Leveret impresses Twins with power potential
Case in point for both cases: Rene Leveret. The Twins signed the big first baseman back in August 2003 at age 17 from the tiny island of St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles. The group of islands in the Caribbean has been a source of baseball talent, with Andruw Jones and others coming from Curacao, but no player has come from the 37-square mile island of St. Maarten to play in the big leagues.
It's the smallest island to be owned by two nations, France and the Netherlands. The Dutch side, St. Maarten, spans 16 square miles and is home to roughly 41,000 people; the French side covers 21 miles with about 36,000 citizens. It shouldn't surprise anyone that every citizen of the isle is watching Leveret's progress with extreme interest.
"It's different. Where I'm from, there's not a lot of baseball players," Leveret said. "I'm the first one coming out of St. Marteen. I'm trying to do my best and putting up some numbers. They look up the stats and reports about me. It puts a little more pressure on me because they are looking up to me, and they want me to move on. I love that pressure. It obliges me to do better every time."
It's taken a while, but it does appear that Leveret is doing just that now, four years after initially signing. He spent three summers in the Dominican Summer League, finally showing he was ready to come to the United States when he won league MVP honors in 2006 after hitting .331 with 22 doubles, seven homers and 55 RBIs in 72 games. His American debut has gone well with Elizabethton, the perennial Appalachian League contender. He leads the Rookie-level circuit with 42 RBIs in 45 games while hitting .282.
"They don't play a lot of ball over there," Twins farm director Jim Rantz said. "We were looking -- we're always looking -- for power. That's what he demonstrated. We'll have to wait for him to mature as a hitter. He's improved in that category. His power will advance him in this game."
When the Twins first started working with Leveret, he was tremendously strong, but he also was tremendously big, too heavy to be considered a legitimate prospect. But like with everything else, he's worked tirelessly on his conditioning. The 21-year-old, standing 6-foot-2 and 260 or so pounds, will never be confused with a diminutive middle infielder. But his ability to control his weight gives him a chance to let his bat carry him in the Twins' system.
"He's a big young man," Rantz said. "He showed the power skills we were looking for. At the same time, his defense has steadily improved and he's fairly agile for his size. He's worked very hard on his defense. At the plate, he's pull oriented and he's still learning to use the whole field because he's strong enough to hit it out of any field."
The Twins feel like Leveret has the makeup to figure those things out and continue moving up the organizational ladder. An intelligent player, he speaks three languages, even assisting MiLB.com as a translator when teammate Deibinson Romero had three consecutive homers in one game earlier in the season.
Coming from St. Maarten, Leveret also fits right in to the culturally diverse Twins system. His island is home to as many as 90 different nationalities, so looking around the E-Twins clubhouse and seeing players from seven different nations certainly has made the transition to the United States much easier. So has his personality. Leveret is the kind of person who people gravitate toward, who clearly has fun playing the game every day. "I think we still lead the industry," Rantz said about the international representation in the organization. "We've had 17 countries represented in the Minor Leagues.
"Rene's got some leadership skills. He knows what's expected of a professional player now. He's matured as a person and a player."
Helping in that maturation process has been one of the stronger coaching staffs in Minor League Baseball. Ray Smith has been managing or coaching in Elizabethton for 20 years. He's joined by hitting coach Jeff Reed, who has 17 seasons of big-league experience under his belt. It also is beneficial that anyone who comes to Elizabethton knows there's an expectation for winning. The E-Twins have won three championships over the past seven years.
"He's a tremendous guy," Leveret said of Smith. "He has a lot of experience. Plus he has Jeff Reed, who played in the big leagues for 17 years. That helps a lot. They know different plays that we need to do, a lot of game situations. We have to just shut up and listen. That's experience we have to learn from.
"You can feel it. Every year, [the Twins] go to the finals or win the championship. It's a routine thing. You just feel it, you have to win."
With the light-tower power, similar builds and comparable affable personalities, it's not surprising Leveret has earned the nickname "Little Big Papi" back home. It's a comparison that flatters the Appy League RBI leader.
"They say I have the same body, we look alike and everything," Leveret said. "He's my favorite player right now, and he was my favorite player before they started calling me that. Hitting home runs, driving in runs, we're similar players."
The Twins can only hope so. They cultivated a young David Ortiz through their Minor League system after getting him from the Mariners in 1996, only to let him go and watch him reach stardom with the Red Sox. They've been so patient with Leveret so far. Chances are, they'll try to see this one through if they can.
"I hope," Rantz said, "he turns out half as good as David."
Jonathan Mayo is a reporter for MLB.com.