2258 - 2026 Minnesota Twins Top 10 Prospects

The following players are discussed:

1. Walker Jenkins (OF)
2. Kaelen Culpepper (SS)
3. Eduardo Tait (C)
4. Emmanuel Rodriguez (OF)
5. Marek Houston (SS)
6. Dasan Hill (LHP)
7. Kyle DeBarge (2B)
8. Gabriel Gonzalez (OF)
9. Brandon Winokur (OF)
10. Charlee Soto (RHP)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everyone. Today is November sixth, about nine o'clock
in the morning here in beautiful North Carolina, where it
is already sixty one degrees is beautiful here on the ocean,
so hopefully the weather is good with you all. I'm
still trying to get over the Great World Series, and

(00:22):
I just saw an article today that the TV ratings
were through the roof. You know, it hasn't you know,
we haven't. People haven't watched a baseball game like that
in years, and it's so good to see for baseball,
and so hopefully that will carry on until next season.
I know, we get the World Baseball Classic that a
lot of people like to watch, and just really good

(00:45):
times here. We're already starting to see some guys get
signed and options picked up and not options denied, and
so all that stuff goes on now and then you're
going to see arbitration, which guy are going to go through,
uh through the r process, and then I think you
can officially start to sign free agents. Was ten days

(01:08):
after the end of the World Series, so we got
a little bit of time left. But we all know
that at least if passed his prologue, then it's going
to be February before before most of the the big
guys get signed a lot, there's you know, I guess
Bieber up re upping and picking up his options. His
option with the UH oh the Toronto Blue Jays is

(01:32):
pretty interesting. I would have thought he's got a lot,
a lot more money on the UH on the open market.
But maybe they cut a deal and they're actually gonna
sign him for a longer term deal. I don't know,
or maybe just got caught up in all the hoopla
of the World Series and wants to participate it in again.
I don't know. But so that took a big name
off the market. UH. And then we've got UH. I

(01:56):
guess we got Kyle Tucker, who we know was going
to sign like that. He's not a Bars clients, so
Bars clients are the ones that always signed very very late.
But there's Bregman and there's a ton of Bars clients
out there. So we know what the winter will bring.
But there's always prospects to talk about, and that's what
we're talking about today. We're doing the Minnesota Twins Top

(02:18):
ten Prospects for everyone and then all twenty two for
our Patreon members. So as always, we will do the
top ten. I'll do a little music interlew so I
can find that where where that stops, so I can
chop off the end and that'll provide it to you.
But if for those who are not members of our
Patreon site, I encourage you to join us out there

(02:40):
patrio n dot com Forward Slash Prospect three sixty one.
You get all of the prospect work, you get extended
work on Tim's draft lists that will be starting to
come out probably in January. I'll be doing draft targets
as well. I don't know when that's going to be.
I think I usually do them in December. Soon as
you start to have some nfbcadps. I'll be looking at

(03:04):
that work. And then you get the draft handbook, which
is I think I call a draft report, which this
year is going to be insanely large because there's about
one hundred and fifty thousand words. So so good stuff
out there. Got leagues that we play in, there'll be
some openings for Dynasty League pick up teams there, so

(03:25):
all kinds of good stuff. Okay, and again patroon patr
o n dot com Forward Slash Prospect three sixty one. Okay,
let's get to the list here. The Twins system is
a lot better than it has been for a while,
and partially because they sold off everybody. Everybody, particularly Yan

(03:47):
Duran or John Duran or Jahoned what however pronounced his
first name. I've heard it so many different ways. Sure
he's got a correct pronunciation, and that brought in a
lot of depth to the system. Nick Abel was one
of those guys, but he just lost prospect eligibility at
the end of the season, so he did not make
the list. He would have been a top he would

(04:08):
have been a top one hundred guy. But if I
take a look at the list, they've got one, two, three, four, five,
six top one hundred guys, with the highest rank guy
being Walker Jenkins and another drafty, Merrick Houston, which we're
going to get to in a few minutes, who I
like a lot. It was the sixteenth overall picks. I

(04:32):
have him, I think going number eleven in my first
year player draft. So so I'm pretty bullish on what
the Minnesota Twins are doing now. They besides Walker Jenkins,
they don't really have any you know, huge player. But
Jenkins could be a star and finish the season in
TRIPAA and just looks like. I saw him a lot

(04:54):
in high school because he was a local kid here
in North Carolina. I saw it's funny I had so
I worked for a lot of agents and they asked
me to go take a look at Walker Jenkins and
I did, and back when he was in tenth grade,
and I thought, Wow, this guy looks good and I
kind of might might The organizations are generally smaller because

(05:17):
the big agents had agencies have their own scouting facilities.
I just thought this guy was going to be a
high end pick, and it turned out. You know, he
was a number fourth overall pick a couple of years ago.
So this is he's a serious, serious player and has
his biggest problem has been staying healthy. But I think

(05:39):
it's middle of the order upside. It's going to be
real power speed early iness cript He's a big guy,
and I think he'll slow down as time goes on,
but I think he's going to hit and I think
you could be looking at like a two seventy thirty
to thirty five home runs with a ton of RBIs
again some speed early in his career. I think it's

(06:01):
a really good baseball player. I'm hoping that these injuries
are just temporary, you know, just kind of soft tissue
issues that he's had, and you know he'll get through
it and have a run of health because he's an
athletic guy. So I'm not exactly sure what has happened
in his first couple of years, but through it all,
he still progressed very very quickly for how little he's played.

(06:25):
But I'm a big, big fan of Walker Jenkins. So
when you have that in your system, it's you know,
it gives a top end a lot of a lot
of bazazz, right, so you you you've got some really
high end kind of a player that you can build around.
And the Twins, I guess Byron Buxton is a player
they could build around, but he's always been hurt. It's

(06:46):
interesting the Walker Jenkins, hopefully you won't turn into Byron Buxton.
And then Royce Lewis is a guy they thought they
could build around, and he's always been hurt hurt, So
hopefully Jenkins will be that guy that can stay healthy
and be the cornerstone of that franchise because they really
needed it. And again, Buckston could have been that guy,
but he's just not because he can't stay healthy. Number

(07:10):
two is Klin Culpepper, who I was I was a
little not dwn is not the right word. I wasn't
as high on him coming out of the draft as
I should have been, because he was terrific last season.
Seventeen point four percent strikeout rate, a ten percent walk rate.
I think there's fifteen to twenty home run pop. There's
more speed than I thought. He's more with that athletic

(07:31):
than I thought he was going to be. And he's
moving quickly right, So I think we see him at
some point in twenty twenty six. And if I go
take a look at roster resource, let's go to the Twins.
I think there's opportunities for these guys, right because I
mean it's a bad major league team. So Bucksin's in
center field, and let's see his left field is Austin Martin. Yeah, right.

(07:55):
I don't think he's going to keep He's going to
keep Walker Jenkins down by any stretch, though I think
Walker Jenkins would be better in right field. Matt Walder
can ever stay healthy. So but Matt Walder is a
pretty good player when he plays. So there's that in
that shortstop. They got brooks Lee, who's a nice player.

(08:17):
I always thought that they should have put him in there,
not signed Carlos Correa, and but they didn't. They finally
moved him, and maybe they want to see Brooksley get
a get a shot, but Royce Lewis, you know, it's
not going to be playing third base forever. Luke Luke Keyshall.
I think it's a good player as well, But I

(08:39):
don't know. Maybe Calin Culpeper can push out Brooksley. I
think he's a better player than brooks Lee. There's not
a ton of fantasy upside with brooks Lee, at least
he hasn't really shown a ton of power yet. And
if we take a look at his baseball sealant data,
let's do that real quickly, quickly here brooks Lee, axletly,

(09:03):
here it is. I think the sample size is oh,
sample size is plenty of Yeah, so average EXI velocity
is twenty eight percentile eighty eight point six with a
thirteen degree launch. So that's the guy that's going to
hit ten to fifteen home runs, which he hit sixteen
last year. Yeah, it feels about right, and the speed

(09:23):
is nineteenth percentiles. It's a guy that's not going to
steal any bases, makes great contact, but look at that
walk right at five point nine percent. I would not
have thought that him going through the minor leagues. I
would have thought he would have had a better hit
tool than that. But that's not somebody who you want
to go to war with if you think you're contending.
So I think Caitlin Culpepper is the better player there,

(09:47):
and it looks like, well, no, his his his powers
to see switch hitter. Yeah, he's a switch hitter. Yeah,
so his power is definitely a pool size power. He
did hit two directly the center field when he's sixteen,
but he's definitely a dead pool hitter because they're rought
down the line, so many of them. That's where his
highest concentration of his powers down the lines. This is

(10:10):
not a guy that I'd be all that interested in
jumping on in first and in traditional fantasy leagues. It
doesn't look like it based on the data. I see
what his splits are, So if he's I know he's
a switch hitter and all, but yeah, I mean yeah,
it looks like he definitely hits lefties better than Righty's

(10:33):
two twenty batting average against righty's to sixty six but
the slugs are about the same. So yeah, it looks
like he hits right and right and lefties about the same,
So there's no definitive splits there. But I think Kaylen
Culpepper is the far superior player and we'll see him
at some point in twenty twenty six. But look, Brooksley

(10:53):
is going to get the first shot there and maybe
he can he can make some hay with it. At
Eduardo Tate tight, I think it's tight, not tight, it's tight.
Came over in the Durand trade from Philadelphia. Huge raw power,
a guy who also never walks, so he swings at everything.

(11:14):
But when he was in Low A there was a
ton of one hundred and ten mile an hour. I
think he was off to one hundred and thirteen as
his max eg velocity for kid who was eighteen nineteen
at the time. That's this big boy power there, you know.
It's kind of that Gary Sanchez kind of feel to it.
Gary Sanchez obviously had massive raw power. There's always concern

(11:35):
about how much Gary Sanchez would catch, and the Yankee
stint seemed to care because they kept him as a
full time catcher for a long time. But I think
that's pretty similar to the kind of role. I'm hoping
he's a better hitter than Gary Sanchez, but he's got
a walk more than five percent. But look, it's thirty
home run pop at the catching position, so if he

(11:57):
hits two forty, two fifty, I think that's still a
chance for the guy to be, you know, a top
fifteen catcher. So if he moves to first base, that's
even even better because that could come with thirty five
home runs. Again, a bit of a low batting average
but high RBI. So obviously not a complete player by
any stretch, but I think you can provide some value.

(12:18):
Manuel Rodriguez has been frustrating, so I've been tracking him
for years, spent most of the year on the io.
Otherwise I think we would have seen him in the
major leagues. Incredibly tools, the athletic kid, big, huge raw power,
faster than you think. So I think there's you know,

(12:39):
thirty home run pop, fifteen, maybe even twenty stolen base
base opportunity. But he's really a passive approach at the plate.
He has always walked a ton, but he's always struck
out a ton. So here you got strikeout walks and
home runs at your classic three true outcome player that

(13:01):
profiles you hope they become Kyle Schwarber. And if Emmanuel
Rodriguez has become eighty percent of the power of Carls
Kyle Schwarber, this similar kind of batting average and on
base percentage with his speed, he'd become he could become
a superstar. I mean, look at Kyle Schwarber's first second
round pick this year. I mean that's the kind of

(13:23):
upside that we see with the Manual Rodriguez. He's just
never put together. He had one stretch I think it
was a twenty twenty four where he looked really, really good.
But we'll see him next season and the fantasy tools
are still there. Just realizing batting average leagues, he's gonna
he's gonna be a drag on your batting average. But

(13:43):
the speed and power are very very interesting, kind of
in a kind of in that Spencer Jones kind of world.
I bet you I have them ranked pretty close together.
They have Emanual Rodriguez at eighty six, and I think
I have Spencer Jones just around that area too. See
here Spencer SPNC Spencer Jones at sixty two. So I

(14:07):
get Jones at sixty two and yeah, so they're they're
in that similar kind of good players, chance to be
impact players, but hair on them because because of their
swing and miss capabilities or tendencies. Number five is Mayor Acusta,
who I mentioned at the top. I like the player
a lot. I've got them a little bit higher. There's

(14:29):
sneaky fifteen to fifteen kind of upside you think he's
going to hit. He's good defender as well, and he's
another shortstop that if Kalin Culpeper, you know, doesn't fully develop,
Houston's going to be on his heels quickly. Right. He'll
probably start the season back in High A, finish in
Double A. That's why I have a chance to see

(14:50):
him at twenty twenty seven. I think he and Calpepper
can move to second or third. It would be interesting
to see what with the event you do with Royce Lewis.
I mean, Ryce Lewis is moving on in his career.
I wonder when he becomes a free agent. Let's see
here go to Royce Lewis. I think it's he's twenty six,

(15:10):
so it's just a one year conscience. He's service timeing,
so he's got three more years His free agency is
twenty twenty nine, so six seven eight, so they've got
three more years of him. You figure they're not going
to be any good in twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven,
is you hope they start to turn the tide. But
at that point it's going to be time to move

(15:31):
on with Royce Lewis so because he's not going to
be there when they're ready for their run, right so
you would think they would consider moving him once he
can show some level of health and if they sign
him to a long term contract, that would be insane,
right He just the health would just would indicate that
that's a bad idea. But teams do bad I do bad,

(15:54):
dumb stuff all the time. Anyway. That's Merck Houston pretty
pretty bull him Again, not the highest upside. There's a
lot of these high school shortstops, the Eli Willetts of
the world. They're going to have higher upsides. But Mary
Houston's got a higher floor and probably will make it
to the major leagues a lot faster. So you just

(16:15):
have to kind of figure out how you want to
play all that. Uh Dassan Hill, left handed pitcher. I
have him the top forty five starting pitcher with upsides
so big lefty upper nineties. Anybody a left handed hit,
left handed pitcher who tops that at ninety eight point
four miles an hour with high spent should have your attention.

(16:36):
Still needs to work on this change up. But the
it's a raw picture, doesn't always throw strikes, but there's
it's it's a power pitcher. And this guy with proper
development and you know, things breaking his way could turn
into a top of the rotation guy. And again he's
just outside the top one hundred one five. So again

(16:58):
this this could change. I you know, as I haven't
finalized my top five hundred yet. In fact, they just
sent it out to somebody just and in the caveat
I reserved the right up until the end of the
year to make modifications as I think through stuff. Number
seven is Kyle DeBarge, speed guy. I think he's going

(17:20):
to hit a little bit. The question is is he
will he turn into utility player because there's just not
a ton of power there. But again, you need a
couple of these guys in your team. Dbar's just getting close.
I think we see him maybe at the end of
this season. He can play all over the place more
likely two thousand and twenty seven. So I do like
Kyle Dubar's so keep make sure you keep an eye

(17:42):
on him. Another guy I like a lot is Gabriel Gonzales.
He's in TRIPAA. I still think there's huge raw power
there and he just hasn't shown it yet in games.
I think it's going to come. I have n't still
stashed in a couple of Dynasty leagues, so I'm still
a believer. He's kind of been up and down. A
lot of that has been based on just being not

(18:04):
being able to stay healthy. But let's see last season.
I don't know if I wrote it in the note,
so just go over and look at my data. Youah,
fifteen home runs, eight stolen bases, but can really really hit,
So you know, I think there's more last season. It's
he when he was with Seattle twenty twenty three, he
did hit eighteen home runs, but twenty twenty four was

(18:27):
just five and three un and thirty seven games. But
it's I think eventually going to see a twenty home
run spot there and a guy with five to ten
stolen bases who can hit. It's a nice player. So
another kid to keep track of. So that. Let me
get back over to my list. Number nine is Brand
and Brandon Winter Curse. Again, this top ten is pretty strong,

(18:48):
and it goes down to about fifteen to eighteen before
things start to thin out with the Twins again, when
you make all those trades, that's that's what you get.
There's power, speed, you know, but it's it's a big
guy with a big swing. There's a lot of contact
problems there, so I mean it's kind of know your

(19:10):
parameters here, so you know, is he going to make
enough contact to get there? I don't know. I mean
it's you can kind of take a look at him
and Spencer Jones, and you know he's talking about Spencer
Jones with Emanuel Rodriguez. So it's kind of these boomer
Bus guys, and the Twins have got two of them,
with Winnaker and Emmanuel Rodrigez. So I like Emanue Rodriguez

(19:32):
a little bit better, but you know, Winnaker's leonardgre might
be able to hit a little bit better than the
Spencer Jones is and Emmanue Rodriguez is of the world.
But I mean, I don't think the tools are quite
as explosive. Still a very very good prospect and a
top one twenty five prospect. For me, I have him
at won twenty seven, so one hundred and twenty seventh prospect,

(19:52):
and then Charlie Soto always liked, but he couldn't stay
healthy last season. It was kind of weird he he
came out with a elbow injury after three starts. I
think we all assumed it was gonna be Tommy Johnsarge.
It turned out to be bone spurs, which you know,
guys get all the time, and they go and clean
that out. But he missed the rest of the season.

(20:13):
Didn't look like he had the surgery until later on
in the year. I don't know if they had to
let the inflammation calm down, but it was a bummer
that he missed so much time. But long term, I
think that there is something here that is it Again.
I encourage everybody to check check us out at the
patreons apatr o N dot com formar slash Prospect three

(20:34):
sixty one. That is our top ten. I'll be back
over the weekend with I guess see Atlanta Brace. We're
already moving into the National League East. Until next time, guys,
be well and our Patreon members hang on, and we
will do the rest of them