The Twins took the wrong Raleigh in the 2018 MLB Draft

When Cal Raleigh stood at home plate to the sound of 42,833 fans chanting "M-V-P" and then slugged his MLB-leading 59th and 60th homers of the season, the Minnesota Twins were down in Texas losing for the 90th time in 2025.

While Raleigh was securing a playoff spot for Seattle and perhaps cementing himself as the American League Most Valuable Player, Ryan Jeffers went 0-for-4 while batting cleanup for the Twins.

Fun fact: Jeffers was selected by the Twins with the 59th overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. He was one of six catchers drafted before the Mariners called Raleigh's name with the No. 90 pick. Catchers taken before Raleigh in 2018:

Joey Bart, No. 2 to the Giants
Anthony Seigler, No. 23 to the Yankees
Bo Naylor, No. 29 to the Guardians
Ryan Jeffers, No. 59 to the Twins
Josh Breaux, No. 61 to the Yankees
Will Banfield, No. 69 to the Marlins

It wasn't just the Twins who got it wrong with Raleigh. Every other team passed on him during the first three rounds of the 2018 draft. But hey, who could've seen the type of season Raleigh is having now after he slashed .326/.447/.583 with 13 homers and 18 doubles in 62 games as a junior at Florida State?

In 2019, MLB Pipeline ranked Raleigh as Seattle's 13th-best prospect, saying this about him: "While the Mariners don't expect Raleigh, taken in the third round of the 2018 Draft after a solid offensive junior season with the Seminoles, to reach that All-Star level, his very strong pro debut on both sides of the ball have them encouraged about his potential."

Raleigh then surged to No. 8 on Pipeline's rankings of Mariners prospects in 2020, following his 2019 season in which he led all minor-league catchers with 29 homers.

Jeffers, who is, coincidentally, from Raleigh, North Carolina, put up better numbers during his 2018 junior season at UNC-Wilmington than Raleigh did at Florida State, slashing .315/.460/.635 with 16 homers and 22 doubles in 62 games.

However, the MLB Pipeline scouting report on him suggested that the Twins reached by taking him in the second round.

"Jeffers hit 26 homers as UNC-Wilmington's catcher during his sophomore and junior seasons, leading the Colonial Athletic Association with 16 in 2018. That led to the Twins taking him in the second round, ahead of where most of the industry had him, thinking those offensive skills would translate," Pipeline noted in 2019.

Looks like "most of the industry" was right and the Twins were wrong, as Jeffers has hit 68 homers in 512 MLB games compared to Raleigh's 153 homers in 619 games.

But hey, it's baseball. The draft is hard.

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