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WHO IS HE?
Alex Kirilloff is a prep hitter from Plum High School in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Kirilloff, who turned 18 in November, is a left-handed hitter and thrower who projects as a right-fielder, though through high school he’s primarily pitched and played first base. A 4.0 student, Kirilloff is 6-2, 195 and committed to Liberty.
WHY THE TWINS WILL DRAFT HIM
As mentioned earlier, the Twins have always been enamored by toolsy prep players and Kirilloff has the tools. Perfect Game ranks both Kirilloff’s hit tool and power tool as the third best in the entire prep class. He has a powerful arm that would fit in right field. Kirilloff has the athleticism and speed (6.6 in the 60) that suggests he could even be an average defender in centerfield. He’s still relatively new to the outfield, so he’ll need plenty of reps to properly gauge his defensive ability.
The greatest value that Kirilloff offers is in his bat. He won the Home Run Derby at the Perfect Game All-American Game last summer and hasn’t seemed to tap into all of his raw power potential yet. He’s starting to show he’s able to generate power to all fields.
WHY THE TWINS WON'T DRAFT HIM
His father is a hitting coach that has helped the younger Kirilloff refine his swing, though there has been mention about his lack of hand speed. His ZEPP Hitting Metric hand speed score was only 28 mph, according to Perfect Game, which is 2.5 mph slower than average and put him in the 28th percentile. A consequence of this is an inability to catch up to professional fastballs. There seems to be a split in the industry as to whether he has enough natural ability to overcome this deficiency.
Player-wise, though, teams will almost always be able to find warts on preps. And Kirilloff is no different. If there weren’t questions, he’d be in consideration for a Top 5 pick. What might cause the Twins to look elsewhere is if the deep pool of pitchers spreads out and they have an opportunity to land one.
Kirilloff is going to be high on the Twins board, there’s no doubt about that, and he’s signable, but will he be the best player available at 15?
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