Minnesota Twins Prospect Hot Sheet, May 26, 2025: Darren Bowen Comes Into His Own

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey (Schobel), Rob Thompson (Adams), Ashley Monjaras (Bowen)

Welcome to a new twist on a familiar weekly article here at Twins Daily. Previously, the Minor League Week in Review allowed prospect fans to gain insight into the ebbs and flows of the team’s affiliates. However, it didn’t offer a space to focus on specific prospects and what they may be doing to help their prospect stock.

With the Twins Prospect Hot Sheet, we will take a weekly view of multiple prospects rising on prospect lists due to their recent performance. These could be some of the organization’s top-ranked prospects, but it could also be some under-the-radar names who are putting themselves on the prospect map. Let’s dive in and see who makes this week’s Hot Sheet. 

RHP Darren Bowen, Wichita Wind Surge 
Bowen might not be a familiar name for Twins fans, because he has yet to be considered among the team’s top 20 prospects. He came to the organization as part of the Jorge Polanco trade, along with Gabriel Gonzalez, Anthony DeSclafani, and Justin Topa. That trade is starting to look like a win for both teams based on Polanco’s hot start to 2025 and Bowen and Gonzalez starting to establish themselves. 

Hitting the Hot Button
Bowen is in his age-24 season and getting his first taste of Double-A baseball. On Friday, he threw five innings of no-hit baseball with an earned run, three walks, and four strikeouts. He's made eight starts, and has yet to allow more than two earned runs in any appearance. Batters are hitting .147/.250/.319 against him and have only gone 4-for-49 (.082) in his last four starts. There are areas for him to improve, but he’s putting himself in the discussion to make the team’s top 20 prospects when lists are updated later this season. 

Tanner Schobel, Wichita Wind Surge
Schobel has been on the prospect map for the Twins since they selected him with their second-round pick in 2022. He has spent parts of the last three seasons at Double A, but he is about average age for that level this season. In 2024, he played 122 games and slashed .211/.301/.338 with 20 doubles and 10 home runs. Schobel showed some defensive versatility by playing four defensive positions last season, starting at second base, third base, shortstop, and left field. That utility could help him crack the big leagues. 

Hitting the Hot Button 
During May, Schobel has been on a tear at the plate. After posting a .752 OPS in April, he's slashed .326/.367/.528 with nine doubles and three home runs in his last 20 games. Through Sunday’s action, he has a 13-game hit streak wherein he has gone 19-for-54 (.352 BA) with more walks (6) than strikeouts (5). Even more impressive is that he has been facing older [itchers in nearly 70% of his plate appearances. He is solidifying himself as one of the team’s top 20 prospects, and should be promoted to St. Paul soon if he continues to hit this well. 

Travis Adams, St. Paul Saints
Adams may be a less familiar name to some fans, but some will remember him because the Twins surprisingly added him to the team’s 40-man roster this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Minnesota selected him in the sixth round of the 2021 MLB Draft, and he had a breakout season in 2024 at Double-A Wichita. In 22 appearances (108 IP), he posted a 3.67 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP, with a 24.5 K% and a 6.3 BB%. The Twins thought highly enough of him to protect him, but the Saints' starting staff has been stacked this year, forcing him to serve in a unique role. 

Hitting the Hot Button
For most of the season, Adams has been used as a piggyback for one of the team’s more highly ranked starters. He has averaged 3 1/3 innings per appearance, even picking up some multi-inning saves in the middle of April. On Friday, David Festa was on a pitch limit as he has been dealing with a minor arm issue, so Adams was ready to follow him. He allowed one hit in 4 1/3 shutout innings, while striking out six and walking two. His Hard Hit% has dropped 1.5% this season compared to last year at Triple A. Adams might not have the same pedigree as some of the team’s other pitching options, but the Twins may need him since he is on the 40-man roster. 

Schobel has been ranked among the Twins top prospects and sits in 17th on Twins Daily’s most recently updated list. Adams and Bowen might not crack the team's top 20 just yet, but their performances are worth watching, especially since they are both in the upper minors. Every player on the list has a chance to impact the Twins roster over the next two years.

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Which prospect has helped their stock the most in recent weeks? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

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[Guest]

Nice.  Expecting to read that Walker Jenkins hit the voluntarily retired list....

[jmlease1]

Schobel is a reminder that prospect development is not always linear. He'll need at least another month of good hitting to earn a promotion to AAA IMHO, but he's doing what he needed to do to keep advancing his career. It was starting to look like he had his the AA wall and couldn't handle more advanced pitching, but he's made adjustments and is starting to look more like the kind of player we hoped he could be. Good timing because there's a wave of infielders coming in behind from Cedar Rapids...

Would not complain if Adams can turn himself into a multi-inning reliever who could go 2-3 innings twice a week; there's a real role for that in MLB now as more than just a mop up guy. Be interesting to see if he can claim that. He seems unlikely to pass Festa, Matthews, or SWR and looks to be behind Morris as well in the pecking order, so this might be the path for him.

[Doctor Wu]

Very good roundup. Could Darren Bowen be one of those late-bloomers and become a legitimate prospect? Quite possible, at least judging from the impressive year he is having thus far at AA. Fun to see those sorts of players pop up on the prospect radar. 

[USNMCPO]

11 hours ago, Minderbinder said:

Nice.  Expecting to read that Walker Jenkins hit the voluntarily retired list....

Per the Star Tribune this morning he is progressing and could return in a couple of weeks. We'll see.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

2 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Very good roundup. Could Darren Bowen be one of those late-bloomers and become a legitimate prospect? Quite possible, at least judging from the impressive year he is having thus far at AA. Fun to see those sorts of players pop up on the prospect radar. 

Darren Bowen has been a pretty interesting prospect the last 2 years.  The issue has always been he was a 1 to 2 pitch pitcher with primarily his fastball - which has pitched as hard as 98 mph but primarily works in the 94-95 range.  Which for a starting pitcher generally doesn't work unless you are Joe Ryan,  even if those 2 pitches are well above average.  He had some really good starts last year,  but my guess is they really began to work on his pitch mix and work on new pitches which caused inflated states last year.   With the Twins usage of the slider,  the guess was they were going to work on this.  From early sample size this year,  my guess is he has developed the slider and curveball further which has really allowed his fastball to shine.  What I had heard from Seattle fans,  was although Bowen was the less heralded prospect,  he actually had the much higher ceiling than Gonzalez.  Gonzalez at best is going to be a bat+, low to medium power, slow runner with defensive liabilities.  Unless the power greatly develops,  That is even with me liking Gonzalez,  in this day and age though the Arreaz of the world have limited value,  and unless the power really starts to develop for Gonazalez which at age 21 is still a possibility.   

So far for the year the ERA of 2.73 and whip of .939 is really good.  However walks per a nine is back up to 3.8 and SO/9 is the lowest he has had at 7.1/9. Hits have plummeted though to 4.6 per a 9.   Basically means he is inducing a lot more weak contact.  Which can be good,  but is effectively a back end starter.   The SO percentage needs to begin to increase back to that 9-10 level per a nine, before I would really start to get excited about his prospects. His effectiveness relies on creating weak contact which has much more variability in results than a strikeout pitcher.   Even still he is a top 20 prospect easy with a 2.73 ERA in AA. For a lottery pick type pitcher that is pretty solid return so far.   

[Cody Christie]

8 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Very good roundup. Could Darren Bowen be one of those late-bloomers and become a legitimate prospect? Quite possible, at least judging from the impressive year he is having thus far at AA. Fun to see those sorts of players pop up on the prospect radar. 

The Twins pitching development has worked some wonders in recent years so it will be fun to track Bowen and see if he can continue to have success.

[DocBauer]

Pleased and surprised by Bowen this season. It seems no-one can square up on him to do damage. The low hit numbers are great. But he's got to get the BB down around 2.5. And while a weak contact pitcher can be very viable...and a potential innings eater as well...I think he really needs to consistently K around 8-8.5 per 9 to be truly good. 

BTW, his current WHIP is the best of his career and his BB % is the 2nd best of his career, only slightly behind last season. So he's definitely trending UP despite his K numbers lowering. Only 24yo offers optimism. 

I was rather OUT on Schobel after last year. He was just plain bad at AA for a college player and former #2 pick. But he hit a hard wall when promoted from CR. But this is what's been hoped for. He's got a ways to go, but if you hit well at AA, you've got a chance to make MLB. I think he's always been a super utility player and that's not a bad thing. If he could play a fairly decent CF, he could be an almost direct replacement for Castro.

I'm a little confused about Adams and his future role. He had a really nice 2024 as a SP. IIRC he really cranked it up a notch the 2nd half of the season. But i had heard whispers that while he might have a future as an innings eater at the backend of the rotation, his stuff could really play up in the pen. And while he's been in the pen for all but 1 game this season, he's also been stretched out closer to a starters IP. Its hard to argue with the results so far...though his K% is down...but what are the future plans for him? He could be invaluable as a twice in 6-7 days 2-3 IP pen offering. He might even jump in as a 4 IP spot starter on occasion. Like Bowen, I just need to see the K numbers go up some.

 

[twinstalker]

Schobel is a reminder that prospect development is not always linear. He'll need at least another month of good hitting to earn a promotion to AAA IMHO, but he's doing what he needed to do to keep advancing his career. It was starting to look like he had his the AA wall and couldn't handle more advanced pitching, but he's made adjustments and is starting to look more like the kind of player we hoped he could be. Good timing because there's a wave of infielders coming in behind from Cedar Rapids...

No, Schobel is a reminder that second cracks (in this case, third) at a level are generally superior to the first time around, especially when you've passed the too old line.  Hitting prospects who've taken the standard route and are as old as their competition aren't really prospects, they're organization guys.  I mean, next year at AA I'd expect Schobel to be even better.

Guys like McCusker and Eeles are old, but they've done nothing but succeed.  They may or may not be MLB-worthy, but I'll take a chance on their weird routes before I'd get impressed by a month from a guy playing his third year in a row at the same level.

 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

10 hours ago, twinstalker said:

 

No, Schobel is a reminder that second cracks (in this case, third) at a level are generally superior to the first time around, especially when you've passed the too old line.  Hitting prospects who've taken the standard route and are as old as their competition aren't really prospects, they're organization guys.  I mean, next year at AA I'd expect Schobel to be even better.

Schobel is just getting ready to be 24.  This is his 3rd full year of minor league baseball.  He is not old by any metric.  He is still under league average age,  just barely.  But he is pushing himself to be up to AAA where he will be relatively young again.  The other issue,  is if you are a solid hitter at AA,  you will likely make it to the big leagues.  I still think this is a bit of small sample size,  but he looks confident,  strong and making solid contact and getting on base.   Right now Schobel isn't just organization filler.  Yes he is most likely a utility or backup player at the MLB level for us,  for another team he could be a 2nd baseman.  At the very least he has pretty decent trade value.