Twins Happy with their Four Day 1 Draft Picks

[Seth Stohs]

On  Sunday night, the Minnesota Twins had four draft picks in the top 69 overall picks. They added three college hitters before drafting a lanky high school pitcher. We were able to chat with top pick Kaelen Culpepper after he was drafted. Sean Johnson chatted with media late after the Day 1 draft was complete. 

Image courtesy of © Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

It was a long day on Sunday, even before Day 1 of the 2024 MLB Draft got underway deep in the heart of Texas. The Twins were busy making four draft selections over the next four hours. However, Sean Johnson seemed very happy about the day.                                                                                                                                                        
The Twins last had four picks on Day 1 of the MLB Draft in 2016. It was the final draft with Deron Johnson as the team’s scouting department. The Twins uniquely drafted four high school bats that night. They took Alex Kirilloff in the first round. In the second round, they took catcher Ben Rortvedt. Then, after the second round, they had two bonus picks and took outfielder Akil Baddoo and infielder Jose Miranda. 

Impressively, all four have made it to the big leagues, and each has had some big moments. On Day 2, they took right-handed pitchers Griffin Jax and Jordan Balazovic. Then, on Day 3, they added right-handed pitchers Tyler Wells and Sean Poppen, as well as catcher Caleb Hamilton. In addition, they selected Greg Deichmann, Matt Wallner, and Brent Rooker were selected late on Day 3 but did not sign. 

Director of Scouting Sean Johnson met with the media after their four picks were made. “We knew we were in for a long night!” He continued, “There were some spots we anticipated being a little tricky to navigate, but our group feels good about how things played out. All four players we took tonight we really love. So, that always feels good on the front end. It couldn’t have gone much better from what we thought we were going to get coming into the night and what we ended up with. That’s a rare feeling, so whenever that happens, we’ll take it.”

The talk before the draft was that this draft’s strength was college hitters. In previous weeks and interviews, Johnson said they may have to lean into the draft’s strength. And that is generally how Day 1 of this draft went. And the Twins' first three picks were college bats. 

“I think we’ve learned over the years that you can never fully have a feel for how the draft is going to play out. There are always surprises that you can’t see coming. That happened at various points tonight. That’s just the way it goes. We just try to stick to our plan of attack and take the players we believe in and our scouts believe in, and that is holding up on the board. We ended up with three bats, and that’s not unusual for us.“

Looking back, three of the Twins' first four picks in 2023 were bats. They took Walker Jenkins, Luke Keaschall, and Brandon Winokur. In the Covid-shortened draft of 2020, the Twins had for picks. They drafted Aaron Sabato, Alerick Soularie, and Kala’i Rosario. In 2019, five of their first six picks were hitters (Keoni Cavaco, Matt Wallner, Spencer Steer, Seth Gray, and Will Holland). 

Trevor Larnach, Ryan Jeffers, and DaShawn Keirsey were the first three Twins draft picks in 2018. And again, that 2016 draft saw the Twins select prep hitters with their first four picks. 

Let’s talk about the four players the Twins drafted on Sunday night. 

The Twins used the 21st overall pick to select Kansas State infielder Kaelen Culpepper. 

Culpepper was in Texas and was quite emotional when the Twins drafted him. Tears welled up in his eyes. He gave big hugs to his parents and walked to the stage wearing a Twins jersey. It was important for him to be at the draft, even if it wasn’t always comfortable. 

He said, “For one thing, it’s hot. Very hot. But when I heard my name being called, a jolt of emotions ran through my body. I didn’t know what to do. It was all Excitement, joy, and tears, all real. I came a long way, a journey, just to get here. Looking back on it, it’s amazing. I’m just really excited.” 

However, he was somewhat surprised to hear that the Twins took him. “The only interest I felt was when I met with them at The Combine. That was about it. I was pretty shocked, but I’m also really happy. I’m excited to see what the future holds.” 

When Sean Johnson was told that, he responded. “That’s probably fair, but some of that’s just us trying to lay low a little bit and not tip our hand. I think Royce said that, too, last fall. He was like, ‘I didn’t know they were going to take me. I didn’t even know if they liked me.’ We absolutely loved him. So there’s some gamesmanship to all of this. We did connect at The Combine. We really enjoyed the interview. They give us extra time slots for players that we want to talk to more. So we spent an hour with him. Really enjoyed the time we got with him. We had a lot of background checks on Kaelen, and everyone across the board liked the way he approached the game of baseball and who he was as a person.”

Culpepper starred last summer for Team USA. He’s also had some of his best moments and best streaks in big games.  Culpepper noted, “I think when you’re playing for something bigger than yourself, it means a lot more, especially the games. I like playing on the biggest stages.” 

Johnson contacted a familiar person to get feedback on Culpepper and others. “Going back to last summer and the USA team, a lot of glowing reviews from the coaching staff included Brooks Lee’s dad, who was the head coach of that club. He really vouched for his character and the way he went about his business.”
‘
Asked about himself and his game, Culpepper said, “I consider myself a five-tool player. Definitely speed. I want to always be a guy that steals maybe 40, even 50 bases. There’s always a willingness to get faster.” He’s just trying to be more consistent. 

While the Twins have had their eyes on Culpepper for a long time, he was not heavily recruited out of Memphis. 

Kyle DeBarge, their Competitive Balance pick, was a relative unknown out of high school, and Billy Amick, the Twins second-round pick, is a guy they have been watching since high school. 

According to Johnson, These players aren’t all on a linear path in their development. You just have more comfort in a player who has hit for a long period of time. Sometimes, you have to be opportunistic on players who just had a good year or two. It’s something we discuss, we measure, and we try to quantify. It’s really hard. So we always lean into the players we know best, on and off the field. I think that’s just us trying to stay disciplined in our approach.” 

After Culpepper, the Twins took another smallish shortstop in Kyle DeBarge from Louisiana-Lafayette. He turns 21 years old today. He’s just 5-9 but probably best described as a “ballplayer.” That said, he put up some impressive Slugging numbers in Lafayette.  

DeBarge was a three-year starter for the Ragin' Cajuns. This year, he hit .356/.418/.699 (1.117) with 19 doubles, three triples and 21 homers. 

Those first two picks are contact-type shortstops. “It’s something we certainly value. It’s very difficult for our player development to teach guys to swing at the right pitches and control the strike zone. So we usually lean into those types of performers.” 

But can they stick at shortstop? Sean Johnson doesn’t worry about that kind of stuff.“ I don’t get hung up on where they’re going to end up. I know we have to talk about where they think they’re going to play. I think all three (including Amick) have a chance to stay in the dirt. I think Culpepper and DeBarge have good chances to play shortstop, but if they have to shift to second base or third base, it’s a lot like Brooks Lee. We didn’t take Lee because we thought he was a shortstop. We thought he could hit. That’s really what drives our decisions on night one. We want a player we believe can hit and play multiple positions. It really is in line with how Rocco (Baldelli) deploys his roster. On a nightly basis, it’s nice to get him potential pieces that can play around the diamond. That’s always a good thing for the way our roster is constructed.”

Billy Amick just won a College World Series title with Tennessee. He profiles as more of a power hitter. Johnson noted, “ I think we looked at Billy’s overall track record of performance. He was a good performer at Clemson. Then he was on this decorated Tennessee team that was full of  really good hitters. You look at his numbers, and the underlying numbers, beyond the stat sheet, and we just really feel good about his swing and his chance to be offensive, and we were really glad he was still on the board at 60.” 

He spent two seasons  at Clemson. His freshman year, he played in nine games and went 2-for-19 with 11 strikeouts. As a sophomore, he hit .413/.464/.773 (1.236) with 17 doubles and 13 home runs. This season, in 65 games, he hit .306/.387/.639 (1.026) with 14 doubles and 23 home runs. 

And with their competitive balance pick, they selected long, lanky lefty Dasan Hill. He is listed at 6-5 and 165 pounds. He is drafted out of Grapevine High School in Texas. It’s the same high school that former Twins prospect Mason Melotakis attended. 

According to Johnson, “We saw Dasan Hill a lot. We’ve seen him since last summer. He made a nice jump from last summer to this spring. Our area scout, Trevor Brown, saw him pitch at least eight times this spring. So we had a lot of looks. He was Trevor Brown’s bullet guy. We had good belief from the intel we received from our area scout, which we lean toward. He’s got a chance with four pitches. He has present velocity. We think once we get him in our system, we can do a lot physically and develop his pitches. That pick was a nice way to end the day today.”  

Hill has a nice fastball, which actually improved throughout the year. He’s consistently in the low 90s and reached the mid-90s. He also throws two different breaking balls that have the potential to be very good. He’s also continuing to work on a changeup, though he didn’t need to use it in high school. That will become a very important pitch for him in professional baseball. And again, with his size, he’s got room to get bigger and stronger as he continues to develop and mature. 

On Day 2, the Twins will make eight selections. The day will start in the third round and will go until the 10th round is complete. On Tuesday, teams will make their 11th through 20th-round picks.  

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[DJL44]

I really like having the draft happen at this spot in the calendar. Filling the spot before the All-Star game is great. Any earlier and the actual games overshadow it. Post-ASG will be all trade rumors.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Curious if he gave any hints about their bonus situation,  whether under, over or flat on their bonus situation

 

[D.C Twins]

With all due respect, in the history of professional sports, there has never been a team that reported being unhappy with their draft the day after.... :)

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, D.C Twins said:

With all due respect, in the history of professional sports, there has never been a team that reported being unhappy with their draft the day after.... :)

Oh man, that feels like the perfect opportunity for a satire article.

[Lasorda_This_Out]

Who's the dude with Rob Manfred?

[Seth Stohs]

12 hours ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

Curious if he gave any hints about their bonus situation,  whether under, over or flat on their bonus situation

 

No hints, but it's pretty clear just from the players they drafted. Culpepper was picked 21st. He was something like 32nd on the big board. Maybe he goes for slightly under slot. DeBarge went 33rd and was maybe 50 on the big board. Maybe there's a bit of savings there. At the same time, they only took one high school kid, so they may not need a ton of extra. Hill will take some, I'm sure. The other thing is that they don't take a guy in the top ten without pretty much knowing what they're signing them for. 

[TopGunn#22]

Yeah, I would really like to see them sign Hill.  Spend a little over his slot to make it happen.  

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

42 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

No hints, but it's pretty clear just from the players they drafted. Culpepper was picked 21st. He was something like 32nd on the big board. Maybe he goes for slightly under slot. DeBarge went 33rd and was maybe 50 on the big board. Maybe there's a bit of savings there. At the same time, they only took one high school kid, so they may not need a ton of extra. Hill will take some, I'm sure. The other thing is that they don't take a guy in the top ten without pretty much knowing what they're signing them for. 

Looking at it after today,  pretty clear they were trying to get some more money from early picks in day 2.   Means they paid extra for Hill and probably Amick.  That is ok.  I would rather get 4 solid prospects and honestly that is what this looks like.  The rest taken in day 2 still look like decent prospects but definitely some savings occurring there.  Solid draft, nothing spectacular like last year, but solid none the less. 

[sampleSizeOfOne]

13 hours ago, D.C Twins said:

With all due respect, in the history of professional sports, there has never been a team that reported being unhappy with their draft the day after.... :)

How come?

 

Still, i assume there is some variance in their post draft responses, even if they do tend to be favorable?

[DJL44]

3 hours ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

How come?

What farm director is going to say "Boy, I really screwed that draft up yesterday. These guys are terrible!"

[Seth Stohs]

6 hours ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

Looking at it after today,  pretty clear they were trying to get some more money from early picks in day 2.   Means they paid extra for Hill and probably Amick.  That is ok.  I would rather get 4 solid prospects and honestly that is what this looks like.  The rest taken in day 2 still look like decent prospects but definitely some savings occurring there.  Solid draft, nothing spectacular like last year, but solid none the less. 

With how many people the Twins had come up and contribute from Day 2 and Day 3, I'm not going to guess which ones, but I'm sure 2-4 of them will contribute. 

 

[DJL44]

Quote

Minnesota Twins

Each of Minnesota's first four picks has some serious questions to answer over the coming years. Can shortstop Kaelen Culpepper improve his breaking ball recognition? Will fellow shortstop Kyle DeBarge's extreme contact skills be able to overcome his lack of pop? Might Billy Amick stick at third base, or will he fall into the ever-dreaded right-right first baseman category? And how about prep lefty Dasan Hill -- can he avoid the attrition monster? All fair questions, and I'm not optimistic across the board. Even so, I think the Twins did well in landing all four, and I'll give them the highest mark as a result. Grade: A.

2024 MLB Draft grades for every team: Braves, Guardians get 'A' while Angels, Rangers miss opportunities - CBSSports.com