TwerkTwonkTwins

The lineup is solid and an addition probably isn’t 100% necessary. The bullpen is probably in need of two solid arms at the very least. The question is whether the Twins see it necessary to add to the rotation. With arms shuffling in and out with injury and none of their top prospects in AAA looking like options as late-season additions, it’s possible the front office finds themselves searching for help. The Tyler Mahle’s and Luis Castillo’s of the world are fun to dream on, but the Twins have a type.
We’ve typically seen them target arms that need fixing as we saw with Kenta Maeda and Chris Paddack. The prices are lower and despite injuries to both, they’ve shown that they can be trusted to fix talented arms that haven’t reached their full potential for whatever reason. There are a few such pitchers that could be available this summer.
German Marquez
Could this finally be the year? The Rockies could have gotten a haul for Marquez at one point if they had only accepted that their best-case scenario was fourth in their own division with no shot at a wild card. Present-day not much has changed in that regard and perhaps their tune has changed. Since the 2019 and 2020 seasons, Marquez’s performance has dropped off precipitously despite being just 27 and now the Rockies will likely have to accept a much more modest return in trade if they ship off their former ace.
Part of his issue is plain bad luck this season as Marquez has posted a 6.09 ERA with better peripherals despite pitching in Coors. His home runs have spiked and his strikeouts have dried up. With a year and a half of control left, the Twins could swoop in and save Marquez from the thin air of Colorado. His once-vaunted mid-90s fastball and disgusting slider are getting clubbed this season and just a few tweaks paired with a better park could revitalize Marquez. It’s unclear whether the Rockies intend to continue trying to contend, but the Twins have plenty to choose from at all levels of their system for a trade return.
Kyle Hendricks
“The Professor” as he’s known in Chicago has had a storied career on the North Side, helping the Cubs break their World Series drought in 2016 and serving as their ace for several years. The back end of the four-year deal Hendricks was given has not gone according to plan, as he’s posted middling numbers at best in 2021 and to begin 2022. The Cubs have a lot of question marks in their near future and they may finally be open to talking trade in regard to their 32-year-old soft tosser who has a year and a half left under contract.
Hendricks' average fastball has settled in around 87 mph at this point which sounds scary, but the right-hander has never averaged even 90 on the heater as he’s dominated lineups with command and poise. It’s certainly walking a tightrope with such little velocity, but Hendricks has done it before and nothing in his stuff screams that he can’t do it again. He’s recently changed to a changeup-heavy approach, his best pitch which has led to a few better outings lately. Perhaps the Twins have their own ideas to fix, but given Hendricks’ 4.95 ERA so far this season, the Twins would be paying far from the ace starting pitcher price.
Trevor Rogers
Perhaps the riskiest target, Rogers has legitimate ace upside and has very recently shown it in the MLB. During the minor league shutdown, Rogers gained significant velocity on his fastball which has held ever since, contributing to his 2.64 ERA in 133 innings in 2021. So far this season, however, Rogers has been a completely different pitcher, posting 5.87 ERA and seeing his K rate drop from 28.5% to 18.7%. At 24 years old with four and a half years of control remaining, this could be the highest upside gamble the Twins could make.
Rogers’ decline is puzzling, as his plus-plus changeup has underperformed and the rest of his repertoire has followed suit. His release point has steadily dropped ever so slightly since his debut which could be one issue the Twins could look to clean up. The Twins and Marlins have long been discussed as a great trade fit, as the Twins need young pitching and the Marlins need some young MLB-ready bats to support their already fantastic rotation. Make no mistake, this would be a blockbuster, likely involving someone like Jose Miranda and several other painful pieces leaving Minnesota. Still, Rogers might be just a small tweak away from a return to form, an outcome that would likely make him the undisputed #1 pitcher in the Twins rotation. That’s a possibility that’s hard to ignore.
It’s possible this is the year the Twins go and get a ready-made ace. Personally, I’d hold off on such ideas until we actually see it. Instead, there are several pitchers that could be on the market that fit the Twins mold of acquiring talented arms in need of a tweak or two. Do you think any of these names are likelier than others? Do you have any names that aren’t on this list? Let us know below.
 

The above graph shows stolen base attempts and successfully stolen bases for each major league team along with the MLB average. A few notes:
The Twins have the fewest stolen base attempts in the league with 20 and are tied for the fewest successful steals at 13. 76 percent of steal attempts have been successful in the league in 2022. The Twins, in their limited attempts, have been successful in 65 percent of attempts. The AL Central is not especially active on the base paths. Only the Royals and Guardians are more active than the average MLB team, and not by much. So how much meat are the Twins leaving on the bone by being the most conservative MLB team on the base paths? If they were as aggressive as the average base-stealing team, they would have attempted an additional 25 steals. At their current success rate, they would have taken 16 additional bases with the increased aggressiveness (and ran into 9 more outs!).
Currently, the Twins are 7th in the majors in OPS at 0.733. Including walks, they have taken 1,160 bases offensively. Stolen bases are an exceedingly small fraction of any team's offensive output. If you added 16 bases to their Twins' output, their OPS would increase to 0.740, good enough for 6th in the majors. Is that worth the 9 additional outs from the additional runners who get caught?

Multiple unvaccinated Twins players must sit out this weekend’s series in Toronto due to Canada’s COVID policies. While the medical community almost universally hails the efficacy of the vaccines, the worst doctor we could find thinks the Twins are getting a raw deal.
Dr. Gary Van Lowe, a retired family physician from Chanhassen, says the players (Max Kepler, Caleb Thielbar, Emilio Pagan, and Trevor Megill)  are probably in better shape than their vaccinated teammates.
“I was doing my own research just this morning,” said Van Lowe, “And realvaccinetruth.biz said the vaccines have little microchips in them that allows the government to turn you into a human microwave. I got right up off the toilet to see if any of that was in the newspaper. Not a word.”
The 61-year-old, whose frequent malpractice settlements earned him the nickname “Mal” from Fairview Southdale's attorneys, said the lack of further media coverage points to a larger conspiracy.
“I don’t think they’re doing this just to screw over the Twins in a critical road series,” said Van Lowe, nursing his “seventh or eighth” Mich Golden Light on the 17th tee box at Deer Run in Victoria. “Could it be to mess with the Vikings and Wild, too? Good luck finding that out in the Red Star (sic) from Michael Bland (sic).”
Van Lowe, who left medicine in 2015 after a series of lurid sexual harassment accusations from fellow doctors, nurses, and the entire front of house staff at the Eden Prairie Buca di Beppo, now runs a medical consultancy firm for insurance companies looking to deny benefits.
“The jury is still out on this vaccine,” he said, wobbling over a putt on 17. “All I know is that Betty White was perfectly healthy before she got the jab. Makes you think.”
Van Lowe ended the interview in order to ask the beer cart driver if she needed a ride home.

If you hadn’t been paying attention to the Twins’ minor leagues, you don’t read this site enough, which is a shame. Twins Daily has been covering the system, uhhh, daily, and there has been an apparent development so far in the season: college arms dominating. Cade Povich, Brent Headrick, Steve Hajjar, David Festa, Travis Adams, Matt Canterino, and Sawyer Gipson-Long have all performed well, especially in the context of a minor league system with less sheen after graduations and under-performance amongst the best prospects. Those names stand out.
I find K-BB% to be the best quick-and-dirty stat analysis for pitching prospects. It sums up just how dominant a pitcher is against his penchant for walking batters, and it completely removes poor minor league defense from the equation. It’s an incomplete picture for sure, but that’s how minor league stat-scouting goes.
How well are those arms performing in context with their peers? With a minimum of 30 innings pitched, here’s how they compare with pitchers in their division. Players ranked by rank relative to division:

*Hajjar has 29 innings pitched as of writing this, but he’s an essential piece of the story, so I included him anyway. 
Festa has pitched with both Fort Myers and Cedar Rapids in 2022, which makes his placement in the table messy—just know his K-BB% would be elite in either league.
The Twins have targeted college arms specifically for years now. Since 2017, their drafts have been 43%, 43%, 38%, and 45% college arms, respectively, with 2020 ignored as it should be for every topic. Bailey Ober, Cole Sands, and Josh Winder were college arms, and while they didn’t draft Joe Ryan, he came from the collegiate ranks as well. It took a few years of cleaning out the gutters, but the system is now overflowing with college arms.
This focus is nothing new for Derek Falvey; he coveted multiple collegiate arms during his time as a Cleveland executive. Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger, Shane Bieber, and Aaron Civale rose through the college ranks before joining Cleveland’s system and found varying levels of success in the majors. That’s three Cy Young winners for those keeping track.
An advantage to drafting college arms is their seasoning; those players have more time performing against high-level talent and require less time in the minors than their high school counterparts. Teams know this; it’s why the Angels, probably foolishly, drafted 19 college pitchers in 2021. The draft is 20 rounds. 
Another truism about drafting college pitchers is that, because their cement is more dry, taking one is less a game of projections and more a project of finding undervalued characteristics. High schoolers might as well be light-years away from the majors, and their development presents an immense risk. The Moneyball book perfectly represented the idea with Billy Beane’s anger at drafting Jeremy Bonderman, a projectable arm with a “clean delivery, and a body that looked as if it had been created to wear a baseball uniform.” Although, Bonderman had the last laugh when he pitched more than 1,200 innings in MLB over a nine-year career.
Is this simply just the game repeating itself; it’s meta-game moving full-circle back towards what was cutting edge thinking 20 years ago? Perhaps, perhaps not. If you looked carefully, you’d see that players like Povich and Hajjar found extra velocity ticks after joining the organization. The team could be identifying players with more data attached to them to target a fix or two and enjoy the benefits of a more realized player. After all, this is the landscape of Big Data in baseball, and the Twins might be using it to their advantage.
 

The ball is dead. The ball remains dead. And Rob Manfred has killed it. One can barely watch a game or read a baseball article without someone mentioning just how short baseballs are flying compared to previous years. Perhaps MLB wanted to counter-act the previous “rabbit ball” era, perhaps they wanted to de-incentivize home runs to move away from three-true-outcome baseball, or perhaps Manfred is a foolish stooge. One cannot say with authority which statement is true, or if the answer includes some combo of the three, but the reality is thus: baseballs in 2022 are not flying as far as before.
If the baseballs are dead, and they are, then flyball pitchers have the most to gain from such a development; their main weakness—one of those flyballs landing behind the fence—is neutered. The term “flyball pitcher” has become something of a swear in the juiced-ball age, implying a deficiency rather than describing a strategy. The main plus to being a flyball pitcher is that most true flyballs end up in gloves; flyballs held a .117 BABIP in 2018, and that number barely moves yearly. If flyballs are no longer as threatening as before, a team in 2022 could be more liberal with allowing them.
For the Twins, that’s an important note. The team has the seventh-highest flyball rate in baseball, and many of the culprits holding that number up—Joe Ryan, Chris Archer, and Sonny Gray—the team targeted over the past year. Those pitchers have other desirable traits, so their flyball rate could be a secondary thought, but that consideration looms especially large this season.
Of course, presumably, part of why the Twins targeted them involved other details; Target Field and outfield defense.
If Target Field feels like it’s on the cavernous side of ballparks, that’s because it is. Statcast’s park factors claim that the stadium was the 10th best at suppressing homers between 2019-2021 and is generally slightly more of a pitcher’s park. That feels right. The high walls in right field block homers that would go out in the wiffleball field that is Yankee Stadium, while centerfield often plays like Death Valley, eating up flyballs for dinner. Righties have it better for hitting doubles, but it’s also the most challenging park for them to single in. A secondary point: that 2019 team looks even more impressive when you consider that the team hit many of those homers in a park that is bad for power.
The exact characteristics that define Target Field aside, there’s one glaring, painfully obvious reason Target Field is more challenging for hitters: Byron Buxton.
Buxton’s defense needs no introduction, so it won’t get one. Buxton is an out machine, whether you like OAA, UZR, DRS, or any other suspiciously New Deal Program-sounding acronyms. His presence in center is world-altering, attracting fly balls to his person so he can gobble them up in a SportsCenter Top 10-esque diving catch or during a mid-sprint effort that only looks easy because Buxton makes it look so. Even his backup, Gilberto Celestino, currently is in the 84th percentile of outfielders by OAA, albeit in a minuscule sample size.
In fact, let’s talk about those other outfielders; Max Kepler has long been one of the finest defensive right fielders in the game, ranking in the top 15 in MLB in OAA every full year since its introduction. Trevor Larnach is messier to analyze given his small sample, but Statcast at least thinks his route-running is good enough for an NFL wide receiver. Nick Gordon holds the least attractive numbers, but he has the athleticism to play in the outfield and should improve with more reps. It should be unsurprising that the Twins outfield is currently 1st in MLB in DRS, 3rd in OAA, and 3rd in UZR/150 innings.
The ball does not fly as far as before, Twins pitchers are good at allowing fly balls, Target Field suppresses those fly balls, and the Twins outfield will probably catch them. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine are either cracked-out geniuses or fortunate individuals because they have quietly built a perfect relationship between the ball, pitcher, park, and defense. That combination has not only fueled their success so far in 2022, but it will probably carry them to many victories as the season continues.
 
 

In the fourth round of the 2017 MLB Draft, the Minnesota Twins selected left-handed pitcher Charlie Barnes out of Clemson University. 
Before that, he was a three-time letter winner in baseball at Sumter (SC) High School. He was twice All-State. As a senior, he was named pitcher of the year in the state. 
Going to Clemson was an easy decision for him. It was something he had always wanted to do. He went to a lot of Tigers football games as a child. His brother spent a season as a quarterback at Clemson. 
Barnes worked primarily out of the bullpen as a freshman. As a sophomore, he became a weekend starter and went 6-4 with a 4.66 ERA. In his junior season, the southpaw became the team's Friday night starter. He went 5-5 with a 3.20 ERA. That year, in 101 1/3 innings, he struck out 113 batters and issued just 22 walks. 
He was drafted in 2017, but it is important and impressive to note that Barnes also graduated from college in just three years. He majored in Management with an emphasis on sports management. 
Season Stats 
2017 Elizabethton - 6 G, 22.2 IP, 2-1, 1.19 ERA. 10 walks, 23 strikeouts 2017 Cedar Rapids - 6 G, 25.2 IP, 2-1, 3.86 ERA, 8 walks, 23 strikeouts 2018 Ft. Myers - 23 G, 118.1 IP, 6-6, 2.81 ERA, 44 walks, 84 strikeouts  2019 Ft. Myers - 8 G, 37.1 IP, 3-2, 6.51 ERA, 20 walks, 35 strikeouts 2019 Pensacola - 14 G, 13 GS, 75.0 IP, 3-4, 3.60 ERA, 24 walks, 73 strikeouts  2019 Rochester - 4 G, 18.2 IP, 1-2, 6.75 ERA, 11 walks, 16 strikeouts.  Following the season, Barnes was invited to Twins' big-league spring training in 2020. He wasn't initially at the team's alternate site, though he did join the group in St. Paul later in the summer. 
This spring, he was again a non-roster invite to spring training and showed some good improvement. 
He began the 2021 season at Triple-A St. Paul. In 11 starts so far, he is 5-2 with a 3.88 ERA. In 58 innings, he has walked 19 and struck out 50 batters.  
As you would expect, it hasn't been all smooth throughout the season. In his first six starts, Barnes went 2-0 with a 2.20 ERA. On June 13th, in his third start against the Omaha Storm Chasers, Barnes gave up six earned runs in three innings. Six days later, in his third start against the Iowa Cubs, he tossed five no-hit innings and struck out seven. In his next start, he allowed six earned runs over five innings. In his two most recent starts, he has worked a combined 12 1/3 innings and is 2-0 with a 3.65 ERA. 
The scouting report on Charlie Barnes reads like that of a typical Twins starter. First, he is left-handed. Second, he relies on mixing his pitches and his pitch velocities to be successful. Of course, that is true of any pitcher, but when he generally sits 88 to 91 mph, it is essential. 
Barnes throws a lot of sinkers and changeups. The sinker tops out about 91. He was touted as having the best changeup in that 2017 draft, and it continues to be an important pitch for him. He also throws a four-seam fastball up in the zone with a lot of carry, making it a good pitch for him. He also throws both a slider and a curveball. 
Again, with a fastball around 90, he can't rely on it all the time. Mixing the velocity and the eye level for hitters is crucial. When he uses his slider and his changeup and is able to spot pitches, he can be successful. 
He will have his first opportunity to show that on Friday night in Detroit. 


 

The Twins walked away with two new faces to add to their prospect ranks (assuming both sign) in high school right-handed pitcher Chase Petty and high school shortstop Noah Miller. Be sure to click on the links on their names to learn more about each of those two selections.
Day two of the draft is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. CT and will feature rounds 2 through 10, along with Competitive Balance Round B, which will take place between rounds 2 and 3.
Here is a list of each of the Twins 9 picks that the Twins will have on Day two. Be sure to refresh throughout the day, as this page will be updated as the Twins make their selections.
Round 2 | 61st Overall| | Slot Value: $1,129,700
Pick: Steven Hajjar, LHP, Michigan
Steven Hajjar is a redshirt sophomore for the University of Michigan who was named First Team All Big Ten in 2021 behind a 3.09 ERA over 14 starts. You can read more about Steven Hajjar here.
Round 3 | 98th Overall | Slot Value: $593,100
Pick: Cade Povich, LHP, Nebraska
Like Steven Hajjar, Cade Povich is also a left-handed starting pitcher who was named First Team All Big Ten in 2021. After struggeling in 4 starts in 2020, Povich put together a strong 2021 season as he posted a 3.11 ERA in 81 innings pitched with 88 strikeouts and 22 walks.
Cade Povich will typically sit in the upper-80s with his fastball, but he can creep into the low-90s at times. Povich also features a curveball and changeup in his pitching repertoire.
Round 4 | 128th Overall | Slot Value: $442,900
Pick: Christian Encarnacion-Strand, 3B, Oklahoma State
Christian Encarnacion-Strand began his college career at Yavapai College, which is a JUCO located in Prescott, Arizona. As a freshman, Encarnacion-Strand hit .402 with an OPS of 1.301 and hit 22 home runs in 56 games. As a result, he was named Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Player and was a First-Team All American. He followed that up in 2020 by hitting .430 with an OPS of 1.482 and 11 home runs in just 25 games before the season was cut short.
He then transfered to Oklahoma State for the 2021 season and he continued to rake, even against a higher level of competition. In 56 games this spring, Encarnacion-Strand had a slash line of .361/.442/.661 with 15 home runs and 4 stolen bases. While Encarnacion-Strand does not have the most range in the world, he does have the power bat and a strong arm that profile well for third base should he be able to stay at the hot corner long-term.
Round 5 | 159th Overall | Slot Value: $327,200
Pick: Christian Macleod, LHP, Mississippi State
After dominating in four starts last spring, there was some hype on Christian Macleod coming into the 2021 season. While it was a dream season for Macleod's Bulldog squad who won the National Championship, it was not exactly that for Macleod individually as he put up a 5.23 ERA in 82 and 2/3 innings pitched and he struggled in the College World Series.
While the ERA is not promising, the Twins front office has shown in the past that they don't overly care about ERA and rather look to strikeout and walk rates as a better predictor of future success, and that is an area with some encouraging signs for Macleod as he had 12.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 this season.
Macleod's ERA was inflated heavily late in the season, likely as a result of fatigue, as he had a much more impressive 3.14 ERA before he fell apart in his final 5 starts of the season. Pitcher fatigue late this season was to be expected from many college pitchers, as they did not have a chance to build up innings the season prior as a result of the pandemic. It would not be surprising to me if the Twins noticed this and took advantage of a falling prospect who could have easily been drafted a few rounds earlier.
Round 6 | 189th Overall | Slot Value: $253,300
Pick: Travis Adams, RHP, Sacramento State
Travis Adams is a junior pitcher from Sacramento State who posted a career 3.75 ERA with 130 strikeouts and just 25 walks in 151 innings pitched across three seasons. Adams split time as both a starter and a reliever as a freshman, but pitched exclusively out of the Hornets starting rotation during his sophomore and junior seasons.
On the mound, Adams features a low-to-mid 90s fastball to go along with a well regarded changeup and an okay breaking ball. 
Round 7 | 219th Overall | Slot Value: $198,500
Pick: Jake Rucker, 2B/3B, Tennessee
Jake Rucker was an integral part of this season's Tennessee Volunteers team that made their first College World Series appearances since 2005, as he hit .330 to go along with 9 home runs and 7 stolen bases and was named First Team All-SEC as a third baseman. Rucker is a three-year starter at Tennessee and showed signs of improvement in each season, which leaves hope that there is still more room for improvement in his game.
Rucker had some consistency issues this spring, but aside from that he is a versatile defender that could find home at either second or third long-term. While Rucker won't flash any specific plus traits, he is a solid across the board player and could one day pave his way as a utility infielder at the MLB level.
Round 8 | 249th Overall | Slot Value: $164,700
Pick: Noah Cardenas, C, UCLA
UCLA catcher Noah Cardenas was a hot name coming into this spring after a strong freshman season to go along his performance in the California Collegiate League last summer. However, after a disappointing performance this spring for the Bruins he fell down draft boards. In three seasons at UCLA, Cardenas slashed .302/.407/.426 with 8 home runs and two stolen bases.
The defensive side of the ball is where Cardenas shows the most promise, as he has a plus arm and is a good defender behind the plate. With this pick, the Twins are likely betting on the upside that Cardenas has shown in the past to see if they can get that out of him once again.
Round 9 | 279th Overall | Slot Value: $150,500
Pick: Patrick Winkel, C, UConn
After a strong freshman campaign in 2019, Pat Winkel missed the 2020 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He came back in 2021 and played well enough to earn Second Team All-Big East honors. For his career, Winkel had a slash line of .300/.359/.507 and hit 18 home runs in 102 games played for the Huskies.
Winkel is a quality defender behind the plate who both receives the ball and can control the running game. There were some concerns on how good his arm would be after coming back from Tommy John surgery, but he showed he can still throw the ball well as he nabbed 32.5% of would be base stealers this spring.
Round 10 | 309th Overall | Slot Value: $142,700
Pick: Ernie Yake, SS, Gonzaga
Ernie Yake is a four-year starter at the University of Gonzaga and hit above .300 in all four of his seasons there. For his career, Yake has a .320/.392/.419 slash line with 6 home runs and 17 stolen bases in 165 games. Yake was twice named to the All-WCC Second Team.
Twins Daily 5 Best Prospects Remaining Entering Day 2
21. Will Taylor, OF, Dutch Fork HS (SC)
22. Bubba Chandler, SS/RHP, North Oconee HS (GA)
23. Joshua Baez, OF, Dexter Southfield HS (MA)
24. Jaden Hill, RHP, LSU
25. Lonnie White, OF, Malvern Prep (PA)

The 2021 MLB draft begins Sunday. Off the back of a strong 2020 season (those were fun times), the Twins first pick is at 26. The Twins also have the 36th pick as a competitive balance pick given to smaller market teams.
Pick 26 slot value: $2,653, 400
Pick 36 slot value: $2,045,400
Since their first draft with the Twins, the Falvey/Levine regime has established a clear pattern in their drafting. The majority of the players they have targeted with early picks have been high floor, college bats. Royce Lewis, Landon Leach, Blayne Enlow, and Keoni Cavaco are the notable early round high school exceptions. With the late position of the Twins first round pick, it’s overwhelmingly likely they will target a college player again, probably a hitter. 
Drafting late in round one is a lottery, and it’s incredibly difficult to predict who the Twins might take. Here are brief profiles of six names to watch on Sunday that the Twins have been linked to through draft position, scouting, or mock drafts.
Joe Mack, C, Williamsville East HS (NY)
HT: 6’0  Weight: 200  B/T: L/R
Age: 18
If the name Mack is familiar, it’s because Joe’s brother Charles is already in the Twins system. Joe is a better prospect than his brother and while he was linked with the Twins early in the process, he may come off the board sooner than 26. Mack is seen as a strong hitter who has a chance to hit for good power. Unsurprisingly, Mack isn’t a finished product defensively but made strong progress in 2020 giving him a good chance to stick behind the plate long term with a plus bat.
Adrian Del Castillo, C, Miami
HT: 5’11  Weight: 210  B/T: L/R
Age: 21
Del Castillo was first drafted by the White Sox in the 2018 draft as a then top 200 prospect. He is now one of the better college bats in the entire draft class. Castillo hit .284/.388/.411 through 51 games this season with Miami with 3 HR, 24 walks, and 28 strikeouts. There are concerns Del Castillo will not stick long term at catcher, requiring more of his power tool. Del Castillo trained this spring with Royals catcher Salvador Perez. The Twins have a proven track record of significantly improving catcher defense (see Jeffers and Garver), so if Del Castillo can recover his power stroke from his first two seasons at Miami, he may move quickly through the organization. 
Ethan Wilson, OF, South Alabama
HT: 6’1  Weight: 210  B/T: L/L
Age: 21
Wilson catapulted himself into the spotlight when he .345/.453/.686 with 17 home runs in his 2019 season, although against mediocre competition. He was impeded by an ankle injury in the first half of 2021 and started slowly. In his second half, he recovered, hitting .319/.450/.530 with eight home runs. Wilson can drive the ball to all fields and has good control of the strike zone with strong raw power. Wilson has a lot of attributes the Twins look for in college bats, and could be a solid contender for the 26th pick.
Jud Fabian OF, Florida
HT: 6’2  Weight: 195  B/T: R/L
Age: 20
Fabian is young draftee for a college hitter and played CF for Florida, showing outstanding defense. This spring, his bat came to life as he hit 20 home runs in 57 games which was tied for sixth in college baseball. Fabian strikes out a lot, particularly against breaking pitches, and will have to make adjustments to his swing to avoid an incredibly high K% as a professional hitter. He’s a mostly pull-side hitter with good power who will profile as a strong defensive outfielder. If he can develop his approach at the plate and control of the strike zone, Fabian could be a steal at 26.
Gavin Williams, SP, East Carolina
HT: 6’6 Weight: 255  B/T: L/R
Age: 22
Williams is a unit at 6’6, 255lbs. The East Carolina SP is the lone college pitcher the Twins have been consistently linked to in the pre-draft process. Williams sits comfortably in the mid 90s with his fastball and can reach triple digits. He has struggled with injuries and control throughout his college career until the spring of 2021. In his first ten starts this season, he managed a 1.46 ERA and 108 Ks through 68 innings with just 18 walks (yes, you read that correctly). Williams also offers a strong curveball, a slider, and a changeup.
Trey Sweeney, SS, Eastern Illinois
HT: 6’4  Weight: 185  B/T: L/R
Age: 21
Sweeney is a strong college bat who may end up as a corner infielder. This season he hit .382/.522/.712 with 14 home runs in 48 games. Sweeney has a big leg kick to his swing (similar to early Royce Lewis) that some feel he will need to adjust to have sustained success against professional pitching. Despite playing against mostly weaker competition, Sweeney performed well against the better pitchers he faced this spring. Sweeney has been one of the most steady and consistent options the Twins have been linked with throughout his college career.
Honorable mentions: 
Connor Norby, East Carolina 2B, Tyler Black, Wright State, 2B
Which of these prospects excites you the most? What are you interested in seeing the Twins do at 26?
 
 

In 2016, Refsnyder was a 25-year-old floating between Triple-A and the New York Yankees. The Arizona State alumni --  a former College World Series’ Most Outstanding Player to boot -- had yet to make an impact on his club. He had a brilliant idea: He would add power to his game. 
His idea involved mirroring the approach of Minnesota Twin Brian Dozier. He noted that Dozier’s short, compact swing provided him with a high pull rate. The spray-to-all-fields approach wasn’t going to give him the requisite direction to hit home runs in bunches, he believed. So, over the next few years he tried to pull the ball. 
Refsnyder would finally pop his third career home run on April 27, 2018, by this time in a Tampa Bay Rays uniform. He would do it again on May 30 in Oakland but would not enjoy the slow jog around the bases again for almost three years. 
https://twitter.com/BallySportsNOR/status/1395888740976009218 
A lot has happened between major league home runs. Refsynder has been with four different organizations. He didn’t see any MLB time in 2019 while with the Diamondbacks and Reds. The following year, he was a member of the Rangers’ alternate site in 2020 and received 35 plate appearances in Texas. He would do a stint in St. Paul, first at the Twins’ preseason alternate site, then as a member of the Triple-A Saints. 
Notably, his swing morphed from a loosy, leg kick with multiple parts (left) to an inward twist (middle) and then back to a hanging leg kick with more stability bridging the upper and lower half while creating a stretch with the front and back (right).

You can see the drastic change between his previous swing with Texas and his recent one with the Twins. 
You would understand that, after all those years of not being able to trot around the bases, that Refsnyder would take a moment to bask in the adulation for destroying a Triston Mckenzie fastball left up. But he did not. What did Refsnyder do? He thanked his Triple-A hitting coach.
“I was working on a couple things with Borgs,” Refsnyder told the media when asked about his swing, “and, thankfully, it has been working out.”
Matt Borgschulte, or Borgs as Refsnyder called him, said that it is a testament to what type of person Refsnyder is to take the time to give recognition to those who have helped him. 
“All the credit goes to Rob, I’ve learned a lot from him as well,” says Matt Borgschulte, pointing out that Refsnyder’s career through multiple organizations comes with tacit knowledge on hitting. Each stop gives him a new perspective from different coaches and players. Smart players are able to retain and transfer that to their next destination. 
Refsnyder was signed by the Twins in November and invited to spring training. He wasn’t thrilled with his performance in March, deriding the pull-side ground balls he hit, so he and the Twins’ staff reviewed video of his swing and re-wrote the plan. He said he was able to try some things while in the alternate camp without the worry of what his performance looked like. 
“Not having to worry about games means not worrying about numbers or statistics that are on the back of baseball cards,” says Borgschulte, emphasizing the process over the outcome.  
The Twins work on fitting hitters with their best movements. But in doing so it becomes a conversation between the player and the staff. Refsnyder had a vision and, as they rebuilt his approach, they would have a back-and-forth on what felt good, what was working and what needed adjustments. Borgschulte highlighted Refsnyder’s load as an important component of his swing, setting him up to be in a good position to attack good pitches.
When asked about the physical changes to his swing and how that impacted his ability to drive the ball, Borgschulte deferred and spoke toward Refsnyder’s overall approach: “Thinking too much about mechanics can be difficult on your approach,” he said. “Rob worked on trying to stay on the ball, going up the middle with it to the right-center field gap.”
That’s very different from the approach Refsnyder outlined in 2016 when he began to be hyper-focused on pulling the ball. In his limited time with the Twins, the majority of balls off his bat have gone to center field (52%) while less than a quarter have been pulled. Maybe more importantly to Refsnyder’s results, just 24% of batted balls have been on the ground. 
The Twins organization has implemented a system for communication between coaches at different levels, so after Refsnyder left the Saints, hitting coaches Edgar Varela and Rudy Hernandez were able to continue with -- and enhance -- the preparation plan for him when he arrived at the big league club. 
To be fair, getting excited over less than 40 plate appearances is not advised. After all, Refsnyder’s line (.438/.472/.719 with 2 HR) looks an awful lot like Robbie Grossman’s (.361/.452/.694 with 2 HR) after 11 games in a Twins uniform. Still, there are signs that this might be the culmination of Refsnyder’s 2016 plan to add power and, if that is the case, having a right-handed outfielder with some pop isn’t a bad addition. 
Enjoy the ride.