (83 and 87 wRC+, respectively), Jeffers broke out to a 138 wRC+ in 2023 and has started 2024 on an even better trajectory. You’ll never complain when one of your catchers hits well enough to DH on his days off.
17. 2B Luis Arráez
Current organization: Marlins
Departure from Twins: Trade for Pablo López (January 20, 2023)
Current/highest level: AAA/MLB
Career fWAR: 10.1 (6.7 with Twins)
As a prospect, Luis Arráez was thought to have a good hit tool, but not an otherworldly excellent one, and it wasn’t clear how well it would translate to the majors given his lack of other standout skills.
Once he got to the majors in 2019, he somehow started hitting for contact even better than he did in the minors. He won the American League batting title with the Twins in 2022, then got traded to the Marlins and won the National League batting title in 2023, becoming just the second player in the modern era to win it in both leagues.4
18. RHP Jorge Alcalá
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: AAA/MLB
Career fWAR: 0.3
Relief pitcher Jorge Alcalá was the other piece in the 2018 Ryan Pressly trade, coming over to the Twins with Gilberto Celestino.
He might currently be with AAA St. Paul, but it’s not for lack of performance. Due to a cavalcade of bullpen injuries to begin the season, Alcalá spent the first two weeks of the year with the big club, pitching 8.1 innings of scoreless ball in six appearances.
Though he’s battled a few injuries, Alcalá’s made at least a couple major league appearances in every season dating back to 2019. At his best, he’s looked like a possible back-of-the-bullpen guy.
Alcalá is under team control for two more seasons. Still just 28 (which might as well be 23 in reliever years), he should have a lot left in the tank.
19. RHP Jordan Balazovic
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: AAA/MLB
Career fWAR: -0.4
At the time of this ranking, Jordan Balazovic was a starter, and he’d remain a starter through 2022. But, after pitching to a bad 7.39 ERA in 70.2 innings with AAA St. Paul that year, the Twins converted him to a reliever. He wasn’t much better out of the bullpen in 2023, but the Twins’ relievers kept getting injured, so they finally called him up for his major league debut anyway.
In 24.1 major league innings across 18 relief appearances, Balazovic pitched to a mediocre 105 ERA-, but his pedestrian 6.29 K/9 suggested he was outpitching his peripherals, and his FIP- was an even worse 142. (Remember, lower is better for the FanGraphs pitching stats.)
The Twins designated Balazovic for assignment following the 2023 season and he accepted an outright assignment to AAA St. Paul. He’s begun the 2024 season in their bullpen, where some poor luck has tagged him with an 8.10 ERA in 6.2 innings, but peripherals suggest he’s been just about average.
20. OF Misael Urbina
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: High-A/High-A
The Twins had just signed Venezuela’s Misael Urbina as an international free agent when this ranking released. Urbina was only 16 years old at the time and would not begin climbing the minor league ladder until 2021.
In the three seasons since, well…he hasn’t hit. His career minor league slash line, split mostly between Low-A Fort Myers and High-A Cedar Rapids, is .213/.314/.335 in 1357 plate appearances. He is still in High-A to begin 2024.
The Twins knew they wouldn’t see Urbina in the majors for a long time when they signed him, but it’s seeming more and more likely it’ll just never happen.
21. RHP Zack Littell
Current organization: Rays
Departure from Twins: Minor league free agent (following 2020 season)
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 1.6 (0.0 with Twins)
Aha, yes! I get to mention Twins legend Jaime García!
So, in 2017, the Twins exited the All-Star Break at 45-43. Many thought they could at least contend for a Wild Card as long as they shored up the starting pitching a little bit. Ervin Santana and José Berríos were the only two above-average starters on the staff, which at this point also included a 44-year-old Bartolo Colón after earlier attempts to duct tape it together with names like Nik Turley, Adam Wilk, and Nick Tepesch had predictably failed.
The front office understood this, obviously, so on July 24—when the Twins were 49-48—they dealt 19-year-old propsect Huascar Ynoa to Atlanta for the veteran Jaime García,5 who had pitched to a 97 ERA- in 113 innings.
Then the Twins went on a big skid heading into the trade deadline. In the week between their July 24 acquisition of García and the July 31 deadline, they went 1-5, falling to 50-53 on the season. The only game they won? Naturally, the one García started: on July 28 in Oakland, he pitched 6.2 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 K. It would be his only appearance for Minnesota.
The Twins having done an about face regarding their chances of contention, they flipped García to the Yankees at the deadline for two more pitching prospects: Dietrich Enns and, you guessed it, Zack Littell.6
Littell would debut for the Twins in 2018 and stick around for three years, recording a 4.52 ERA in 43 appearances covering 63.2 innings. After poor performance in 2020, the Twins outrighted him to AAA Rochester (remember them?) and he elected minor league free agency.
Since then, Littell has bounced around to the Giants, Red Sox, and Rays, and been a solid (if unimpressive) swingman. In his current stint with Tampa Bay, he’s made 29 appearances: 17 starts and 12 in relief.
22. OF LaMonte Wade Jr.
Current organization: Giants
Departure from Twins: Trade for Shaun Anderson (February 4, 2021)
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 4.4 (-0.1 with Twins)
Another lefty outfielder in the Twins’ rich network of them, LaMonte Wade Jr. just didn’t have any room to grow with the organization.
In the minors, Wade profiled as a good hitter with not much power. In brief major league action with the Twins in 2019 and 2020, he indeed lacked power, but the hit tool wasn’t there either. In 113 plate appearances across the two years, Wade slashed .211/.336/.347.
The Twins had no use for Wade’s services, so—at the nadir of his value—they traded him to San Francisco for righty reliever Shaun Anderson. Wade immediately settled into a fourth outfielder role with the Giants. Whether it was the change of scenery or a difference in coaching strategy, something over there must have helped him, because he broke out for a 118 wRC+ in 381 plate appearances at age 27, including—ironically enough—a .229 ISO.
Despite shaky defense, Wade’s bat has has only improved from there, and he’s started 2024 with the Giants on an absolute scorcher: .386/.481/.523 in 52 plate appearances to date.
Meanwhile, Shaun Anderson pitched to a horrible 9.35 ERA in 8.2 innings across four relief appearances before the Twins tried to slip him through waivers for literally no reason—he had two option years remaining—and he was claimed away by Texas for nothing. Great job, Twins.7
23. RHP Griffin Jax
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 1.5
At the time this ranking released, Griffin Jax was a starter who’d had his development interrupted by required service to the Air Force.
Jax continued to pitch decently well as a minor league starter in 2019 and again in 2021, but when the Twins promoted him to the big leagues midway through the latter season, he had major trouble adjusting and tanked badly: 149 ERA- in 82 innings across 18 appearances (14 starts).
Beginning in 2022, the Twins moved Jax to the bullpen fulltime, and the ability to sling the ball a few MPH faster—plus a few trips to Driveline—quickly turned him into a back-end stalwart, where he remains to this day.
24. C Ben Rortvedt
Current organization: Rays
Departure from Twins: Trade for Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela (March 13, 2022)
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 0.7 (0.3 with Twins)
The Twins drafted Ben Rortvedt in the second round in 2016, two years before they drafted Ryan Jeffers in the second round. Jeffers had the superior bat but Rortvedt was a better defender.
Catchers who can hit well are rare, and Jeffers came from the college ranks while Rortvedt was drafted out of high school, so Jeffers quickly supplanted Rortvedt on the organizational depth chart, making his major league debut in 2020.
Jeffers began 2021 as the backup to starter Mitch Garver, but a slow start forced the Twins to send him down to AAA St. Paul and finally give Rortvedt a look. Rortvedt’s defense was as good as advertised, but his bat was basically unplayable (41 wRC+ in 98 plate appearances with a 29.6% K rate).
The Twins (correctly) saw Jeffers as the catcher of the future, so just before the 2022 season, they dealt Mitch Garver to Texas for shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and then—the very next day—flipped Kiner-Falefa to the Yankees in a trade that also saw the two teams swap catchers and third basemen: the Twins sent Rortvedt and Josh Donaldson and the Yankees returned Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela.8
Rortvedt spent the next two seasons as organizational depth for the Yankees, appearing in the majors briefly in 2023. Then, right before the start of this season, New York traded him to the Rays, who currently have him in a platoon with René Pinto behind the dish—Rortvedt a lefty hitter and Pinto a righty.
25. OF Gabriel Maciel
Current status: Playing in the Frontier League (Sussex County Miners)
Departure from Twins: Taken in minor league portion of 2021 Rule 5 Draft
Highest level: A+
Brazil’s Gabriel Maciel was the other noteworthy piece the Twins received from the Diamondbacks in 2018’s Eduardo Escobar trade. Age 20 at the time this ranking released, Maciel had yet to play above Low-A ball.
Maciel was projected as a speedy, glove-first outfielder with a decent hit tool but not much power. The defense and speed held up enough for him to earn a promotion to High-A Fort Myers midway through 2019, and he continued to hit there, slashing .261/.342/.357 (112 wRC+) in 229 plate appearances.
Then the 2020 minor league season got cancelled and when Maciel resumed play in 2021, he had apparently forgotten how to hit: .238/.311/.311 (76 wRC+) in 265 plate appearances. The Twins left him unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft that winter and Oakland took him in the first round of the minor league portion (which was actually the entire Rule 5 Draft that year, as the draft occurred in the middle of a lockout, so there was no collective bargaining agreement governing the major league portion).
The Athletics assigned Maciel to their own High-A affiliate in Lansing, where he had an unimpressive and injury-marred season, after which he elected minor league free agency.
Nobody signed him in 2023, and nobody in affiliated ball signed him in 2024 either. He recently accepted a contract with the Sussex County Miners of the Frontier League, an independent MLB Partner League. Maciel should return to the field when the Frontier League season begins on May 9.
26. OF Luke Raley
Current organization: Mariners
Departure from Twins: Trade back to Dodgers for Kenta Maeda and Jair Camargo (February 10, 2020)
Current/highest level: MLB/MLB
Career fWAR: 2.0 (none with Twins)
Luke Raley is a rare case: a player traded between the same two teams twice.
In 2018, the Twins sold at the trade deadline, dealing four veterans to bolster their farm system. I’ve already discussed the Eduardo Escobar and Ryan Pressly trades at length, and those were both big deals, but the biggest move the team made was trading slugging second baseman Brian Dozier to the Dodgers for replacement infielder Logan Forsythe, high-minors lefty pitcher Devin Smeltzer, and this guy: Luke Raley.
Raley, himself a lefty, had done nothing but hit in the minors, and that continued in the Twins organization, as he put up a 133 wRC+ in 116 plate appearances with AA Chattanooga to finish 2018, then a 122 wRC+ in 138 plate appearances with AAA Rochester in 2019.
Then the Twins and Dodgers entered more trade talks that offseason, which eventually evolved into the aforementioned Kenta Maeda deal: the Dodgers sent him and minor league catcher Jair Camargo, while the Twins sent Brusdar Graterol…and returned Luke Raley.
After the cancelled 2020 season, Raley continued to rake with the Dodgers’ AAA club in Oklahoma City and earned a major league call-up in 2021. The Dodgers would flip him to the Rays for pitching depth in 2022, and he’d spend two seasons with Tampa Bay, putting up an impressive 130 wRC+ in 406 plate appearances in 2023.
The Rays traded him to Seattle in January of this year, and he’s been the Mariners’ fourth outfielder to begin 2024.
27. OF DaShawn Keirsey Jr.
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: AAA/AAA
DaShawn Keirsey Jr. was the Twins’ fourth-round draft pick in 2018. Taken out of Utah at age 21, he hadn’t played above rookie ball when this ranking was released.
Keirsey quickly fell off prospect ranking lists, but has remained persistent in the minor leagues, gradually rising year after year and finally earning a promotion to AAA St. Paul in August 2023. After a decent showing there, the Twins invited him to Spring Training in 2024. Though he was never going to break camp with the major league roster, it’s a testament to his determination that he got that opportunity at age 26 after rising through the minors at a slow pace more akin to a high school pitcher than a college outfielder.
Keirsey has begun 2024 back in St. Paul. Through 58 plate appearances, he’s slashed .269/.345/.538 (122 wRC+) with three home runs. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Twins would have to clear room for him to make his major league debut, but it doesn’t seem that far out of the question that he’ll wear a big league uniform at some point in his career. He turns 27 next month.
28. 2B/OF Travis Blankenhorn
Current organization: Nationals
Departure from Twins: Designated for assignment and claimed by Dodgers (May 14, 2021)
Current/highest level: AAA/MLB
Career fWAR: -0.2 (-0.1 with Twins)
Taken by the Twins out of high school in 2015, Travis Blankenhorn was 22 and had only reached High-A Fort Myers at the time this ranking released. But he’d mashed everywhere he’d been, showing a power stroke rare for a primary second baseman (and reminiscent of the slugger the Twins had just traded away the previous summer).
After a great 2019 season at AA Pensacola saw Blankenhorn slash .278/.312/.474 (125 wRC+) in 410 plate appearances and lead the team in all power numbers, he skipped AAA—due mostly to the minor league season’s cancellation—to debut with the Twins for one game in 2020, in which he slapped a double for his first MLB hit.
He began 2021 with AAA St. Paul, but was called upon to help the big league club early in the season. Unfortunately, in his first game up (April 21 in Oakland), he made one of the most jaw-dropping errors the Twins had seen in quite some time, booting a ball hit almost directly at him with the bases loaded and two outs as the Twins led by two runs in the bottom of the 10th. The Twins went on to lose the game on the very next play, another error—this one from Luis Arráez, playing out of position at third base because Blankenhorn had entered as a pinch runner for the starting third baseman, Josh Donaldson, but was only comfortable at second.
The fanbase turned on Blankenhorn in an instant after that gaffe. The Twins sent him back down to St. Paul two days later, then designated him for assignment on May 8. The Dodgers claimed him a week later, but they designated him for assignment just a week after that and the Mariners took him. Then the Mariners waived him on June 1 and the Mets immediately added him to their active roster.
Blankenhorn served as organizational depth for the Mets for the next year and a half, but New York waived him after the 2022 season and he elected minor league free agency. He was then picked up by the Nationals, who stashed him with AAA Rochester for most of the season before calling him up in September.
Blankenhorn re-signed with the Nationals on a minor league deal for 2024. Still just 27 years old, he’s currently mashing in AAA.
29. 2B/3B/OF Michael Helman
Current organization: Twins
Current/highest level: AAA/AAA
Selected by the Twins in the 11th round out of Texas A&M in 2018, Michael Helman began the 2019 season at almost 23 years old having not played above Low-A Cedar Rapids.
Helman fell off prospect rankings after a poor 2019 season with High-A Fort Myers—.197/.243/.282 in 306 plate appearances—but he thrived when he repeated the level in 2021, and he’s spent most of his time with AAA St. Paul since 2022.
His 2023 season was full of injuries, but Helman hit well when healthy, and he’s still kickin’ in St. Paul to begin 2024. He turns 28 next month.
30. RHP Luis Rijo
Current status: Playing in the Venezuelan League (Tigres de Aragua)
Departure from Twins: Minor league free agent (following 2022 season)
Highest level: A+
The inclusion of Luis Rijo on this list allows me to briefly mention the fourth and final high-profile trade the Twins made at the 2018 deadline: veteran starter Lance Lynn to the Yankees for catcher Tyler Austin and this man, young pitching prospect Luis Rijo.
Rijo was still just 20 years old at the time of this ranking, and he’d pitched well in (mostly) the Rookie League to date, so despite not having outstanding stuff, scouts saw a lot of upside because he could locate his pitches with ease.
Rijo continued his upward trajectory by mowing down hitters for Low-A Cedar Rapids in 2019, pitching to a 2.86 ERA in 19 starts covering 107 innings. Unfortunately, he would pitch just 36.1 more innings in affiliated ball, as the pandemic cancelled 2020 and injuries cut short his 2021 and 2022 seasons.
After 2022, Rijo could elect minor league free agency, and he did. Nobody signed him, and he’s since returned home to play in his native Venezuela.
The Ledger
Still with Twins organization: 13/30
Played in majors for Twins: 20/30
Played in majors at all: 22/30
Still in affiliated baseball: 26/30
Still playing baseball at all: 29/30
Most of the Twins’ top 30 prospects of 2019 are major league talents today, or at the very least AAAA guys. Almost all of them are still playing baseball with an MLB organization, and only one—Wander Javier—has retired completely.
Total fWAR: 41.8
Total fWAR with Twins: 23.0
The Twins’ top 30 prospects of 2019 have contributed decently at the major league level, but almost half of their production has come for other teams. Sometimes this is because they were traded for other great players, like Brusdar Graterol and Luke Raley being moved for Kenta Maeda or Luis Arráez being shipped for Pablo López. Other times, it’s because the Twins made a silly move that looks horrendous in hindsight; lookin’ at you LaMonte Wade Jr.
Overall, it’s hard to say the Twins’ 2019 prospect class hasn’t been successful. Injury-prone, sure, but when they’ve been on the field, they’ve been outstanding. The face of the franchise, a two-time batting champion, a fireballing closer, the catcher of the future, and so many more major league regulars made this list and then thrived in The Show.
Sure beats being a Brewers fan.
You might remember that this was first floated as a three-team trade with the Red Sox—the deal that was originally supposed to send Mookie Betts to the Dodgers. Graterol was supposed to go to the Red Sox, but Boston balked at his medicals, so they backed out of the trade with Minnesota and the Twins instead sent Graterol to the Dodgers in a separate deal.
Soto signed with the Nationals for $1.5 million, Tatís signed with the White Sox for $700,000, and Giménez signed with the Mets for $1.2 million. That’s a total of $3.4 million. Keep the change.
The general manager behind the infractions, John Coppolella, received a lifetime ban from MLB as a result, though this ban would be lifted in January 2023.
The other is DJ LeMahieu, who won it with the 2016 Rockies and with the 2020 Yankees.
And catcher Anthony Recker
The Twins ended up recovering to earn their spot in the Wild Card Game, by the way. They lost to the Yankees (who did not start Jaime García, though that would have been hilarious).
He never even pitched for Texas. They let him go and he pitched badly for Baltimore, San Diego, and Toronto over the next year+ before affiliated baseball collectively gave up on him.
Remember when everyone thought this deal made no sense, then the Twins came out of nowhere to sign Carlos Correa? I still don’t think there’s been a more surprising thing to happen to a Minnesota team in my sports-viewing lifetime.