Twins Select Matt Wallner in 2019 MLB Draft

With the 39th pick in the 2019 MLB draft, the Twins select:

Matthew Wallner, OF, Southern Mississippi

MLB Pipeline Grades, 60th Overall Prospect
Hit: 45 | Power 55 | Run: 40 | Arm: 65 | Field: 50 | Overall: 50

Fangraphs Future Grades, 44th Overall Prospect
Hit: 45 | Power: 60 | Speed: 35 | Arm: 60 | Field: 50 | Future value: 40+

HE’S COMING HOME! ONE OF US! Coming out of Forest Lake, MN, Wallner played for Southern Mississippi the last 3 years, and he produced all three years, with an OPS over 1.092 every. single. year. This year he hit .323/.442/.677 with 22 homers and a 48/45 K/BB rate.

You see those power grades up there? He is a big dude at 6’5” 220lbs and he hits that ball hard, yo. Now he is going to strike out a bit but if the Twins can get him to make better contact and stop chasing pitches, watch out! A big lefty with power, sort of like Trevor Larnach last year.

On defense Wallner has his positives and his negatives. He has a big arm, he threw 97mph off the mound when he pitched for Southern Miss. So you know he can gun people out. But he is slow as molasses and will be more of a stationary outfielder—which is just fine when you have Byron Buxton in centerfield for the forseeable future.

Thoughts

The Twins liked Wallner enough out of high school to take him in the 32nd round back in 2016, but he wanted to go to school and he did. He is a Minnesota boy and we love that, but he is also a player with solid potential to be a big time hitter.

The Twins have A LOT of depth in the outfield—10 of our current 30 top prospects our outfielders. And we also have 3 years of team control for Byron Buxton with Max Kepler signed for what, 6 years? That means that we can trade some of these outfielders for pitching, and that is good. Draft bats and buy arms is my motto, and Wallner helps add to that mentality while being a great prospect in his own right.