Minnesota Twins 2023 MLB Draft Review
See Also: 2023 MLB Draft Database
Draft Theme: High Upside High Schoolers.
The Twins secured the final “Big 5” prospect in the class when they took OF Walker Jenkins with the fifth pick. They didn’t stop taking tooled up high school prospects after that, though, with RHP Charlee Soto in the supplemental first round, power-hitting OF Brandon Winokur in the third round and RHP Dylan Questad in the fifth round. Questad isn’t quite in the same big tools classification of player, but he does have some of the best control and command in the prep class, if you want to consider that a tool.
Most Interesting Day 2 Pick: RHP Dylan Questad, 5th round
There have been a handful of high school pitchers from Wisconsin drafted over the years, but none have put pen to paper and signed since lefthander Kevin James in 2009. Questad has a chance to break that slump as a strong and physical righthander with solid stuff and control. He was also named Gatorade’s Wisconsin Player of the Year. Listed at 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, Questad is close to physically maxed out and attacks hitters with a quick arm and high, three-quarter arm slot. There’s a tick of downer head whack in his finish, but overall it’s a solid operation. Questad has a four-pitch mix, led by a fastball that sits in the 92-96 mph range and has touched 96-97 at peak. He lands the pitch for strikes at a high rate and drives whiffs at the top of the zone, with solid riding life. He throws both a slider and a curveball, with the former around 80 mph with solid, two-plane break at times and the latter a more top-down breaker in the upper 70s. The two pitches can blend together in velocity and shape at times, but overall Questad has the makings of a solid-average breaking ball. He also throws a low-80s changeup that features some arm-side fading life, but he lacks feel for the pitch and showed a tendency to spike it below the zone. Questad is committed to Arkansas and looks like a potential workhorse starter, but has some draft attention among the top three rounds.
Most Interesting Day 3 Pick: RHP Paulshawn Pasqualotto, 12th round
Pasqualotto is a 6-foot-1, 200-pound righthander who missed the 2022 season and fall with Tommy John surgery, but has acquitted himself nicely as California’s Saturday starter during the 2023 spring. He posted a 4.03 ERA over 14 starts and 58 innings, with a 19.5% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate. Scouts commended his strike-throwing in the early parts of the season, and while that backed up as he pitched in Pac-12 conference play, the industry still believes he has starter’s actions with a clean and compact arm action and delivery. He has a three-pitch mix that’s primarily reliant on a 91-93 mph fastball that has been up to 96-97, and a high-usage changeup in the upper 70s that has averaged around 14 mph in separation from his fastball. Pasqualotto’s breaking ball is a work-in-progress and he’s toyed with an upper-70s variant that looks more like a slider as well as a lower-70s downer curveball. His injury history and reliever risk could make him a tricky evaluation for teams.
