Advertisement

Twins wrap up MLB draft with 10 more picks

betsy helfand, pioneer press
·2 min read
1

Sean Johnson will try to keep things simple on Wednesday. He will let the 900 or so names that have been dominating his thoughts slowly escape his brain, and he will try to make as few decisions as possible.

After all, that’s all he has been doing for the past three days — and the decisions he has been making lately will have long-lasting consequences.

“In the room, there’s a lot of things coming my way from a lot of different directions, hypotheses. ‘Why don’t we do this instead of that?’” said Johnson, the Twins’ vice president of amateur scouting. “I love it in the moment, but I’m glad it’s over when it’s over. And normal decision-making resumes tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to.”

The 2022 draft concluded on Tuesday with the Twins grabbing a pair of outfielders, a pair of catchers, a pair of shortstops and four more pitchers in rounds 3-10. Johnson said they probably wound up taking more position players on day three than they normally do, pointing to the overall lack of pitching depth in the draft.

In total, the Twins selected pitchers with nine of their 20 picks.

Their top pick, eighth overall, was reserved for Cal Poly shortstop Brooks Lee, who fell to the Twins after a couple of surprises within the first seven picks. Lee was ranked by Baseball America as their No. 2 draft prospect heading into the draft after hitting .357 with a 1.126 OPS this season at Cal Poly.

The Twins then nabbed Connor Prielipp with their second-round pick, a left-handed pitcher out of the University of Alabama who did not pitch last season as he recovered from Tommy John surgery. Their third pick on Sunday, 68th overall, was reserved for another shortstop, Tanner Schobel of Virginia Tech.

“We feel great about the entire class as a whole,” Johnson said. “I think it’s two days ago now, but we’re really still stoked about night one and the upside and the talent that we were able to be in on and select. I think everyone’s leaving town here that was coming in from all parts of the country feeling very happy about how things went.”

Related Articles