What’s next for Twins’ first-round draft pick Vahn Lackey?
· Yahoo Sports
Vahn Lackey hasn’t played in a baseball game since June 1, when his Georgia Tech team lost to eventual national champion Oklahoma in an NCAA tournament regional final.
That will change soon, but not immediately.
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Lackey, chosen by the Twins third overall in the July 11 MLB amateur draft, was at Target Field on Friday to take a tour and meet some of the major league staff and players in Minneapolis. Next up is a week or so at the Twins’ training complex in Ft. Myers, Fla., followed most likely by an assignment to High-A Cedar Rapids.
“It’s been a lot of the business side of things. A lot of meetings,” Lackey told reporters before the Twins’ 2-0 loss to the Athletics. “But next week we’re going to be ramping up a lot more from the baseball side, so I’m excited to get started with that.”
Business has been good for Lackey, the Twins’ highest draft pick since they picked infielder Royce Lewis first overall in 2017. His $9.49 million signing bonus, slightly under the recommended slot, is the third-highest in MLB history.
The baseball draft, of course, is a difficult one. Since moving to Target Field in 2010, the Twins have introduced a number of first-round picks who either didn’t make the majors or didn’t stick, such as infielders Levi Michael (2011) and Keoni Cavaco (2019), and pitchers Alex Wimmers (2010), Kohl Stewart (2013) and Tyler Jay (2015).
But the Twins’ recent picks have hit. First-round picks currently on the major league roster: Byron Buxton (2012), Trevor Larnach (2018), Brooks Lee (2022) and Lewis, with outfielder Walker Jenkins (2023) and shortstop Kaelen Culpepper (2024) knocking on the door with Triple-A St. Paul.
Lackey, 21, will start with a Cedar Rapids team currently last in their Midwest League division after finishing third in the first half. He made major strides offensively in his sophomore and junior seasons at Georgia Tech, and this season hit .397 with 85 runs, 20 home runs and 78 RBIs in 61 games for the Yellow Jackets, who finished the season 50-11 after losing 2 of 3 to the Sooners in the NCAA tournament.
Lackey attributed the improvement to “learning my swing more, so I guess you could say (it was) mechanical” and credited a trip to Maven Baseball Academy in Atlanta.
“I just kind of learned myself more, and learned (some) mental cues I needed to hit, to get the swing I really wanted to produce,” he said.
He also stole 15 bases for Georgia Tech this season, indicating he could be a so-called 5-tool major leaguer — hitting for average, hitting for power, fielding, running speed and arm strength — rare for a major league catcher.
“Yeah, technically I’m different,” he said Friday, “but I feel like there’s a lot of things in my game that are very similar to others. It’s just (that) I kind of add little small things from other people’s games, implement it into one. Like maybe some people are allowed to have both (sides to my game), and I feel like I try to have as many things in my skill set as possible.”