What I saw from Konnor Griffin, Franklin Arias and others on the Grapefruit League back fields

New York Times

28-03-2025

This week I spent four days in Florida bouncing between some back fields and a few high school games; here's the notebook from the pro side, which unfortunately didn't feature a lot of top prospects.
Minnesota Twins right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson made a huge adjustment to his arm slot in the 2023-24 offseason with the help of the Twins' player development staff, taking him from an also-ran on the outside of the Twins' rotation plans to a 2-WAR season as their fourth starter. He threw a tune-up outing in an A-ball game on Wednesday in Fort Myers, Fla., and looked as good as he did at his best moments from last year.
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Woods Richardson was 92-96 with a plus curveball and above-average slider, the latter running up to 88 mph, all coming from that somewhat lower arm slot that's still above three-quarters but better than the over-the-top slot he used to have. Before the change, he had all kinds of timing issues, with his arm very late relative to his landing, and was tilted so far backward in his delivery that he couldn't finish anything out front, particularly the breaking stuff, leaving him as a fastball-changeup guy who had trouble getting right-handed hitters out. After the Twins helped him overhaul his delivery, he was more on time and released his pitches over four inches closer to the ground, so he was able to get his breaking stuff down in the zone much more consistently.
That's exactly how he looked on Wednesday, although I didn't see a changeup from him (I was moving back and forth between two fields), and that pitch might be the key to whether he can break out to a greater degree this year. His changeup was his only 'bad' pitch by results last year, worth a whopping minus-16 runs by Statcast, wiping out 80 percent of the value of his other three pitches combined. Some of that looks fluky given the batted-ball data on the pitch, but the lower arm slot seems to have put more fade on the pitch (good) and resulted in more of them finishing below the zone (less good, since hitters didn't chase them enough). If he gets that changeup closer to the zone often enough to get hitters to go after it, he could be the Twins' second-best starter rather than their fourth-best.
The Twins took shortstop/outfielder Brandon Winokur in the third round in 2023 out of a California high school, giving him an over-slot bonus. This was the first time I'd seen him in pro ball, and he's a better athlete than I expected but is also every bit of that listed 6-foot-6. I can't see him sticking at shortstop, even though he moves well enough out there now, given how huge he's going to be when he fills out.
On Wednesday, he had no trouble picking up anything straight, homering to left on a changeup middle-away (105-mph exit velocity), but didn't pick up spin across his three at-bats. Even if he has to move to centerfield — which I think is by far his most likely position — the upside is still really high, All-Star level, with the obvious caveat that he's got to boost that pitch recognition.
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Shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, the Twins' first-round pick last year out of Kansas State, took several good at-bats and put the ball in play every time without hard contact, unfortunately. Kyle DeBarge, their second pick (No. 33 selection), showed good bat control, getting the barrel to a cutter down-and-in or maybe a tick below the zone and then later on a slider away, although his contact was all of the soft variety.
The best player on either field, however, was Boston shortstop Franklin Arias, who did hit a couple of balls hard both to the pull side and the other way. I have nothing to add to what I wrote about him on the Top 100 list — I think he's going to be a star, especially with the stick.
Konnor Griffin was the No. 9 pick in the 2024 draft, selected by Pittsburgh out of Jackson Prep in Mississippi because of the potential for three grade-70 tools in his power, speed, and arm. There were also significant questions about his present approach at the plate, from his ability to make contact against decent pitching to his pitch recognition. His swing would get long with a deep hand load that often had him barring his lead arm.
When I saw him on Tuesday, the arm bar was almost completely gone and even at the deepest point of his load, his swing wasn't as long as it was last year. He did swing and miss several times in three at-bats, facing fairly ordinary minor-league stuff, but at least now he's better situated to hit anything with the shorter path to the ball.
Right-hander Zander Mueth threw on the other field, and the Pirates' second-round pick from 2023 was only 91-93 with an above-average slider, still coming from a low arm slot and lacking a pitch to get lefties out.
I only caught two at-bats from second baseman Wyatt Sanford, their second-rounder in 2024, as he wasn't in the same game as Griffin; it's a great swing with good bat speed, definitely more geared towards contact than power.
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My last afternoon there was on the Rays' back fields. Second baseman Émilien Pitre, the Rays' 2024 second-round pick, was on base every time up to the plate, with a walk and a pair of hits, the last one a hit right past the second baseman into right-center off a 99-mph fastball. He needs to get the ball in the air more, with both hits on the day coming on ground balls, but there's pretty clear feel for the barrel here and he might post some really strong OBPs in the low minors.
Right-hander Jacob Watters, acquired from the Athletics in the trade that sent Jeffrey Springs west, was 93-95 with an absolute hammer curveball with sharp, late downward break. His walk rates have been chronically high, with 28 walks in 60 2/3 innings last year, and sure enough they had to roll his first inning in this game with just one out because he hit his pitch limit, but that's some premium stuff — and he's got an 87-89 mph slider that isn't too bad either.
Watters was followed by right-hander Dylan Lesko, who … le sigh. Lesko threw 11 fastballs in the inning, seven for balls, and none for either a called strike or a whiff. Two went to the backstop and one went about 45 feet. He can still land the curveball for strikes, but didn't show that elite changeup (or any changeup, for that matter). He gets a ton of induced vertical break on the fastball and maybe that's part of why he misses so badly with it, but it's also possible he just has some variety of the yips.
The Rays' opponents were the Orioles' A-ball teams, mostly the same hitters I'd seen two days earlier other than Vance Honeycutt, who struck out and popped up in the two at-bats I saw.
They threw right-hander Levi Wells, who was 96-99 with a curveball at 81-82 mph that had spin rates up to 3,123 rpm. I'm not even that concerned with spin rates per se, but that is at the upper bound of what a human being can do, and it's got the kind of power to it that you'd expect from that kind of spin. His delivery has some cross-body action to it and he got destroyed by lefties last year between the delivery and the fringy changeup (89-92, not much action), but that fastball/curveball combination is enough of a starting point that there has to at least be a big-league reliever in here.
(Top photo of Griffin: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)