Twins Daily’s Top 20 Minnesota Twins Prospects: Nos. 15-11

Before we take a look at this block of prospects, make sure you check out the list of guys who just missed the top 20, as well as the Nos. 16-20 prospects.

15. Dasan Hill, LHP
What’s the catch? That’s the question I kept asking myself when first getting acquainted with Hill. A 6-foot-5 lefty, Hill has a fastball that has consistently hit 97 mph; his slider is seen as an above-average offering that can be relied upon to get whiffs; and he has a quality curveball and feel for a changeup.

This profile seems almost too good to be true for the part of the draft where the Twins got him. I don’t want to paint it as if he was someone they completely unearthed without having to make an investment (like a bunch of the other top arms in the system), but it seems like there’s excess upside. Hill was selected in the second round this year, No. 69 overall, and was paid a bonus that approached $2 million. 

So, what really is the catch? Well, Hill is still only 18 years old, and is listed at 165 pounds. He has a long way to go and a lot of gains to make. In terms of a physical comp, it’s easy to look toward current Twin David Festa, the "Slim Reaper". If Hill is this big and wiry at 18, might he be able to at least fill out to a similar frame as the 6-foot-6, 185-pound Festa? It’s far from a slam dunk, but with how difficult it can be to build a pitching staff, I love seeing the Twins prioritize a potentially high-reward arm over some of the safer investments that were available. Sometimes you have to take a chance.

This is an exciting arm, added to a pitching pipeline that’s finally producing major-league talent. Hill pitched for Grapevine High School in Texas and was committed to Dallas Baptist prior to being drafted. He has yet to make his pro debut, but the sheer stuff and the physicality make full-season ball a plausible first assignment for him.

14. Kyle DeBarge, 2B/SS
DeBarge had a massive power breakout prior to being drafted. If that’s real, this ranking is going to look low before long. If it’s a mirage, this ranking is going to look high before long. DeBarge hit 10 home runs over his first 510 plate appearances at Louisiana-Lafayette, but exploded for 21 homers in just 290 PAs there last season.

His stature alone is also enough to call his power potential into question. He’s listed at 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds. Then there’s the discouraging early returns from his brief time in Fort Myers (only one home run in 115 PAs), but it was a small sample in a tough environment for power hitting.

Taken in the first round (33rd overall) of this year’s draft, it’s not as if DeBarge’s value is completely tied to power. He brings plus contact skills, solid on-base ability, value added on the bases and reliable glovework that establishes his floor. He’s a ballplayer. The big question on defense, similar to most college shortstops, is where will DeBarge end up on the diamond? With Fort Myers, he logged more innings at second base than shortstop, but that was largely due to the org prioritizing getting first-round pick Kaelen Culpepper reps at the position.

The Twins have had a lot of success with this type of profile. Think guys like Brian Dozier or Spencer Steer. Yes, I know Steer was traded, but they still get credit for drafting him and doing most of the development. Luke Keaschall is another one of these types, though he hasn’t fully climbed the ladder yet.

Will the Twins strike gold again? We should have a much better idea a year from now. DeBarge hit .235/.322/.343 with a 24.3 K% and 10.4 BB% in 26 games for the Mighty Mussels, but that's only a problem if he stays at a similar level once he has his legs under him.

13. Kala’i Rosario, RF
Rosario’s strengths are tantalizing, but the weaknesses are terrifying. This is a player with impressive offensive gifts that he continues to hone. There’s also a lot of swing-and-miss, though, and he’s one of the worst defensive outfielders I’ve seen come through the Twins system.

After a 2023 season in which Rosario was named Midwest League MVP and won the Arizona Fall League home run derby, it might be easy to view 2024 as a step back. He missed a good chunk of time due to an elbow injury, which stings, but there were some positives from when he was on the field.

While many of Rosario’s 2023 Midwest League champion teammates fell flat on their faces making the big leap up to Double-A, he held his own. This was Rosario’s age-21 season, and 93% of his plate appearances were against pitchers older (and you’d figure more developed) than him. Despite those challenges, he slugged comfortably above the average in the Texas League (Rosario had a .405 slugging percentage with Wichita; the league average was .374).

With the jump to Double-A came a small increase in strikeouts (0.8% increase) and a more significant dip in walks (3.5% decrease). And while the power was solid, it’s not like Rosario’s overall line of .235/.321/.405 really jumps off the page.

In the field, Rosario struggles to track balls and make adjustments. To be fair, it seems he did take steps forward in 2024, and the Twins managed to help Matt Wallner overcome similar issues along his journey to the majors. Rosario will likely never be a plus defender, but there’s hope some of these rough edges may be smoothed out. And there’s no questioning the arm. He has a cannon.

Rosario comes in at No. 13 in our rankings after being placed in the No. 12 spot on last offseason’s list. That seems fitting, as there isn’t much that happened in 2024 to really change his prospect stock one way or the other.

12. Connor Prielipp, LHP
If you had a crystal ball and could tell me that Prielipp will be healthy going forward, he’d be my No. 1 pitching prospect in the system. Seriously. As things stand, the injury risk is enough to sink his prospect status, at least this far. This is a special arm. It comes with a suspect elbow. 

Prielipp is clearly miles ahead of low-minors hitters. He has a mid-90s fastball, a slider that’s routinely over 3,000 RPMs of spin and a changeup that doesn’t seem like it’s trailing much behind those two excellent offerings. It’s a big-league arsenal.

In addition to having Tommy John surgery back in 2021, Prielipp has had several other shutdown periods due to elbow soreness and had an internal brace surgery prior to the 2024 season. The possibility this elbow is a ticking time bomb is enough to cloud his future and deflate his prospect stock.

One X-factor for Prielipp is he’s finally having a healthy offseason. Don’t expect that to mean he’ll be active to start the 2025 season. Coming off just 23 1/3 innings, they’ll look for ways to avoid a significant jump in workload, such as having him stay behind at the complex for a bit. Still, the hope would be that he'd head out to an affiliate fairly early.

Prielipp pitched to a 3.86 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in his brief stint last year, while only surrendering 14 hits, all but one of them singles. Opponents hit .173/.256/.185 against him. He also missed an abundance of bats, striking out 45% of the batters he faced, a rate of 15.8 K/9.

On the downside, Prielipp only made nine starts, seven for Cedar Rapids. He threw 23 1/3 innings, with his longest start being just three frames. The most pitches he threw in any outing was 49. Prielipp climbs up a handful of spots from last offseason’s list, where he was No. 17.

11. C.J. Culpepper, RHP
Culpepper had an up-and-down year, but his strong finish helps paint a positive outlook for 2025. After hitting a bit of a speed bump in High-A the prior year, Culpepper passed the test in 2024. A forearm strain halted his momentum in early June, but thankfully, that injury wasn’t a precursor to anything more serious.

After two months of recovery, Culpepper was back with the Kernels. Three outings later, he was promoted up to Wichita to make his Double-A debut. The early returns weren’t great, but he was also still working on getting stretched back out. In September, Culpepper put an exclamation point at the end of his season. In 13 innings with the Wild Surge, he struck out 14 batters while issuing one walk. He gave up just a pair of runs on eight hits. He pounded the zone, throwing 69% of his pitches for strikes, and missed bats at a 15% swinging strike rate.

What makes Culpepper special is his deep arsenal. I’ve lost count of how many pitches he throws. It’s at least six for sure, and maybe seven. He’s able to look like a completely different pitcher versus lefties than against righties, and can shapeshift as an outing progresses to flash different offerings he protected the first time through. 

It feels like Culpepper is still feeling out who he is and how best to deploy that deep arsenal. He only threw 58 1/3 innings this season, but the 3.55 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 9.9 K/9 he posted is plenty impressive enough to maintain belief. He has a chance to be a big-league starter despite being a former Day 3 pick in the draft. What Sean Johnson and his team have done late in drafts, particularly that 2022 class, is remarkable. Culpepper was the No. 13 prospect in our rankings from last offseason.

Final thoughts:
Culpepper being outside of our top 10 (along with Prilipp and Hill, for that matter) is a great show of how much pitching there is in the pipeline. Not long ago, we as Twins fans basically had one arm this exciting to pin our hopes on. Now, there are about a dozen of them. Will those hopes materialize? Tough to say, but I’m excited to find out.

While the three arms in this grouping are easy to get excited about, the bats are both profiles the Twins have had success with. Maybe DeBarge and Rosario don’t have the upside of the trio of arms here, but are they more likely to realize their potential? It’s certainly possible.

To have prospects this intriguing sitting outside of a top-10 list is a big flex for the system. This depth is part of why the Twins shot up minor league organizational talent rankings after the draft.

Interested in learning more about the Minnesota Twins' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!