Twins Spotlight: RHP Travis Adams

[Seth Stohs]

Sometimes there are minor leaguers that, for whatever reason, don’t get the hype and prospect status that they probably should. I think it’s fair to say 2021 draft pick Travis Adams fits that category. Read the article below and listen to his Twins Spotlight interview and try not to get excited about his potential. 

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

Last month, Twins Daily posted our Top 30 Twins prospects. You won’t find Travis Adams ’ name in it. Of the 10 Twins Daily writers that provided their Top 30 Twins prospects, Adams appeared on just one person’s list, and that was at #28. He wasn’t in Baseball America’s Top 30 Twins prospects. His name does not appear among the Top 30 prospects on MLB Pipeline. MLB.com posted an article that mentioned 11 players to follow outside of the Top 30. No, Adams wasn’t mentioned. 

Adams was not a huge prospect growing up in southern California and attending Palm Desert High School. Several of his teammates from high school are playing pro ball, and more played college baseball too. In a tournament, his team played one game against Royce Lewis and his JSerra teammates. 

 

He didn’t have many scholarship offers coming out of high school, but he was thrilled when Sacramento State offered him because he loved that part of the state and had family there. Adams grew up a Giants fan and enjoyed watching Barry Bonds, Buster Posey, and some of those strong San Francisco teams. 

“They were my first and only offer. I wanted to give the opportunity to them. I was still early in my development. I was still small. I was only throwing 85. They believed in me at a young age.” 

However, he matured, got bigger and stronger, and went to a school with an opportunity to pitch right away. As a freshman, he pitched in 15 games which included nine starts. He made four starts in 2020 before Covid canceled the season. He went 2-1 with a 1.57 ERA. 

Following his sophomore season, Adams played in the Northwoods League for Wisconsin Rapids. 

“That was super fun, getting to travel and go out to Wisconsin and be with a host family. It was my first time playing summer ball and being with a host family, so it was totally different for me. I had an absolute blast. I enjoyed playing every day. It felt like minor-league baseball.” He continued, “The atmosphere and the fans we had there were great. It was a blast with all the guys I got to play with from all over the country and from different schools.” 

He made 14 starts in his junior season and went 6-3. In his three seasons at Sacramento State, Adams tossed 151 innings. He had 130 strikeouts with a remarkable 25 walks (1.5 BB/9).  

The scouts attended most of his games with their radar guns behind home plate. He also went to the combine and met with a lot of teams. He recalls going through a physical with the Twins there, but in general, the Twins didn’t show more, or maybe even as much, interest as other teams. 

“I really didn’t talk to the Twins very much. I was actually shocked on draft day when I got the phone call from them. There really wasn’t much contact between me and them prior to the draft.” 

He was at his parents' home in southern California, surrounded by family, some friends, and his girlfriend. When he got the call from the Twins and heard his name on the online draft, his phone started to blow up with calls and text messages. “It was just a great and blessed day,” he recalls. 

Adams quickly reported to Fort Myers, did some physicals, signed, and then began life as a professional. While he pitched in one game toward the end of the 2021 season, that draft year is used to let those college pitchers get some rest and learn about how the Twins work, the stats and technology they use, and develop relationships with players and coaches. 

He noted that he appreciated the value of the Trackman system over the Rapsodo system he had used in college. 

He specifically liked using the Force Plate Mound to see how his body moves and handles various stresses. Some of the things he has worked on throughout the offseason, mechanical improvements to increase velocity and consistency, are based on lessons learned from that technology. 

He began the 2022 season in Fort Myers. He made 15 starts and went 4-5 with a 3.50 ERA. In 69 1/3 innings, he walked 15 batters and struck out 69. He moved up to High-A Cedar Rapids to end the season and made seven starts. In 31 1/3 innings, he walked 11 and struck out 39 batters. 

To do the math for you, Adams had 108 strikeouts and 26 walks over 100 2/3 innings. He was one of seven pitchers to reach 100 minor-league innings in 2022. His 22 starts were tied with Simeon Woods Richardson, just one behind the 23 starts made by Louie Varland and Brent Headrick. 

Level-headed, the 23-year-old right-hander said, “I learned that you just have to take it start by start. If you have a bad start, you can’t get too low on it. If you have a great start, you just have to be even-keel throughout the entire season. If you get too high on the highs and too low on the lows, it’s going to be very hard on you and stressful.” 

With a solid first full minor-league season under his belt, he entered the offseason with some things to work on. There were a couple of mechanical things that he focused on to help him as he moves forward in his career. 

He throws a four-seam fastball, changeup, slider, and curveball. He says the fastball “will sometimes cut, sometimes run, just kind of do its own thing from time to time.” 

Minor-league camp officially opened on March 1st, but he has been in Fort Myers since mid-January getting himself ready for the 2023 season. 

And now that he has that great control and command, and a fastball that hit 97 mph late in the season in Cedar Rapids last year, don’t be surprised when you see him rise up the prospect rankings at Twins Daily and other places too. 

For more Twins Daily content on Travis Adams, click here.

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[Heistyman]

Sounds like Travis has a good head on his shoulders plus the talent to move up the rankings.  You have to love the command so far in his journey.  Go get'm Travis! 

[Dman]

No question he had a good year last year but if you want to make the top 30 you should be dominant at those levels especially out of college.  All the numbers look solid but nothing really stands out other than maybe WHIP.  That doesn't mean he can't follow the Headrick track.  Headrick didn't have a great 1st pro year and then blossomed. It takes time to get used to the competition level in pro ball.

He is going to need to keep those K numbers moving in an upward trend as having an out pitch or pitches is very important if you want to be better than average.  It looks like he has the velocity and the control so no reason he can't breakout and make the top 30 this year. I will be rooting for him.

[2wins87]

25 minutes ago, Dman said:

No question he had a good year last year but if you want to make the top 30 you should be dominant at those levels especially out of college.  All the numbers look solid but nothing really stands out other than maybe WHIP.  That doesn't mean he can't follow the Headrick track.  Headrick didn't have a great 1st pro year and then blossomed. It takes time to get used to the competition level in pro ball.

He is going to need to keep those K number moving in an upward trend as having an out pitch or pitches is very important if you want to better than average.  It looks like he has the velocity and the control so no reason he can't breakout and make the top 30 this year. I will be rooting for him.

Yeah, the thing that keeps him on the "other guys to watch" list for me is the fact that they didn't seem overly eager to promote him quickly despite being a little old for single-A, and he hit some speed bumps once he got to high-A, getting hit hard a few times.

Certainly with a mid 90's fastball, good control, and developing secondaries, there is no reason he can't make a big jump this year.

[MN_ExPat]

Thanks Seth.  Great write up as usual.  Love to hear about these guys.... Names (especially new ones) that you hear about during the minor league write ups, but don't really have a lot of background on.  Really brings home the the best part of baseball (to me at least ).

On an unrelated side note, but one of the best parts of baseball...

While not Twins stuff... well sort of, his head coach is a one time Twins prospect (and I realize that almost no one outside of me and momma will care, but... ), my son made his collegiate debut this last Saturday as a Freshman in a pressure packed, high leverage save situation (bases loaded, 8th inning, 1 out, his team leading 4-2).  Got a swinging K on the first batter and induced a weak pop up to end the inning.  Then finished off the 9th with a swinging K for a two inning save.

[jmlease1]

Not thrilled with the jump in BB/9 or H/9 when he made the jump to cedar rapids, but if the fastball can consistently get to 97 mph with some life then he's got a shot. Would like to see him dominate in high A and get an early promotion to Wichita for his age-23 season.

I do appreciate his durability in making 22 starts his first professional season and throwing more innings that he ever did in a college season. that said, he needs to get deeper into games.

[baul0010]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

No question he had a good year last year but if you want to make the top 30 you should be dominant at those levels especially out of college.  All the numbers look solid but nothing really stands out other than maybe WHIP.  That doesn't mean he can't follow the Headrick track.  Headrick didn't have a great 1st pro year and then blossomed. It takes time to get used to the competition level in pro ball.

He is going to need to keep those K numbers moving in an upward trend as having an out pitch or pitches is very important if you want to be better than average.  It looks like he has the velocity and the control so no reason he can't breakout and make the top 30 this year. I will be rooting for him.

Headrick is more of a soft tosser than Adams.  Maybe he makes a move to the pen, picks up a few more mph, and really becomes something special.  Hopefully he has a long successful Twins career 

[nicksaviking]

6 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

And now that he has that great control and command, and a fastball that hit 97 mph late in the season in Cedar Rapids last year, don’t be surprised when you see him rise up the prospect rankings at Twins Daily and other places too. 

 

 

Great stuff and I'm now very intrigued, but you buried the lede! I was looking for this the whole time and there it showed up in the last paragraph! 

[Mike Sixel]

Love reading your stuff....hoping you write more!

[Dman]

1 hour ago, baul0010 said:

Headrick is more of a soft tosser than Adams.  Maybe he makes a move to the pen, picks up a few more mph, and really becomes something special.  Hopefully he has a long successful Twins career 

The comparison was less style related and more they both had so, so first years and Headrick was much improved in his second year.  Don't disagree with lower end fastball soft tosser label for Headrick but he is a top 30 prospect\added to 40 man after his improvements.  Hoping for the same with Adams but he needs to be quite a bit better than last years numbers to get there.

[Doctor Gast]

19 hours ago, MN_ExPat said:

Thanks Seth.  Great write up as usual.  Love to hear about these guys.... Names (especially new ones) that you hear about during the minor league write ups, but don't really have a lot of background on.  Really brings home the the best part of baseball (to me at least ).

On an unrelated side note, but one of the best parts of baseball...

While not Twins stuff... well sort of, his head coach is a one time Twins prospect (and I realize that almost no one outside of me and momma will care, but... ), my son made his collegiate debut this last Saturday as a Freshman in a pressure packed, high leverage save situation (bases loaded, 8th inning, 1 out, his team leading 4-2).  Got a swinging K on the first batter and induced a weak pop up to end the inning.  Then finished off the 9th with a swinging K for a two inning save.

What team does he pitch for?

[baul0010]

20 hours ago, Dman said:

The comparison was less style related and more they both had so, so first years and Headrick was much improved in his second year.  Don't disagree with lower end fastball soft tosser label for Headrick but he is a top 30 prospect\added to 40 man after his improvements.  Hoping for the same with Adams but he needs to be quite a bit better than last years numbers to get there.

It seems like the F.O. goal of raising the organizational talent floor is starting to pay off.  I hope both become good MLBers!   Thinking back 10 to 15 years it would have been crazy to be arguing if a guy with Adams pitch mix and velocity would be a top 30 prospect.  

[MN_ExPat]

4 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

What team does he pitch for?

Covenant College.  It's a D3 near Chattanooga.  It may not have the glamour of a Tennessee or similar type program, but those are some really talented and hard working kids/young men .