Wells Could Be The Twins’ Clark Kent

MINNEAPOLIS—Mention Lachlan Wells to Mike Radcliff, and the vice president for player personnel immediately mounts a defense for the . . . um, slightly built.

“He’s not little, he’s slender,” Radcliff said of the latest Twins’ Australian prospect to draw attention. “Not every pitcher has to look like (6-foot-6) Kyle Gibson, you know.”

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True enough, and the Twins realize that better than most.

Righthander Jose Berrios, their top pitching prospect, is barely 6 feet and 180 pounds. It’s just that Wells, perhaps 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds—”He’s about 170 now,” Radcliff said, defensively—strikes fear in few hitters as he takes the mound, especially with his glasses giving him a Clark Kent look.

But then Wells throws his fastball, whipping his long left arm toward the plate, and the impression abruptly changes.

“He’s got a lightning-quick arm, and hands that can really spin it,” said Radcliff, who approved a $300,000 bonus for Wells in 2014. “Sure, he’s got to get a little bigger, more durable, but he will. He’s just 19, and he projects to increase his velocity as he matures.”

Wells sits in the low 90s now, good for a teenager—especially one whose fastball may be his No. 3 pitch. He aggressively uses a curveball with a sharp, late break, and his changeup is “a real freeze pitch,” Radcliff said, because his arm action is so quick and deceptive. 

Last year he was the best pitcher on one of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League’s strongest staffs. Wells, from a suburb of Perth, was 11,000 miles from home for the first time.

“We’ve got some Australians in the system, and that helps,” Radcliff said. “It’s good to give these young guys some teammates they can relate to.”

Radcliff credits international coordinator Howard Norsetter for finding good prospects down under.

Wells will begin this season in the Rookie-level Elizabethton rotation, with a chance to climb to low Class A Cedar Rapids by the end of the year or the beginning of 2017.

TWIN KILLINGS

• The Twins released Joe Benson, the system’s one-time No. 2 prospect, after his comeback attempt fell short.