Now, this is what a sustainable player development pipeline looks like.

That’s the goal that president of baseball operations Derek Falvey set about working towards when he first arrived in the organization -- and this is what it looks like when the mechanism is not only in place, but firing on all cylinders.

Even with the Twins in a playoff spot and competing for the AL Central title, they’re one of five teams leading the way with six overall top-100 prospects -- and all but Walker Jenkins are either in the Majors or likely to debut next season. All six are fully homegrown, and the pitchers in the mix -- Zebby Matthews and David Festa -- were drafted in the eighth and 13th rounds and maximized by the organization’s pitching development juggernaut.

And boy, is that pitching pipeline purring.

Matthews has been one of the biggest risers on all prospect lists this year, and he and Festa are already poised to backfill for a Twins rotation that needs help. That’s not to mention knuckleballer Cory Lewis (No. 16) -- the defending organizational Pitcher of the Year -- and C.J. Culpepper (No. 15) in the high Minors, and Andrew Morris (No. 9), one of potential trade partners’ buzziest trade targets at the Deadline, who was just promoted to Triple-A St. Paul.

This is a sustainable system in fantastic shape -- and it’s poised to impact the big league team.

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Here’s a look at the Twins’ top prospects:

1. Walker Jenkins, OF (MLB No. 4)
2. Brooks Lee, INF (MLB No. 16)
3. Emmanuel Rodriguez, OF (MLB No. 22)
4. Luke Keaschall, 2B/OF (MLB No. 67)
5. Zebby Matthews, RHP (MLB No. 87)

Complete Top 30 list »

Biggest jump/fall

Here are the players whose ranks changed the most from the preseason list:

Jump: Zebby Matthews, RHP (Preseason: 20 | Midseason: 5): One of the hottest rising names on prospect lists all over the industry, Matthews’ stuff has continued to play up -- and he hasn’t sacrificed his incredible strike-throwing to do it. Despite his fastball zipping into the high 90s, Matthews has remained a control wizard, with an absurd 114 strikeouts to only seven walks this season, and he made an impressive big league debut (without a walk, of course) on Tuesday.

Fall: Matt Canterino, RHP (Preseason: 13 | Midseason: NR): You really have to feel for poor Canterino, who has only pitched 85 utterly dominant innings since he was drafted in 2019. But injuries have consistently held him back, and after missing all of ‘23 due to Tommy John surgery, he was poised to impact the Majors in ‘24 before shoulder issues sent him back to the IL -- and a setback has him set to miss another full season. A healthy Canterino could absolutely pitch in the Twins’ bullpen in ‘25 -- but can a healthy Canterino exist?

New to the list

Here are the players added to the Top 30 from outside the organization:

No. 7 Kaelen Culpepper, SS (Draft)
No. 12 Kyle DeBarge, SS (Draft)
No. 13 Dasan Hill, LHP (Draft)
No. 14 Billy Amick, 3B (Draft)
No. 26 Eduardo Beltre, OF (International signing)
No. 30 Khadim Diaw, C/OF (Draft)

Best tools

Players are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale for future tools: 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average. Players in parentheses have the same grade.

Hit: 65 -- Lee
Power: 60 -- Jenkins (Emmanuel Rodriguez)
Run: 60 -- Brandon Winokur (Kyle De Barge)
Arm: 65 -- Rubel Cespedes
Defense: 55 -- De Barge (Jenkins, Danny De Andrade)
Fastball: 60 -- Festa (Marco Raya, Charlee Soto, Connor Prielipp, Festa)
Curveball: 60 -- Cesar Lares
Slider: 60 -- Dasan Hill (Raya, Prielipp)
Changeup: 55 -- Raya
Cutter: 55 -- Matthews
Knuckleball: 50 -- Lewis
Control: 65 -- Matthews