June has been a slog for the Minnesota Twins, and the outlook on the team is just as hazy as the atmosphere. While the team finds themselves in first place in their division, their inability to truly break through and put themselves in a higher class of contender has been exhausting. Yes, it’s a long season and reputations can change rather quickly with a few good months.
Nobody knows that better than some of the down-list prospects who are making a name for themselves with Minnesota’s minor league affiliates. While none of these three are on the cusp of making an impact on the major league roster, it would be prudent to keep an eye on them for the rest of the season, especially the August 1st trade deadline.
Tanner Schobel
A second round draft pick out of Virginia Tech in 2022, the 5’9″ shortstop has always possessed a solid bat and a track record as a solid fielder with a great arm. Schobel had a fantastic sophomore season with the Hokies before the Twins drafted him, and he belted 19 home runs with a .362/.445/.689 overall batting line. That was enough to give Minnesota enough confidence to sign him for $1 million and a prompt promotion to High-A Cedar Rapids heading into his first full season of professional ball.
Evaluators love Schobel’s speed and arm strength, and his bat has some projectable pop that could take him to the next level. His offensive approach has changed in the year since he was drafted, signifying an ability to make adjustments as his career progresses.
“The majority of Schobel’s impact contact happened to his pull-side when he was in college, and he actually struggled to cover the outer third of the plate. In pro ball it has been the opposite,” said Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs in his write-up on Minnesota’s top-36 prospects. “There doesn’t appear to have been a swing change here, but Schobel’s plate coverage has leveled up and he’s making roughly an average rate of contact compared to starting big league middle infielders.”
The speedy slugger is having a fantastic season with the Kernels, with a slash that currently sits at a strong .276/.356/.444 with eight home runs and nine stolen bases. That level of offensive production carries a 129 wRC+, meaning Schobel has been about 29% better than league-average. His June has been particularly impressive, where he has a whopping .979 OPS after hitting two home runs on Wednesday night.
Schobel represents an intriguing trade chip if the Twins decide to be buyers at the deadline. At the very least, he will be due for a promotion to Double-A in the second half of the season. As things are currently trending, the 22-year-old should crack the organization’s top-10 prospect list next spring if he remains with the club.
Noah Cardenas
For an organization that has been lacking in high-end backstop prospects since Ryan Jeffers graduated to the big leagues, Cardenas’ emergence has been a breath of fresh air. The Twins took the stocky 23-year-old in the eighth round of the 2021 draft as a junior at UCLA, and Cardenas has put up above-average offensive numbers at three different levels since debuting professionally. He currently has a .281/.406/.388 clip, with a 136 wRC+ with High-A Cedar Rapids in 47 games.
While the slugging percentage may be lower than you’d expect from a bat-first prospect, he has shown flashes of power in the past. Last year, Cardenas belted 30 extra-base hits, nine of which went over the fence for home runs. That got Longenhagen to compare him to a pretty interesting name, but stressed the need for defensive improvements.
“His leg kick and the way his hands load are evocative of Justin Turner, his stroke is compact, and his lower half is flexible and athletic,” he said. “His big league future will be dictated by what kind of strides Cardenas can make on defense, and he’s in an org that has made borderline defensive catchers into viable backstops.”
If he can follow a similar path to that of Jeffers or Mitch Garver, Cardenas could be a valuable asset in short order.
Cory Lewis
While the tall righty barely cracked MLB Pipeline’s top prospects list for the Twins heading into this year, he’s having a terrific year that is bound to raise some eyebrows. Not to mention, he boasts an intriguing weapon in his repertoire that should allow him to stand out among the other minor league arms. Lewis is part of a dying breed of pitchers who can throw a true knuckleball. He has other pitches that get solid grades, mind you, but none have emerged as lethal as his knuckler.
“It was more of a novelty in college, but he’s been throwing it more during his first season and getting a lot of swings and misses with it,” said MLB Pipeline. “He’s also been throwing strikes more consistently than he did at UCSB, giving him a better chance of reaching his ceiling of a back-end starter.”
He has split time between Low-A Fort Myers and High-A Cedar Rapids in 2023, and the results have been very strong at both levels. In 12 total starts, Lewis has a 2.15 ERA with 75 strikeouts in just 54 innings. Even better, he’s limiting walks to a manageable 3.1 BB/9. These strong underlying numbers should lead to more opportunities in the rotation as he graduates, and his knuckleball will be an interesting weapon to monitor.
