Twins Expected to Add Three Top 50 International Prospects in January

[Jamie Cameron]

The signing period for international free agency opens on January 15. Here's a preview of the headliners of the Twins forthcoming international prospect class.

 

The signing period for International Free Agency opens on January 15th. The Twins are one of eight teams with the joint largest bonus pool of $7,555,500. The 2025 International Signing Period is unlike any in recent memory, with the decision of Roki Sasaki set to have significant ripple effects throughout baseball. It seems highly remote that the Twins will sign Sasaki, but whoever he signs with will likely leave several top prospects hanging without deals. While it’s normally fair to confidently assume teams will make good on their verbal agreements with prospects, I’d approach the window with less certainty this season. Minnesota has been closely tied to and are expected to sign, three of the top 50 prospects, per MLB.com.

24. Santiago Leon, SS, Venezuela
The Twins boast a strong Venezuelan class in 2025, headlined by Santiago Leon, a 16-year-old shortstop and son of longtime Twins scout Jose Leon. Leon is a right-handed hitting prospect already standing six-foot-one with an offensive skill set headlined by a patient approach at the plate. Scouts are complimentary of both Leon’s bat-to-ball skills, in addition to his selectivity at the plate. While Leon doesn’t have explosive athleticism, he has good hands and moves well defensively, which, combined with an above-average arm, gives him a chance to stick at shortstop.

Leon is expected to sign the 20th largest bonus for an international prospect in the 2025 signing period, per Baseball America. He’ll likely sign for between $1-2 million.

26. Carlos Taveras, OF, Dominican Republic
Carlos Taveras, a 16-year-old outfielder out of the DR, is already an imposing physical presence and an impressive athlete. Standing at six-foot-one, he’s a left-handed hitter with good bat speed and the potential to boast serious raw power as he develops. There’s some swing and miss to his offensive game, but there are plenty of other tools to like, too. Taveras is an above-average runner with an above-average arm, a combination that should allow him to play centerfield, at least early in his professional career. He’s one of the youngest players in the international class this year.

Per Baseball America, Taveras is expected to sign the 39th largest bonus for an international prospect in the 2025 signing period. He’ll likely sign for between $1-1.5 million.

43. Haritzon Castillo, SS, Venezuela
Haritzon Castillo is a switch hitting 16-year-old shortstop prospect out of Venezuela. Castillo doesn’t have a standout tool, and offensively, it’s a profile more similar to Leon’s than Taveras’. Castillo currently has a hit-over-power offensive profile, with a good approach and direct swings from both sides of the plate. Defensively, Castillo might profile as a prospect who moves around the infield, with the versatility to become a positionally flexible infielder.

Castillo is expected to sign the 47th largest bonus for an international prospect in the 2025 signing period, per Baseball America. He’ll likely sign for around $1 million.

In spring 2024, the Twins hired Roman Barinas, a longtime international scout and player development staffer with the Dodgers, as their new Latin American Scouting Director. It’s hard to assess the impact his work will have on the Twins practice, as it's likely that most of the deals in the 2025 window were agreed to long before he assumed his role.

Several of the Twins recent international additions looked good in 2024. Yasser Mercedes (in his second go-around in the FCL), put up a .989 OPS. Daiber De Los Santos (.844 OPS) and Eduardo Beltre (1.071 OPS), the Twins two headliners of their 2024 class, both put up big seasons in the DSL, with Beltre, in particular, drawing attention. The new crop will undoubtedly be a fun follow in 2025.

 

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[Fire Dan Gladden]

Crow today, wait 10 years to see results...

Not complaining, just reality.

[LambchoP]

I sure hope all these hyped up prospects end up being successful major league guys because until we get a new owner, what we already have in our system is what we've got to work with.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

They seem like good signings, but as @Fire Dan Gladden said, they are soooooooo far away.  It’s important, and they should keep doing it.  Sometimes it works (Polanco, Sano, Kepler).  I wonder what the overall success rate is with international signings.   I think it’s even tougher to hit on a 16 year old international prospect than with the draft, which is already tough.  

[twinstalker]

"Swing and miss" doesn't go away or get better, really.  Who cares how far you can hit the ball if you can't hit it.

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Crow today, wait 10 years to see results...

Not complaining, just reality.

True, but the teams that end up snagging the winning lotto tickets that debut at 18 or 19 years old and become super stars, often do it with these international guys.

Beltre and De Los Santos from last year are fairly encouraging. 

[DJL44]

Pitchers don't usually get the big bonuses at age 16 but it is absolutely critical the Twins do a better job at finding and developing international free agent pitching talent.

[NYCTK]

Crap shoot.

Looking back, 2014 international top prospects and it seems only 1 of the top 30 ever made the Majors. 

But looking at 2015 you had HUGE successes including Soto, Tatis Jr, and Vlad Jr. 

Maybe one of these guys hits, who knows. 

[gman]

I'm hoping  Roman Barinas can have a major impact on the Twins Latin America prospect recruitment. I'd prefer to see 1 really good recruit per year then 4-5 mediocre recruits that don't develop much beyond A-ball.

[TopGunn#22]

Am I missing something?  We have the maximum amount of international signing money ($7.55 million).  I guess we have zero chance of signing the closest player to a "sure thing" in Roki Sasaki, but whoever gets him will probably have to blow their entire signing pool money, leaving some good potential talent available to sign...

And the highest rated prospect we are in on is ranked 24th?!?!?  Plus, we have two SS's and an OF.  Who is the highest ranked catcher??  Do we have no interest in any highly ranked catchers?  I'm pretty sure when we signed Emmanuel Rodriguez he wasn't the 24th rated prospect.  

If the 24th, 26th and 43rd ranked prospects are the expectations for the Twins why not just go all in on Roki Sasaki?  With the money we have, shouldn't we have a shot at someone in the top 5 ??  

[chpettit19]

4 hours ago, TopGunn#22 said:

Am I missing something?  We have the maximum amount of international signing money ($7.55 million).  I guess we have zero chance of signing the closest player to a "sure thing" in Roki Sasaki, but whoever gets him will probably have to blow their entire signing pool money, leaving some good potential talent available to sign...

And the highest rated prospect we are in on is ranked 24th?!?!?  Plus, we have two SS's and an OF.  Who is the highest ranked catcher??  Do we have no interest in any highly ranked catchers?  I'm pretty sure when we signed Emmanuel Rodriguez he wasn't the 24th rated prospect.  

If the 24th, 26th and 43rd ranked prospects are the expectations for the Twins why not just go all in on Roki Sasaki?  With the money we have, shouldn't we have a shot at someone in the top 5 ??  

Some of it is the kind of strategy you want to take. Sure, the Twins have one of the top signing pools, but the top guys are going to cost 2/3 of it. Do you want to take one big swing or do you want to take a bunch of medium swings? Most of these kids are 16 years old. You get some Cubans who are older and some Japanese like Shohei and Roki as well. But mostly they're 16-year-olds.

2015 sums it up pretty well. The top 5 (according to MLB.com to stick with the rankings provided in the piece) that year were Yadier Alvarez, Vladimir Gutierrez, Yusniel Diaz, Alfredo Rodriguez, and Eddy Martinez. Not exactly a who's who, right?

Well #7 that year was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Not crazy low, but clearly better than those first 5. Then at 19 you get Andres Gimenez. Clearly much too low. Leody Taveras hasn't been anything special but has an MLB career so #22 is too low compared to those top 5. But #25 and #30 that year are names I'm pretty sure you've heard of...Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr.

It's hard as heck to accurately scout the 18-22 year old high school and college kids for the draft and 16 year olds is a whole other level of difficult. Rodriguez was the #12 prospect when they signed him. So, no, not #24, but also not top 5. And there's 3 catchers on their top 50. #'s 17, 31, and 41.

Having the most money doesn't guarantee you whoever you want. There's also some politicking and relationship building. 

Money isn't the reason they aren't getting Roki Sasaki. That's an entirely different situation.

[Mike Sixel]

7 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Some of it is the kind of strategy you want to take. Sure, the Twins have one of the top signing pools, but the top guys are going to cost 2/3 of it. Do you want to take one big swing or do you want to take a bunch of medium swings? Most of these kids are 16 years old. You get some Cubans who are older and some Japanese like Shohei and Roki as well. But mostly they're 16-year-olds.

2015 sums it up pretty well. The top 5 (according to MLB.com to stick with the rankings provided in the piece) that year were Yadier Alvarez, Vladimir Gutierrez, Yusniel Diaz, Alfredo Rodriguez, and Eddy Martinez. Not exactly a who's who, right?

Well #7 that year was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Not crazy low, but clearly better than those first 5. Then at 19 you get Andres Gimenez. Clearly much too low. Leody Taveras hasn't been anything special but has an MLB career so #22 is too low compared to those top 5. But #25 and #30 that year are names I'm pretty sure you've heard of...Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr.

It's hard as heck to accurately scout the 18-22 year old high school and college kids for the draft and 16 year olds is a whole other level of difficult. Rodriguez was the #12 prospect when they signed him. So, no, not #24, but also not top 5. And there's 3 catchers on their top 50. #'s 17, 31, and 41.

Having the most money doesn't guarantee you whoever you want. There's also some politicking and relationship building. 

Money isn't the reason they aren't getting Roki Sasaki. That's an entirely different situation.

This is the question....roll the dice on one highly ranked 16 year old (seriously, how would we know much), or on three medium ones? I guess more darts is likely good. Also, athletes (still annoyed they signed a big 1b type one year, sigh). 

[Mike Sixel]

Fangraphs has their ratings up. They aren't kind to Minnesota....

[nicksaviking]

22 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Fangraphs has their ratings up. They aren't kind to Minnesota....

Langerhans' first four paragraphs basically say that there isn't enough information on these guys and there are unranked guys that are probably better than some of these guys but he can only go off what they got paid in bonus. He also indicates his info is coming from 'insiders' who obviously won't be objective. It's not like amature hobbiest scouts are down there watching in these countries, all the scouts and evaluators have a vested interest in either specific players or specific teams and that's who's feeding Langarhans the information.

I like Fangraphs, but doing their FV for these players seems like an exercise of the unknown. I don't think it's very reliable. Or even at all reliable.

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Langerhans first four paragraphs basically say that there isn't enough information on these guys and there are unranked guys that are probably better than some of these guys but he can only go off what they got paid in bonus. He also indicates his info is coming from 'insiders' who obviously won't be objective. It's not like amature hobbiest scouts are down there watching in these countries, all the scouts and evaluators have a vested interest in either specific players or specific teams and that's who's feeding Langarhans the information.

I like Fangraphs, but doing their FV for these players seems like an exercise of the unknown. I don't think it's very reliable. Or even at all reliable.

Agreed. 

[Dman]

23 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Fangraphs has their ratings up. They aren't kind to Minnesota....

Yeah I saw that. too.  MLB.com shows they got 4 guys in their top 50 after adding the player that was predicted to go to the Dodgers.  Looking at it that way it feels like they did well.  BA just ranks via Salary which makes some sense as those are the players teams feel have the most talent to make it. 

Also BA notes the Twins got one of the better pitchers in this class.  They say the following "Venezuelan righthander Santiago Castellanos has been a significant up-arrow pitcher. He’s a 6-foot righthander whose stuff has taken off over the past year to where he has become one of the best pitchers in the class. He’s 16 with outstanding arm speed and already reaching 97 mph with a lively fastball. He shows feel to spin a hard curveball with good depth and will flash an occasional changeup."  So for those of us who think the Twins should find better international pitching it looks like they checked that box this year.

I like the class as they chose guys with contact skills over power.  They got a power hitter that might be a 5 tool player.  They stole a speedy outfielder from the Dodgers and the Twins seem allergic to speed guys, And the cherry on top one of the better pitchers so far for this class. 

I do agree with @nicksaviking and @chpettit19 that all these projections mean very little, but they took a fair number bites at the top 50 to 100 players and got a well rounded group.  That's about as much as I could ask even if this class isn't as loaded with top tier talent as most years.

[Mike Sixel]

7 minutes ago, Dman said:

Yeah I saw that. too.  MLB.com shows they got 4 guys in their top 50 after adding the player that was predicted to go to the Dodgers.  Looking at it that way it feels like they did well.  BA just ranks via Salary which makes some sense as those are the players teams feel have the most talent to make it. 

Also BA notes the Twins got one of the better pitchers in this class.  They say the following "Venezuelan righthander Santiago Castellanos has been a significant up-arrow pitcher. He’s a 6-foot righthander whose stuff has taken off over the past year to where he has become one of the best pitchers in the class. He’s 16 with outstanding arm speed and already reaching 97 mph with a lively fastball. He shows feel to spin a hard curveball with good depth and will flash an occasional changeup."  So for those of us who think the Twins should find better international pitching it looks like they checked that box this year.

I like the class as they chose guys with contact skills over power.  They got a power hitter that might be a 5 tool player.  They stole a speedy outfielder from the Dodgers and the Twins seem allergic to speed guys, And the cherry on top one of the better pitchers so far for this class. 

I do agree with @nicksaviking and @chpettit19 that all these projections mean very little, but they took a fair number bites at the top 50 to 100 players and got a well rounded group.  That's about as much as I could ask even if this class isn't as loaded with top tier talent as most years.

agreed on all points. These are, largely, lottery tickets....though the highest dollar hitters do become good players at a much higher rate than the random players.....

[nicksaviking]

27 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

agreed on all points. These are, largely, lottery tickets....though the highest dollar hitters do become good players at a much higher rate than the random players.....

Yeah, at this point, I think the most reliable ranking would be based exclusively on the bonus payout. Somebody who has actually seen them play has convinced their boss to spend that amount of money on the player. It's the best estimate we got and the only concrete intel we have. Everything else is second hand information and unverified rumors at best, even for trusted baseball writers.

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, at this point, I think the most reliable ranking would be based exclusively on the bonus payout. Somebody who has actually seen them play has convinced their boss to spend that amount of money on the player. It's the best estimate we got and the only concrete intel we have. Everything else is second hand information and unverified rumors at best, even for trusted baseball writers.

Also, these deals are somewhat sealed a year or two ago.....so they might have been better or worse looking as (yikes) 14 year olds. It kind of sounds gross, but this is life changing money for a lot of these guys.