Latest Minnesota Twins Top Pick Moving Up

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Marek Houston, Minnesota Twins
Credit: William Parmeter

Already this season, several Minnesota Twins prospects have made their big league debuts. With top talents like Kaelen Culpepper, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez all at Triple A, we’ll undoubtedly see more throughout the summer.

And after today’s news, Minnesota’s latest first round draft pick, Marek Houston, isn’t far behind. Less than one year after the Twins selected him No. 16 overall out of Wake Forest, Houston is already moving up to Double-A.

Marek Houston moves a step closer to Minnesota Twins

The Cedar Rapids Kernels announced the move on Monday.

If you think this call-up happened quickly, it only took 12 games at Low-A last summer, before the Twins moved Houston up to High-A, where he wound up playing 56 games in 2026 for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, batting .325 with an .867 OPS.

Power doesn’t stand out in the 22-year-old shortstop’s profile just yet. Nonetheless, he still managed to hit five home runs and 14 doubles for the Kernels. He can also run, stealing 24 bases on 26 attempts.

What is the future plan for Marek Houston?

Houston stands out most on the defensive side. The Minnesota Twins hope he can be a long-term answer at shortstop, depending on how well Kaelen Culpepper handles those duties when presented with opportunities (hopefully) later this season.

Recently, Aaron Gleeman (AaronGleeman.com) talked about why Marek Houston’s 8 errors at High-A aren’t a concern.

In the low minors, league-wide error rates are nearly double that of MLB because all of the players are inexperienced, field conditions are often lacking, and official scoring can vary wildly. It’s also possible Houston has received errors misplaying balls that other High-A shortstops wouldn’t even come close to making plays on…Houston can pick it, and eight errors in 48 games at High-A aren’t even a lot.

Aaron Gleeman

Related: MN Twins Promising Rookie Returns, Veteran DFA’d

While his rise has happened rather quickly, to this point, we can expect Houston to sit at Double-A Wichita for a while — likely the rest of the season. Even after the eventual promotion of Culpepper, it would be pretty aggressive for Minnesota to move him up to Triple-A that fast.

If his time at Double-A goes well, he’ll likely start the 2027 at Triple A, with a chance to earn his first big league call-up at some point next season.

Other notable Twins prospects moving up

Along with Houston, 2024 17th round pick Jay Thomason is headed to Double-A Wichita. After crushing Low-A Fort Myers last season, Thomason slowed at Cedar Rapids.

This year he batted .293 with an .879 OPS in 55 games at High-A and earned another step up.

Thomason has played all over the infield, and sprinkled in outfield work as well. In 15 games during the month of June, Thomason has batted .462 with a 1.161 OPS. The hot streak was just far too much to overlook.

Beyond just Thomason, the Saints had another outfielder join Walker Jenkins as he makes his return from the injured list. Kala’i Rosario earned his first promotion from Double-A after spending the past three seasons with Wichita.

A 5th round pick in 2020, Rosario’s career turned in 2024 after going to the Arizona Fall League for a second time. Last season he posted an .844 OPS and 32 stolen bases to go with 25 home runs. In 52 games for Wichita this year, he batted .239 with an .839 OPS adding 11 dingers and nine steals.

Rosario doesn’t have the ceiling of any top Twins outfield prospects, but he could be a nice post-hype development story, and is just about to turn 24.

With Jenkins back in St. Paul, as well as Alan Roden and Matt Wallner, manager Brian Dinkelman will need to get creative when it comes to playing time.

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