Twins Select Riley Quick at #36 in the 2025 MLB Draft

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Image courtesy of © Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Quick is rising pitcher in the 2025 cycle, with a physically imposing frame at 6'6, 250. After missing most of the 2024 season with Tommy John surgery, the stuff and the results started to come together for the Alabama righty.

Quick's fastball is a sinker that sits in the mid-90s and has been clocked as high as 98 mph. It generated a ground ball rate north of 60% in 2024 and it's easy to see why, with the pitch creating 20 inches or so of run. Quick has a relatively low release height for his size. He mixes in a sweeper which is already above average and could be plus in time. His changeup, like his sinker, gets a ton of horizontal break.

Quick delivery is relatively consistent for such a physical pitcher. It's easy to see him carrying a significant workload as a pro if he can stay healthy.

Quick will have to navigate the gauntlet that is conference play in the SEC. If he performs well, he'll cement himself as a first round profile, the first half of the first round if he continues to shove.

https://x.com/PG_Draft/status/1944558786364260612/video/1

 

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[LyleCole]

Riley was picked because he represents a chance to win every bench clearing brawl.   

But good power stuff that just needs command.   

[DJL44]

Stevenson goes one pick earlier

[Dman]

I love this pick!   We need more arms in the system and having a possible mid to top of the rotation arm is just what the doctor ordered.  Happy they went arm early.

[Ghost of Kirby Puckett]

If they iron out his command, wow, his stuff is nasty. Kevin Brown was a comp I heard and I can't agree more. That sinker, cutter combo is devastating when it's working. Guy was a four star tackle coming out of high school, lol. Just a horse.

[DasBat]

Hard to complain about this pick.  Always good to get more arm talent 

[tony&rodney]

Boom is the sound of a big guy popping his pitches. Hope he can harness his pitches and add movement. The body screams upside.

[chpettit19]

Keith Law notes he has 8 inches of difference on his release point for his slider. Likely why he doesn't get as good of results as you'd expect from his stuff. He's tipping his pitches. If the Twins can get that straightened out and get him to a consistent release point it could be huge for him. 

Love going after an arm with such high octane stuff and seeing if they can corral it. Huge upside if they can.

[LewFordLives]

35 minutes ago, Ghost of Kirby Puckett said:

If they iron out his command, wow, his stuff is nasty. Kevin Brown was a comp I heard and I can't agree more. That sinker, cutter combo is devastating when it's working. Guy was a four star tackle coming out of high school, lol. Just a horse.

Maybe he can play for the Vikings if they don't extend O'Neil.

[DocBauer]

Love this pick! Really wanted a top college arm early to see what the Twins development group could do with a more "ready" talent. As an organization they add velocity and add pitches. Yes, he's got to work on command some more and get more K's, but it's his first year back from TJ.

Won't see him until 2026 probably, but I can't wait. 

[Seth Stohs]

59 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Keith Law notes he has 8 inches of difference on his release point for his slider. Likely why he doesn't get as good of results as you'd expect from his stuff. He's tipping his pitches. If the Twins can get that straightened out and get him to a consistent release point it could be huge for him. 

Love going after an arm with such high octane stuff and seeing if they can corral it. Huge upside if they can.

And he's still done well... I like the upside. Something that noteworthy, if they can take that and help him better tunnel, could be intriguing. 

 

[Seth Stohs]

I like that he was a top five baseball player in Alabama in high school. He was also a four-star recruit as an offensive lineman too, and he turned down football scholarships in the SEC. 

[RaoulDuke]

I am a sucker for starting pitcher stuff, I know bats are a better bet in the high rounds but I always want the pitchers.

This guy looks like he could be a horse of an athlete and has promising stuff with velocity and a ton of movement on his pitches.  Injury driven lack of experience and chance to hone his stuff hopefully let him drop so the Twins can benefit from cleaning up his mechanics and honing the control.

The dream is a Ferrari version of Ober?

[AKTwinsFan]

Where's the CATCHER? Vaskey has gotta be 86th after this season. So where do we go going forward? Besides Jeffers I don't see anyone else who is big league ready in the system.

[Ghost of Kirby Puckett]

2 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Boom is the sound of a big guy popping his pitches. Hope he can harness his pitches and add movement. The body screams upside.

Oh, the movement is their,lol. That sinker and cutter look like video game pitches. Actually, when I watch him, now that I've thought about it some more, his pitch movement is Scott Erickson 2.0. The clips I've watched are pretty filthy. Control will be key.

[Seth Stohs]

55 minutes ago, AKTwinsFan said:

Where's the CATCHER? Vaskey has gotta be 86th after this season. So where do we go going forward? Besides Jeffers I don't see anyone else who is big league ready in the system.

There replacement for Vasquez was never going to be someone from this draft. 

[twinstalker]

As Manfred was at the podium about to announce the pick, I was repeating aloud

Riley Quick, Riley Quick, Riley Quick

I really wanted Casen Bodine to drop in the moments after the first Twins pick (and after Cunningham, Neyens, and Irish went) and then was both intrigued and scared by Stevenson, but Quick was the guy I had hopes for at 36 all week.

[mac098]

Wow, another pitcher taken with TJ. Do the Twins front office have a hard on for pitchers who blow their arms out (Canterino, Paddock, Mahle, Prielipp)??

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Seth Stohs said:

There replacement for Vasquez was never going to be someone from this draft. 

Not this year ...

[Bodie]

"Tommy John surgery..." and "if he can stay healthy...", two words equal to the kiss of death in the Twins organization. 

[madtowntwin]

12 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Love this pick! Really wanted a top college arm early to see what the Twins development group could do with a more "ready" talent. As an organization they add velocity and add pitches. Yes, he's got to work on command some more and get more K's, but it's his first year back from TJ.

Won't see him until 2026 probably, but I can't wait. 

With apparent mastery of 2 pitches at a 60 grade level and immense physicality - No way he comes out of the bullpen if the Twins are end of the season competitive??

[jmlease1]

8 hours ago, mac098 said:

Wow, another pitcher taken with TJ. Do the Twins front office have a hard on for pitchers who blow their arms out (Canterino, Paddock, Mahle, Prielipp)??

Prielipp is the only one out of that group that had a major arm surgery before the Twins drafted him. (Paddack was acquired via trade, as was Mahle, but Mahle hadn't had a major surgery) Canterino was perfectly healthy when they drafted him but is just looked like Rice University ruined him.

I doubt the Twins are a significant outlier on drafting players that have had a TJ; it's an unfortunate reality that it's no longer a rare procedure. In this case, it's someone who is already well past his TJ and has been back pitching, and having TJ is not the kiss of death against a fine career.

Seems like a value pick here. I suspect he would not have been there if he were further removed from surgery. If finding consistency with his slider is his biggest issue right now, that does sort of fit into the Twins teaching repertoire, doesn't it? Hard not to be intrigues with his stuff, and depending on how his offseason goes, he could be someone that rises quite quickly in the system.

[DocBauer]

52 minutes ago, madtowntwin said:

With apparent mastery of 2 pitches at a 60 grade level and immense physicality - No way he comes out of the bullpen if the Twins are end of the season competitive??

The standard practice following the draft is a couple of the college players might get a couple games/innings and that's it. The feeling seems to be; "get a quick look at them in person, give them the experience, and then shut them down for a rest after a full college season and get ready for instructs".

So other than a couple innings at A ball, you probably won't see him until 2026. Probably at A+ CR and a promotion to AA, hopefully, around mid season.