It’s been a confusing season for Minnesota Twins fans. In the start of the spring, their favorite team was coming off its best season in two decades and looked like a cinch winner of the American League Central.
Unfortunately, offseason cuts to player payroll took away from a lot of the momentum built up by impressive roster building and some playoff victories. Four months later, things haven’t exactly gone as planned.
That’s in large part thanks to the surprise MLB team of 2024, the 67-45 Cleveland Guardians, who enter Tuesday with a 3.5 game lead over Minnesota in the AL Central. The 63-48 Twins are currently 15 games over .500 and on pace to win 91 games on the season. Outside of a 2nd half implosion, we should be looking at another playoff push.
Minnesota Twins farm system ranked in MLB top 5
But the optimism doesn’t stop there. The Minnesota Twins farm system seems to look better and better every time experts in the baseball prospect world update their analysis and rankings in the MLB minor leagues.
We saw that again on Tuesday, when ESPN ranked the Twins as the No. 4 overall farm system in all of baseball, post MLB trade deadline, up from No. 9 prior to the change.
Current top prospect: Walker Jenkins, CF
What has happened since: The Twins have moved up in these rankings because they haven’t graduated anyone of note with the same three guys still in the top half of my Top 100 from the preseason addition and they also have had some notable arrow-up prospects including 2B Luke Keaschall and RHP Zebby Matthews. By this time next year, I’d expect Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez and Keaschall to be in the upper minors with a chance to debut as the next wave of impact talent.
ESPN
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We’ve seen Twins’ prospects slowly rising up the board, over the last two to three years. Recent high draft picks, such as Brooks Lee and Walker Jenkins have supplanted the organization with at least two top 25 prospects in all available rankings.
Twins prospects climbing the rankings… and sticking around
Meanwhile, the less-touted prospects behind them continue to impress scouts and experts across the industry. Pitchers like David Festa and Zebby Matthews have busted into multiple top 100 lists, after years of being undervalued. We’ve seen hitters like (2B) Luke Keaschall and (OF) Emmanuel Rodriguez have done the same.
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Their improved ranking can also be attributed to the fact that they did little (nothing) at the MLB trade deadline, in order to improve their 2024 squad for an incoming run at the playoffs. That means there were no notable prospects sent out, either.
The Twins didn’t make many moves at the deadline and their draft class was solid, headlined by college shortstops Kaelen Culpepper and Kyle DeBarge. One player to keep an eye on is LHP Connor Prielipp, a 2022 second-rounder with positive early results as he returns from an internal brace procedure on his left elbow after a Tommy John surgery in 2021.
ESPN
According to MLB.com , the Minnesota Twins currently have five minor league prospects in baseball’s top 100. That includes two (Brooks Lee and Walker Jenkins) players in the top 15. Four of the five are currently in, or busting down the door, to Major League Baseball.
- No. 5: Walker Jenkins – OF (2023 Draft – Pick 5) | Single-A+
- No. 14: Brooks Lee – IF (2022 Draft – Pick 8) | MLB
- No. 26: Emmanuel Rodriguez – OF (Signed 2019) | Double-A
- No. 87: David Festa – SP (2021 Draft – Pick 399) | MLB
- No. 100: Zebby Mathews – SP (2022 Draft – Pick 234) | Triple-A
Yes, the big league Twins are deeply implanted in a 2024 divisional race (and intense Wildcard race). Hell, they may even have a legitimate chance to earn the American League’s No. 1 seed, in the MLB Postseason.
But down on the farm, things look pretty good too. Now, if we could just get the Pohlads to treat their baseball money like other pro sports franchises in 2024…
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