The Twins have optioned outfielder Alex Kirilloff to their alternate trainng site, per a team announcement. The move means Kirilloff will not make the Twins’ Opening Day roster.
The 23-year-old Kirilloff was a first-round pick in 2016 who has ranked as one of baseball’s best prospects over the past couple seasons. Kirilloff had a chance to claim a spot on the Twins’ roster this spring in the aftermath of Eddie Rosario’s departure, but the .129/.182/.258 line he posted in 31 exhibition at-bats didn’t suggest to the team that he was ready for a role in the majors. With Kirilloff on his way down, Brent Rooker, Kyle Garlick and Jake Cave are all candidates to join Byron Buxton and Max Kepler as the Twins’ outfielders when the season starts, according to Phil Miller of the Star Tribune.
Kirilloff’s demotion could buy the Twins an extra year of control over him, though it’s unclear whether that motivated the team to send him down. After all, along with his struggles this spring, Kiriloff hasn’t played above the Double-A level yet. He hit .283/.343/.413 with nine home runs and seven stolen bases there across 411 plate appearances in 2019.
Here comes the finger pointing……..
LOL
I’ll take the bait…..
If the consensus of prospect rankings rank a player as one of the best in the sport – and then that player struggles and then struggles again- there’s a fluke with his ranking.
Krilloff was hurt. Came back and put together the best stretch of his life. All the prospect rankers jumped on his band wagon and then it turned out he was just hot and not really that good.
mlb.com said he was the 10th best prospect in the sport. They were way off. Is what it is and twins shoulda saw the writing on the wall and unloaded him as the centerpiece of a trade to upgrade their major league roster.
The only issue with that concept is that major league talent evaluators don’t change their opinion just because a player is trendy on media rankings. Internally he was probably never actually considered to be an elite prospect at most front offices.
That said, he’s still one of the 50 best prospects in the sport and has a strong batting eye, but isn’t the kind of prospect a team would be super concerned about the “extra year of control” over, not like Acuña or Bryant.
So one prospect list puts him in the top 10 one year and now he’s a bust? Plus you are basing this on one “bad” season in which he put up a wRC+ of 121. It was bad for him but not bad in general.
There was no failing and then failing again. It was season. He hasn’t played in legitimate games since 2019, a year in which he had a wrist injury. Wrist injuries tend to sap power even when you become healthy enough to play again. They need lots of healing time. His down season in 2019 is one of the reasons why I think he needs more time but it’s not as extreme as you’re making it…
Wrist injuries are a kiss of death to most hitters. Fans CONSISTENTLY tend to overlook this aspect when they’re measuring the effectiveness of a hitter that has suffered such an injury. Like you said, it takes a LOONG TIME for the player to get their full strength back, if they even do fully heal in that same season.
The Braves have seen Dansby, Albies, and Freeman recently struggle through wrist injuries, and the only one to come back moderately adequate was Albies, but he struggled IMMENSELY before he was put on the IL. Dansby struggled through a couple seasons of nagging wrist injuries, and fans were calling him a bust, without considering the real effect that injury was having on him. Low and behold, he gets healthy, and magically improves and becomes and all-star caliber SS..Yes, some of it was maturity and experience, but it was mostly driven by the fact he was actually completely healthy, and he wasn’t having to struggle and fight through dealing with an injured wrist.
Heck, even the almighty Aaron Judge had his power dwindled down when he was dealing with his wrist injury. It happens to ALL HITTERS, because the wrists are so paramount to a players swing, maintaining a level of consistency, and their power production..
If you’re trying to glean anything from Kiriloff while he was battling a wrist injury, you’re going to be doing yourself a huge disservice. They will ruin the best hitters, much less especially an inexperienced, young rookie. Maybe he isn’t the top prospect some thought he might be, but everyone would be a “bust” under those circumstances!!
Dear Bot,
All I can say is you’re off your rocker and need psychological assistance in getting up.
John Henry’s Hammer –
Agreed! Don’t you just love how some of these commenters seem to think they are experts and state their opinions with complete certainty and arrogance? 95% of these clowns don’t know damn thing, despite their overblown egos telling them different. Kiriloff might turn out to be great. He may be average. He may be a total bust. No one knows for sure, though, especially some keyboard warrior. These guys can’t even say “it seems like he’s over his head” or “in my opinion, he hasn’t looked great so far”….they state their opinions like they are absolute, concrete facts and there can be no argument about what they think. These types of comments and complete arrogance really seem to be on the rise lately….
Yikes. It’s pretty sad some of these commenters are trolls that just sit behind a computer all.
He struggles in Spring Training and these guys scream he’s a “bust.” If we took their evaluations seriously then Mike Trout would have never made it. They would have looked at Trout’s cup of coffee and said he’s a AAAA player.
Touchy twins fans too proud to admit holding on to all these prospects was the biggest mistake in franchise history.
Krilloff is a better return then the slew of lotto tickets StL gave up for arenado.
Royce Lewis coulda been flipped into Luis Castillo 2 seasons ago.
Buxton, the former #1 prospect in all of baseball, could have been the centerpiece for any number of quality players that would have created more value than Buxton ever has or ever will create.
They also had another top prospect who was a shortstop that turned out so bad he went undrafted through rule 5 but at his peak- everyone wanted him.
This is an undeniable fact – when a prospect hits his peak value- and then they don’t make it in The Show- your organization looses millions (10,000,000’s in Lewis case) in prospect value. Plus actual stars like arenado and Castillo draw in millions of revenue dollars as well. And most importantly, they put this team over the top instead of just another central contender.
Why would u ever hold onto any of these dudes ?? It’s a terrible and failed business model.
And give me a break w the trout and arod comparisons. Just like w soto Acuna and tatis- everyone knew they’d be all stars. It’s all these guys that blow up because they strung together a couple good months or got draft atop of draft or both in Royce Lewis case.
“He was just hot and not really that good”
Ummmmm not sure I trust that analysis LOL
Kirilloff did decent at Double-A, but I still think he would benefit from a month or so at Triple-A. He didn’t do all that well this Spring Training and there’s no rush for him. Arraez/Polanco, Rooker, Cave and Garlick can hold down the fort in LF for April and maybe even May. Plus if I were the Twins, I’d want to get Arraez as much playing time as possible before I would have to call up Kirilloff.
AAA games don’t start until may, so…
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. He should still get a month of playing time at AAA regardless and I think the Twins would like to try and give Arraez playing time.
I knew I should have signed that guy. He’s a high batting avg guy too.
No they don’t, they start 4/06. It’s the leagues under AAA that start on May 4th
On March 2nd it was announced the AAA season would be delayed until May 4th.
Polonco will not play 1 inning in left field this year
I thought there was a very good chance that Kirilloff broke camp as a starting outfielder, but considering his spring struggles and his lack of dominating numbers in AA in 2019, it’s probably not a bad idea to get him a little additional seasoning. It seems like the Twins might go with some kind of platoon of Jake Cave and Kyle Garlick, but personally I would love to see Brent Rooker get a shot. I think he’s underrated and could mash while playing acceptable defense.
Oh….
But they started him in a playoff game.
You’re correct HBan22, but so many of the readers/posters here take the bait. Sometimes I think they’ll be motivated to demonstrate outside the ballparks to raise money for the players.
Don’t think this is one of those cases, but I don’t think you don’t need to be a fanatic or a “owner’s hater” to criticize when someone is being, obviously, sent down just for the team to get an extra year. Even if the player could be useful since day one and in the day after the limit for rookie status is reached he is magically ready, even to be a starter for the team.
APD, HBan22, MLB1225 –
See, now you guys are great examples of how these threads should work. You’ve provided thoughtful and/or insightful commentary rather than the blowhard arrogance and Mr. Know it all crap that spews out of far to many commenters these days (see my post above), and then personally attack anyone who doesn’t see things like they do. I enjoy reading stuff like you guys have added and appreciate a good baseball conversation.
Here’s the thing………
When someone other than the team holding the players contract can make a decision on whether or not to send him down, then what’s next?
Do we need an arbitrator to determine the line-up? Why one player is being substituted rather than another? Why the FO and manager are making any moves?
Where do you draw the line?
This is how the players agents and union work. Step by step they want more control, to a point that THEY must approve any decisions……and where exactly does that leave fans? We have to wait for arbitrators to tell us who’s allowed to do what on our team?
Watching baseball is supposed to be fun.
Were people on here saying he would break camp with club? Maybe I just didn’t see it. I get the 2020 season may have thrown off fans’ eta expectations for prospects, but the dude is 23 and definitely needs more time in the minors.
Not sure why sometimes “needing more time in the minors” is seen as a knock on a player under the age of 25 to some fans.
Bc he was a former top 10 prospect in all of baseball. Now he’s not and his stock is plummeting. Tatis Acuna soto will all have 4 years of major league experience under their belts when they are 23.
You listed 3 exceptions. Who cares if he doesn’t have the timeline of a generational talent?
His stock is not plummeting. He was never a consensus top 10 prospect in baseball. A list here and there may have put him there but he averages as the 21st best prospect on BA the last three years, average of 22 on mlb pipeline the last three years and 65th on BP the last three years.
Also very weird to mention Tatis, Acuna and Soto in a Kirilloff post when no one has ever, ever put them in the same prospect category
Well said! I bet BOT would have been ready to throw A-rod to the wolves after his first big league exposure (.204 and .232 in his first 2 partial seasons covering approximately 200 at bats).
They started him because Buxton was hurt and they were desperate. .
31 AB isn’t a huge sample size, but he didn’t force their hand with his performance.
Not every move—by any team—is some dark conspiracy against the player. This seems a sensible move.
It’s more than sensible. It’s probably the best thing for Kirilof in the long term. Rather than flummox him even more at the MLB level against MLB talent, this gives him the opportunity to get things under control and for him to build his confidence.
I’m generally pretty hard lined against service time manipulation, but this move makes sense even when you don’t take into consideration the lack of traditional development opportunity minor league players got from 2020.
Plain and simple explanation : HES NOT READY.
But people say spring training stats don’t matter, ok,,
They definitely matter to an extent. If Kirilloff had mashed all spring, I think there’s a very good chance he breaks camp with the Twins. It’s also why the occasional no-name journeyman makes the big club after a huge spring.
They don’t matter for a seasoned player who is getting in shape. But for a rookie who is struggling, why push him? You see what happened with Joey Bart when the Giants were forced to play him last year with almost no previous at bats in Double A. Players like Kirriloff—with a projected high ceiling—should be brought along slowly, till they’re ready.
Kirill-on Kirill-off…. Makes sense, but I am surprised by this nonetheless.
Kirilloff clearly needs more time to develop. Better to gain confidence in the minors than to have it destroyed in the majors
This was the correct move service time or not. He had a down year in AA. He didn’t look great offensively in spring training. His spring training competition has played well so far. He wouldn’t have been called up last year if Rooker didn’t get hurt.
AK is easily my favorite Twins position player prospect and I believe he will be a good to great player for 10 years once he is truly ready. This was just not his time. The service time part is a bonus but it isn’t the reason he was sent down. He’ll come up when there’s an injury or poor play.
Also, I’m all for it if it’s now Brent Rooker time. He has absolutely nothing left to learn/prove in the minors.
Oh my word. Someone who actually knows what their talking and presents a well thought out argument? That never happens anymore.
Saving him for the post season call up again.
Two words:
Eddie Rosario
Real great GM at work.
The vast majority of Twins fans were glad to see Rosario leave. Good luck, Cleveland.
More proof why I never trust those silly little prospect lists. They are always wrong. Wasn’t Amed Rosario like the number 1 prospect a few years back? What about Mark Appel, Corey Ray, Lewis Brinson or Carson fulmer? Same will go for this Franco guy from Tampa bay. pack a lunch.
Icantstandyouseither –
Yet another example of an arrogant know it all that’s plaguing this site. Since you know everything, could you please provide us all with the winning lotto numbers and this seasons World Series winner so we can get some bets in?
And no, Amed Rosario was never the #1 overall prospect. Lots of prospects don’t pan out, which is why they are called prospects. Ronald Acuna, Juan Soto, Mike Trout and Francisco Lindor are a few examples that panned out as expected. If you’re expecting 100% accuracy, good luck with that
He had a rough go Spring Training and now he’s a prospect bust? Sheesh. What about all of the league stars that struggled for a month in their career? I guess they were never any good either.