Keep An Eye on This Emerging 19-Year-Old Pitching Prospect

[Cody Schoenmann]

Will this 19-year-old pitching prospect be the next young, fire-throwing arm to vault up Twins prospect rankings?

A little over two weeks ago, FanGraphs released their "Minnesota Twins Top 43 Prospects" list. Like most lists, Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and Brooks Lee inhabited the top three spots. However, The list quickly became unconventional, with Dameury Pena, Rayne Doncon, and Daiber De Los Santos (none in Twins Daily's 2024 Top Prospect Rankings) residing tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, respectively. Various other attention-catching placements can be found on FanGraphs's list, yet none were more surprising than 19-year-old starting pitching prospect Adrian Bohorquez claiming the 17th spot.

What makes Bohorquez's occupation of the 17th spot in FanGraphs's ranking is that he is currently unranked in the following reputable platform's top prospect rankings:

• Twins Daily's Top 20 Twins Prospect Rankings
• Aaron Gleeman's 2024 Top 40 Twins Prospect Rankings at The Athletic
• Aram Leighton's 2024 Top 15 Twins Prospect Rankings at Just Baseball
• Jonathan Mayo's 2024 Twins Top 30 Prospect Rankings at MLB.com
• Baseball America(?) - (I don't have a membership, but I'm assuming Bohorquez is unranked)

FanGraphs is always unconventional with its prospect rankings. For example, in 2023, they ranked then-30-year-old Double-A reliever Jordan Brink as the team's 33rd-best prospect. However, to find Bohorquez ranked 17th above well-renowned prospects like Tanner Schobel (21st), Ka'lai Rosario (30th), and Brandon Winokur (31st) is genuinely surprising. Beyond FanGraphs, the only other reputable source to place Bohorquez in their top rankings is Twins' prospect guru Tom Froemming, who has him ranked 28th. So, what prompted FanGraphs and Froemming to rank the hard-throwing righty so highly? Let's take a look.

Bohorquez, 19, joined the Twins after signing a minor league contract with the organization on Jan. 15, 2023. The Venezuela-born pitcher was assigned to the Dominican Summer League (DSL) team in June, earning a 5.25 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, and a .233 batting average against while allowing 21 hits over 24 innings pitched and netting an alarming 30-to-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Bohorquez struggled in his first cup of coffee in the DSL, which is expected of an 18-year-old making his first appearance in professional baseball. However, the now-19-year-old has jumped onto the scene in his second season in the Twins' minor league system.

Upon being promoted to the Twins' Florida Complex League (FCL) squad, he has generated a 3.52 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and .171 batting average against while allowing 19 hits over 30 2/3 innings pitched. He has also illustrated a modest command improvement, posting a 34-to-14 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The steadily improving hurler also topped out at 97 miles per hour in his most recent stretch relief appearance in the FCL, demonstrating the velocity necessary to be taken seriously as a prospect and potentially earn a promotion to Single-A Fort Myers.

Admittedly, it is hard to properly scout and assess Bohorquez's performance, pitch mix, and physical traits as there is limited DSL and FCL video for the general public to access. Despite appearing in the video for only ten seconds, it is evident that Bohorquez (who is listed at 6'1" and 190 lbs at MiLB.com) has an imposing stature that should bode well for him as he continues to mature and develop in the Twins minor league system.

His best pitch is his fastball, which FanGraphs ranks 55/60 on their "20-80 scouting scale," meaning it is above average with the potential of being a plus pitch. FanGraphs also ranks his curveball at 55/60, with his cutter sitting at 45/50, meaning it is currently below average with the potential of becoming average. His most significant growth area as a pitcher is his command, which FanGraphs rates 25/55, meaning it is significantly well below-average with the potential of one day becoming above-average. Evidently, Bohorquez improving his command will likely be the deciding factor on if he will rise through the ranks or fizz out in the low minors.  

Those closely following Twins' prospects have witnessed the ascension of promising young arms like Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa, Zebby Matthews, and Andrew Morris in the past two seasons. A sustainable pitching pipeline (buzzword, I know) ripe with homegrown talent is beginning to emerge (if it hasn't already), and having young, talented, hard-throwing arms like Bohorquez enter the blooming process this summer further emphasizes the encouraging state of the organization's long-term pitching depth. Nevertheless, Bohorquez is an intriguing, hard-throwing starting pitching prospect who could eventually pop up on more Twins' top prospect lists if he improves his command and continues to pitch well for the FCL squad.

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[DocBauer]

Understandably, a 17-18yo HS arm is the hardest type of prospect to predict success for as they have such a long road to travel before reaching MLB. A foreign born 16-18yo is probably that much harder to predict. So I can understand the Twins seemingly more attracted/interested in young, teenage bats that are probably a little easier or "safer" to project. But I'd still like to see them focus a bit more on the young, Latin community of arms than it feels they have previously. 

[bean5302]

He'll be interesting to watch as he moves up since he's so inexperienced, and there's so little info out there on him. I don't take a ton of stock in Fangraphs pitching analysis on its own. It feels like they're obsessed with velocity, but 97mph in rookie ball from a 19 year old unknown is eyebrow raising.

[Trov]

1 hour ago, DocBauer said:

Understandably, a 17-18yo HS arm is the hardest type of prospect to predict success for as they have such a long road to travel before reaching MLB. A foreign born 16-18yo is probably that much harder to predict. So I can understand the Twins seemingly more attracted/interested in young, teenage bats that are probably a little easier or "safer" to project. But I'd still like to see them focus a bit more on the young, Latin community of arms than it feels they have previously. 

I fully agree it is so hard to predict how a HS are will develop and even harder with 16 year old.  We never know if a kid is done growing, will he fill out, and how will his arm hold up as he ages.  Even for hitters that young it is hard to predict and some times the top paid guy is the best in class, but other times the lower end paid guy is.  I point to Juan Soto signing class.  He signed 1.5 Tatis Jr. signed 700K, we signed Wander Javier for 4 mil, Vlad Jr. Signed for 3.9, Gilberto Cellisto signed for 2.5, Andres Gimminez signed 1.2.  There were several that signed for 2 plus and very few ever made majors is my point but guys that paid much less did much better sooner than later too. 

Signing a 16 year old kid is a crap shoot that he will ever be anything in the future. 

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

Will he turn out? Who knows! But it will be fun to watch him over the next few years!

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, Trov said:

I fully agree it is so hard to predict how a HS are will develop and even harder with 16 year old.  We never know if a kid is done growing, will he fill out, and how will his arm hold up as he ages.  Even for hitters that young it is hard to predict and some times the top paid guy is the best in class, but other times the lower end paid guy is.  I point to Juan Soto signing class.  He signed 1.5 Tatis Jr. signed 700K, we signed Wander Javier for 4 mil, Vlad Jr. Signed for 3.9, Gilberto Cellisto signed for 2.5, Andres Gimminez signed 1.2.  There were several that signed for 2 plus and very few ever made majors is my point but guys that paid much less did much better sooner than later too. 

Signing a 16 year old kid is a crap shoot that he will ever be anything in the future. 

It's hard enough just knowing if the kid is 16 or 26 down there, LOL.

[Guest]

I always feel compelled to make the following comment when I see an umlaut used. 

Pronouncing the Umlaut Ü

The last umlaut in the German language is the Ü. Similar to the Ö, there is no equivalent sound in the English language for this umlaut. So, you’ll have to do with plenty of repetition.

Follow the steps below, to pronounce Ü:

1. Begin by making the sound “ee” as in the English word “see.”
2. While making this sound, purse your lips as if you were whistling, almost closing them completely.
3. Keep your tongue in the same position as when saying “ee”, but change the shape of your mouth as if you were saying “oo.”

Unfortunately, this umlaut is almost impossible to find in any English word.

[jmlease1]

21 hours ago, bean5302 said:

He'll be interesting to watch as he moves up since he's so inexperienced, and there's so little info out there on him. I don't take a ton of stock in Fangraphs pitching analysis on its own. It feels like they're obsessed with velocity, but 97mph in rookie ball from a 19 year old unknown is eyebrow raising.

They've always seemed to prefer projection over production as much as anyone too, which I'm less enamored of, considering how many obstacles are on the path for most players as they rise through the ranks. It's understandable that you might get excited about a young athletic pitching prospect who is hitting 97 on the gun at 19, but when they are only 12 starts and less than 60 innings into their career at rookie ball I have to wonder a little.

At the same time, once you start getting into the teens on prospect lists the difference between 17 and 25 really might just be personal preferences on which prime skill they have that you like...