The Minnesota Twins have announced that Triple-A St. Paul right-handed pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson and High-A Cedar Rapids outfielder Emmanuel Rodriguez have been named Twins minor league Pitcher and Player of the week for week 23.
Emmanuel Rodriguez a Santiago, Dominican Republic native was signed by the Minnesota Twins as an undrafted free agent on July 2, 2019. Rodriguez was a top 10 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 international prospects list for 2019-20 when the signing period opened up in July of 2019. The Twins were all in, giving the toolsy outfielder $2.75 million to sign. MLB Pipeline currently has Rodriguez rated as the 48th best prospect overall and has Rodriguez as the Twins 3rd best prospect behind Walker Jenkins and Brooks Lee. You can learn more about Rodriguez here. Rodriguez has won this award three times earlier this season and he seems to be another in the long line of Twins left-handed sluggers.
Rodriguez, 20, played in four games for the Kernels, hitting .333 (3-for-9) with one triple, three RBI, six walks, a .600 on-base percentage, a .556 slugging percentage and a 1.156 OPS. On the season he is slashing .240/.400/.463. Although he does have 134 strikeouts in 455 PA’s he also has 16 home runs, 55 RBI and 20 Stolen bases.
Simeon Woods-Richardson was drafted by the New York Mets in the 2nd round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from I. H. Kempner HS (Sugar Land, TX). The Mets traded him to Toronto on July 28, 2019 who then traded him to Minnesota along with Austin Martin in the Jose Berrios trade on July 30, 2021. Wood-Richardson made his major league debut with the Twins on October 2, 2022. SWR is currently rated as the twins 16th best prospect by MLB Pipeline.
Woods-Richardson, 22, made the start on Thursday at Louisville, allowing one run on four hits in 6 innings pitched, with one walk
and five strikeouts. In his last 10 games (8 starts) for the Saints, SWR has gone 5-1, 2.82 ERA (51.0 IP, 16 ER) with 24 walks, 46 strikeouts and a .184 opponent batting average.
