Can College Pitching Prospects Lead the Minnesota Twins to a Cleveland-esque Rotation?

[Patrick Wozniak]

Quick…what do Shane Bieber, Mike Clevinger, Trevor Bauer, Corey Kluber, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, and Adam Plutko have in common? Yes, they all pitched for Cleveland last season. But more relevant to today’s article is the fact that they are all college arms who were drafted by, acquired, or pitched for the Tribe during Derrek Falvey’s time in Cleveland.Cleveland is renowned for their ability to continually churn out high-quality starting pitching and the majority of their success stories have been college pitchers, except Carlos Carrasco. Falvey’s known as an expert in the area of pitcher development and he undoubtably played a big role in Cleveland’s success in that area. The question remains as to what it means for the Minnesota Twins?

 

A quick glance at Twins Daily’s top prospect list will show that the Twins top three pitching prospects are not college pitchers. Number five prospect, Jordan Balazovic, was drafted as a high schooler out of Canada by the previous regime, while Jhoan Duran (#6), who was acquired in the Eduardo Escobar trade, was an international signing and Blayne Enlow (#10) was a high schooler picked by Falvey and company. However, if we look beyond the trio, some intriguing collagen arms begin to emerge.

 

Let’s start with Matt Canterino. The 6’2” 222 lb. righty was the Twins second-round pick in the 2019 draft. He only pitched 25 innings between rookie ball and Cedar Rapids due to his heavy workload coming out of Rice University, but as expected, he pitched very well. Canterino sits in the low 90s, topping out at around 95, and possesses two good breaking pitches, a slider and curve, along with a changeup. He brings plenty of funk in his delivery and has the potential to be a fast riser. If all goes well he could end up being a mid-rotation starter, and his fastball/slider combo gives him a solid floor as a reliever. He ranks as Twins Daily’s #15 prospect, while FanGraphs has him at #13 and MLB.com at #11. Here’s a closer look at Canterino from Twins Daily’s Tom Froemming:

 

 

A slight jump down on the Twins Daily prospect list and we find another intriguing 22-year-old collegian righty in Cole Sands, who comes in at #19 (FanGraphs #15, mlb.com #19). Sands was a fifth-round pick in 2018 (signed over-slot for 600K) but didn’t debut until last year due to some injuries. He dealt with a blister issue and a calf strain in 2019 but no arm injuries and had great results. Over three levels and 18 starts (culminating in one final AA start) Sands pitched 91.1 innings to a 2.68 ERA and 1.03 WHIP with 108 strikeouts and just 19 walks. Cole has a three-pitch mix featuring a tailing fastball that can reach the mid-90s along with a good curveball and changeup, which all have the potential to be above-average pitches. Like Canterino in 2019, Sands was the first pitcher selected by Minnesota in the 2018 draft.

 

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