Jeremy Nygaard

The Twins will add talent to the organization starting on January 15 through the international market. Here's what you need to know about the new process and how international free agency works. View full video

The Twins have failed to add much talent to the organization since the end of the season, but that is about to change. Just not necessarily in a high-end signing like Carlos Correa. Instead, the Twins will add over a dozen 16- and 17-year-olds and we'll spend the next handful of years hoping they realize their potential. No one was ever sure we'd get to this point with International Free Agency again, if we're being honest. It was the last sticking point in the CBA negotiations. But instead of letting it cause the lockout to continue, they added a summer deadline to continue to discuss an International Draft. An agreement would have ended tying the signing of some free agents to the loss of draft picks, but there was no agreement. So here we are. We've transitioned from a July 2 start date of International Free Agency to January 15 because of the mess COVID created and it has stayed this way. It's less complicated as deals are completed out of season and players can get into action when the season starts. Any players who are not draft-eligible (players in the US, Canada or Puerto Rico) are subject to International Free Agency. The signing period will run from January 15 to December 15. If you're 16 and turn 17 before September 1, 2023, you are eligible to sign. The Twins have had success in International Free Agency. Never more than in 2009 when they landed Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano. If you can sign one 16-year-old in a year and develop him into a big leaguer, that's a win. But when you do it three times, that's unbelievable. Currently, the Twins group of IFA-acquired prospects is led by Emmanuel Rodriguez, an outfielder who is a Top 100 prospect in baseball. Jamie Cameron previewed the top names in the next projected Twins crop in October. While the whole system is relatively complex, what you need to know is simple: The Twins have almost $6.4 million to spend on teenagers in the next eleven months. They're sure to add some talent to the organization. But what talent are they going to add to the major league roster remains to be seen. View full article

Now that Carlos Correa has left for the Bay Area, the Twins may be looking at additional moves to finalize their infield. What are some alignments they could be looking at? Who else would fit on the roster? View full video

Rooker became a major leaguer and Enlow, despite injuries, made it to the 40-man and still has a shot. Hard to consider either of those to be big misses, even if they weren't home runs. I'm not suggesting not taking the best player. But the best player at 5 > best player at 13. Money left from 5 + plus Comp pick > money left from 13 + comp pick.

One thing I didn't mention, but as important is jumping from #5 to #13 is the added draft pool money that comes with that jump. The teams also received a Comp A pick, so you're looking at a team who should have middle-of-the-pack spending money instead having one of the highest draft pools in the entire league. You get so much added flexibility. The Twins can take the bat they like best at #5, pay him under slot and then turn around and use that savings to take a falling pitcher. That might sound like a familiar strategy... but wouldn't work nearly as well drafting at #13.

In a stroke of luck, the Twins were able to leap into the Top 5 of the 2023 MLB Draft thanks to the new lottery system that was designed to help deter tanking. While the Twins were competitive throughout most of the 2022 season, their late-season slide led them to miss the playoffs and enter the inaugural lottery. And it worked out for the team so far. We had all the lottery details for you last night. Today, we're going to take a very early look at some hitters who the Twins might consider with this new Top 5 pick. Of course, these players will need to play their junior seasons. Scouts will watch more games and have more data points to assess their tools and talents. Conversations will be had. High school players may emerge. But it's never too early to put together a list of names for Twins fans to start getting excited about. The name that you see at the top of almost every early prospect list is LSU outfielder Dylan Crews. It would be tough to see him falling to the Twins, and I'm sure you'll hear more about him as winter turns into spring. Wyatt Langford has a great bat and the Florida Gator has played all over the diamond. Fitting the Twins mold really well is Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez. A high-contact, low-strikeout college player who is a shortstop now, but may outgrow the position. Sound familiar? Brock Wilken is another college bat who has impressed. Massive exit velocities and enormous power coupled with lots of swing-and-miss, the third basemen has a big season ahead of him. Enrique Bradfield is the most exciting player in the nation, but the Vanderbilt outfielder doesn't hit for much power. Max Clark and Walker Jenkins are both prep outfielders who could sneak into the top 5. There are tons of other players that will enter the conversation. Who would you like to see the Twins target at 5? View full article

Fourteen members of the 2022 Draft Class have made their professional debuts. We'll take a look at how each of the 14 players are doing. View full video

The draft finished up almost three weeks ago. The signing deadline was last week. All the signed draft picks have reported. So where are they and how are they doing? 1st round pick Brooks Lee has played four games for the FCL Twins and despite starting slow has a .353/.353/.471 (.824) slash line thanks to an impressive game on Monday. Lee has played in the field exclusively at shortstop, starting three games there with his other appearance at DH. There had been rumblings that Lee wouldn't be playing in the Florida Complex League too much longer and those rumblings were confirmed by Darren Wolfson on Monday afternoon. It will be interesting to see how he's integrated into the Kernels lineup. You obviously make way for Brooks Lee, but former bonus baby Wander Javier has made every single one of his starts at shortstop. Make no mistake that Lee is in a different stratosphere as a prospect, but it's possible that both find themselves on the left side of the infield. It's also possible that Lee gets a couple of days off a week as he adjusts to playing a game of baseball every day. Comp Round B pick Tanner Schobel has also played four games for the FCL Twins. He's only 3-for-15 (.200/.250/.267) with a double and a walk and has struck out three times. He's also stolen a base. He has played twice at second base, once at shortstop, and once as a DH. Schobel is in line for more reps at shortstop after Lee's promotion. Once Schobel gets his feet underneath him, it wouldn't be surprising to see him move up a level. The most recent draft pick to make his pro debut is 6th-round pick Jorel Ortega. Ortega has only played in two games, getting a start at both first base and third base. He hasn't started hitting yet, going hitless in his first four at-bats. He's struck out three times and drawn two walks. Other draftees should be joining this trio soon and we'll keep you updated on how they're doing. View full article

Three Twins draft picks have made their professional debuts. One is already being promoted to Cedar Rapids. Who are they? How are they doing? View full video

The Twins made a big splash by sending out four prospects for one of the top relievers left on the market. What does it all mean? View full video

I agree. It's a much better decision for your future to rehab a repaired elbow with professionals than it is to rehab at the local junior college. (No offense to any junior or community colleges!)

There's only a guarantee of a percentage of the slot if players were invited to the Top 300 (I believe) and disclosed their medicals. But anyone drafted outside the Top 10 rounds (or drafted in the Top 10 who wasn't part of that selected group) wasn't guaranteed anything.

The day after he was drafted I was told he was going to JC and would be treated as a draft-and-follow. Something changed over the last week, apparently. So that was kinda surprising, but it could have been as simple as his rep telling the team that his number came down.

Thanks. I'm going to do some things differently next year and the coverage - I promise - will be even better. So raise your bar a little bit! We'll have Jamie more involved and might find another person or two to take on some of the load. And hopefully we find someone to take on a bit of the Brewer Fanatic load so I can focus even more on the Twins. It's a crazy few weeks, that's for sure. Fortunately, my schedule was pretty open.

Appreciate the kind words! I think there is some range on Prielipp's outcomes because he's thrown so little. If you want to get him to 200 innings/year, we have a long way to go. If you want to deploy him as a fastball/slider reliever, you might have a dude by next July. I think the Twins will do everything they can to run him out as a starter and have him throw his change-up as much as possible. If that becomes an average pitch, he's a starter. There are just a lot of questions about him, understandably, due to how little he's thrown. One thing that Sean told me years ago is that after you get out of the second round, there's no consensus. And that their draft board - and this is when it was 40 rounds - has a lot less names than we'd ever imagine. I think he said they'd have 600 or so names on the board when there were over 1200 players drafted. So I'd *guess* that Morris was a guy they absolutely loved (and was much higher on than the rest of the industry). Him and Lewis weren't even big-time money-saving picks. (And I'm super intrigued by Lewis). Now to McMillan... Sean has said on more than a few occasions that they have a really good relationship with the Alabama coach. And that relationship played a big part with being comfortable drafting Prielipp (and that he was also under consideration at #8). I'm guessing that the Alabama coach was really high on McMillan and sold the Twins on him. I'm not sure that he's worth more than $125k and I'm not sure if the Twins have any desire to even pay him that. But having good relationships pay off and this might just be what that is.

Prielipp got $1,825,000 against his slot value which was $1,662,700. What the Twins did this year - which was very smart - is they announced all their deals in one swoop. In the past, deal details would trickle in and agents do the math and know exactly what the team has to spend. If someone else reported a figure this year, I'd go with it. But I stayed away from reporting any deals myself because it may have been suggested in the past that I wasn't helping the situation by putting those numbers out. By getting them all done together, it does create some ability to be flexible now if they want to be with one of their unsigned picks. Also, I appreciate the kinds words!

17 signings. 17 bonuses included. That leaves three players unsigned. Keep reading to learn all you need to know about this year's draft class. You can go more in-depth on any specific player in the Twins Daily Draft Tracker. I'll give you the class overview here. All of the Top 10 round selections and seven of the Day 3 selections are signed, sealed and delivered. We'll keep you updated at Twins Daily as they all embark soon on their professional careers. Only Brooks Lee (first round) and Connor Prielipp (second round) came in over slot. Surprisingly enough, Lee's bonus was more over slot than Prielipp's. Both figure to enter the Twins Top 10 prospects and it isn't out of the question to consider Lee and Prielipp the organization's top hitting and pitching prospect, respectively. In order to get both players signed to over slot deals, the Twins had to shave money off their Day 2 picks. Each one of those players came in under slot - between $24,100 and $178,500 - to guarantee the Twins could make that happen. Now that the dust has settled and figures are public, there are a few interesting tidbits. The Twins spent $9,933,700 of their $10,081,500 bonus pool, meaning they still have $147,800 remaining to spend. Additionally, they could spend 105% of their bonus pool without any penalty. That means the Twins could spend up to $651,875 more. Omari Daniel has not signed yet, but he will be reporting to Fort Myers this weekend and is likely to forego his college eligibility to begin his professional career. Sources have indicated that Daniel's bonus will not exceed $125,000, which would require the signing team to dip into their bonus pool. So that leaves Garrett McMillan (Alabama) and Korbyn Dickerson (Kentucky prep committed to Louisville). Both have said publicly they will not be signing and that would be the expected outcome. The Twins could offer either one $272,800 (sixth round money) to sign. That would put them right at the limit of their bonus pool. If they wanted to use the 5% extra, they could sign either to $776,875 (which is basically third round money) or they could offer each $450,937 (late fourth round money). A late signing after professing publicly that a player is returning isn't unprecedented. The Twins signed Edouard Julien for $493,000 in 2019 after he stated he was going back to Auburn As the signing deadline approaches next week, the only question remains... will either McMillan or Dickerson change their mind? MINNESOTA TWINS $651,875 Player Round Slot Bonus $147,800 Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly 1 $5,442,400 $5,675,000 -$232,600 Connor Prielipp, LHP, Alabama 2 $1,662,700 $1,825,000 -$162,300 Tanner Schobel, SS, Virginia Tech"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Tanner Schobel, SS, Virginia Tech CB $1,002,000 $1,002,000 $0 Andrew Morris, RHP, Texas Tech"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Andrew Morris, RHP, Texas Tech 4 $533,300 $500,000 $33,300 Ben Ross, SS, Notre Dame Coll."}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Ben Ross, SS, Notre Dame Coll. 5 $398,500 $220,000 $178,500 Jorel Ortega, 2B, Tennessee"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Jorel Ortega, 2B, Tennessee 6 $301,200 $250,000 $51,200 Kyle Jones, RHP, Toledo"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Kyle Jones, RHP, Toledo 7 $235,600 $176,700 $58,900 Zebby Matthews, RHP, W. Carolina"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Zebby Matthews, RHP, W. Carolina 8 $187,900 $125,000 $62,900 Cory Lewis, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara"}" style="font-size:8pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Cory Lewis, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara 9 $164,100 $140,000 $24,100 Dalton Shuffield, SS, Texas State"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Dalton Shuffield, SS, Texas State 10 $153,800 $20,000 $133,800 Andrew Cossetti, C, St. Joseph's"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Andrew Cossetti, C, St. Joseph's 11 - $125,000 Nate Baez, C, Arizona State"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Nate Baez, C, Arizona State 12 - $125,000 C.J. Culpepper, RHP, Cal Baptist"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">C.J. Culpepper, RHP, Cal Baptist 13 - $125,000 Omari Daniel, SS, The Walker School 14 - Agreed Ben Ethridge, RHP, So. Miss."}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Ben Ethridge, RHP, So. Miss. 15 - $125,000 Jankel Ortiz, SS, Ac. Pres. HS (PR) 16 - $125,000 Alec Sayre, OF, Wright State"}" style="font-size:9pt; padding:2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align:bottom">Alec Sayre, OF, Wright State 17 - $100,000 Zachary Veen, LHP, Point Loma 18 - $80,000 Garrett McMillan, RHP, Alabama 19 - intends to return to Alabama Korbyn Dickerson, OF, Trinity HS (KY) 20 - intends to go to Louisville View full article