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The 2021 MLB Draft has come and gone, and the Minnesota Twins brought in a new wave of young talent after making 21 picks. How many of them will sign and how good will they eventually turn out is yet to be determined, but for now, there is certainly reason to be excited about this class. While this year’s draft of 20 rounds was still only half of the usual 40, it pretty much felt like a return to normalcy after last year’s draft only had five rounds. The Twins had a clear approach of wanting to draft players that they knew they could sign, as they targeted high schoolers with both of their picks on night one, and then drafted exclusively college players on days two and three. When asked about this in an interview after the draft, Twins scouting director Sean Johnson had this to say, “Once you get past the second round a lot of those high school players that you would like to bring on board become a little less signable… so you get out of that high school group pretty quick starting in the second or third round.” With the 26th overall pick in the first round, the Twins took a fireball high school pitcher from New Jersey named Chase Petty. In showcases last summer and leading up to the draft, Petty’s fastball has routinely been clocked in the triple digits and has reached as high as 102 mph. Petty also has a breaking ball and a changeup that show potential to be above average pitches as he develops them. As a result of his makeup, along with how high school fireball pitchers have fared in the past, Petty was seen as a risky pick. However, with the Twins picking late in the first round, it made perfect sense to bet on the high upside of Petty, as his ceiling is as high as most of the players taken with the first ten picks of the draft. Just ten picks after they selected Chase Petty, the Twins were on the clock again, this time closing out night one of the draft in Competitive Balance Round A. Again, they went the high school route as they selected Noah Miller, a shortstop from Wisconsin. Miller is a well thought of defensive shortstop who could stick there at the professional level. Offensively, Miller is a switch-hitter with more of a contact approach. While the power is still a bit of a question mark, Miller has time to develop that as he gets into the Twins player development program. The focus early on day two was college pitching, as four of their first five picks were college pitchers. While each of those four pitchers are seen as more pitch-ability guys, with potential to be back of the rotation starting pitcher or long relief options, second round pick Steven Hajjar does have some middle of the rotation upside if he can tack on a few more MPHs on his fastball. With the rest of their picks on day two, the Twins focused on filling out their infield and catcher positions. In the fourth round they selected Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who is a third baseman from Oklahoma State with some power potential with the bat. They also drafted back-to-back catchers in the 8th in 9th rounds to continue to build depth at that position within the organization. On day three it became all about filling out the rest of their class with as many quality players as they could. Again the focus early was on pitching, as three of the first four picks on day three were pitchers. Sandwiched between those pitchers was the first and only outfielder the Twins took in the entire draft, as they selected Big East Player of the Year Kyler Fedko out of UConn. Another theme of this draft was taking multiple players who played for the same university. In the 8th and 15th rounds, the Twins selected catcher Noah Cardenas and middle infielder Mikey Perez from UCLA. In the 9th and 12th rounds, the Twins took a pair of UConn Huskies in catcher Pat Winkel and outfielder Kyler Fedko. Texas Tech was also well represented in this year’s Twins draft class, as a pair of Red Raiders in right-handed pitcher Brandon Birdwell and second baseman Dylan Neuse were taken in the 11th and 17th rounds, respectively. One thing everyone wants to know is, how good will this draft class be, and I can promise that the guys within the Twins organization who made these selections are wondering the same thing. The truth is, nobody knows and we likely won’t be able to accurately judge this class for another five to ten years. One this is true however, the Twins just added a number of new and exciting players to their ranks, and all Twins fans should be excited to see what these guys can do. View full article

The 2020 MLB Draft will go down in history for not only being just five rounds long, but for the lack of scouting teams were able to do in the months leading up to the draft, thanks to the seasons being cut short by the coronavirus. This created a whole new set of challenges for MLB organizations like the Minnesota Twins. So, let’s take a look at how the Twins faired with their four picks in this year’s draft.Prior to the draft, I looked into a number of different strategies that the Twins could use in this draft, specifically as how they could divvy up their signing bonus pool. One of the strategies outlined was a portfolio approach, where they would try to save money with their first couple of picks, in order to spread that money around into there last two picks, where the slot values are not as high. Aaron Sabato With their first-round pick, the Twins went to the college ranks to select UNC first-baseman Aaron Sabato. In his one full season in a Tar Heels uniform, Sabato put his powerful bat on full display, tallying 44 extra-base hits in just 64 games played. This included hitting for the cycle against rival North Carolina State on May 16th. Sabato is more than just raw power though, as he is a career .332 hitter at UNC, with a career .459 OBP in 83 games played. It is hard not to see how Sabato fits into the Twins overall draft philosophy of drafting big and powerful bats, joining the ranks of Brent Rooker, Trevor Larnach, Ryan Jeffers, Keoni Cavaco and Matt Wallner all taken in the early rounds in recent years. Since Sabato is a draft eligible sophomore, with a lot of potential, he likely will not sign for below the slot value of the 27th pick in the draft. If you would like to read up more on Sabato, and see what Scouting Director Sean Johnson had to say about him, you can do so here. Alerick Soularie Going into day two of the draft, the Twins had their sights set on Tennessee outfielder Alerick Soularie. He was a player that was circled high on their boards, and they didn’t feel like he would be there when they made their next pick after this one, a whole 69 picks later. Soularie began his college career at San Jacinto JC (the same JUCO that both Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite went to) where he lit up the competition on his way to a .402/.513/.745 slash line with 10 home runs in 59 games and lead his team to a third-place finish. This impressive performance opened the doors to a transfer to Tennessee, where he continued to have great success. In his only full season for the Volunteers Alerick Soularie hit for an impressive .357/.466/.602 slash line, while going up against SEC pitching for the first time. His numbers were down slightly to start the 2020 season, before it got cut short. It is hard to know for sure from an outside perspective, but it seems like Soularie is a pick that the Twins should be able to sign for below the $1.19 million assigned to that slot. Which would allow the Twins to spend over slot, in order to sign each of their final two picks. If you would like to read up more on Soularie, and see what Scouting Director Sean Johnson had to say about him, you can do so here. Marco Raya The only pitcher that the Twins selected in the draft was Marco Raya, a prep arm out of the state of Texas. Raya is a bit undersized, but he is a good athlete and excellent mechanics that helps him pump it up as high as 94 MPH without needing a lot of effort. Raya also throws two above-average breaking balls in a slider and curveball. Both pitches have potential to be plus pitches down the line. Finally, Raya also throws a pretty decent changeup, which gives him a rare four-pitch mix that not a lot of high schoolers have at this point in their development. It will be a few years until we really know who Raya is as an MLB prospect (he’s still only 17-years old), but he has a bright future ahead of him. Being a high school player, committed to Texas Tech, the Twins will likely need to use some of the money saved on Soularie in order to sing him. If you would like to read up more on Raya, and see what Scouting Director Sean Johnson had to say about him, you can do so here. Kala'i Rosario The Twins final selection in the 2020 MLB Draft was a high school bat, with a powerful profile in Kala’I Rosario. Rosario is a player that impressed a lot of scouts in the Area Code games last season. While there is a lot of work to do with his overall approach and swing at the plate, it is evident that Rosario has much raw power as any other prep player in the draft. While many other sites weren’t as high on Rosario, I fell in love with what this guy could potentially be if he is able to maximize his raw power, which is why he came in at number 73 on my final pre-draft rankings. While Rosario might be far from a finished product, he has plenty of time to develop (he won’t turn 18 until July), and already has some great upside tools. As was the case with Raya, the Twins will probably need to go above slot value to sign Rosario, but they are confident that they will be able to get a deal worked out. If you would like to read up more on Rosario, and see what Scouting Director Sean Johnson had to say about him, you can do so here. In total, it was a very good draft for the Minnesota Twins, all things considered. Not only were they limited in the number of picks and time to scout these players, but they also had the 4th smallest signing bonus pool, which hampers a lot of what they could do in the draft. However, they came into this draft with a plan, and executed that to near perfection, and now the minor-league system has four new potential stars of the future. Great work by all of the scouts and other members of the organization that had a hand in this draft. Let us know below what you thought of the Twins draft, and what letter grade you would give them. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email — Follow Andrew Thares on Twitter here Click here to view the article