Looking Back at the 2019 Twins Draft Class

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of © Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The MLB Draft is one of baseball’s biggest guessing games. Every front office hopes to find the next cornerstone star, but for every success story, countless players never make it to Target Field. As the 2019 class reaches the end of its initial professional contracts, several members can now become minor league free agents if they are not added to a 40-man roster this offseason. It’s a good time to look back at that group and see where the picks have landed.

First Round: SS Keoni Cavaco, 13th Overall
The Twins took a big swing when they selected Cavaco in the first round. At the time, he was seen as a raw talent with high upside, but that gamble never paid off. Cavaco never advanced beyond High-A in the Twins system and hit just .176/.244/.301 over 93 games at that level in 2024. After being released, he made a surprising transition to the mound with the Houston Astros organization. he began 2025 with the Chicago Dogs of the independent American Association. As a pitcher, he posted a 4.10 ERA with a 1.30 WHIP and a 53-to-27 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 79 innings. Meanwhile, players like Bryson Stott and Corbin Carroll, who were picked just a few spots later, have blossomed into MLB regulars.

Supplemental First Round: OF Matt Wallner, 39th Overall
Wallner’s 2025 season was a bit of a roller coaster, but his 110 OPS+ shows that his bat remains a valuable part of Minnesota’s lineup. His power remains his calling card, though his defense is a work in progress. With Emmanuel Rodriguez and Walker Jenkins moving closer to the majors, the Twins might look to use Wallner more at designated hitter or first base in the future.

Second Round: RHP Matt Canterino, 54th Overall
Few Twins prospects have been as intriguing as Canterino when healthy. His electric stuff and strikeout ability were undeniable, but injuries repeatedly interrupted his rise. After dealing with elbow and shoulder surgeries, he was released and re-signed on a two-year, minor league deal last spring. In limited action over his career, he owns a sparkling 1.48 ERA with a 39.1% strikeout rate across 85 innings. If he can finally stay healthy, he still has the tools to impact a big-league bullpen.

Third Round: Spencer Steer, 90th Overall
Steer is one of the most successful outcomes of this class, even if it came from another organization. The Twins traded him to Cincinnati as part of the Tyler Mahle deal, and Steer has since become a fixture in the Reds lineup. Through nearly 490 games, he has posted a .243/.329/.421 (.750) slash line with a 101 OPS+, showing slightly above average production.

Fourth Round: IF Seth Gray, 119th Overall
Gray reached Triple-A but never quite broke through. He had a .763 OPS across Double- and Triple-A in 2023 before being released the following spring. He spent time in independent ball after that but did not play professionally in 2025. 

He is now working in the construction industry with his dad at J. Gray Exterior Designs in Springfield, Ohio.

Fifth Round: UTL Will Holland, 149th Overall
Holland has continued to grind through the upper minors, spending most of last year with St. Paul. His .197/.296/.341 (.637) line wasn’t enough to push for a big-league look, though his defensive versatility at shortstop and center field gives him some value. At 27 years old, his window with the Twins could be closing. He becomes a minor-league free agent when the World Series ends. 

Sixth Round: RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long, 179th Overall
Gipson-Long found his way to Detroit after the Twins dealt him for reliever Michael Fulmer in 2022. Since then, he has made 12 appearances in the majors with a 5.44 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. He debuted in 2023. He missed the 2024 season with Tommy John surgery and his 2025 season started a little bit late too. His minor league numbers have shown enough to keep earning opportunities with the Tigers.

Seventh Round: INF Anthony Prato, 209th Overall
Prato was a steady performer in the Twins system but never earned a call to the majors. After three strong years in Triple-A, he was released in August. The Pirates quickly picked him up, but his bat went quiet, and he finished the year with a .528 OPS at their Triple-A affiliate. Like Holland, he will become a free agent after the World Series. 

Eighth Round: RHP Casey Legumina, 239th Overall
Traded to the Reds for Kyle Farmer, Legumina bounced to Seattle this past spring. With the Mariners, he appeared in 48 games and pitched 49 2/3 innings, posting a 5.62 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. His mid-90s fastball has kept him on the radar, but consistency remains an issue.

Ninth Round: LHP Brent Headrick, 269th Overall
Headrick’s perseverance paid off after being claimed off waivers by the Yankees in February. He debuted with the Twins in 2023 and missed almost all of the 2024 season with an elbow injury. In 17 major league appearances this season, he put together an impressive 3.13 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP, making him one of the quiet success stories of this draft class.

Tenth Round: RHP Ben Gross, 299th Overall
Gross was a senior sign out of college and advanced quickly through the lower minors. He topped out at Double-A but spent most of the 2022 season on the injured list. Not recovering real quickly, Gross retired in the spring of 2023. Like many college arms drafted in later rounds, he provided organizational depth but didn’t stick long term.

Other Notable Picks
A few late-round selections from this class have made a real impact. Cody Laweryson debuted for the Twins this season and could factor into the bullpen picture in 2026. Louis Varland turned into a hard-throwing reliever before Minnesota traded him to Toronto at this year’s deadline. Now, he’s one of the team’s highest-leverage arms for their World Series team. And Edouard Julien, the 18th-round pick, played a key role in the 2023 playoff run before struggling the last two years. He’s a candidate for non-tendering this winter. 

When the Twins look back on the 2019 class, the results are mixed at best. They hit on some later-round finds and landed players who brought back major league talent through trades, but their first-round pick never materialized. It’s a reminder that the MLB Draft is as unpredictable as the game itself. Some names fade, some resurface in new roles, and a few still find ways to make an impact years later.

What stands out about this group? Leave a comment and start the discussion. 

 

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[Hubie29]

Uffda! Looking at this list pretty much explains the Twins futility, because it's typical of many years of drafts. Wouldn't it be nice to trade one marginal player on this list for one that got away? Wallner for Steer. We would then have our 1st baseman. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

Admittedly, this doesn’t look that pretty.  That being said, how do Twins drafts compare overall to other teams in their division and league?  Knowing what an unreliable situation the MLB draft is compared to NBA or NFL, I’m not sure that I’m surprised by this at all.  Over the course of 10 or 20 years, what percentage of 1st-5th round draft picks wind up having MLB careers, or even cups of coffee?  We would obviously like all of our team’s picks to hit, but I’m not sure what the odds really are for more success.  

[Brock O. Lee]

This class looks better if Steer is still in the organization. It's obviously hard to evaluate talent in the draft, but it's not like this organization gets any better at evaluating talent (or health) once players are in the majors. Letting Steer's entire career go for a handful of injured Mahle starts is part of a pattern that goes beyond the draft. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

25 minutes ago, Brock O. Lee said:

This class looks better if Steer is still in the organization. It's obviously hard to evaluate talent in the draft, but it's not like this organization gets any better at evaluating talent (or health) once players are in the majors. Letting Steer's entire career go for a handful of injured Mahle starts is part of a pattern that goes beyond the draft. 

So the current version of Steer is essentially Larnach, maybe a little less.  Mahle looked very good prior to injury and the Twins surely can’t be blamed for a bad trade when the principal player got injured, can they?  If I could trade Larnach/Steer for a solid starting pitcher, I would do it in a heartbeat — every time.  YMMV.

[Doctor Gast]

Our best draftee was Steer & traded him away for Mahle

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

Admittedly, this doesn’t look that pretty.  That being said, how do Twins drafts compare overall to other teams in their division and league?  Knowing what an unreliable situation the MLB draft is compared to NBA or NFL, I’m not sure that I’m surprised by this at all.  Over the course of 10 or 20 years, what percentage of 1st-5th round draft picks wind up having MLB careers, or even cups of coffee?  We would obviously like all of our team’s picks to hit, but I’m not sure what the odds really are for more success.  

I've gotten this question a lot when I review Twins drafts. When it comes to answering how the Twins fare vs other organizations, many hundreds of hours of work is the answer. Unless there is a tool out there (should be proprietary versions for MLB organizations at least)

https://community.fangraphs.com/success-rate-of-mlb-first-round-draft-picks-by-slot/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358010336_Major_League_Draft_WARs_An_Analysis_of_Wins_Above_Replacement_in_Player_Selection

[bean5302]

I tend to look at things this way. Teams probably need to find 2-3 every day 26-man roster players per year to stay competitive, and the majority of that needs to come from the draft.

[djvang]

Interesting stats:

High school: Around 0.0277% of high school baseball players will make it to the majors. 

College: Around 0.37% of college players make it to the majors. 

Drafted players: Approximately 17.6% of drafted and signed players go on to play in the majors. 

Minor leaguers: About 10% of minor leaguers make it to the major leagues, some for just one game. 

First round: 66% make to the majors

Second round: The success rate drops to about 51%

Third round: The success rate drops to about 40%

[bean5302]

9 minutes ago, djvang said:

Interesting stats:

Drafted players: Approximately 17.6% of drafted and signed players go on to play in the majors. 

Minor leaguers: About 10% of minor leaguers make it to the major leagues, some for just one game. 

 

 

A.I. response? I'm only asking because if a player is drafted and signed, they're almost guaranteed to be playing in the minors at some point and the variance between 17.6% and 10.0% is impossible as a result.

[Western SD Fan]

43 minutes ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

So the current version of Steer is essentially Larnach, maybe a little less.  Mahle looked very good prior to injury and the Twins surely can’t be blamed for a bad trade when the principal player got injured, can they?  If I could trade Larnach/Steer for a solid starting pitcher, I would do it in a heartbeat — every time.  YMMV.

The Twins could shoulder some blame for trading for a pitcher with a known injury risk, such as Mahle.  With that being said, I still agree with you that I would have pulled the trigger on the trade at the time of the trade.

[bean5302]

All trades should be judged based on actual results vs. expectations. All of them. Every single one of them because the front office gets paid millions of dollars annually to be smarter than fans.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

15 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

All trades should be judged based on actual results vs. expectations. All of them. Every single one of them because the front office gets paid millions of dollars annually to be smarter than fans.

Sure, they know more than you or me, but injuries indeed happen.  Correa’s plantar fasciitis, Pablo’s back, Ryan’s groin, Vasquez’ arm infection?   Practically every pitcher’s arm and shoulder looks like spaghetti.  I’m not a Falvey apologist by any means, but that was a pretty reasonable calculated risk and if the team is to get better there will need to be more of those.  

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

Admittedly, this doesn’t look that pretty.  That being said, how do Twins drafts compare overall to other teams in their division and league? 

Drafts produce on average MLB 1-1/2 players per team. This 2019 draft is pretty average.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

I tend to look at things this way. Teams probably need to find 2-3 every day 26-man roster players per year to stay competitive, and the majority of that needs to come from the draft.

Which is about 2x as productive as the league overall.

[bunsen82]

The 2019 class had the potential to be exceptional - even excluding Cavaco. Steer, Wallner and Julien all flashed the ability 1 they just haven’t been able to maintain excellence. Canterino has the talent just not the health. Varland and Hedrick are solid relievers. Things just didn’t come together. 

[big dog]

Cavaco was the utter disaster that never should have happened. Everything else is just baseball stuff. 

[IndianaTwin]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

A.I. response? I'm only asking because if a player is drafted and signed, they're almost guaranteed to be playing in the minors at some point and the variance between 17.6% and 10.0% is impossible as a result.

I don’t know the source either, but I wonder if the 10 percent of all minor leaguers making it to the majors would include those drafted from high school and international free agents. That would change the denominator significantly in comparison to those drafted. 

[Blyleven2011]

6 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Our best draftee was Steer & traded him away for Mahle

I guess someone likes Wallner better than Steer , Steer was good through all the levels of the minor leagues and was close to a call up , but supposedly we were in a pennant race so the front office thought in 2022 , I didn't see it ,,,

Steer got traded to Cincinnati and they promoted him to the club shortly afterwards  , a good month in 2022 and 2023 was a productive year , 2024-25 his hitting has regressed alittle .. 

But i was looking forward to seeing him in a twins uniform and was disappointed when the trade took place ...

That's history and Cincinnati seems happy to have him ...

And than after all that trading in 2022 and the front office got gun shy in making trades that they completely stopped until 2025 deadline ...

2023 they failed miserably at not acquiring any help at the deadline when we were strong to contend in the playoffs , did I mention we could contend for the 2023 playoffs ...

With alittle more help in the hitting department in 2023 we might of went further in the playoffs  (  that was our window of opportunity that year ) , FO'S evaluation and hope that the FO had for the current roster just kept disintegrating  ...

Good game for 5 innings last night before Toronto opened the flood gates for 11 runs in the 5th and 6th innings , let's take another one from the dodgers and make them sweat  ...

[Permanent Twins Fan]

7 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Our best draftee was Steer & traded him away for Mahle

Best draft pick from this class was Varland especially for how late he was drafted. Steer has struggled with the Reds this year, his career war in 4 years in the bigs is 5.0. 

[The Great Hambino]

3 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

I don’t know the source either, but I wonder if the 10 percent of all minor leaguers making it to the majors would include those drafted from high school and international free agents. That would change the denominator significantly in comparison to those drafted. 

I think international free agents likely account for the difference.  Many of them are pros at 16.  In fact, there's an entire class of rookie ball devoted almost solely to them.  If they are being counted in the study, then the differential between drafted players and minor leaguers is plausible to me

[weitz41]

Kind of depends on how you look at it really. Playing for the Twins. YIKES...Cavarco was a helium pick. Those are 50/50 at best to begin with. Wallner has been a solid pick so far. Not great but not awful. E Rod was a complete unknown, and Jenkins wasn't an option at that time. Cant was a home run if you go by performance when healthy. That last word makes him just one of those guys that who knows what might have been. The rest are trade bait or bubble guys. You can pick it a part till you're blue in the face, but overall, they drafted well. Did they win a pennate because of them? Of course not, but they got a lot of positive from them or the players they got with this draft class

[mikelink45]

I do not know the percentage of hits and misses over a ten year span and I do not know how it compares to the other teams.   We have a poor overall success rate and we have made choices to keep players who were less productive than those we let go.  But the reality of MLB is that Free agents, drafts, and trades are all essential tools and to judge what we got from one class needs to ask the question, what did we get in return for those we let go and who did we get outside the draft board. 

Based on results my expectations are low. 

[old nurse]

9 hours ago, Hubie29 said:

Uffda! Looking at this list pretty much explains the Twins futility, because it's typical of many years of drafts. Wouldn't it be nice to trade one marginal player on this list for one that got away? Wallner for Steer. We would then have our 1st baseman. 

Steer in 488 games has produces 5 bwar,, 4.5 fwar WRC101  Wallner in 225games has produced 4.5. BwarI, 5.1 FWAR and 131 WRC+. In what universe is Steer the better player? 

[old nurse]

8 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

Admittedly, this doesn’t look that pretty.  That being said, how do Twins drafts compare overall to other teams in their division and league?  Knowing what an unreliable situation the MLB draft is compared to NBA or NFL, I’m not sure that I’m surprised by this at all.  Over the course of 10 or 20 years, what percentage of 1st-5th round draft picks wind up having MLB careers, or even cups of coffee?  We would obviously like all of our team’s picks to hit, but I’m not sure what the odds really are for more success.  

 

8 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

 

[old nurse]

From a facebook post that was difficult to copy into thisThe above site also had this

Total WAR by each teams draft picks for the past 10 years

Top 3... You read that right... 83 Wins Over Replacement! 

(fWAR - Fangraphs)

41 draft picks have made the MLB! 

#LetsGoGuards

H/T BrooksGate on X

 

 

Also somewhere else it was noted that Houston produced hitters, Cleveland pitchers.  The Twins need to poach somebody from Houston to balance their drafts 

[DocBauer]

This draft looks a lot different if Canterino could ever have gotten healthy, even as a reliever. 

If you look at the draft as a whole, and not who is just playing for the Twins, it was a pretty solid draft. 

Cavaco was a bust and I didn't like the helium selection when it happened.

Wallner produced back to back .800+ OPS in 2023 and 2024. Even in a frustrating and injury affected 2025 he was above league average. At 27yo, hopefully there's more of that .800 OPS still coming.

While it would be nice to have the solid Steer as a RH role player, the fact that he was drafted and became a ML player is a "win" in regard to the draft itself. And while the Mahle trade didn't turn out as hoped, he was an available trade piece to make it happen.

Gipson-Long and Legumina were good enough to bring in a decent pen arm and a solid utility player for some Twins help. Again, that's a win. SGL is still throwing for the Tigers. 

I never would have cut Headrick, and that was a mistake. But he's reached the majors. 

Even though Julien has apparently flamed out, his 2023 helped the Twins to reach the playoffs and actually win a series for the first time in years.

Varland has transitioned in to being a quality pen arm, even though he's now doing so for Toronto. 

Again, even with the Cavaco mistake and the injuries that have plagued Canterino, there has been a lot of players from this class that have reached MLB, and some were solid pieces in trades.

Just as a draft class, and not who's playing for the Twins now, this was a solid and productive draft overall.

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, old nurse said:

 

So you’re saying top third in fWAR and third in the number of players to reach the majors?

Based on the narrative on TD, I’m assuming this is faulty data…

[Hubie29]

2 hours ago, old nurse said:

Steer in 488 games has produces 5 bwar,, 4.5 fwar WRC101  Wallner in 225games has produced 4.5. BwarI, 5.1 FWAR and 131 WRC+. In what universe is Steer the better player? 

He fills a need whereas Wallner fills nothing. Stats are close enough to warrant the trade. Cincy would never do it. 

[old nurse]

35 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

He fills a need whereas Wallner fills nothing. Stats are close enough to warrant the trade. Cincy would never do it. 

You did not offer one shred of evidence that Steer is a better player than Wallner. Now for an unfounded claim on trades, you obviously haven’t looked at the Eds outfield problems. They did try to play Steer there but it was worse defense than he had in the infield.