The Minnesota Twins have had good luck signing players out of independent ball, including Caleb Thielbar , Andrew Albers , and Chris Colabello .

In 2021, MLB reduced the number of draft rounds from 40 to 20. In response, some teams have invested in scouting undrafted players in Indy Ball. For decades, Billy Milos was Minnesota’s Indy Ball scout. Randy Dobnak became the Twins’ poster boy for Indy Ball findings after he found him in the United Shore Professional League.

Milos scouted and/or signed every player but Bischoff while he worked for the Twins.

Eeles, McCusker, Bischoff, and Rozek finished their 2024 seasons with Triple-A St. Paul. However, they have had different journeys through the minors.

Eeles is the youngest of these four. He just turned 25 this off-season but has had the fastest rise through the minors. Eeles signed with the Twins on May 7, 2024. In only 47 games between Low-A and High-A, Eeles had a .316 batting average, four home runs, 30 RBI, and 21 stolen bases, earning him a call-up to the Saints on the Fourth of July.

He spent the remainder of the season in Triple-A, posting a .299/.419/.500 triple slash, with eight home runs, 30 RBI, and stole 20 bases. Matthews’ progression to the big leagues may have overshadowed Eeles’ meteoric rise through the minors in just over four months. Still, Eeles is only a full year removed from playing in Indy Ball, and he has made his way onto Minnesota’s top prospect lists .

Eeles’ size immediately stands out. The 5’5”, 180 lbs. infielder plays with a Charlie Hustle mentality , according to Butch Hobson , his former Chicago Dogs manager who managed the Boston Red Sox from 1992 to 1994. Eeles’ stats in his first year in pro ball back that up.

The Twins signed McCusker and Bischoff a month apart from each other in the late spring and early summer of 2023. Once he signed with the Twins, Bischoff spent 2023 in the Florida Complex League. Meanwhile, McCusker played 46 games between Fort Myers and Cedar Rapids.

McCusker started at Double-A last year. He turned 26 on May 22 and faced competition closer to his age. Still, he led the Wichita Wind Surge with 15 home runs, a .281 batting average, and a .846 OPS in 98 games. McCusker earned a late-season call-up to the Saints on August 24 and kept his hot bat going until the end of the year.

McCusker would finish the season with a combined .282/.353/.488 triple slash between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting 19 home runs, 75 RBI, and producing a 131 wRC+. However, McCusker’s strikeout-to-walk numbers hold back the 6’8”, 250 lbs. power hitter. He struck out 150 times and accumulated a 29% strikeout rate while only walking 45 times and accumulating an 8.7% walk rate.

Still, McCusker was arguably the second-best hitter in Minnesota’s minor league system last season behind Luke Keaschall , who was their Minor League Hitter of the Year. He will likely start the year at St. Paul and get frequent playing time because he’s only one of two outfielders on the Saints roster going into spring training.

Bischoff had a slow season coming out of the gate in 2024 with High-A Cedar Rapids, but he leveled out to a 4.05 ERA in 40 innings of work across 28 games, earning a call-up to Wichita. He didn’t spend much time in Double-A because he had a 1.40 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and a .164 opponent average in 19 ⅓ innings of work across 14 games.

Dominating Double-A hitters earned Bischoff a call-up for the Saints’ final week and a half of games. He only had three relief appearances but allowed a walk and no hits in two innings. Bischoff will be battling for room in a crowded Saints bullpen going into camp. Still, he has a strong track record in his first full season of pro ball, making him a name for Twins fans to keep track of in St. Paul this summer.

Finally, there’s Rozek, a hometown kid who never expected he would be this close to breaking into the majors. The crafty 29-year-old southpaw rode the bus between Wichita and St. Paul more than any other player this last summer. He went back and forth between Double- and Triple-A on six occasions.

Rozek said the frequent back and forth between the two cities may have affected his results on the mound between St. Paul, where he had a 6.23 ERA and 1.62 WHIP in 52 innings of work. Conversely, in 70 innings with Wichita, he had a 2.19 ERA and 0.99 WHIP. However, this hasn’t deterred him from believing he can break into the majors.

Rozek will turn 30 in August next year, but it’s further than he expected to make it in his baseball career. Before Milos offered him a contract with the Twins in June 2021, Rozek expected it to be his final season on the Indy Ball circuit. “I’m playing with house money,” he said last year, “and everything since then has been icing on the cake.”

No matter how Rozek’s 2025 season and beyond plays out in the minors, he’ll be cashing in a considerably larger check from his playing days than he would have foreseen four years ago.

The Twins found Eeles, McCusker, Bischoff, and Rozek in the Indy Ball circuit, and they have proven enough that they will start the year in Triple-A. If they repeat their success from last year, at least one, if not more, could make their major league debut next season.