Much like Neil Bush, the Twins have proven they aren't afraid to spend big money on underage, overseas talent.
Back in August, the Twins signed sixteen year old Max Kepler-Rozycki, and gave him $800,000 to do so. The Twins are not known for splurging on talent, proven or unproven. The Pohlad's "carefulness with a dollar" is legendary, and pretty fair, though not always.
Kepler-Rozycki has lived his entire life in Germany, and is the son of an American woman and Polish man, both ballet dancers. His entry to baseball, obviously, was not the most common road. I highly recommend John W. Miller's Wall Street Journal article that profiles the kid, but this little passage is too good not to share right away:
After [baseball] games, Mr. Rozycki often massaged and stretched out his son. When Max played first base, he showed him how to train to do the splits: Stretch out hard every night and get to the position gradually. Ms. Kepler educated Max about breathing, concentration and the value of footwork. "I told all the scouts I have five-tool feet," she says, lifting a bare foot over a lunch of soup and sushi.
To acquaint himself with an unfamiliar pastime, Mr. Rozycki joined a U.S. embassy softball squad. When a ball flew over the fence in one of his first games, Mr. Rozycki scampered over the fence to get it. His teammates, many of them FBI agents, stared in disbelief. Before long, he was playing shortstop.
You can go here to see some video from the Twins MLB page. Fair warning, you will read a caption written by someone who does not have top notch grammar skills: "Twins prospect Max Kepler-Rozycki is not only from Germany, but he is also turning heads around the league."
But the Twins were not done with some crazy half-American/half-Polack, 100% Ballet progeny. They also signed Miguel Angel Sano, also sixteen years old(?), from the Dominican Republic. He received a signing bonus of over $3 million dollars. The Twins are high on him, obviously. Tyler Mason of mlb.com quotes the VP of Player Personnel Mike Radcliff as saying, "I think upon his signing, he immediately enters our organization as one of the higher ceiling bats that we have...He has the potential to be a middle-of-the-order kind of offensive player. He has strength, a good swing, finish, all the things that potentially add up to average, and he can hit for power."
That may be hyperbole, or it may be wishful thinking. The fact that it took $3 million to secure his rights suggests that if it is, lots of other MLB teams had the same wishful thinking.
Casey Beck and Trevor Martin were following Sano earlier this year for GlobalPost. Here's a look at the kid who might just be the next big thing in the Twin Cities, five years from now. We told you first! Kind of.
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