MLB draft's early surprises helped Twins land Brooks Lee

LOS ANGELES – Once all the scouting is done, the game-planning begins, and the Twins "ran scenarios over and over and over again" about how the seven teams ahead of them in Sunday's draft would behave, Sean Johnson said. "You have to do that to feel good about, when the draft starts, you've thought through every single scenario."

But when the Rangers used the No. 3 pick to select former Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker, unsigned by the Mets a year ago?

"We were surprised," admitted Johnson, the Twins vice president of scouting. And they were thrilled, too. "Now there's a player who was maybe supposed to go [up higher] who is getting pushed closer to us. If Kumar pushed Brooks Lee to us, great. … We're ecstatic."

Lee, the most highly regarded collegiate shortstop available in the draft, was the Twins' top pick, but the excitement didn't end there for the scouts gathered in a workroom at Target Field. They later took University of Alabama (and Tomah, Wis.) lefthander Connor Prielipp in the second round, No. 48 overall, and Virginia Tech shortstop Tanner Schobel with their competitive balance pick, No. 68.

"The three players we picked tonight felt like a really good night for our room. We coveted all three players, we were hopeful that ones would make it to certain rings on the board," Johnson said late Sunday night. "The fact that they did — our room's in a really good spot mentally going into day two and three," when they will draft another 18 players Monday and Tuesday.

Lee, a junior at Cal Poly, is a player the Twins had followed since his high school days, a good-hands fielder who became one of the best line-drive hitters in college baseball. "We wanted to be able to take a player who has value on both sides of the ball, and Brooks Lee in our minds 100 percent fits that bill," Johnson said. But as the son of a longtime coach, "he's at the very top of make-up players. He's a winning-type player and that's what we like the most about him."

Some scouts have suggested that Lee doesn't have the lateral quickness to remain at shortstop, that he's more likely to land at third base before reaching the majors. But "we see him as a playmaker," Johnson said. "He's a creative, skilled, instinctual player. He certainly has a chance to play at short. His instincts and feel for the game give him a chance."

Prielipp was long ago projected as a first-round talent, but after a strong freshman season with the Crimson Tide, he pitched only seven innings as a sophomore before suffering an elbow injury that required Tommy John ligament replacement surgery in May 2021. He hasn't pitched since then in a game, but threw bullpen sessions for scouts at Alabama and at the MLB combine last month to prove he's healthy.

"He was up to 95 or 96 [miles per hour] and the breaking ball was up to 90. He flashed a changeup. It's an impressive outing," Johnson said. "Our scouting staff has absolutely loved the pitcher, loved the pitches, the uniqueness of the slider."

Schobel comes from "a really dynamic Virginia Tech offensive team. I would put that team up with about any college team I saw this spring," Johnson said. "He's a guy that grows on you a little bit. He's not the most physical guy on the board, but he's got surprising strength. He can jolt the ball farther than you would ever think he could. … He was kind of the guy that made that team go."

Lee is in line for a $5.439 million bonus, according to MLB's slotting system, with Prielipp's slot worth $1.621 million and Schobel's $1.001 million. Does Johnson anticipate any difficulty signing any of them?

"I don't have the answer to that yet," he said. "For now, we're just excited to get them."

On Monday, righthanded pitcher Will Frisch of Stillwater, who plays for Oregon State, went in the sixth round to the Cubs despite missing last season because of elbow surgery.

Gophers pitcher JP Massey was taken in the seventh round by Pittsburgh, three days after he announced on Twitter that he was transferring to Missouri.

Dylan Tebrake, a righthanded pitcher for Creighton, went to the Mets in the eighth round. He is a former Cold Spring Rocori standout who had 115 strikeouts in 93 innings for the Bluejays, going 8-2 with a 2.71 ERA.