{"id":280673,"date":"2024-03-15T08:25:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=280673"},"modified":"2024-03-15T08:25:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:25:08","slug":"emma-outfield-lead-twins-breakout-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=280673","title":{"rendered":"‘Emma,’ Outfield Lead Twins\u2019 Breakout Group"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Twins\u2019 organization is home to four of the top 100 prospects in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline — and the plan was for three of them to be lined up next to each other in the outfield for Minnesota\u2019s Spring Breakout game on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centerpiece of it all, No. 10 overall prospect<\/a> Walker Jenkins, was scratched from the game with a quad strain, as announced by president of baseball operations Derek Falvey on Thursday — but Emmanuel Rodr\u00edguez (No. 42<\/a>) and Gabriel Gonz\u00e1lez (No. 79<\/a>) should still provide plenty of star power for the matchup against the Rays\u2019 top prospects, which will be carried live on Bally Sports North, MLB.com and the At Bat app at roughly 3:05 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s really exciting to be out there,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said through Twins interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. \u201cMinnesota has a great future. Playing with those two guys, it’s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodr\u00edguez, known simply as \u201cEmma\u201d to those around him, is perhaps closer to that future than the other two, considering he\u2019s the only one on the 40-man roster and, thus, the only one who was in Major League camp this spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21-year-old made some noise with his bat before he was optioned out of camp and to Double-A Wichita on Tuesday, with a homer off Craig Kimbrel — who currently ranks eighth on the all-time saves leaderboard — and a subsequent bat drop that showcased Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s immense raw power that couples with his extremely discerning eye at the plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the skillset that led Rodr\u00edguez to a .240\/.400\/.463 performance for High-A Cedar Rapids last season, including 16 homers and 20 steals, an impressive return from a breakout 2022 in the making that was cut short by a left knee sprain sustained while sliding into a base that led to not one, but two surgeries on the knee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt that point, I was the lowest in my career, mentally,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What brought him back from that nadir?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter my second surgery, that’s when my name started to get out there, and I made the top 100 list,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cThat’s when I realized that I was able to make the comeback, because there’s kids that want to be like me, right? They want to be in the top 100. That’s what pushed me and motivated me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brought him back with a vengeance — and after the normal adjustments of reaching High-A for the first time at just 21, a .421 on-base percentage in the second half paved the way to an .893 OPS following the All-Star Break, including a particularly strong finish in August and September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s unique when you see a guy that can really look in the strike zone and shut it down early on a borderline pitch, 1-2 [count],\u201d president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. \u201cIt’s like, \u2018Oof, that’s pretty impressive.\u2019 I don’t know if that’s taught. \u2026 I think it’s a gift, and I think he’s got it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s got it — and he hones it, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI practice a lot, especially the strike zone,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cI know what my strike zone is. That’s what I do every day. It doesn’t come naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step in Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s development as he takes on the high Minors is a familiar one for those who tracked the similarly discerning Edouard Julien over the past two years: Make sure that elite plate discipline doesn\u2019t turn him too passive, because it really is an uncommonly strong tool for a hitter of his age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodr\u00edguez knows that, too. Like many hitters with some swing-and-miss to their game who reach deep counts, strikeouts are a part of his profile — but perhaps he won\u2019t get to that point if he\u2019s more aggressive with hittable pitches. He says he has taken only \u201cone to two swings\u201d in the past, but an overall focus is, indeed, to take more swings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just ask Kimbrel — those swings can do damage. And now that Rodr\u00edguez has had a taste of big league camp, he\u2019s eager to build on it — and the first step is in Spring Breakout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does feel a little bit closer,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cI just need to stay healthy, and I’ll handle the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Twins\u2019 organization is home to four of the top 100 prospects in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline — and the plan was for three of them to be lined up next to each other in the outfield for Minnesota\u2019s Spring Breakout game on Saturday. The centerpiece of it all, No. 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":280674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280675,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280673\/revisions\/280675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/280674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}