Minnesota Twins 2025 MLB Draft Preview

As the 2025 MLB Draft quickly approaches, the Prospects Live team wants to make your life as easy as possible. In this series of articles, I'll be providing team-by-team analysis of their recent draft trends, their available draft capital for 2025, any areas of the draft they've heavily targeted, as well as a few names in this year's class that might fit into their historically preferred archetype.

This analysis isn't sourced for the upcoming year, nor is it a guarantee the organization won't pivot from what they've done in the past. Simply put, this article aims to provide an in-depth look at teams and their recent draft classes to try and decipher trends that could help uncover players your favorite team might be targeting. It's far from a perfect science, but I've done my job if it makes things easier to follow on draft day.

Minnesota Twins

2025 Bonus Pool Value - $12,653,000 (12th)
Top 100 selections - 16, 36, 54, 88

The Twins find themselves positioned incredibly well to do some serious damage in this year’s draft, possessing four top one hundred picks and a bonus pool that sits just outside the top ten leaguewide. The Twins have had their fair share of money problems in recent years, perhaps magnifying the necessity to hit on their amateur draft picks. With an intriguing crop of prospects already on the farm, they’ll look to augment their organizational depth with another good year of drafted talent.

2024 Draft Overview

The Twins bet on a crop of toolsy college players in the 2024 draft, headlined by first rounder Kaelen Culpepper (slot), a shortstop out of Kansas State. Following up with Kyle DeBarge ($370,000 underslot) and Billy Amick (slot), the Twins snagged two premium college performers that have performed swimmingly for this Minnesota system. With the money they saved from the DeBarge pick and then some, the Twins went with prep right hander Dasan Hill ($830,000 overslot) out of Texas, an uber projectable arm that has big time stuff despite some unrefined command. They followed up with Khadim Diaw ($160,000 underslot), Jaime Ferrer ($130,000 underslot), and Caden Kendle ($260,000 underslot) in the subsequent rounds, securing three players with some semblance of up the middle ability. Sixth rounder Derek Bender ($20,000 underslot) marked their third catcher of the class and eleventh round hurler Michael Carpenter ($360,000 overslot) got a nice pay day as well, ultimately capping off a well rounded class of players that carries a nice blend of upside and floor.

2023 Draft Overview

Gifted with a top pick in this class, the Twins took the final remaining player out of the top echelon and selected Walker Jenkins (slot) with the fifth pick of the 2023 draft. They followed up with sinker baller Charlee Soto (slot) with a Comp A pick then ventured into the college ranks with Arizona State SS Luke Keaschall ($240,000 underslot). Third rounder Brandon Winokur ($640,000 overslot) took them into the red with their bonus pool and fifth rounder Dylan Questad ($85,000) exacerbated that issue, however they were able to get back to even with fourth rounder Tanner Hall ($75,000 underslot) and a variety of other collegiate players. The Twins have to be thrilled with this haul of players, landing what have become four of their better prospects with their first four picks. Landing a top five pick makes that process a hell of a lot easier, but they certainly managed to make the most of that opportunity and absolutely nailed it.

2022 Draft Overview

With the eighth overall pick in the 2022 draft, the Twins went with big time college shortstop Brooks Lee ($240,000 overslot) out of Cal Poly, a player that had substantial pedigree thanks to his advanced feel to hit. Following up with Connor Prielipp ($210,000 overslot) out of Alabama and Tanner Schobel (slot) out of Virginia Tech, Minnesota took a shot on an injured college starter with major upside and an intriguing sophomore with a grinder type of profile. Collegians Andrew Morris ($35,000 underslot), Ben Ross ($180,000 underslot), and Joel Ortega ($50,000 underslot) rounded out the first five rounds, however their biggest score of this class came with eighth rounder Zebby Matthews ($65,000 underslot), a pitcher who’s already made an impact at the Major League level. There've been some injury issues with this crop of young players, but landing Matthews late really boosted this class. Definitely a solid year for the Twins.

Early Round Demographics

Minnesota has prioritized college bats with their top picks in year’s past, with the top five selection of Jenkins being the exception thanks to some level of lottery luck. They seem to prefer a college hitter that comes with a bit more upside, however, perhaps sacrificing some degree of polish compared to other collegiate bats. Culpepper, Keaschall, DeBarge, and to a lesser degree Lee all fit this general demographic, each with their share of intriguing tools and up the middle capabilities. They’ll mix in some arms here and there and aren’t inherently averse to taking projectable hurlers in the first handful of rounds, however if they do, I’d expect major projection to offset the inherent injury risk with pitchers. Look for big stuff in a big frame.

Late Round Demographics

The Twins love building their future battery, heavily emphasizing college pitchers and catchers in recent years. Additionally, they continue to emphasize up the middle traits in their late round picks similarly to their early round strategy. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s clearly something they’re conscious of. As a general note, the Twins don’t emphasize frame in their batters nearly as much as most other orgs I’ve looked at thus far and don’t seem to care if a player is a bit undersized if they carry enough value despite a limited power ceiling. This is obviously a natural consequence of taking a lot of centerfield/second base types, but I thought it was an interesting aside.

Names to Know

Brendan Summerhill, Arizona OF - I personally think Summerhill should be gone much earlier than 16, but it seems as though he’s got a reasonable shot of being available for Minnesota to select. This would be a slam dunk pick.

Marek Houston, Wake Forest SS - It’s hard to pin down just where Houston will land in this class, but he checks a lot of boxes the Twins look for. He’d be an interesting player to insert into this system.

Caden Bodine, Coastal Carolina C - Bodine might be lower than 16 on most boards (including mine), however that hasn’t stopped Minnesota in the past. Bodine is a surefire catcher with an advanced hit tool that I think could be had for a bit of a deal. Seems like an appealing option for an organization that loves their catchers.