Twins Daily Draft Preview: Termarr Johnson

Who Is He?
Termarr Johnson is a prep infielder from Mays High School in Atlanta, Georgia. While it is likely that Johnson is drafted as a shortstop, his future home is expedited to be second base. A bit undersized (5' 8", 195), you're not buying the Arizona State commit for his glove. You're getting him because you believe that his left-handed bat is as good as advertised. And it is one of the most advertised tools in all of the draft.

Why the Twins Will Draft Him
The Twins have taken bat-first players a few times under the leadership of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine. Termarr Johnson is a high-ceiling bat first player. MLB.com wrote that "one scout gave him a double Hall of Famer comparison by calling him a combination of Wade Boggs' plate discipline and Vladimir Guerrero Sr.'s bat-to-ball skills." Such lofty comparisons are really unfair, but that should give you an idea of the type of ceiling that you'd get by drafting Johnson.

It would be easy to peg a smaller guy as a slap hitter, but that's not Johnson either. Baseball America sums it all up by saying that Johnson "has the rare amateur combination of excellent bat-to-ball skills, an advanced approach at the plate, impressive pitch recognition and more power than you’d expect given his frame, thanks to excellent bat speed and precise barrel accuracy." MLB.com suggests that 25-30 home runs is a possibility. Could you even imagine? 

Why the Twins Won't Draft Him
In the Collier profile, I wrote that the Twins wouldn't draft Collier only if he's gone or if a higher-rated prospect fell to them. It's completely my opinion, but I think Johnson might be the only (possibly available) player ranked higher than Collier. Sure, Druw Jones and Jackson Holliday are universally ranked higher, but the chances of either of them falling are slim to none. The chance of Johnson falling is certainly slim, but there is an avenue to where it happens. 

The other thing that should be mentioned is that that Johnson just committed to Arizona State recently. It's not unusual for highly-rated prep prospects to be committed to a college, but that usually happens much earlier in the high school career. I'm not questioning his signability. I think it's a 99.99% chance he goes pro. Maybe his representation suggested he commit to give him some leverage, I don't know. 

How highly do you rank Johnson?