Video Scouting Report on Minnesota Twins RHP Kai-Wei Teng

In the history of MLB, Taiwanese players have totaled one All-Star appearance and 57 years of MLB experience across 15 players from the country who have played in the majors. No player has yet to have a 10-year career. The Minnesota Twins and Kai-Wei Teng are hoping to change that.

Background

The Minnesota Twins made Kai-Wei Teng the fifth Taiwanese player the franchise had signed when they inked him to a $500K bonus (plus #80K in future tuition expenses) when they signed the 19-year-old in September of 2017.

Teng was initially assigned to the Gulf Coast League and made his pro debut June 20, 2018, in a game against the Orioles’ GCL team, tossing five 1-run innings, striking out six while walking just one.

That was really the story for most of Teng’s pro debut. The Twins kept Teng with their GCL squad all season to help him acclimate to being in the states, and his numbers were very solid, pitching 42 2/3 innings, with a 3.59 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 8.4% walk rate, and 26.3% strikeout rate.

His performance must have impressed the Minnesota Twins development staff, as they held him in extended spring, but then sent him out to low-A Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League, skipping over the team’s advanced rookie club in Elizabethton. The promotion has not phased Teng, as he’s now made 4 starts since being assigned to Cedar Rapids, totaling a 2.57 ERA and 1.24 WHIP over 21 innings with a 7.7% walk rate and a 25.3% strikeout rate.

Scouting Report

Size/Build

Teng is a big boy, no doubt about that. He’s listed at 6’4″ and 260 pounds on his Baseball-Reference page. However, he holds much of that weight from his hips to his knees with incredibly strong legs as well as a very broad shoulder base.

One thing that caught the attention of my little ones watching the game with me was Teng’s ample backside, but he does not carry excess bad weight in his waist, seemingly developed heavily in the butt and upper legs. He is explosive off the mound defensively, and he’s surprisingly athletic fielding his position, given his size.

Delivery

Teng works from a stretch position whether a hitter is on base or not. He leans in for his sign over his lead leg, dangling his pitching arm, a la Craig Kimbrel, though with a ball in hand.

From that lean, he comes tall, then proceeds with a high leg kick, bringing his knee just below the letters with his foot roughly 60=70% extended out, not tucked under his leg immediately. He comes fully tall on his plant leg, tucking his lead leg, with a touch of a twist at the hips, then comes to home with a long, strong drive off the front leg.

The arm slot is the first thing you notice in Teng’s delivery when watching. Many pitchers at his height would utilize their height for a downward angle on the ball by pitching from a high 3/4 slot, but Teng goes the opposite direction. He’s not quite to a sidearm slot, but definitely at a low 3/4 slot. The way Teng tucks his hip and the simplicity of his delivery does mean that he doesn’t have a long arm path, something often seen from someone working in a lower slot, and he does repeat the slot very well.

The major difference with a runner on base is that Teng utilizes a limited leg left and kick from the stretch, which does speed up his time to the plate but does not appear to sacrifice control or velocity.

He finishes all of his pitches with a big leg swing that brings him around into tremendous fielding position.

Control (60)

While it is not surprising at his age and experience, Teng is heavily control over command at this point. He pitches strongly around the zone with all his pitches, but he’s often missing his catcher’s target within the zone. Even when he misses, though, he doesn’t miss tremendously, and as he gets more acclimated with his catchers and works into a full-season regimen, Teng very well could be a guy with double-plus control.

Fastball (60)

Without elite velocity, Teng relies on excellent movement on his fastball and location for success, and his fastball is the key pitch with that. He sits 89-93 with his fastball, touching 95-96. What makes the pitch work so well is the late wiggle he gets on the pitch, especially when located arm side.

Teng does work the fastball up and down well in the zone, and from his unique arm angle/height combo, the ball up in the zone seems to really be hard for hitters to deal with.

Changeup (60)

The change works well due to its movement that is likely against assumed movement. He throws the pitch in the low-80s in the game I viewed, getting arm side run on the pitch at the very end, which from his arm angle is opposite the sweeping action to glove side that most would assume is coming. His arm speed and arm deception on the pitch is tremendous, also helping the pitch to play up.

Curveball (55)

The downfall of working from his arm angle is that Teng can have trouble getting on top of his curve consistently, which usually leads to him pulling the ball hard low and glove side when he’s on the side of the pitch. When he’s on top of the pitch, it’s a very effective pitch for both swing-and-miss and weak contact, with a 12-6 short break, only seeing a single plane of break, but looking like the fastball until late in its path to the plate, giving it plenty of effectiveness.

While the curve is effective when he’s on it, from his arm angle, a sweeping slider/slurve would make sense to throw, or adding in some level of a fastball variant would also be good, most likely a cutter to work with his arm angle.

MLB Comp

When you watch him deliver a pitch, it’s very easy to see Jake Peavy in the way Teng throws a pitch. Their physicality is nowhere near similar, as Peavy was 6’1″ and 185-200 pounds in his 14-year career (which he just recently announced was officially over after pursuing a comeback for multiple years), but from the point of break at the top of the delivery, the two are near-mirror images of one another.

I find the comparison especially intriguing considering their profiles, with Peavy never reaching 93 on average fastball velocity in any season of his major league career, but living on excellent late life on his fastball along with elite movement on his slider. He’s also a guy who rarely had a high line drive rate, though Peavy tended to see a lot more fly balls, which is not surprising with his heavy slider/cutter usage. Both pitchers work with sub-20% line drive rates.

Obviously, Peavy was able to ride heavier and heavier slider usage to a Cy Young award while with the Padres before arm trouble hurt him later on, but the deliveries and fastballs are certainly very similar.

Future Role

With the addition of something like a cutter/slider hybrid or a sweeping split-finger from his arm angle, Teng has the chance to play up to a #2/3 starter or even, like Peavy, to an ace level for a time, but even if he doesn’t add those things, his repeatable delivery and strong physicality make him a very good candidate as a back-end starter, which isn’t exactly a sexy profile, but it is something that every team needs.

One thing I’m intrigued by with Teng is the opportunity to work with a pitching coach like Wes Johnson who could help him with some of the craft of pitching to “find” another 2-3 MPH in his sitting fastball. With that added velocity at his current arm angle, he would be much, much more intriguing, and if that were to happen, Minnesota Twins fans and baseball fans would definitely want to know his name as he’d be certain to be setting new standards for MLB success for Taiwanese players!

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