Top international free agent siging Misael Urbina wins round 26. We are all excited to see his professional debut this summer. Hopefully the Twins found a future star like they did with Sano, Polanco and Kepler.

2019 Twinkie Town Community Prospect Vote Results

1. Royce Lewis 52% (Kirilloff 44%, Graterol 4%)
2. Alex Kirilloff 90% (Graterol 4%, Gordon 4%, Larnach 2%)
3. Brusdar Graterol 56% (Gordon 19%, Larnach 12%, Thorpe 8%, Gonsalves 5%)
4. Trevor Larnach 42% (Thorpe 25%, Gordon 21%, Gonsalves 12%)
5. Lewis Thorpe 31% (Gordon 30%, Rooker 14%, Javier 13%, Gonsalves 11%)
6. Nick Gordon 39% (Rooker 20%, Gonsalves 18%, Javier 17%, Alcala 5%)
7. Stephen Gonsalves 35% (Rooker 28%, Javier 28%, Alcala 5%, Baddoo 4%)
8. Brent Rooker 43% (Javier 41%, Baddoo 6%, Enlow 6%, Alcala 4%)
9. Wander Javier 70% (Baddoo 12%, Enlow 7%, Alcala 7%, Duran 4%)
10. Jorge Alcala 32% (Baddoo 28%, Enlow 23%, Duran 14%, Celestino 3%)
11. Jhoan Duran 39% (Enlow 31%, Baddoo 25%, Severino 3%, Celestino 2%)
12. Zack Littell 56% (Enlow 28%, Baddoo 11%, Severino 2%, Celestino 2%)
13. Blayne Enlow 50% (Baddoo 33%, Balazovic 10%, Severino 4%, Celestino 3%)
14. Akil Baddoo 54% (Balazovic 13%, Jeffers 12%, Rortvedt 11%, Severino 8%, Celestino 4%)
15. Ryan Jeffers 34% (Balazovic 31%, Severino 12%, Rortvedt 12%, Celestino 10%)
16. Jordan Balazovic 63% (Rortvedt 13%, Severino 11%, Celestino 10%, Urbina 3%)
17. Ben Rortvedt 33% (Severino 23%, Celestino 20%, Wells 17%, Urbina 6%)
18. Gilberto Celestino 36% (Severino 30%, Miranda 19%, Wells 11%, Urbina 4%)
19. LaMonte Wade 31% (Severino 30%, Miranda 22%, Wells 11%, Urbina 6%)
20. Kohl Stewart 30% (Severino 28%, Wells 21%, Miranda 16%, Urbina 6%)
21. Yunior Severino 40% (Miranda 21%, Arraez 15%, Wells 14%, Urbina 9%)
22. Jose Miranda 32% (Vasquez 31%, Urbina 14%, Wells 12%, Arraez 10%)
23. Luke Raley 33% (Vasquez 22%, Urbina 17%, Arraez 14%, Wells 13%)
24. Andrew Vasquez 32% (Urbina 24%, Wells 22%, Arraez 15%, Maciel 6%)
25. Tyler Wells 29% (Urbina 27%, Arraez 26%, Leach 14%, Maciel 4%)
26. Misael Urbina 35% (Arraez 30%, Leach 18%, Jax 12%, Maciel 5%)

This round we add everyone’s favorite utility player prospect and one of the most fun stories in all of Major League Baseball.

Luis Arraez, 2B

2019 Age: 22

2018 High Level: Chattanooga (AA)

Luis Arraez was signed by the Twins as a teenager out of Venezuela. His first season of rookie ball was in the Dominican League and he hit an impressive .348/.433/.400. Arraez has continued up the ladder and at each step he has continued to hit. In 2016 he hit .347/.386/.444 for Cedar Rapids. He was promoted to Fort Myers in 2017 and hit .385/.385/.538 in 3 games before he suffered a season ending knee injury. Arraez started 2018 back at Fort Myers and picked up where he left off hitting .320/.373/.421 in 60 games. This earned him a promotion to Double-A where he finished the year hitting .298/.345/.365 in 48 games. Arraez is generally considered to only have one plus tool: hitting for average. He doesn’t hit for power (an anemic 6 HR in 1348 PA), doesn’t steal bases (25 SB 19 CS in his minor league career) and defensively his arm limits him to 2B or LF. He doesn’t walk much but doesn’t strike out much either. If he keeps hitting above .300 he will keep progressing up the ladder. Expect him to start 2019 in Double-A Pensacola with a goal of a mid-year promotion to Triple-A Rochester.

Gabriel Maciel, OF

2019 Age: 20

2018 High Level: Cedar Rapids (A)

Gabriel Maciel grew up playing soccer in Londrina, Brazil like most children in his country. He was introduced to the game of baseball at age 9 by Japanese immigrants and switched sports thereafter. He was part of the 18-under World Cup team for Brazil and was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the summer of 2016. His athletic skills were far ahead of his baseball skills at the time due to his late start with the game and playing opportunities in a country where baseball is not the most popular sport. In fact, Maciel admitted he had never been taught to bunt or how to steal bases until he got to the United States. The Diamondbacks sent him to their rookie league team in Arizona where he hit .289/.341/.309 and then pushed him to their Pioneer League team in Missoula, Montana to end the season. In 2017 he returned to the Osprey, hit .323/.389/.438 and was named a Pioneer League All-Star. He received a promotion to Single-A Kane County in 2018 where he hit .287/.362/.333 before the Diamondbacks traded him to the Twins as part of the Eduardo Escobar deal. The Twins sent him to Cedar Rapids after the trade and he finished the season hitting .263/.302/.381 in 30 games. Maciel’s best tool is his speed and the switch-hitter has displayed good contact skills in his short career so far. He has shown very little power and he continues to need a lot of development in order to become a major leaguer.

Landon Leach, SP

2019 Age: 19

2018 High Level: Gulf Coast Twins (Rookie)

The Twins selected Landon Leach with their third pick of the 2017 draft, 37th overall and the first Canadian selected. Leach is a tall (6’5”) young pitcher so he will inevitably be called “projectable”. He was converted from a catcher to pitcher at age 15 so he may be more of a project than others. However, the conversion may also have avoided some mileage on his young arm. The Toronto suburbs native pitched for the Canadian Junior National Team and was committed to pitch for the Texas Longhorns before deciding to become a Twin. Leach throws a 95 MPH fastball and has a developing breaking ball and changeup. The Twins sent him to rookie ball after signing and he pitched adequately in five games there. He came back to the GCL Twins in 2018 and pitched 20-2/3 innings with a 7.0 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and 3.92 RA9 in seven games. Expect to see him at Elizabethton and/or Cedar Rapids this summer.

Griffin Jax, P

2019 Age: 24

2018 High Level: Fort Myers (A+)

The Twins selected Griffin Jax in the third round of the 2016 MLB draft from the Air Force Academy. He was named co-pitcher of the year for the Mountain West conference in his junior year. When Jax was drafted the Twins and Jax thought there was a chance that his military commitment could be served in the Air Force reserves and Jax could pitch for the Twins simultaneously. Unfortunately for the Twins, the military policy at that time required Jax to serve two years in active duty before he could start his athletic career. Jax had been able to pitch only 39-2/3 innings while on leave up until 2018 and showed a 90-93 MPH fastball, a decent slider and a changeup while avoiding walks (1.8 BB/9). In a positive turn for Jax, baseball was added to the 2020 Olympics. This allowed Jax to get a world class athlete exemption in April and pitch for Fort Myers in 2018. He put up unspectacular numbers for the Miracle last summer (6.8K/9, 1.5 BB/9, 4.52 RA9, 87.2IP) but was sent to the Arizona Fall League to help make up for lost time. His performance in the fall wasn’t much better but it allowed him to throw over 100 innings in 2018. No pitcher from the Air Force Academy has ever made the big leagues so I’m sure if Jax is successful he will have a large cheering section. In the meantime we will see if he can make the 2020 Olympic baseball team.

Willians Astudillo, C/UT

2019 Age: 27

2018 High Level: Minnesota Twins (MLB)

Willians Astudillo started his professional career in the Phillies organization. He spent three seasons in the Venezuelan rookie league before making his stateside debut at age 20 for the Gulf Coast Phillies. He played catcher and first base and hit .318/.327/.419 with his signature profile of hitting for average while both walking and striking out as little as possible. A knee injury cost him the entire 2013 season but he came back and hit .333/.366/.433 in 114 games the South Atlantic League in 2014. He earned a promotion to High-A in 2015 and won the Florida State League batting title by hitting .314/.348/.384 but at the end of the season he left the Phillies organization and signed with the Braves as a minor league free agent. The Braves sent him to Double-A Mississippi and he continued to not walk nor strike out though his batting average dipped to .267. The Braves chose not to retain him and he was signed by the Diamondbacks who sent him to Reno, presumably just to watch him die. As a member of the Reno Aces in 2017 Astudillo hit .342/.370/.558 with a career high for power while continuing to not walk nor strike out. Carson Cistulli’s oft-cited observation about Astudillo is that

No qualified batter in affiliated baseball recorded a lower strikeout rate (2.4%) than Willians Astudillo in 2015. In 2014, no qualified batter in affiliated baseball recorded a lower strikeout rate (4.3%) than Willians Astudillo. Willians Astudillo conceded the entire 2013 season to injury and didn’t qualify in 2012 (although, if he had, he’d have recorded the lowest strikeout rate in affiliated baseball). Do you remember 2011? Not everyone does. If you do, however, you might also remember how Willians Astudillo recorded the lowest strikeout rate (0.9%) in affiliated baseball. And it would have reminded you, that distinction, of the previous year, by the conclusion of which Willians Astudillo had recorded the lowest strikeout rate (1.8%) in affiliated baseball.

When the Twins signed him as a minor league free agent in 2018 he was well known as an anomaly but nobody really thought that profile would play in the big leagues. With the Rochester Red Wings Astudillo hit .276/.314/.439 and earned a promotion to the majors in one of the highlights of what was a lost season. With the Twins he hit .355/.371/.516, played catcher, third base, second base, left field, center field and pitcher while blowing minds with no look pickoff throws, faceplant fielding plays and a variety of other highlights. The Twins will get to see just how long Astudillo can keep lightning in that bottle. The goal for 2019 is American League Rookie of the Year. Stranger things have happened.