19-year-old catching prospect could help Twins' system take flight

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Out of the race last year, the Twins hit a bit of a reset switch leading up to the Trade Deadline, sending 10 big leaguers elsewhere. They netted a return of 13 total players across the experience spectrum. Five of them can currently be found on the Twins’ Top 30 prospects list.

None of them loom larger, or are ranked higher, than catcher Eduardo Tait. He’s the one Top 100 prospect the Twins got back in their trading frenzy, currently coming in at No. 65. The onboarding process with a trade acquisition is brief at best. Tait and the others are basically given a pat on the back and sent out to an affiliate to learn a new set of teammates and finish off the year.

Then, the real work begins. Offseason programs based on how the Twins do things are established and handed out. And Spring Training -- maybe with some early camp work to lay the groundwork -- is when everyone on the player development side, from coordinators to coaches to the players themselves, can really roll up their sleeves and get to work. And that’s exactly what Tait and his new organization have done this spring.

“OK, we built the relationship -- now we can start to work on some of the receiving,” Twins farm director Drew MacPhail said. “Spring Training is really the time when you start to see us actually take a development process with those guys. And so far, I think it's been really positive.”

Tait came from the Phillies, along with right-hander Mick Abel, in the Jhoan Duran trade. Abel has graduated from prospect status and is having a tremendous spring ahead of joining the Twins big league rotation full-time. The 19-year-old catcher hasn’t been far behind.

“Tait has been just as impressive,” MacPhail said. “The group is thrilled about him. He crushes righties, hits the ball extremely hard, has good bat-to-ball skills on the offensive side.

“I think it's refining the approach to be a little bit more selective, not take away that aggressiveness, but really hunt pitches over the heart of the plate early. At times, he gets himself in a little bit of trouble behind in counts, just chasing. It's a really small refinement of approach, but he's been incredible in camp offensively with the top-end exit velo. The engine is real; the contact skills are real. Offensively, the sky is the limit for him.”

In Thursday’s Spring Breakout Game against his former organization, Tait went 1-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and a very loud 111.7 mph lineout, while also throwing out a runner trying to steal. Few doubt his ability to hit as he moves up the ladder -- seeing him and lefty Dasan Hill, who started the Spring Breakout game with some 100 mph heat, at High-A Cedar Rapids this year will be fun -- but there have been questions about his ability behind the plate outside of the plus arm. He’s been just as hard at work on that part of his game this spring.

“Our catching coordinator Tucker Frawley has been excited about working on the receiving with him, which has been a process,” MacPhail said. “We feel confident it’s going to take a step forward. The level of professionalism behind the dish as a teenager has been impressive.”

There’s so much data available these days about catching tendencies, how a backstop compares to the rest of his contemporaries in things like strikes called, gaining or losing extra strikes. There’s info on which quadrants of the zone a catcher is good at receiving and which ones they’re not. Tait has shown that he can be a sponge with this kind of information.

“It’s about identifying where he’s good, where there is room for improvement,” MacPhail said. “He’s a really cerebral kid. Just showing him information, getting him bought in … ‘OK, I want to work on this part of the zone.’ He takes a ton of pride in the work. We are ecstatic to have him.”

Another trade acquisition learning: Kendry Rojas

The Twins got Rojas, the lefty currently No. 10 on the Top 30, from the Blue Jays at the Deadline in the Louis Varland-Ty France deal. His time with Triple-A St. Paul was not good (6.59 ERA, .314 batting average against in eight starts) as his stuff and feel for spin was down. There were some early signs of encouragement in camp, and he’s continued that this spring, including flashing some much better stuff in big league camp.

“We’ve worked on refining the slider, the splitter and getting him on board with that,” MacPhail said. “That takes a lot of time. When we got him, some of his stuff was a little bit down. The spin rate was down. All that's back up. We got an offseason of throwing under our programming. He's touched 99 mph multiple times this spring, including in a Major League game. That’s what’s most exciting.”

Camp standout: James Ellwanger

The Twins took three college arms in their first five picks of the 2025 Draft, and they all have shown some velocity gains this spring. No. 36 overall pick Riley Quick has been up to 99. So has fourth-rounder Jason Reitz. But none have been as impressive as Ellwanger, a third-round pick.

The Dallas Baptist product came into the Twins' organization with pretty impressive stuff, but it’s only gotten better. He tossed three scoreless innings in the Spring Breakout with a fastball sitting in the 97-98 mph range. He’s touched triple digits on the back fields and shown an absolutely nasty splitter he gets up into the mid-90s. There’s a hard slider-cutter and a power curve in there, too. But the one thing that might make his No. 16 ranking light is his newfound ability to throw strikes after walking 5.6 per nine in his two years of college ball.

“He’s been peppering the zone, and the stuff has been absolutely electric,” MacPhail said. If he was a stock, it’s been skyrocketing. He had electric stuff in college. It was [about] if he’d throw enough strikes to be a starter, and he’s peppered the zone. That hasn’t necessarily been surprising, but it’s really exciting. He’s looked like the full package so far on the back fields.”

Breakout candidate: Khadim Diaw

When Diaw was on the field with Cedar Rapids, he was productive. He had an .895 overall OPS in 2025, but the 2024 third-round pick only played 42 games, with a broken wrist and then a hamstring injury shelving him. Most of his damage came to the opposite field, and he had trouble elevating the ball to his pull side. When he was rehabbing his wrist, he made some swing changes to try to get to some more impact, but wasn’t able to put it into practice when he injured his hamstring upon his return. He’s been able to get back to it this spring with some excellent early returns.

“He’s joked that he’s never felt the pull-side power like he’s had when he was coming back on rehab,” MacPhail said. “But this year, he pulled two balls, two barrels, pull side with true ball flight, 96-plus. He said, ‘I think it’s the first and second I’ve ever done in my career, pulling 95-plus.’ The hitting group is ecstatic with where he’s at with his swing.”

Something new: Connor Prielipp’s curveball

Prielipp, the No. 5 prospect in the system, has always had very nasty stuff, but hasn’t been able to stay healthy to put it to good use. He only threw 28 innings in college and had only thrown 30 total professional innings entering 2025 because of Tommy John surgery with Alabama and then internal brace surgery. He did come back to throw 82 2/3 total innings in 2025, providing some optimism because his stuff plays. And now he’s added to it with a curveball he can mix in with his fastball, slider and changeup to provide a different look.

"It’s been pretty nasty,” MacPhail said. "He’s gotten it up to 84 mph, just rounding out the arsenal. I don’t think he needs it. He’d be a good starter with just his fastball, slider, change. And if he ended up in the 'pen, he obviously could be fastball, slider, change. But I think adding the curveball, because he has the spin aptitude and just rounding out the arsenal, especially to add that to righties with the changeup, that would be an exciting pitch.”