Two Minnesota Twins Named To Baseball America's Top 100 Big-Leaguers

[Matthew Lenz]

Last week, Baseball America released their Top 100 players for the major leagues ahead of the 2025 season. The Minnesota Twins have two players who made the list, which is one more than last year. Who are they, and what needs to happen this season for more to make the list in 2026?

Image courtesy of Left: © Matt Blewett-Imagn Images; Right: © Eric Canha-Imagn Images

For the third year in a row, Baseball America released their Top 100 MLB players for the upcoming season. This reflects just the player’s impact on the season ahead; no future impact is considered when the team at BA constructs the list. That team consists of Matt Eddy, Geoff Pontes, and Dylan White, who sorted and graded all players on the 20-80 scale. If you're unfamiliar, that scale is broken down as so:

• 75–80: Franchise player or No. 1 starter. WAR: 5.0 or more
• 65–70: Perennial All-Star or No. 1/2 starter. WAR: about 4.0 to 4.9
• 60: Occasional All-Star or No. 2/3 starter. WAR: about 3.5 to 3.9
• 55: First-division regular or No. 3/4 starter. WAR: about 3.0

Last year, Pablo López was the Twins' lone representative on the list. Let's take a look at who is on the list his year.

#56 Pablo López
López comes in at No. 56 overall, with a BA grade of 60. He fell 33 spots from his 2024 ranking, wherein he was given a BA grade of 70. He was unranked in their inaugural version of the list in 2023. He is one of 34 pitchers on the list, ranking 16th among all hurlers and 10th out of 29 right-handers. The fall for López isn't all that surprising, after an up-and-down 2024 season that saw him accrue 1.4 fewer fWAR than in 2023. A combination of a lower strikeout rate and higher home-run rate resulted in an ERA north of 4.00 and a FIP that was roughly a third of a run higher than in 2023. This spring, López appears to be ramping up more than in the past, as he completed an 87-pitch outing last Sunday. If this buildup leads to him surpassing the 6.0 innings/start benchmark, we would very likely see him back in the top half of this list in 2026.

#84 Carlos Correa
Correa rejoins the list after falling from 24th in 2023 to unranked in 2024. He is the 14th of 16 ranked shortstops and the 56th-ranked position player, with a BA grade of 55. It’s clear that the team at BA believes that Correa can stay on the field in 2025, after he played in only 86 games last season. Entering his age-30 season with a lengthy injury history, this is likely the highest we'll see him on this list, barring a complete season of 140-plus games played and an .800+ OPS.

While those are the only two players to crack the list in 2025, let's take a look at who we could see next year and what needs to happen for them to make the list.

Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis
I group these two players together for one massively obvious reason: their health. Buxton and Lewis have the talent to be near the very top of this list, but just can't stay on the field. There's been cautious optimism that Buxton can have back-to-back 100-game seasons for the first time in his career, but that's all it is for now: cautious optimism. Even then, 100 games being the sign of a healthy campaign is telling.

On the other hand, Lewis is already hurt and expected to miss the first month or so of the regular season. That doesn't mean he can't make the list next year (remember, Correa only played 86 games last year and cracked the top 100 this year), but it's not the start we had hoped for.

 

Joe Ryan
I think Ryan has a real shot to make this list at some point in his career. In addition to hitting the 30-start benchmark, the 29-year-old needs to find a way to limit the long ball. That's going to be hard for him to do as a fly-ball pitcher, but he did show progress on this before getting injured in 2024, dropping his HR/FB rate from 14.9% in 2023 to 11.7%. This improvement was due in large part to Ryan using his new sinker to keep hitters from sitting on his fastball, but he also benefited from throwing more breaking balls. Give me 27 or more starts and a HR/FB rate under 12% (like it was in 2024), and I think we have ourselves a top-100 player.

Bailey Ober
Like Ryan, Ober carries a good strikeout-to-walk ratio, but is susceptible to the long ball. Where Ober seems to come up short is having too many blow-ups. In 2024, over a third of his 79 earned runs came in just five (16%) of his starts, including two starts where he gave up 8 and 9 earned runs. I think reducing those big games could be key to him being recognized as one of the better pitchers in the game.

While boasting two players on Baseball America's 2025 Top 100 list is an improvement from last year for Minnesota, many teams have significantly more representatives. The Twins' lack of representatives heading into 2025 does make you wonder if they have the top-end talent to make a run. Not only would the continued development of their core and young players increase their representation on this list, but it will likely determine just how far this team can go in October.

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Do you think anyone was snubbed for the list? Who do you think cracks the list a year from now? Join the conversation in the comments!

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[Fire Dan Gladden]

Less about the rankings, more about the grades given to players and what they based their opinions on.

I am going to guess they undervalued most of the Twins team, which as a non-coastal team sounds about right.  These articles are all about clicks after all, no one outside of the Midwest could even tell you who Pablo Lopez pitches for.
 

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

There aren't 83 players better than Carlos Correa.

[ToddlerHarmon]

I don't massively disagree with the rankings, though there is probably some flyover-land discount.

As for potential future top 100 players, I think Wallner could put it all together and get there.

I'm curious if any relievers at all made the list.

[Doctor Gast]

Lopez & Correa deserves to be on any top 100 MLB players' list. But I don't give much credence on their bWAR.

[ryanking61]

I think they could have had "HEALTHY" Byron Buxton on the list, I'm just saying! 

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

There aren't 83 players better than Carlos Correa.

Nor are there 13 shortstops better. 

[IndianaTwin]

And for what it's worth, MLB Network's "experts" who were measuring the same thing listed Correa 42nd, Buxton 68th and Royce Lewis 82nd. 

The inconsistency makes me think that what it's worth is... "not much."

 

 

[Whitey333]

Those lists are maybe entertaining but that's about all.  I don't put much credence into these types of things.  Who cares if Correa is 83rd or 3rd.  You still have to play the games and put up numbers.  I don't think overall that the Twins players and their top prospects are highly regarded at all.

[Schmoeman5]

1 hour ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

There aren't 83 players better than Carlos Correa.

It's not about 83 players or 27 players better than him. Correa was on pace for a huge season. IF he'd have stayed healthy the whole season he'd have probably been in the 20s or low 30s. And that's following a 2023 season where he posted not so good numbers and missed considerable time as well. Youre correct. When he's healthy there are not 83 players better.

[jkcarew]

1 hour ago, IndianaTwin said:

And for what it's worth, MLB Network's "experts" who were measuring the same thing listed Correa 42nd, Buxton 68th and Royce Lewis 82nd. 

The inconsistency makes me think that what it's worth is... "not much."

 

 

Good point.

Fwiw…the BA list seems more of a “recent results” approach based on value delivered….prove it / track record.

The MLB list seems like more of a theoretical upside/talent view…who you’d want for one game if you could pick anyone…type approach.

 

[RpR]

I think such opinion based predictions have the value of used toilet paper.

[old nurse]

7 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

And for what it's worth, MLB Network's "experts" who were measuring the same thing listed Correa 42nd, Buxton 68th and Royce Lewis 82nd. 

The inconsistency makes me think that what it's worth is... "not much."

 

 

It is all clickbait. 

[Bodie]

16 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

Nor are there 13 shortstops better. 

There might have been 83 players better than him last year, though I really doubt it.  Even considering his playing time.

Saying he is barely average as a shortstop just proves the old adage of "there are three kinds of dishonesty- lies, damnable lies, and statistics."

Or, to make it easy for my northern neighbors, I'll quote Homer Simpson: "you can use statistics to prove anything. 90% of all people know that."

[dxpavelka]

Both Ober & Ryan are among the top 25 starting pitchers in baseball.  Maybe starting pitching is not all that important.