Sunday Notes: The Minnesota Twins Have a (Mostly) High-Pick Homegrown Lineup

The composition of the Minnesota Twins’ projected starting lineup caught my eye while I was perusing Roster Resource during the Winter Meetings. Not only were all but two of the nine position players homegrown: each of those seven was drafted in either the first or second round. Byron Buxton (first round in 2012) is the oldest of the bunch, while Luke Keaschall (second round in 2023) is the youngest and most recent.

Where do the Twins rank among MLB clubs in terms of homegrown position-player starters taken in the first two rounds? According to Jon Becker, who along with Jason Martinez keeps Roster Resource running like a well-oiled machine, the Minnesotans top the list. Moreover, while the Baltimore Orioles have six, and three other clubs have five, the rest have notably fewer. Fully half of the 30 teams have no more than three, including the Houston Astros, Miami Marlins, and Toronto Blue Jays, who have none.

My colleague provided me with some other roster-construction breakdowns as well, but before we get to those, let’s hear from Minnesota’s president of baseball operations. I asked Derek Falvey what the aforementioned seven-of-nine says about his organization.

“What I think it says is that we’ve had a run of guys that we’ve identified in the draft, near the top,” he replied. “No one is going to bat 1.000 in the draft — we all know that — but we have a number of [picks].. who have found a way to contribute at the big league level. It speaks a lot to our development process, too.

When you look around our field, Royce [Lewis] was a first-overall pick [2017], but Matt Wallner was a little bit deeper [39th overall, 2019],” continued Falvey. “Luke Keaschall [49th overall, 2023] was a great find from our amateur guys. He wasn’t necessarily high-profile coming out of Arizona State, so a good job by our scouting group, and by our development crew to make him better. Ryan Jeffers [59th overall, 2018] has been a very steady catcher for a long time. He came up through our system. So, what I think it means — hopefully what it means — is that it is a reflection of a good process, and partnership, between player development and scouting.”

On the other side of the coin is a current shortage of impact bats that aren’t homegrown. Only Josh Bell, a recent free-agent signing, and Austin Martin, a 2021 trade acquisition, came over from other organizations (and the latter may soon be usurped by 2023 first-rounder Walker Jenkins, or by Emmanuel Rodriguez, whom the Twins signed as a teenager out of the Dominican Republic in 2019.

A number of other teams — I brought up the Los Angeles Dodgers as an example — have had success while being mostly transactional. While the defending World Series champions have undeniably drafted and developed well, they have also made themselves better via trades and the free agent market (having deep coffers — ditto a willingness to spend — obviously helps).

“I don’t think there is one-size-fits-all for any team,” said Falvey. “You need to have some homegrown players. There have been stretches of time where we’ve had a bunch of [acquisitions] on our team. Two of the pitchers at the top of our rotation were traded for, Pablo [López] and Joe [Ryan], at different stages of their careers. Jhoan Duran was a trade, but he was in A-Ball and we grew him up through the minor leagues.

“You don’t want to shut off any valves to potentially get talent into your system,” Falvey added. “Probably the best teams overall, over time, find a way to blend all of that. They get their top draft picks, they pick out a few guys later in the draft — in our case, that’s a Bailey Ober [346th, 2017], or a Griffin Jax [93rd overall, 2016] converting himself from an up-and-down starter to a good reliever. We need more of that.”

Back to Becker and our Roster Resource projected 2026 lineups (as of this past Monday).

While the Twins have the most homegrown first- and second-rounders currently slated to start, they don’t have the most homegrown players overall. That distinction belongs to the St. Louis Cardinals, who have eight (seven draft picks and one international signing). Meanwhile, Minnesota is joined by half a dozen other teams in having seven players who were either drafted by the organization or signed as amateurs out of the international ranks (this excludes players coming over from NPB or the KBO). The six are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, and Kansas City Royals.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates with two each, the San Diego Padres with one, and the Miami Marlins who don’t have any.

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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Wee Willie Keeler went 12 for 30 against Pete Dowling.

Pee Wee Reese went 12 for 29 against Art Fowler.

Minnie Minoso went 12 for 28 against Sid Hudson.

Roy Smalley went 12 for 27 against Milt Wilcox.

Dick “Dr. Strangeglove” Stuart went 12 for 26 against Chris Short.

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Regular readers of this column may recall that I’ve questioned (criticized might be a better word) Red Sox manager Alex Cora’s decision to occasionally pencil Ceddanne Rafaela’s name into the starting lineup at second base, which he did 14 times in 2025. While Cora’s options were somewhat limited due to injuries, playing baseball’s best defensive centerfielder out of position was arguably a misguided move.

According to the team’s president of baseball operations, that is unlikely to happen again in 2026. Craig Breslow said the following when he met with the Boston media over Zoom earlier this week:

“We’ve seen the way that Ceddanne can impact the game in center field. The rest of the league took notice — obviously, he was awarded a Gold Glove there — and I think we’re a better team with Ceddanne in center field. We’ll try to keep him there as much as we possibly can.”

A followup question seemed in order: Was the young outfielder’s offensive development hindered by his’ shuttling back and forth between positions (from mid-July through August)?

“His routine in terms of offensive preparation didn’t change at all,” replied Breslow. “But I can’t really speak to whether or not adding another variable — that being whatever position he was playing and the defensive prep — had an effect on him. The more stability we can provide, and certainly he is an elite defender in centerfield, the better off we’re going to be, and the most likely he is going to be.”

As I’ve written previously (yes, I’m maybe beating a dead horse here) Rafaela had a 114 wRC+ before being taken out of his comfort zone, and by season’s end that number had slid to 91. Moreover, he had a minus-21 wRC+ over 79 plate appearances while being stationed at second base.

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A quiz:

The Orioles have played in Baltimore since 1954. Since that time, only two O’s have recored 200 or more hits in a single season more than once. Cal Ripken Jr is one of them. Who is the other? (A hint: he also had one 200-plus-hit season with another team.)

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NEWS NOTES

Albert Hall, an outfielder who played for the Atlanta Braves from 1981-1988, and for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1989, died on December 16 at age 67. A native of Birmingham, Alabama who logged 202 big-league hits, Hall was frequently utilized as a pinch-runner. All told, he swiped 67 bases, including 33 in 1987.

Andy Kosco, an outfielder who played for seven teams across the 1965-1974 seasons, died on December 19 at age 84. Originally with the Twins, the Youngstown, Ohio native saw most of his action with the Dodgers, with whom he hammered a career-best 19 home runs in 1969.

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The answer to the quiz is Miguel Tejada. The erstwhile All-Star shortstop had 203 hits in 2004, and 214 hits in 2006, during his Orioles tenure. He also had a 204-hit season with the Oakland Athletics.

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A random obscure former player snapshot:

Joe Roa played the smallest roles on back-to-back Cleveland Indians clubs that won 100 and 99 games respectively before going on to lose in the postseason. In 1995, the right-hander made one appearance (his first in the majors) and surrendered four runs over six innings. He then made one appearance in 1996 and allowed two runs over one-and-two-thirds innings. The Southfield, Michigan native then went west. Roa was the PTBNL in the December 1996 trade that sent Jeff Kent and others to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Matt Williams.

Roa went on to play for five teams across the 1997-2004 seasons, with that body of work comprising 120 games and a 4.94 ERA over 266 innings. His most extensive experience came with yet another team that played October baseball. In 2004, Roa made 48 relief appearances for the Twins, earning a pair of wins and registering a 4.50 ERA over 70 frames. As was the case with Cleveland, he didn’t pitch in the postseason.

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Jaylin Rae is slashing .400/.443/.544 with a pair of home runs in 101 plate appearances for the Australian Baseball League’s Sydney Blue Sox. The 24-year-old Sydney-born infielder/outfielder played collegiately at both Charleston Southern and Western Kentucky.

Bobby Dalbec has signed with NPB’s Yomiuri Giants. A fourth-round pick by the Boston Red Sox in 2016, the University of Arizona product left the yard 25 times in 2021 — his first full big-league season — only to then have his career go south. Dalbec heads to Japan having batted .222 with 47 homers over 1,065 MLB plate appearances.

Harold Castro will reportedly join the KBO’s Kia Tigers next season. A native of Caracas, Venezuela who has played every position but catcher, “Hittin’ Harold” was with the Detroit Tigers from 2018-2022, and the Colorado Rockies in 2023.

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Junior Caminero had a stupendous first full big-league season with the Tampa Bay Rays. The 22-year-old (he celebrated that birthday in July) slugger bashed 45 home runs while logging a 129 wRC+ and 4.6 WAR. But while the bat is what stood out, Kevin Cash made it a point to bring up his glove when asked about the third-sacker during the Winter Meetings.

“What we don’t talk about enough is that coming out of spring training there was legitimate concern about his defense,” said the Tampa Bay manager, who admittedly wasn’t fully confident in that aspect of Caminero’s game. “I give him so much credit. After about a month in, really working on his defense with Brady Williams and Rodney Linares, he became a very good defensive player to where when the game was on the line, and there was a ground ball hit [to] third base, we felt really good about it.”

The numbers don’t exactly agree with Cash’s “very good defensive player” assessment — Caminero finished with 18 errors, as well as a minus-5 DRS and a minus-3 OAA — but he nonetheless did show improvement. Given his ability to punish pitchers, Caminero doesn’t need to be Brooks Robinson in order to provide All-Star-quality value.

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

At The Athletic, Jayson Stark’s Strange But True 2025 compilation highlights plays and moments that stood out for being… well, strange but true.

Voros McCracken has started a Substack. The eponymously-titled first entry is I Bet You’re Wondering How I Got Here.

CBS Sports’s Matt Snyder wrote about how Manny Ramirez is fading quietly into the sunset in his final year of BBWAA-ballot eligibility.

Purple Row’s Renee Deshert wrote about how new Colorado Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta is building trust and, much to her approval, a team of nerds.

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Pete Fairbanks, who has reportedly agreed to a free-agent contract with the Miami Marlins, has made 15 career appearances against the team he is slated to join. Over those outings, the 32-year-old righty reliever has tossed 15 scoreless frames while holding batters to five hits in 50 at-bats. He is 1-0 with five saves versus the Fish.

Los Angeles Dodgers batters have combined to draw 5,702 walks over the past 10 seasons, the most in the majors. Kansas City Royals batters have combined to draw 3,983 walks over the past 10 seasons, the fewest in the majors.

Mike Mussina went 270-153. He allowed 3,460 hits and 1,559 runs.
Andy Pettitte went 256-153. He allowed 3,448 hits and 1,572 runs.

The Toronto Blue Jays signed Frank Catalanotto on today’s date in 2002. Previously with the Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers, “The Cat” proceeded to play four seasons north of the border, putting up a 111 wRC+ and 6.1 WAR. He had a two-homer game against the Tigers in 2003, and a 6-for-6 game against the White Sox in 2004.

The Chicago White Sox signed Darrin Jackson as a free agent on today’s date in 1993. Previously with four teams, including the crosstown Cubs, Jackson went on to bat a career-best .312 with 10 home runs and a 114 wRC+ for the South Siders in 1994. The personable former outfielder has been a broadcast analyst for the White Sox since 2000.

Players born on today’s date include Myles Jaye, a right-hander from Fayetteville, Georgia whose MLB career comprised five appearances with the Detroit Tigers in 2017. His first two outings were a stroll in the park — a combined five-and-two-thirds scoreless frames — while his remaining three were a veritable train wreck. Over seven innings, Jaye was jolted for 15 runs. All told, his ledger includes a record of 1-2 and a 12.08 ERA.

Also born on today’s date was Count Sensenderfer, an outfielder who batted .299 while coming to the plate 234 times while playing for the National Association’s Philadelphia Athletics from 18971-1874. Per his B-Ref bio page, Sensenderfer holds the record for most career at-bats without a walk by a non-pitcher.