Brady Aiken, Stephen Gonsalves Led Incredible High School Rotation

As you recall, lefty Brady Aiken was the #1 overall pick in the 2014 draft, but he chose not to sign with the Houston Astros. In 2015, he fell to Cleveland with the #17 overall pick. However, he had undergone Tommy John surgery several months earlier.

As he recalls, he talked to a lot of Cleveland executives, including current Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey, upon being drafted.

“Obviously there are a few teams you’re talking to, and you have a general idea of where you’re going to go in the draft. I talked to, from the Indians, a lot of people .I did speak with him (Falvey) a bit. I talked with pitching coordinators. Especially with where I got drafted, it was more the rehab side of it because I’d had surgery and I was coming into the Cleveland organization going straight into rehab. I talked a lot to some front office guys about the rehab side of it, and what would happen if I got drafted by them. Where I would go? What would happen and what that process would be like?”

In 2016, he worked a combined 46.1 innings between the organization’s rookie league and short-season affiliates.

So 2017 is his first full season of pitching. Although he’s off to an 0-4 start for Lake County, he feels good about where he is at so far in the process.

“I’m doing good. Surgery was a couple of years ago, so that’s kind of behind me. Health-wise, I’m doing good. Looking forward to this year. It's been a good year so far, but I’ll just continue to keep working.”

Looking back to his high school days, a smile crossed Aiken’s face as he discussed the incredible talent that they had. He went to high school at Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego. Aiken was a year behind to Twins pitching prospect Stephen Gonsalves and 2016 Twins draft pick Alex Schick (who is currently on the Kernels disabled list with elbow inflammation).

Can you imagine a high school team that has produced three professional pitchers? How could they lose?

“Our team… my junior year, we had nine guys who were committed to D1 schools, and they were high-level D1 schools too. It was pretty awesome! There was a guy who now plays for the Reds who had Tommy John. Stephen’s with the Twins. Schick is with the Twins. I’m sure I’m missing some right now, but I know there’s a bunch of guys in college who are still playing and doing well.”

He continued, “It was pretty cool. We were pretty good, and like you said, we had really good pitching and really good hitting. We’d play three or four games a week. Stephen would throw one. I would throw another, and Schick would throw another. And we had a guy, Andrew Wright, who would throw another one. It was that kind of rotation. If we had more games in a week, we had another guy who’s at Irvine that would throw. So it was pretty crazy how much talent we had at one school.”

Aiken still heads back to San Diego during the offseason and hangs out with Stephen Gonsalves.

“We are pretty good buddies. We talk pretty often. He’s one of my good friends from back home. I always see him in the offseason. We always spend time together.”

But Aiken also has seen how Gonsalves has improved on the baseball diamond since the two led their high school team on the field.

“From high school, the one thing that’s been big, from the changes he’s made… the command is there. He’s always been one who knows the game and is ahead of the game mentally, and that’s something that you can see paying off for him now. Working on some pitches. I know he didn’t throw a curveball or a slider in high school and I know he has one now. His command is really good. His mental side of the game is really good. He knows what he wants to do, and that’s what he does. It works for him.”

Despite the fact that Gonsalves, the Twins (and Twins Daily) minor league pitcher of the year in 2016, has not pitched yet in 2017, Aiken thinks that there is a chance Twins fans will see him pitching at Target Field in the near future.

“I know he’s in a really good spot right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if he’s up with the big squad by the end of this year, or maybe even next year.”

However, asked which of the two is the better golfer, Aiken chuckled and gave it some deep thought.

“I know he’ll find this somewhere, but I’m a better golfer than he is. He’d like to think otherwise, but we played many times together in the offseason. I’ll beat him. He’ll beat me. It’s a pretty good matchup, but I’d say I’m better than him.”

Competition is a good thing, right?

Back to Brady Aiken. What are his goals for the remainder of the 2017 season?

“For me, it’s kind of a personal thing. This is my first full season. Not really thinking about where I want to be at the end of the year. Just kind of focusing on what I want to do now. Maintaining health is most important, obviously. So maintaining the health and growing every day. I’ve kind of been working on some mechanical things with my coaches. Just trying to lock that in. Make sure I can be repeatable and stuff like that. Go out there and compete on a daily basis.”

Aiken is off to a slow start, He did not pitch against the Kernels. He missed them by one day as he was the Lake County starter in their Friday night game at Quad Cities. He’s struggled with control, but it is likely just a matter of time before he takes off and returns to the status of one of baseball’s best starting pitcher prospects. Gonsalves should return to the Lookouts rotation in about two or three weeks and will likely soon reclaim his spot as a top Twins starting pitching prospect.

Can you imagine that high school team at Cathedral Catholic? Two top left-handed pitching prospects who were on the same high school team! How fun would that have been to watch? How fun for those who did watch them to see them both making their climb up the minor league systems toward the big leagues!