Twins Dream Big About Brandon Winokur’s Upside
Derek Falvey stopped mid-sentence, carefully considering his words about 19-year-old shortstop Brandon Winokur’s potential for a developmental breakthrough.
He decided a disclaimer was necessary first.
“I hesitate to use this name. It’s an extreme case, and I don’t mean it as a comparison, by any means,” the Twins’ president of baseball operations said. “But when we watched Aaron Judge in high school and college, he had some of the same kind of challenges.”
Specifically: size. An abundance of it.
Winokur, the 2023 third-rounder out of high school in Huntington Beach, Calif., is 6-foot-6 with Judge-like long arms, a physical attribute that can become an enormous asset—eventually.
“Long-levered kids have to figure out how to stay short to the ball. Their swings take a bit longer to materialize and smooth out, and strikeouts are the natural byproduct of that,” Falvey said.
“But if you have the athleticism—and we believe Brandon clearly does—you eventually learn how to shorten your swing, use that leverage on the ball and make more contact, better contact.”
That’s why the Twins are projecting big things for Winokur. His .245/.332/.422 line this season with 12 home runs in 80 games at Low-A Fort Myers is a strong start, despite a 27% strikeout rate.
And his power is becoming more evident. After hitting five home runs in the season’s first 15 weeks, he added four more in a two-week stretch of late July and early August.
“Brandon has done a good job of making adjustments to his swing,” Falvey said, “which hopefully will allow some of his physical tools to turn into real weapons for him.”
Eventually, Winokur will nail down a position, too, but the Twins are in no hurry. Winokur was drafted as an outfielder but has mostly played shortstop or third base at Fort Myers, though he’s patrolled center field a couple of dozen times, too.
“We try to give guys, especially that young, a lot of paths forward. That’s beneficial to them and to us,” Falvey said. “Let them try out a lot of things and see where their talent takes them.
“Brandon’s got a lot of tools at his disposal.”
