Twins Promote First-Round Pick Marek Houston to Cedar Rapids

[Matthew Taylor]

The Minnesota Twins are wasting little time challenging their top draft pick. Shortstop Marek Houston, the 16th overall selection in July’s draft, has been promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids after just 12 games with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.

Houston impressed immediately in Low-A, slashing .370/.424/.444 with 13 strikeouts, five walks, and plenty of highlight plays in the field. His advanced glove work, considered the best among shortstops in this year’s draft, was a major factor in the Twins selecting him in the first round.

He now joins a Kernels team that already has its ticket punched for the postseason after winning the Midwest League West Division’s first half. Houston will get a taste of playoff baseball right away, with 18 regular-season games left plus Cedar Rapids’ postseason run. His High-A debut could come as soon as tomorrow, August 19, when the Kernels visit the South Bend Cubs.

What do you think of Houston’s early showing in the Twins organization? Is he tracking even faster than expected? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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[Mike Sixel]

Low A is likely less difficult than major college baseball, so it's good to see him succeed so far. Looking forward to seeing him the coming years....

[big dog]

Adding to the above, he is also 6 for 6 in stolen bases. Good for him!

[terrydactyls]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but don't a significant number of recent college grads and high draft picks start in low-A?

[Linus]

Will be interesting to see if he gets exclusive run at SS there as they have DeBarge Winokur and DeAndrade all having played some SS. 

[Mike Sixel]

13 minutes ago, Linus said:

Will be interesting to see if he gets exclusive run at SS there as they have DeBarge Winokur and DeAndrade all having played some SS. 

I'm guessing DeAndrade moves to third mostly at this point. Frankly, I want Winokur at third or the OF, as if he plays SS, something went very badly for Houston and Lee and Culpepper. Stop putting guys at SS because "it is easy to move later." 

I've always been higher on DeAndrade than most.....

[twinstalker]

K rate of 22.0% is too high.  As a first rounder he should beat up on low A, and that includes K rate.  We'll see.

[Fatbat]

Houston isn’t a bat first prospect. Elite D. Serviceable contact hitter that is likely to develop. The Twins need elite D. 

[TopGunn#22]

This is a great move.  The kid excelled.  Move him up.  I agree with Mike Sixel, Houston will play SS for Cedar Rapids.  He's just head and shoulders better than the other guys.  Mike also makes a great point about continuing to play guys at SS when they're probably not going to ever play an inning of defense at SS in the major leagues.  

Debarge to 3B.  DeAndrade to 2B and Winokur primarily to the OF with the occasional game at 3B.  With Houston, Culpepper and Lee, there are just too many capable bodies (or well beyond capable) to be wasting innings for guys with a chance to make it to the major leagues who will in all likelihood play somewhere other than SS. 

At this point, SS looks like a stacked position in the Twins system.  All the more reason to have moved on from Carlos Correa, who is looking more and more like a 3B for the rest of his career.     

[Otaknam]

14 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but don't a significant number of recent college grads and high draft picks start in low-A?

I think you are correct starting most college players at low A. . It’s much better to start young players where they are likely to experience success, rather than have them struggle their first year. So start low, have success, and build on that.

[SaberNerd]

7 hours ago, twinstalker said:

K rate of 22.0% is too high.  As a first rounder he should beat up on low A, and that includes K rate.  We'll see.

Agree on the Ks, but he was at 27% the first week and 17% the next.  Part of the rationale of sending top college guys to A ball is to let them get the rust off and used to playing every day.

[bunsen82]

2 hours ago, SaberNerd said:

Agree on the Ks, but he was at 27% the first week and 17% the next.  Part of the rationale of sending top college guys to A ball is to let them get the rust off and used to playing every day.

The other is not to base too much on small sample size.  He had 50 At Bats.  What those at bats did show was that his batting approach was advanced for the level which is expected,  but doesn't always happen.  This is a good 1st hurdle to clear.   We will see what he looks like at high A  and see if the strike out rate continues to be something we should be concerned about or not.  

[Chembry]

6 hours ago, SaberNerd said:

Agree on the Ks, but he was at 27% the first week and 17% the next.  Part of the rationale of sending top college guys to A ball is to let them get the rust off and used to playing every day.

This exactly...Marek was on the Twins TV broadcast and said he was trying to get back in the swing of things after taking some time off.

Yes, he did strike out a bit more than historical numbers, but that is solely based on small sample size.  Judging his first 12 games in pro ball looking solely at K% ignores his other offensive stats, that were pretty stout.

He hit .370, .868 OPS, and .488 BABIP.   Let's hope those numbers keep translating as he moves up.

 

[Dman]

For all my hand wringing about his bat I think he has the best OPS out of the 1st round picks except for Holliday who looks like he might be a monster.  Granted it is a small sample size and pitchers don't pitch and a lot of the high school hitters haven't played.  Still it's a good start for Houston.

I hope he just keeps rolling and stays on the heals of Culpepper.  I wouldn't mind seeing Culpepper at third as he looks really good there as well. I'm still not expecting a ton of power from Houston, but I do like the swing.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

On 8/18/2025 at 5:54 PM, terrydactyls said:

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but don't a significant number of recent college grads and high draft picks start in low-A?

Yes they do, but when they arrive there, they discover many (mostly HS) players who have slowly worked their way up to that level, which is why the better college guys seem to do very well initially at low-A before moving up.  I think that the best ones are put there as a confidence booster to get their feet under them in professional baseball. 

[ashbury]

On 8/18/2025 at 3:33 PM, Mike Sixel said:

Low A is likely less difficult than major college baseball

Is it?  I would guess it's generally harder.  Reason #1, we're in an era where draftees are often not thrown immediately into the full-season leagues that same season - if it were easy the teams might be more inclined to say "why not?"   Reason #2, I took a quick scan down the full list of 2025 draft's first-rounders, and in the small set of top players who both were from a college and also have played in single-A, not one has put up better numbers this year as a pro as they had done in college.

I feel like paraphrasing the "Ron Washington" quote from Moneyball: Low A is incredibly hard.  😀

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Is it?  I would guess it's generally harder.  Reason #1, we're in an era where draftees are often not thrown immediately into the full-season leagues that same season - if it were easy the teams might be more inclined to say "why not?"   Reason #2, I took a quick scan down the full list of 2025 draft's first-rounders, and in the small set of players top players who both were from a college and also have played in single-A, not one has put up better numbers this year as a pro as they had done in college.

I feel like paraphrasing the "Ron Washington" quote from Moneyball: Low A is incredibly hard.  😀

I'm just going off what Law and the guy from fangraphs say. They know more than me. 

[ashbury]

11 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm just going off what Law and the guy from fangraphs say. They know more than me. 

There has to be more to what they're saying than "Single A is less difficult than major college."  Because I don't see the record as bearing that out.  (Although I by no means performed a careful study.)  Can you point me to a link for each of these references?

[Mike Sixel]

35 minutes ago, ashbury said:

There has to be more to what they're saying than "Single A is less difficult than major college."  Because I don't see the record as bearing that out.  (Although I by no means performed a careful study.)  Can you point me to a link for each of these references?

Probably not? I don't really keep links like that. And, sure, I could be recalling this wrong, but I don't think so. Have a great day!

[IndianaTwin]

16 hours ago, ashbury said:

Is it?  I would guess it's generally harder.  Reason #1, we're in an era where draftees are often not thrown immediately into the full-season leagues that same season - if it were easy the teams might be more inclined to say "why not?"   Reason #2, I took a quick scan down the full list of 2025 draft's first-rounders, and in the small set of players top players who both were from a college and also have played in single-A, not one has put up better numbers this year as a pro as they had done in college.

I feel like paraphrasing the "Ron Washington" quote from Moneyball: Low A is incredibly hard.  😀

 

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

There has to be more to what they're saying than "Single A is less difficult than major college."  Because I don't see the record as bearing that out.  (Although I by no means performed a careful study.)  Can you point me to a link for each of these references?

About anything referencing that scene from Moneyball deserves being quoted. Good movie. Great scene.

Another pretty significant difference is Low A players having to deal with a six-days-out-of-seven schedule for five months after spring training. 

[IndianaTwin]

And hmm. Slipped my mind that this is the week for the Kernels at South Bend.

-(Northern) Indiana Twin

 

PS: And now if the Fever could just get a certain No. 22 healthy for when I see their game with the Lynx on Friday night...

[tony&rodney]

Comparisons between college and pro ball are difficult. For starters, college players play about half as many games per week. Where comparisons get thrown off is when one takes an LSU team with Skenes and the others who were drafted as compared to the Minnesota Gophers in a normal year. Typically NCAA D1 baseball is roughly comparable to rookie ball with A ball a small step up. A+ leagues, like the Midwest League, are better across the board. Remember that the talented high school and Latin players are mixing in at rookie and low levels and they often are stumbling with being away from home, language, and daily work routines. Many of these players are as or more talented than the college players but are wildly inconsistent. Essentially the comparisons don't work smoothly between college and professional baseball. 

[Doctor Wu]

Compared to some of the other prospects in our system I haven't read that much about Marek Houston this year.  For a first round pick there are certainly high expectations. For those that saw him play this season, how did he look at this point?