Minnesota Twins Have a Potential Ace in the Hole
By Jason Burke
The Minnesota Twins have not fared well on the mound in recent years, even with top prospect Jose Berrios making it to the big leagues last season. Now there is another top arm in the Twins system that has the folks in Florida talking this spring.
38 weeks ago I wrote a piece about Minnesota Twins prospect Fernando Romero, who was making his first pro appearance in nearly two seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2014. In that start on May 20th of last year, he went five innings and didn’t allow a hit. This was a sign of the season to come for Romero, who split time between A Ball and Hi-A in the Twins organization, tossing a total of 90 1/3 innings with a 0.90 WHIP and a 1.89 ERA combined between the two stops. His K/9 rate was an even 9.0, while his BB/9 rate was an impressive 1.5.
Granted, this is the lower minor leagues, but according to the Star Tribune, new Minnesota GM Derek Falvey plans to be aggressive with Romero and start him in Double-A Chattanooga. The Star Tribune also points out that in his outing on Sunday, Romero was hitting 97-98 with his fastball and has caught the eye of pitching coach Neil Allen.
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In his one inning of work against the Nationals on the 26th, Romero tossed eleven pitches with seven strikes. He struck out Wilmer Difo, who has MLB experience, and then Drew Ward, who split time between Hi-A and Double-A last season. Spencer Kieboom hit third in the inning and stayed true to his MLB stats (one plate appearance, one walk) and earned a free pass from the Twins righty. The fourth batter, Rafael Bautista, popped out.
For those keeping score at home, Difo, Ward, Kieboom and Bautista rank as the number 4th, 12th, 8th and 11th prospects in the Washington system according to the Baseball America Prospect Handbook, two of whom have limited MLB experience, and all four having played in levels above Romero. This outing may be just one in a slew of appearances on the mound this spring, but for right now that outing coupled with the season he had last year in his first action after Tommy John should provide a lot of excitement if you’re a Twins fan.
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While he is ranked as the second-best pitcher in the Twins’ system per the BA Handbook (#4 prospect overall), his scouting grade of 60 is higher than the pitcher above him in Stephen Gonsalves, a left-hander that ranks holds a 50 grade. The biggest difference between the two is the injury history, which makes Gonsalves a ‘medium’ risk per Baseball America, while Romero, with just 90 1/3 post-surgery innings under his belt, is still an ‘extreme’ risk. With another season under his belt and some solid production, some of the fears concerning Romero should be alleviated moving forward.