Biggest Winners and Losers in the Twins' Farm System in 2026

[Sam Caulder]

There was a lot of focus on the Twins’ farm system this year, whether it was top prospects making their way to Target Field, young players taking meaningful steps forward in the minor leagues, or prospects being moved at the trade deadline. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest winners and losers from the Twins’ farm system in 2026, starting with the winners.

Twins' Biggest Farm System Winners (2026)

 

 

The first winner has to be Marek Houston. Houston entered the season as a top-10 prospect in the Twins’ organization, but he has climbed into the top five after putting together an impressive 2026 campaign. He began the year with High-A Cedar Rapids, where he slashed .326/.406/.461 across 56 games before earning a promotion to Double-A. And he didn’t stop there.

He continued to hit with the Wichita Wind Surge, keeping his batting average north of .300 while posting a .379 on-base percentage and .450 slugging percentage across 60 games. On the season as a whole, he finished with 42 extra-base hits and an impressive 50 stolen bases. Not bad for a glove-first prospect.

Houston has always had the defensive ability to make an impact, but the offensive strides he made this season are what really changed his outlook within the organization. When you combine that development with his defensive prowess, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Houston make his major league debut at some point next season.

The other big winner is the Twins’ minor league catching depth. Coming into the season, Minnesota already had a trio of intriguing catching prospects in Eduardo Tait, Khadim Diaw, and Enrique Jimenez. That would have been a pretty solid group on its own, but the Twins added another pair of high-upside catchers in Vahn Lackey and Carson Tinney.

 

 

According to Twins Daily, all five catchers currently rank within the Twins’ top 20 prospects. That’s a pretty remarkable amount of organizational depth at one position, especially considering how important catching is to the development of a young pitching staff.

Not all five players are going to stick as catchers, or even reach the majors, of course. But having that many legitimate prospects gives the Twins plenty of options moving forward. The future of the position certainly appears to be very bright.

Twins' Biggest Farm System Losers (2026)

As for the losers, we’ll start with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. The Twins’ High-A affiliate had a disappointing first half of the year, going 31-33. That certainly wasn’t what the organization wanted, but it also wasn’t exactly a disaster.

Then came the second half. The Kernels went just 17-49 across their final 63 games, turning an already mediocre season into a really ugly one. They finished the year with a 48-83 record, which is obviously not the kind of season anyone in the organization was hoping for.

And it wasn’t for a lack of talent. Houston, Tait, Diaw, Riley Quick and several other notable prospects spent a significant portion of the season in Cedar Rapids. Some of those players eventually moved up the ladder, but the Kernels simply weren’t able to turn that talent into many wins.

Obviously, winning isn’t the only thing that matters in the minor leagues. Player development is the priority, and some of the organization’s most important prospects made meaningful progress while wearing a Kernels uniform. Still, a 48-83 record is hard to overlook. The results simply weren’t there for Cedar Rapids this year, which puts the Kernels in the loser column.

The other loser is the Wichita Wind Surge. Wichita wasn’t quite as bad as Cedar Rapids, but it still wasn’t a particularly good year for the Double-A affiliate. The Wind Surge went 25-42 during the first half before improving to 30-39 in the second half.

That’s certainly a step in the right direction, but it still resulted in a 55-81 record for the season. And, just like Cedar Rapids, it wasn’t for a lack of talent.

Houston, Diaw and Quick all spent a decent amount of time in Wichita, while other notable prospects such as Hendry Mendez, Brandon Winokur and Ryan Gallagher also saw significant action with the Wind Surge. There were plenty of interesting players on the roster, but the results simply weren’t there for Wichita this year.

Both the Kernels and Wind Surge will be looking to rebound in 2027, and both should look considerably different by the time next season rolls around. That’s simply part of the nature of minor league baseball, where players are constantly moving between levels and organizations are continually bringing in new pieces. Still, when looking back at the Twins’ farm system in 2026, Cedar Rapids and Wichita certainly belong on the loser side of the ledger.

View full article

[PDX Twin]

Of course, maybe these teams lose so many games because we are overrating the talent of the prospects.

[Fatbat]

Big opportunities for young prospects to take a jump up! It will be fun watching Houston, Winokur, Diaw and others grow. 

[MeleMouth]

Houston and Diaw don't strike out much, but just about everybody else with both Cedar Rapids and Wichita on their 2026 Baseball Reference page were towards the top of each league in strikeout rates. Next year, maybe they will get the Quentin Young experience. The Twins seem to have backed away from the power/strikeout/weak defense profile, but what they've done in the past is still working through the system. It's going to take a couple of years to correct.

[SE23]

1 hour ago, MeleMouth said:

Houston and Diaw don't strike out much, but just about everybody else with both Cedar Rapids and Wichita on their 2026 Baseball Reference page were towards the top of each league in strikeout rates. Next year, maybe they will get the Quentin Young experience. The Twins seem to have backed away from the power/strikeout/weak defense profile, but what they've done in the past is still working through the system. It's going to take a couple of years to correct.

Winokur really needs to cut down the K's. Caden Kendle's K-rate isn't terrible, considering his power potential. Likewise Tait strikes out a lot for A+ ball, but slugs decently also. Jiminez looks like a K machine, even at A+

Lackey, in a SSS, struck out in 26% of his AB's, but walked more than he fanned.

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Overall, mostly disappointing minor league teams in our system this year. AA and under massively underperformed. 

AAA had the best overall record and missed the playoffs. A system I feel should be changed, but probably won't be. 

[SE23]

Pitching quality from Ft Myers up to Wichita is very questionable. Adding depth to our young pitching corps has to be a priority. Easier said than done, I understand.

[MeleMouth]

5 minutes ago, SE23 said:

Winokur really needs to cut down the K's. Caden Kendle's K-rate isn't terrible, considering his power potential. Likewise Tait strikes out a lot for A+ ball, but slugs decently also. Jiminez looks like a K machine, even at A+

Lackey, in a SSS, struck out in 26% of his AB's, but walked more than he fanned.

You're right about Kendle - he also was one of the few who played in both Cedar Rapids and Wichita this year who was not a league leader in K rate.

None of Tait, Jimenez, and Lackey played in Wichita, but K rates are also concerning for last year's acquisitions, Jimenez and Tait. Lackey's swinging strike rate in Cedar Rapids was about 50% below that of the other two catchers.

Let's hope that last year's #2 pick, Quentin Young, who does have some impressive raw skills, is the last of the Twins' high draft choices in the Wallner line, where the team looked at raw skills and thought they could teach the player how to make contact.

And for people who say it worked out OK with Buxton, I would respond that a success path for an off-the-charts athlete who also has great mental skills will be a lot less successful for merely "very good" athletes or even for other great athletes who have only pretty good or worse mental skills. 

[SE23]

4 minutes ago, MeleMouth said:

You're right about Kendle - he also was one of the few who played in both Cedar Rapids and Wichita this year who was not a league leader in K rate.

None of Tait, Jimenez, and Lackey played in Wichita, but K rates are also concerning for last year's acquisitions, Jimenez and Tait. Lackey's swinging strike rate in Cedar Rapids was about 50% below that of the other two catchers.

Let's hope that last year's #2 pick, Quentin Young, who does have some impressive raw skills, is the last of the Twins' high draft choices in the Wallner line, where the team looked at raw skills and thought they could teach the player how to make contact.

And for people who say it worked out OK with Buxton, I would respond that a success path for an off-the-charts athlete who also has great mental skills will be a lot less successful for merely "very good" athletes or even for other great athletes who have only pretty good or worse mental skills. 

Agreed. The twins had the right drafting template when they picked Buck. Let's snag a few more of these kinds of prospects!

 

[FlyingFinn]

It really is about player development, mostly for the top 25% or so of the minor league players. I love the minor league articles throughout the season but people get way too excited about great stats from guys like Rosario, McCusker, etc. becoming key major league players. While their hitting stats are good, if they are bad at in the field, their hitting stats have to be great at every level to make it as anything more than a brief look in MLB (often not even given more than a few AB's to "prove" they belong). 

Thus, the important guys to look at on the farm this year - hitters Jenkins, Culpepper, Houston did great. Rodriguez injured again. The problem this year was pitcher development as the Twins generally are not taking most of their pitching with the top pick. Thus, we need some Zebby Matthews type development. Sure Soto and Ellwanger were injured again and we traded Hill (not smart in my opinion). Prielipp and Quick were the two best stories on the pitching side. But it seemed we didn't advance many of our pitchers into what I call "important guys" in 2026. We should revamp our pitching coaches in the minor leagues as we don't have much of a pitching pipeline right now.

[GNess]

6 hours ago, SE23 said:

Pitching quality from Ft Myers up to Wichita is very questionable. Adding depth to our young pitching corps has to be a priority. Easier said than done, I understand.

Agreed. Quality young pitchers rising in the system seems to be lacking.

[MapleGroveTwinsFan]

15 hours ago, SE23 said:

 Caden Kendle's K-rate isn't terrible, considering his power potential. 

 

Kendle the 24 year old old that played in A and A+ last year? 

[SE23]

59 minutes ago, MapleGroveTwinsFan said:

Kendle the 24 year old old that played in A and A+ last year? 

Hey maybe we're overdue for a 5th round Cinderella story!

[Twins GFP]

I am not sure why we are worrying about the W/L records of our MiLB teams. Their job is to improve skills and prepare players for the next level. I guarantee that there are many, many situations that managers chose player growth over win probability.

Those teams try to win, but they don't always play to win. 

[Twins GFP]

18 hours ago, SE23 said:

Agreed. The twins had the right drafting template when they picked Buck. Let's snag a few more of these kinds of prospects!

 

If you mean aiming for a top-two pick every draft, I am not sure I agree with you.

[rdehring]

Shocking that the Twins have 5 catchers in their top 20.  A few years back there weren't any, were there?

Cedar Rapids season is flat out shocking.  Haven't they been in the playoffs nearly every year since joining the Twins however long ago?  Is part of it the fact Dinkelman isn't their manager any longer?  Who is the manager and is he a concern?  Thinking of the local fans, hopefully the Kernels will be back in the hunt next year.

I have never seen Houston play, live or on tv.  Is his defense really good and you will notice the difference watching a game or two?  Or is it at another level that when watching a series you leave saying WOW?  Or is he a solid defender with our having been led to believe is special?