Twins take California high school shortstop Keoni Cavaco in MLB Draft

The Twins had the 13th overall pick in the MLB Draft.
Twins take California high school shortstop Keoni Cavaco in MLB Draft
Twins take California high school shortstop Keoni Cavaco in MLB Draft /

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With the 13th pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, the Minnesota Twins selected Keoni Cavaco, a shortstop from East Lake High School in Chula Vista, California. 

MLB Pipeline's Jim Callis updated his mock on Friday and had the Twins picking Cavaco, saying "no first-rounder has more helium at the moment than Cavaco."

Basically, Cavaco went from a projected second-round pick to a first rounder: "one of the best power/speed combinations in the 2019 prep class and showed the potential for plus tools across the board," writes Callis. "He since has wowed teams with a series of private workouts, boosting his stock even higher."

The Twins said all along that they'd likely go with the best player available. 

"I just think you take the best possible player at the end of the day," says Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey. "We haven’t ruled out – because we’ve taken a college bat and we’ve taken a high school bat so far – so we wouldn’t rely on any type of profile, even in the early rounds."

Here some of the 13th picks who've gone on to have solid careers in the big leagues.

  • 2014 - Trea Turner, SS, Nationals
  • 2013 - Hunter Renfroe, RF, Padres
  • 2010 - Chris Sale, LHP, White Sox
  • 2003 - Aaron Hill, SS, Blue Jays
  • 1994 - Paul Konerko, C, Dodgers
  • 1991 - Manny Ramirez, 3B, Indians

Meanwhile, no rush for the MLB-leading Twins as the still have a boatload of prospects in the minors on the rise, including 2017 No. 1 overall pick, shortstop Royce Lewis. 


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Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen.  His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011.  Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play.  Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers.  Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.