TWINS UPDATE: Twins Non-Roster Invitees Include Prospects Luke Keaschall, Andrew Morris, Cory Lewis

The Twins announced 16 non-roster invitees to spring training Monday, with the list featuring a few top prospects and a handful of minor-league signees who’ve had major-league success. One position player stands out most clearly.

Image courtesy of MiLB.tv screenshots (from left to right: Keaschall, Morris, Lewis)

Luke Keaschall is the team’s No. 3 prospect and a top-100 overall prospect in affiliated pro ball. That status alone makes him noteworthy, but his inclusion is also significant because it seems to be a positive sign that he’s close to fully recovered from Tommy John surgery. He went under the knife in August, but luckily, position players require less rehab time than pitchers. At TwinsFest, Keaschall told reporters he expected to be ready to play the field and throw without restrictions in mid-March.

Pitching prospects Andrew Morris and Cory Lewis are also among the most noteworthy invitees. Lewis was the Twins’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2023. Morris would have taken that award in 2024, had it not been for Zebby Matthews. Both Morris and Lewis ended last season at Triple-A St. Paul.

Other Twins position-player prospects joining Keachall are Alex Isola, Patrick Winkel, Yunior Severino and Jeferson Morales. Joining them are a couple of guys with big-league time in other orgs, Armando Alvarez and Mike Ford.

Alvarez, a right-handed-hitting utility player, made his MLB debut for Oakland last season. He has a career .837 OPS in 412 career Triple-A games. Ford is a left-handed-hitting first baseman with 251 MLB games under his belt. He made a splash as a rookie with the Yankees back in 2019, hitting 12 homers while posting a .909 OPS in 50 games. Ford impressed again with Seattle in 2023, slugging 16 homers in 83 games. He’s struggled outside of those two strong showings, however, and has a career .700 OPS and 26% strikeout rate.

On the pitching side, there are some familiar names joining Morris and Lewis. Scott Blewett and Randy Dobnak, who both pitched for the Twins in 2024, are back. Ryan Jensen is another arm who was in the org last year. He made 44 appearances for the Saints last season.

Another returnee is Huascar Ynoa, but it’s been quite some time since he’s been with the Twins. Ynoa was dealt to Atlanta in 2017 for Jaime García. He had a strong 2021 for the Braves (4.05 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 9.9 K/9 in 91 IP), but an elbow injury sustained the next year derailed his career.

Rounding out the arms are Darren McCaughan, Alex Speas and Anthony Misiewicz, who all have MLB experience. Misiewicz (pronounced mih-SEV-itch) appears to have the clearest path to cracking the Twins bullpen, given how thin the Twins are on the left side. He has a 4.67 ERA in 131 games, most of them coming with the Mariners. Misiewicz made one appearance with the Yankees last season.

Here’s the full list of NRIs:

C/1B/OF Alex Isola
C Patrick Winkel
2B/3B/LF Armando Alvarez
1B Mike Ford
2B/CF Luke Keaschall
1B/RF Yunior Severino
LF/2B/C Jeferson Morales
RHP Scott Blewett
RHP Randy Dobnak
RHP Ryan Jensen
RHP Cory Lewis
RHP Darren McCaughan
RHP Andrew Morris
RHP Alex Speas
RHP Huascar Ynoa
LHP Anthony Misiewicz

The only top prospects who won’t be in big league camp are either very young (No. 1 Walker Jenkins, No. 4 Charlee Soto and No. 7 Brandon Winokur) or very new to pro ball (No. 8 Kaelen Culpepper). But remember, players from minor-league camp will still get some looks in official big-league spring training games.

Most importantly (at least to yours truly), all of these non-roster invitees will be eligible for the most prestigious award in all of sports, Sire of Fort Myers. They will all get a chance to become the Hammond Hammer; to Lead in Lee County. So, let’s see who seizes the shot.