Minnesota Twins 2025 Prospect Previews: Dasan Hill

[Jamie Cameron]

Let's continue our review of the Twins' 2024 MLB Draft class. If there's a player in the group who has the ability to see their stock skyrocket this year, it might be their second-round pick.

Image courtesy of © Jonah Hinebaugh/Naples Daily News/USA Today Network-Florida / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Draft Context, Scouting and Signing
We finally got our first look at Dasan Hill, the Twins' Compensation Round B pick from the 2024 MLB Draft (69th overall), in a video shared via the Twins Player Development account on Twitter last weekend, and boy, did he look impressive.

The Twins had a healthy bonus pool ahead of the 2024 Draft. After the 21st overall pick, they had a compensation pick (33rd) for Sonny Gray turning down the qualifying offer and signing with the St. Louis Cardinals. Additionally, they had their second-round pick (60th) and a competitive-balance round pick (69th), to give them four in the top 70. After they selected college bats in Kaelen Culpepper, Kyle DeBarge, and Billy Amick with their first three picks, it felt inevitable that the Twins would turn to a prep player, and they did, with left-handed pitcher Dasan Hill. 

The Twins tend to choose their spots when leaning into left-handed pitching, and it seems they were very convicted on Hill. The pre-draft reports on the southpaw out of Grapevine, Tex. focused on how much Hill’s velocity popped the spring before the draft, his fastball ticking up from the low 90s to the 92-95 mph range. His pre-draft arsenal included a pair of breaking balls, with the slider sitting 78-83 mph and an upper-70s changeup. Some reports also focused on his projection. Hill clocked in a 6-foot-5, 170 pounds at the MLB Combine. Throw those ingredients together, and you have a fascinating arm.

Fangraphs's Eric Longenhagen had Hill as one of the best prep pitchers in the class (24th overall), citing a ‘feel for location uncommonly good for a pitcher his size and age’. Ultimately, Hill had a wide range of pre-draft rankings, from 24th to 99th in the boards we track as part of our draft process at Twins Daily. That’s normal for a prep pitcher. He ultimately ranked 59th on our board. The Twins selected him at 69th overall and paid $2,000,000 to sign him away from his Dallas Baptist commitment (well above the $1,168,000 slot).

In the first video we’ve seen of Hill since he signed, his fastball is now up to 98 mph. The changeup has added velocity; we get some looks in the video of it sitting around 85 mph. His slider, already considered an above-average pitch, is getting some silly swings in the clip. It’s tough to say (without any open-side view), but it looks like Hill gets down the mound well, too, and could have good extension, another trait that will help the arsenal play up.

Expectations for 2025
Hill will be one of the Twins arms I’m most excited to follow this year. He’ll be 19 for the entire season, and Minnesota will likely take it slow with him—as they should. There’s a sneakily good crop of left-handed pitchers in the lower and middle levels of the minors for the Twins now, with Michael Carpenter also likely to make his professional debut in 2025.

I’ll be monitoring three variables for Hill in 2025. First (and most importantly): can he stay healthy? This dwarfs the rest and is the only truly meaningful outcome for this season. Does he throw strikes consistently (or with improving consistency)? Does he show the ability to miss bats? If Hill can show even flashes of the latter two starter traits, he’s going to be an incredibly exciting follow in 2025. If you don’t believe in the Twins' pitching development pipeline yet, I don’t know what’s going to change your mind.

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[Heiny]

At 19 years old, Hill is a fantastic prospect.  At 6'5" as a left hander already throwing 98 mph his future could be the best prospect to ever come out of the Twins system.  However,  he is still just a prospect and we all know how that can turn out.  This will be a "super" situation to watch for Twins fans.  I really like the Twins prospects at this point.  Just imagine the possibilties 3 to 4 years down the road.

[Dman]

Yeah I really liked that pick when they made it.  I think it was the pick I liked the most in their entire draft last year.  Still arms always carry a ton of risk so I get why they pick their spots.  He kind of reminds a little bit of Festa only from the left side and obviously he is doing things at a younger age that most arms can't do.  I think health is the biggest thing they need to focus on.  He doesn't need to be rushed as it looks like he has the pitches he just needs to refine them.

The Twins have done a nice job of stacking some young arms to go with those college arms they like to take late. Soto and Hill are 19.  Carpenter and Bohorquez are 20 as is Questad.  Those are 5 young arms to watch this year.  Hill looks like he might be the best of them, but will have to wait and see.  Stack these young arms with the older college arms and they could have another wave of arms ready fairly soon.

[tony&rodney]

The number of tools used in the last decade plus to assist pitchers has led to an explosion of talented arms across baseball. Watching a few skinny high school kids throw in the 90s, you know that a college or MLB organization will boost that kid up a notch. Pitching has become almost scary. 

I was also pleased to see the Twins draft and sign Dasan Hill after reading about him. The placement of his draft position reflects that Hill was seen as a project but also worth going over slot. Health will be a crucial factor in his year as stated in the article.

[rdehring]

Love these reports, Jamie.

Yes, Hill seems to be uber exciting.  And going that far over slot meant the Twins really wanted him.

But the one I am most anxious to see is when you get to Carpenter.  Those eleventh round picks can always be interesting.  Add that his performance at Madison Tech was beyond good, if memory serves, and you have my favorite pick from last year's draft.  

Twins could have one heck of a starting rotation two or three years down the road.  GO TWINS, GO!

[jrod23]

Absolutely loving this pick.  He's projectable and already increasing the velo.  I agree, I get left-handed Festa vibes, but with more lank...if that's a thing.  But there's something there that separates him for the positive.

I'm still healing from the Landon Leach.  We're waaaaaaaay overdue for a early round pick making the top of the rotation.

[Guest]

Well done.

[thelanges5]

Starting to accumulate some LHPs in the pipeline. Hill, MacLeod, Prielipp, Nowlin

Who am I missing?

[Dman]

1 hour ago, thelanges5 said:

Starting to accumulate some LHPs in the pipeline. Hill, MacLeod, Prielipp, Nowlin

Who am I missing?

Carpenter is an interesting Lefty they just drafted and Cesar Laras while not dominant might be a pen arm down the line.

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

The number of tools used in the last decade plus to assist pitchers has led to an explosion of talented arms across baseball. Watching a few skinny high school kids throw in the 90s, you know that a college or MLB organization will boost that kid up a notch. Pitching has become almost scary. 

If you saw a high school kid 20 years ago throwing in the 90s it was a stone-cold lock that he was going to destroy his arm before he made it to the majors. The first and second rounds were full of high school kids with heat who never panned out.

[ashbury]

3 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Starting to accumulate some LHPs in the pipeline. Hill, MacLeod, Prielipp, Nowlin

Who am I missing?

Steve Hajjar and Cade Povich.  (Well, I still miss them.)

[Jamie Cameron]

5 hours ago, rdehring said:

Love these reports, Jamie.

Yes, Hill seems to be uber exciting.  And going that far over slot meant the Twins really wanted him.

But the one I am most anxious to see is when you get to Carpenter.  Those eleventh round picks can always be interesting.  Add that his performance at Madison Tech was beyond good, if memory serves, and you have my favorite pick from last year's draft.  

Twins could have one heck of a starting rotation two or three years down the road.  GO TWINS, GO!

I'm going to Fort Myers next week so need a brief hiatus from these. But Carpenter is really intriguing. Maybe I can get some video of him in person...

[nicksaviking]

4 hours ago, ashbury said:

Steve Hajjar and Cade Povich.  (Well, I still miss them.)

Never draft a Big 10 pitcher!

Or, I guess maybe you can now that all those old Pac 10 teams ar in the Big 10.

[tony&rodney]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

If you saw a high school kid 20 years ago throwing in the 90s it was a stone-cold lock that he was going to destroy his arm before he made it to the majors. The first and second rounds were full of high school kids with heat who never panned out.

Doc Gooden

[Linus]

I’m excited about Hill and I usually don’t get excited about prospects until they perform at AA.  What I am excited about is he is a pick that has some ceiling.  We seem to take a lot of high floor guys but this kid has some ceiling.  His mechanics look simple and repeatable and his delivery isnt violent in an attempt to throw hard.  Three good pitches already and he is just getting started.  Now we just need patience and let him build himself up physically and hope for good health.

[rdehring]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Never draft a Big 10 pitcher!

Or, I guess maybe you can now that all those old Pac 10 teams are now in the Big 10.

Isn't Povich pitching for the Birds, Nick?

[Fatbat]

We should probably throw out #1 “Health”. Without it, you can’t see his results so why even talk about things you need to see from him.  
Better yet, let’s say “health” is a given. Now let’s move on. 
He needs to miss bats and be in strike zone consistently.  At 19 yo, that would be a quick ticket to Iowa and Wichita.  Why can’t we expect a phenom to make it up quickly?

can you imagine if he and Soto end up in St. Paul in 2026? 

[DocBauer]

There was a LHP kid who's name i can't recall right now...White maybe?...that I really liked and wanted the Twins to grab. Hill wasn't really on my radar when the draft took place as there were a number of HS arms of great interest. But boy did I become an instant fan once I looked at him closer.

@Dmansort of stole my thunder in regard to seeing a LH Festa comp. Obviously there's a difference between HS and college pitchers, but both have the height and long levers. The concern for Festa is the same for Hill...even though comps aren't fair...with a long limb build and narrow shoulders, how much room is there to increase body and muscle mass for endurance. And by that, I mean maintaining velocity.

I DON'T mean a pitcher has to be 220lbs to be a good, strong arm. Good, lean, muscle is way better than bulk muscle. I just mean can he add some good muscle weight over the next few seasons, like Festa has, to maintain his velocity, as well as endurance.

I'm betting he can. 

He was maybe my favorite pick last season based on potential. But I'm actually embarrassed that I forgot about Carpenter. He's EXACTLY how Johnson runs the draft. I can't wait to see reports about Carpenter, ALMOST a HS draftee with tremendous potential. 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, rdehring said:

Isn't Povich pitching for the Birds, Nick?

Yeah, but the Twins drafted Povich and Hajjar back to back in the same draft! As if they didn't learn from Tyler Jay, Alex Wimmers and Aaron Slegers.

I mean Glen Perkins was good, but not as a starter. I seriously don't think there has been a decent starting pitcher drafted from the Big 10 since Jim Abbot. I'm sure somebody can find another good starting pitcher from that conference to prove my Abbot theory wrong, but I'm also sure nobody will be able find enough to justify ever drafting these guys in the top 10 rounds. Just don't do it, it's a trap!

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Doc Gooden

He debuted 40 years ago which makes him about as relevant as Bob Feller.

[DJL44]

51 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, but the Twins drafted Povich and Hajjar back to back in the same draft! As if they didn't learn from Tyler Jay, Alex Wimmers and Aaron Slegers.

I mean Glen Perkins was good, but not as a starter. I seriously don't think there has been a decent starting pitcher drafted from the Big 10 since Jim Abbot. I'm sure somebody can find another good starting pitcher from that conference to prove my Abbot theory wrong, but I'm also sure nobody will be able find enough to justify ever drafting these guys in the top 10 rounds. Just don't do it, it's a trap!

Max Meyer still has a chance at a career.

[nicksaviking]

3 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Max Meyer still has a chance at a career.

If that's the best answer, I stand by my assessment. 

My post was mostly tongue in cheek, but I seriously can't find any successful staring pitchers from the Big 10 in 35 years. This seems like an overlooked piece of notoriety.

[tony&rodney]

21 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

He debuted 40 years ago which makes him about as relevant as Bob Feller.

True, neither threw very hard. They couldn't have because that was long ago.

[tony&rodney]

10 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Watching a few skinny high school kids throw in the 90s, you know that a college or MLB organization will boost that kid up a notch. Pitching has become almost scary. 

FYI. My comment was a reference to last March when I went to a number of high school games involving nationally ranked teams and marveled at the number of kids throwing in the 90s. In every game there were kids throwing 75-85 and one throwing 90-95. The wide variety of talent on display was impressive and a couple of those kids signed last summer.

[big dog]

10 hours ago, rdehring said:

Isn't Povich pitching for the Birds, Nick?

He's throwing, anyway. Not so sure about the pitching. Rough year.

[DJL44]

9 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

FYI. My comment was a reference to last March when I went to a number of high school games involving nationally ranked teams and marveled at the number of kids throwing in the 90s. In every game there were kids throwing 75-85 and one throwing 90-95. The wide variety of talent on display was impressive and a couple of those kids signed last summer.

There have been a lot of high school kids who threw 95 and absolutely shredded their arm. I am hopeful that the newer training techniques will allow them to stay healthy and throw with high velocities. Pitchers are risky and teenage pitchers are even riskier.

I also think it is interesting how almost no drafted pitcher throws in their first minor league games at the same velocity as their radar gun readings in the draft profiles. Everyone is at least 2-3 MPH slower.

[TopGunn#22]

GREAT feature Jamie !!  When we selected him I was excited.  Then, as the baseball season crashed and burned and the the focus shifted to prospects like Keaschall, E-Rod, of course Walker Jenkins and even the compelling story of Peyton Eeles, I sort of forgot about Hill. 

It's very encouraging to see that velocity hit the upper 90's.  His slider looks filthy and his change up looks tough.  

I tend to speculate a lot on Falvey and Co. looking for new jobs with new ownership eventually coming, especially if this season is a major disappointment like last year.  But you cannot deny the pitching pipeline Falvey and his scouting department has built.  Consider where the Twins were 10 years ago and where they are NOW.  

It's impressive.  I'm excited to follow Dasan Hill in the minor league reports the TD staff supplies throughout the baseball season.  

[Linus]

52 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

There have been a lot of high school kids who threw 95 and absolutely shredded their arm. I am hopeful that the newer training techniques will allow them to stay healthy and throw with high velocities. Pitchers are risky and teenage pitchers are even riskier.

I also think it is interesting how almost no drafted pitcher throws in their first minor league games at the same velocity as their radar gun readings in the draft profiles. Everyone is at least 2-3 MPH slower.

Yea I’ve noticed that too.  I wonder what’s up with that?

[twinstalker]

Realizing the chances for Dasan Hill are, like anybody in his situation, not great, I saw him and still see him as easily the Twins best pick in the top 5.

[rdehring]

19 hours ago, DJL44 said:

He debuted 40 years ago which makes him about as relevant as Bob Feller.

What memories, DJL.  When I was probably 12 years old went out goose hunting one morning with Bob Feller.