All signs were pointing Charlee Soto towards Twins at 34th pick

MINNEAPOLIS -- For someone who has never been to Minnesota before, Charlee Soto sure seems about as well-equipped as one could be to make the transition to the Upper Midwest.

Firstly, the Twins’ selection at No. 34 in the 2023 MLB Draft already knows first-round selection and No. 5 pick Walker Jenkins. And secondly, Soto also has a friend in Minnesota who called him a day before the right-handed high school pitcher from Florida was drafted to the organization on Sunday, along with Jenkins and Arizona State infielder Luke Keaschall, who was selected at No. 49.

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“I actually have a buddy, he's Puerto Rican, he lives in Minnesota and he tells me that in the summertime, it's so nice,” Soto said. “The other day, I saw him, he was on a boat in the middle of a lake, and he was like, 'When are you coming over here?' He literally told me that yesterday. He said, 'When are you coming over here?' And I got drafted by the Twins.

“I think that was a sign that I just didn't see.”

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Well, looking back, he sees it now. And in him, the Twins see a projectable and well-rounded fireballer who has shown advanced ability to take control of a game as a starting pitcher, even as a younger prospect who won’t turn 18 until Aug. 31.

Armed with a fastball that was regularly up to 98 mph with life, a hard slider and a solid circle changeup that have both made strides in the last year, Soto looks at a lot of Gerrit Cole’s pitching mannerisms and drew a lot of influence from watching videos of Roy Halladay, having been born in Philadelphia into a Puerto Rican baseball-oriented family, with a father and brother who both pitched.

“Really sound delivery,” said Twins vice president of amateur scouting Sean Johnson. “He's got three nice pitches now. Obviously, the velocity's there. He's been up to [the] upper 90s already. But he's got a fantastic slider and he's got a really good feel for a changeup and he can throw strikes. Put all those things together, and we think he's got a chance to be a Major League starter.”

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Soto was ranked MLB Pipeline’s No. 28 prospect in the class and is the third prominent high school pitcher selected to the organization in the last four Drafts, joining 2020 fourth-rounder Marco Raya -- now ranked No. 4 in the organization -- and 2021 first-rounder Chase Petty, who was traded to Cincinnati for Sonny Gray.

While Soto said many 15-year-olds around him were throwing 94 or 95 mph, he was throwing only 90 mph at that age, and he transferred schools and began throwing and lifting programs to push that velocity way up -- and his ability to sustain deep into games caught the Twins’ eye.

“Oftentimes you go in the spring, and [high school pitchers] can’t throttle down their pitches, they can’t throw the ball to the plate for six or seven innings,” Johnson said. “And we saw Charlee do that a lot. Early in the spring, our guys were buzzing about how good he was and just how much they liked the pitches and his mound presence and his ability to manage a game.”

Johnson called Keaschall “one of [the Twins’] favorite players” they connected with at the MLB Draft Combine for his “special” makeup, and the junior from Arizona State with exceptional contact skills showed developing power after his transfer from the University of San Francisco, hitting .353/.443/.725 with 18 homers and 25 doubles in 55 games for the Sun Devils.

There’s still some question as to where Keaschall could end up defensively, since he played shortstop at San Francisco and second base at Arizona State, but the Twins believe strongly in his athleticism and feel that MLB Pipeline's No. 90 prospect will become a solid double and home run hitter at the next level as he continues to add strength and work with the player development staff to access more of his power.

“We're really drawn to him,” Johnson said. “He's just a dynamic athlete, and he's got a chance to play a lot of different positions. Offensively, he controls the strike zone. … Just takes good at-bats, and he's got a chance to play all over the diamond. We'll figure out where he fits in eventually.”