MINNEAPOLIS -- Had things gone according to plan, Paulshawn Pasqualotto had been hoping to be selected sometime on Day 2 of the 2023 MLB Draft, in the range of the fourth to eighth rounds -- but, if all had gone to plan, he would probably have hoped to be selected last year, when he was a Draft-eligible sophomore.
But Pasqualotto’s tumultuous college career ultimately brought him to an extremely fitting destination as the 12th-round selection of the Twins -- because, you see, he is a twin himself, having been born alongside his sister, Brooklyn. And it doesn’t stop there: Two of his older half-brothers, Rand and Rico, are also twins, seven years older than him.
So, there you have it: Two sets of twins in the Pasqualotto family -- one of whom is, now, a Twin on top of that.
“My brothers didn't say anything about it, but my sister did,” Pasqualotto said. “She's like, 'Oh, you're drafted by the Twins and you're a twin!' Just joking around and playful and stuff. She definitely brought it up. It's pretty funny.”
The Twins filled an organizational need by heavily attacking the pitching ranks this Draft, selecting college arms with all of their picks from Rounds 7-18 before taking a flyer on a pair of high-upside high school talents in Rounds 19 and 20, though Sam Parker and Ashton Larson are likely to be tough to sign away from their college commitments.
And Minnesota’s M.O. in these late rounds has typically been to find players they feel might be undervalued or have “low-hanging fruit” for potential improvements, as noted by Twins vice president of amateur scouting Sean Johnson -- and Pasqualotto fits into that mold, given that he really never got a chance to show his true potential in his three years at the University of California, Berkeley.
Halfway through Pasqualotto’s freshman season in 2021, the right-hander from Las Vegas blew out his arm as he pitched to a 4.57 ERA, eventually undergoing Tommy John surgery with Dr. Neal ElAttrache in August following a delay of several months to ensure that he could use such a trusted and experienced doctor for the procedure.
That cost him his entire sophomore season, and he had a measured buildup into his ‘23 junior season as Cal’s Saturday starter, when he posted a 4.03 ERA with slowly recovering control, as evidenced by his 51 strikeouts and 33 walks in 58 innings. He said that MLB teams assured him along the way not to worry about the short-term results.
“It's much more about the long-term than it is in potentially risking my health by starting up a little earlier,” Pasqualotto said. “I don't know that I was trying to sell myself, but just proving that I could stay healthy and I was healthy and my arm felt good.”
Though Pasqualotto was ranked No. 248 on MLB Pipeline’s prospect board -- corresponding to the eighth or ninth-round range -- he fell all the way to the No. 357 pick.
The Twins made a similar value pick higher up in last year’s Draft, when they selected potential frontline starter Connor Prielipp in the second round after he missed his entire junior season due to Tommy John surgery.
“You have to connect the dots if they don't have the full resume,” Johnson said. “That's where our medical staff, who's in the room with us, they're reviewing every single player and talking about what we think the likely return to play is, what's the worst-case scenario. So then you're really weighing risk with where it matches up with the round.”
Pasqualotto is encouraged by how his fastball has pushed back into the mid-90s toward the end of the season -- harder than ever before -- and his changeup, his best secondary pitch, feels better than it’s ever been, too. He’s still looking to regain the curveball that he had his freshman year -- but he’s simply encouraged by the sense that there’s still much more to unlock than he ever got to show at Cal.
And he’ll be doing it in a fittingly named organization.
“Command is the last thing that comes back from Tommy John, a lot of teams have told me,” Pasqualotto said. “Just being patient. It's hard to be patient at times, especially when I've already waited a while and been rehabbing for a long time, but at the end of the day, I've just got to be patient and control what I can control.”