CLEVELAND -- The Twins entered the 2019 MLB Draft particularly excited about the crop of college middle-infield talent in a Draft class otherwise expected to be low on high-end pitching, and their selections throughout the three-day Draft reflected those beliefs.
After a first day highlighted by the selection of San Diego-area high-school infielder Keoni Cavaco with their Round 1 pick (No. 13 overall), the Twins spent the second day of the Draft loading up on college middle infielders with four of their eight picks before making an extended run on college pitchers in the middle and late rounds on Wednesday.
"That [pitching] board looked pretty thin on our draft board, so you end up with a bunch of [early] hitters, which is fine with us," Twins scouting director Sean Johnson said on Tuesday. "College hitters are definitely a market we like to be in, and I think most of these guys were performers."
In addition to being pleased with the Twins’ ability to add pitching depth to the lower levels of their Minor League system, Johnson also spoke positively of the continued communication and propagation of objective information in the Draft room in the third season under his leadership as well as that of chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine.
"Our group has grown together an extra two years,” Johnson said. “We have the same scouts in there. We've added R&D people, down to Ezra Wise, who runs our model now. We talk about just co-existing in the room and not being scouts vs. analytics. It's a combination of both, and I think that takes some time to integrate when you're coming from what we were before, where it was just straight-up scouting with a little bit of input from the data and statistics.”
In all, the Twins selected 19 right-handed pitchers, four left-handed pitchers, 12 infielders, four outfielders and two catchers. Their Draft haul featured 33 college players -- including 24 of their first 26 selections -- and eight high schoolers, headlined by Cavaco.
“We try and take college players that have had some performance or some indicator of performance that will carry over, whether that's strikeouts or walk rate, whatever the metric may be,” Johnson said. “I think time will always tell in any Draft if it was good or not.”
Cavaco was a late arrival onto most Draft boards as a "pop-up" prospect last fall, but the Twins were impressed not only with his power, speed and defense on the left side of the infield, but also by his relatively young age, which gives him plenty of time to continue developing those tools and growing into his frame.
The Twins had the full complement of three picks available to them on the first day -- including a Competitive Balance pick at No. 39 -- and the associated increase in their allocated bonus pool money. They took the opportunity to grab both outfielder Matt Wallner, a Minnesota native and power bat from the left side, and Rice right-hander Matt Canterino, who complemented an education in mechanical engineering with a strong four-pitch mix that helped him become one of only two collegiate pitchers with at least 100 strikeouts in each of the last three seasons.
"Hopefully, the guys we took on Day 1 will be impact guys in our system and then the big leagues," Johnson said Tuesday. "Our mode right now is to keep the flow of talent coming through the pipeline and wherever that shakes out at the end is what happens. But we're excited about those guys we got on Day 1."
Oregon shortstop Spencer Steer, Wright State third baseman Seth Gray, toolsy Auburn shortstop Will Holland and contact-hitting Connecticut shortstop Anthony Prato made up the Twins’ complement of middle infielder selections before they selected college pitchers with 15 of their next 16 picks, taking them into the 23rd round.
With a relatively deep and balanced Minor League system, the Twins didn't select another outfielder after Wallner until they took UNLV outfielder Max Smith in the 31st round, only selecting their two catchers within their final eight picks of the Draft.
A small run on high schoolers late in the Draft included the selection of two pitchers from Stillwater, Minn., Drew Gilbert and Will Frisch, though both are committed to Oregon State University. The pair were joined by Wallner and Concordia (Minn.) University pitcher Louie Varland as the four Minnesotans taken by the Twins.