MAKE GLOVE NOT W.A.R.— Who Made “Minor Leagues” a Four-Letter Word for Baseball Prospects?
We live in an impatient society. There’s no better example than a win-starved baseball community that’s turned the term “minor leagues” into a four-letter word.
It’s not just here in Minnesota. Some teams are patient. Some aren’t. Some prospects just have “it”, some need that seasoning.
“The minors” have changed a bit since Bull Durham.
Let’s look at Alex Kirilloff, one of the Twins top prospects who absolutely needed more time in the minors.
I’ll give the Twins for “rushing” him in the 2020 playoffs. Let’s refresh your memory. It was the beginning of Covid-19. There were no minor leagues. Kirilloff spent the entire regular season at the Twins’ “alternate site” facility in St. Paul. There were no statistics, but Kirilloff had done enough - and the Twins were desperate enough - that he became the first of 22,297 major league players to make their debut in the playoffs, per SABR.
Kirilloff got the start in the outfield in Game 2 against the Astros, a series that wound up seeing the Twins getting swept.
Alex Kirilloff became the first MLB player ever to make his debut in the playoffs.
And that’s where the rushing started. Now, it’s important to remember Kirilloff has suffered from a wrist injury that has certainly hurt his development. And the Twins again were fairly desperate in the outfield, like they always are because their centerfielder is a bit of a Chinadoll.
But as a 23-year-old still stud prospect, Kirilloff saw just six at-bats at the Triple-A level in 2021. He hit two homers in those six at-bats. In the majors? Kirilloff was fine, playing half the season due to injury. Kirilloff hit .251 for the Twins in 2021, a far cry from four straight seasons above .300, including three hovering around .350, in the minors.
And that brings us to 2022. Again battling an injury, Kirilloff was sent to the Saints and just obliterated Triple-A pitching, hitting .359 with 10 home runs in just 35 games.
And you know what? When the big club needed him again, Kirilloff was ready to show them that he never needs to head East on I-94 again. After struggling with one hit in five games before his demotion, Kirilloff is hitting around .300 since being recalled, including a .356 average away from Target Field.
More Twins prospects could benefit from some time playing in front of 867530Swine at CHS Field.
Now it’s a moot point because Royce Lewis is out for the remainder of the year, again, but this is a big reason why Twins fans needed to take a deeper look when they got upset Lewis was sent down. It takes a lot of seasoning to play in the major leagues every day. History is littered with players who came up, got five hits in their first five games, and were never heard from again.
These are the best players in the world. There’s no disgrace at Triple-A. And while Triple-A can get a bad rap because of the older players just “not quite good enough” to be full-time major leaguers, for a batter to face pitchers like that on a regular basis is so beneficial.
And Kirilloff is far from alone. Where would the Twins be without Jose Miranda, he of nearly 2,200 plate appearances in the minor leagues. Nick Gordon? Still just 26, an incredibly important role player for the Twins this season, and he has more than 2,800 minor league plate appearances.
Nick Gordon has done everything but sell popcorn for the Twins the last two seasons.
There are no doubt first- and second-rounders who need very little time in the minor leagues. And there are times to rush a prospect - a pennant race, for instance. But it would behoove more teams to realize they’re more than one or two players away from being a World Series contender and let their prospects receive the proper amount of time at Double-A and Triple-A.
Ryan Stanzel is a PR pro and freelance content creator based in the East Metro. Follow him on Twitter or e-mail him here.
