Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Minnesota Twins. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the fourth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb. A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Catcher Depth
Andrew Cossetti, C
Nate Baez, C/1B
Poncho Ruiz, C
Cossetti is a power-hitting catcher from St. Joe’s who is currently at Wichita trying to quicken his exchange enough to stay back there. Baez is a super physical 5-foot-11 power-hitting backstop from Arizona State. He’s striking out a ton. Ruiz is a physical catcher from San Diego State who is hitting well at Low-A but needs a lot of work on defense, both in terms of his receiving and throwing.
One Plus Pitch
Juan Mendez, RHP
Jeremy Lee, RHP
Taylor Floyd, RHP
Matt Canterino, RHP
Daniel Duarte, RHP
A 6-foot-4, 240 pound reliever, Mendez, now 25, didn’t begin pro ball until age 22. He’s touching 98 mph from one of the highest release points in all the minors at over 81 inches. This aids his slider (which is very hard to see out of hand) but hurts his fastball, and he’s given up a ton of hits at Cedar Rapids. Because of the way his slider can clip the top and bottom of the zone, perhaps this is the kind of guy who would benefit from any sort of implementation of an electronic strike zone. Lee was a 2023 Day Three pick out of South Alabama. He takes a powerful open stride down the mound and tilts into a vertical arm slot that produces 90-93 mph fastballs. When he can land it, his curveball is one of the best in the minors, an absolute hammer that often looks like it’s headed at the umpire’s face before it bends into the zone. He’s run into command trouble at Cedar Rapids. Floyd is a low-slot reliever who hasn’t been able to recapture his mid-90s form of a few seasons ago. Canterino and Duarte have been on past prospect lists but are currently out with injury, which is unfortunately a frequent occurrence for both.
27th Man Types
Michael Helman, UTIL
DaShawn Keirsey Jr., CF
Ben Ross, UTIL
Danny De Andrade, SS
Helman is 28-year-old super utilityman who is hitting for power at St. Paul. He’s most comfortable at third base but has played all over the diamond. He’s a nice upper-level emergency option because of his versatility. Keirsey fractured and dislocated his hip colliding with an outfield wall in college and couldn’t run for four months. Though he didn’t look quite as explosive early the following year, he played his entire junior season and led the Pac-12 in doubles before signing as a slightly over-slot fourth rounder. He’s risen to Triple-A and can still play a good enough center field (his athleticism at the wall is amazing) that he’d be a fine injury replacement. Ross can also play all over the place but isn’t hitting at all despite being old for Double-A. De Andrade (currently injured) was a big money shortstop signee who has performed at a league average level in pro ball, but we have concerns about the sustainability of his swing style.
System Overview
This is a fun, exciting system that has improved substantially in the last calendar year, mostly because of players the team has signed or drafted and then developed. There are several pitching prospects who signed for bonuses in the low-to-mid six figures who now occupy the 40+ (or better) FV tier. Minnesota consistently churns out viable mid-staff pitching from unexpected places, hitting on several small school picks later in the draft. A lot of these guys are quick-moving prospects who should be integral to an already competitive big league roster within the next couple of years. There perhaps isn’t a near-term superstar up top, but this system has a number of looming everyday guys and many good role players. The high-upside/big-framed athletes with extreme variance — guys like Hendry Chivilli and Yasser Mercedes — were perceived to have the potential for that kind of right tail outcome when they signed, but nobody from that group has shown they can hit for contact yet. A franchise-altering meteoric rise from one of those players seems unlikely; instead, they’re potential late-breaking toolsheds with a very low floor.
The Twins are currently jockeying with Kansas City for second place behind the Guardians in the AL Central. They’re set up to be deadline buyers. Recall that they got in a little over their heads at the 2022 deadline when they traded, among others, Cade Povich, Spencer Steer, and Yennier Cano. Last year, they seemed a little gun shy. Their roster is complete enough that it’d be surprising to see the Twins be part of a blockbuster. They’re more likely to upgrade the bottom of their roster, and they have enough prospect depth to facilitate that without turning this into a below-average system. The Twins should stay open to the idea of trading Max Kepler (who is in his contract year) and maybe even Byron Buxton (signed through 2028) if they think some of their other internal options (Matt Wallner or the oft-injured Alex Kirilloff for Kepler; Luke Keaschall or Emmanuel Rodriguez for Buxton) can produce at a similar level. That said, catching lightning in a bottle with the Kepler/Buxton duo probably gives them a better chance of actually winning the whole thing, and Buxton looks like he’s heating up lately. Still, their depth gives them the option to take a neutral deadline posture and make a deal if the relative lack of other position players on the market makes for favorable conditions.
The Twins’ amateur scouting group tends to draft a mix of scout-y athletes and model-friendly statistical performers, with some guys (Keaschall especially) who were both. The international group has targeted big-framed athletes on the position player side, and more recently has favored older pitchers. Most of the fastballs in the system are of the vertical persuasion, though the release heights are all over the place. Cutters are more commonly installed here than other breaking ball types. Overall, this is a comfortably above-average farm system both in terms of depth and high-end players.
