Relaxed, Hungry, Humble: Twins Pitching Prospect Vying to Make an Impact

[Jamie Cameron]

Jaylen Nowlin has quietly impressed at Double-A Wichita in 2024. What's his story? What's he working on? How is his season going to date? Get to know the Twins lefty flying under the radar.

If you’re a 19th-round pick in the MLB Draft, the odds are long that you’ll make an impact at the MLB level. The Twins selected left-handed pitcher Jaylen Nowlin in the 19th round in 2021, 579th overall. He signed for $160,000, and has gone almost unnoticed in a Twins system increasingly deep with intriguing arms. Yet, Nowlin has continued to defy the odds in his young career. Now pitching in Double-A, Nowlin is starting to look the part of an arm who could have an impact for the Twins' major-league team in time.

"Great human, he just wants to go out and dominate on his day," said Wichita pitching coach DJ Engle of Nowlin, "He’s a hard worker who’s built himself up physically, especially over the last couple of years, and he’s seeing good results."

While there have been ups and downs to Nowlin’s development and performance throughout his professional career, he’s consistently posted effectively at every minor-league stop on his pathway to date. Nowlin picked up baseball from an early age, and grew up playing pretty much any sport you can name. He competed with and against a ton of talent in baseball-rich Georgia, including active big-leaguers Lawrence Butler, Taj Bradley, and Michael Harris II.

"I didn’t have to go far to see a lot of talent," Nowlin said, in an interview with Twins Daily's Seth Stohs. Those experiences, in addition to his time at Chipola College, helped shape Nowlin’s development curve significantly. Iron sharpens iron, after all.

Fast-forward to 2022, and Nowlin is in his first full season as a professional pitcher. He began to turn heads when he put up dominant strikeout numbers at Fort Myers, racking up 89 strikeouts in 56 2/3 innings pitched, and sporting a 3.65 ERA as a 21-year-old. He ended the year with a brief stint at High-A Cedar Rapids, before returning to Iowa for the majority of the 2023 season. While there was an adjustment curve in his time at Cedar Rapids, it was enough to earn him a late look at Double-A Wichita, before returning to the Texas League from the outset of the 2024 season. So what’s in Nowlin’s arsenal? What has he been working on? How has he been doing for the Wind Surge? Let’s dig in.

Nowlin throws left-handed from a high three-quarter slot, relying most heavily on his fastball and slider, which play well in tandem. Nowlin’s heater has been as high as 95 miles per hour in 2024. His slider is his best secondary pitch.

"He has a good feel for putting power behind his breaking ball," Engle said. Indeed, Nowlin’s slider has been as high as 88-89 mph this season, while typically sitting 85-86 mph. Nowlin also throws a changeup in the 84-87 mph range, and will mix in a slower curveball at times. So what is Nowlin working on this year?

"The big thing this year has been his slider velocity," Engle said. "Also throwing all the pitches in his mix within the strike zone. The strike zone is the biggest focus."

Nowlin himself expounded on this.

"I want to pound the zone with all my pitches to allow me to go deeper into games," he said. "I’m also working on my mechanics, to maximize my velocity."

The results have been impressive. Through 57 innings pitched in 2024, Nowlin is sporting a 3.63 ERA, 4.01 FIP, and limiting opposing hitters to an OPS against of just .629. He’s throwing more strikes, too. His strike percentage is up around 5% since the beginning of the season, and his walk rate has decreased from 12.1% in April, to 9.1% in June. Nowlin’s personal goal of going deeper into games has been realized. His surge was underscored by the best outing of his professional career on Jun. 16, in which he threw eight innings of one-hit baseball, striking out four, without walking a batter.

Relaxed, hungry, humble. Those three words stand out when listening to Nowlin talk about his craft and desire to succeed, or his coaches talking about his work ethic. What does he want Twins fans to know about him?

"Every time I step on the mound, I want to win more than anything. I am giving it everything I have on my day."

The odds might be long for a 19th-round pick, but I wouldn’t bet against Nowlin, he continues to defy them on his journey through the minors.

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[Doctor Wu]

Great article, Jamie, I've been following Nowlin the past 2 years and am impressed with his work ethic and attitude. If he can work on his mechanics, like he talks about in this article, and cut down on his walks, I could see him eventually becoming a part of the Twins' rotation. It certainly seems like he is willing to put in the work that is needed.

[Karbo]

It would be nice to see a LH starter on the Twins.

[FlyingFinn]

This is the type of guy that gets selected in the Rule 5 draft this winter and stashed in a poor teams bullpen in 2025. He has flashes where he's throwing strikes unlike some pitchers who always walk guys (being left-handed doesn't hurt either). Therefore, I think he has a chance to make it to MLB.

[tony&rodney]

I, too, have watched a number of Nowlin's starts in the last two years. Good article and yes, Nowlin has improved with his command and control. Pitching requires so much expertise to put all of your pitches in the specific location demanded by the plan and repeating a delivery to maximize your talent is difficult. If Nowlin can continue to refine his mechanics he has a chance to play in the majors. Several times this year the lefty has shown real potential with his talent. Good luck to Jaylen.

[Dman]

Really nice article Jamie, Thanks!  He was primarily a reliever in 2022 when K numbers were outstanding and I have been following him pretty close since then.  They had him start the next year and things were more up and down and the K rate went down. From the beginning though it has been the walks that have been the issue.  He just couldn't seem to hit the zone when he absolutely needed to.

I have had him pegged as a reliever due to the high walk rate but his June 16th performance was a game changer.  He had control in that game with zero walks and his pitches worked for K's and outs.  It proved his stuff plays if he can just control it.  I was hoping to see something similar the next time out, but he walked 5 in slightly less than 5 innings his next time out.  I still think he is close to really breaking out, but he needs to perform like June 16th to get there.

In a nut shell he simply needs to consistently have control and command of his pitches and he should get his chance at MLB as a starter or reliever as I believe he has the stuff\pitches to get there if he can harness it.

[LambchoP]

If you're left handed and can get left handed hitters out, there will always be a team willing to give you a chance.

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

Really nice article Jamie, Thanks!  He was primarily a reliever in 2022 when K numbers were outstanding and I have been following him pretty close since then.  They had him start the next year and things were more up and down and the K rate went down. From the beginning though it has been the walks that have been the issue.  He just couldn't seem to hit the zone when he absolutely needed to.

I have had him pegged as a reliever due to the high walk rate but his June 16th performance was a game changer.  He had control in that game with zero walks and his pitches worked for K's and outs.  It proved his stuff plays if he can just control it.  I was hoping to see something similar the next time out, but he walked 5 in slightly less than 5 innings his next time out.  I still think he is close to really breaking out, but he needs to perform like June 16th to get there.

In a nut shell he simply needs to consistently have control and command of his pitches and he should get his chance at MLB as a starter or reliever as I believe he has the stuff\pitches to get there if he can harness it.

i think you have him pretty well evaluated here. he's absolutely got to be able to command the zone better and keep the free passes down. If he's able to get the BB/9 down closer to 3 and do it without needing to back off his stuff to throw strikes, then I suspect we'll see the K-rate tick up a bit and his H/9 tick down/stay reasonable as well. Too often a player with his profile starts tossing a "get-over" pitch in 3 ball counts that lead to more hits (Pagan was a great example of this, IMHO)

He's doing a good job keeping the ball in the park this year, which is no small feat in the Texas League.

Disagree that he was primarily a reliever in 2022, though: 22 appearances, 14 were starts.

[DocBauer]

The stuff has always looked like it plays. But as already stated, it's the control and command that come and go. Not just Gane to game, but inning to inning. 

Twelve fewer hits than IP this year, but the K rate is down a little. But also, his BB per 9 is amongst the lowest in his MILB and seems to be trending down.

A little more consistency, and he's a back end ML SP. He's a mid rotation starter if the change and curve can take a step up perhaps? Love him as a LH pen arm, as early as next season perhaps, if he never quite takes the next step fully.

 

[Fatbat]

He will be on the 40 man roster because he has a shot at ubering across the river in ‘25. Its so awesome to see a kid like this make it to mlb!! 3 pitches and pounding the zone will get Nowlin to target field. 

[nicksaviking]

Kind of odd that he is the one pitcher they are letting go deep into games. Control aside, I thought with his slight frame and mostly two-pitch mix he might be fast tracked to the bullpen. It would be great if that curveball is actually a useful pitch for him and he can remain a starter.

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Kind of odd that he is the one pitcher they are letting go deep into games. Control aside, I thought with his slight frame and mostly two-pitch mix he might be fast tracked to the bullpen. It would be great if that curveball is actually a useful pitch for him and he can remain a starter.

Matthews, Morris, Nowlin, and Ohl have all seen pitch counts into the 80s pretty reliably at AA.

Lewis is being stretched out after returning from injury. Raya is a long reliever masquerading as a starter. His limit is in the 50s, pretty much same as last year and the end of the previous year.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

Matthews, Morris, Nowlin, and Ohl have all seen pitch counts into the 80s pretty reliably at AA.

Lewis is being stretched out after returning from injury. Raya is a long reliever masquerading as a starter. His limit is in the 50s, pretty much same as last year and the end of the previous year.

Agree about the AA pitchers, something good will come out of there. I doubt Raya is a long reliever though. He's much younger than those other guys and I'm sure they're handling him with kid gloves still. But mostly, he's not a long reliever, either he'll start or he'll go the Duran/Jax route. His control is the issue at the moment, if he can't figure that out, he's not going multiple innings out of the pen.