Twins select Wake Forest shortstop Marek Houston in first round of MLB draft

ATLANTA — Over the past four Major League Baseball amateur drafts, the Twins have used a top-36 pick on a shortstop four times.

Make it five in five years.

Marek Houston, a 21-year-old Wake Forest infielder, was the Twins’ pick with the 16th overall choice Sunday, joining Kaelen Culpepper (2024), Kyle DeBarge (2024), Brooks Lee (2022) and Noah Miller (2021) as shortstops impressing the Twins enough to be drafted so high.

The Twins also added Alabama righthander Riley Quick with their competitive-balance pick, No. 36 overall.

Houston said he looks forward to competing for jobs as he works his way up the Twins organization. Several draft evaluators described the Venice, Fla., native as perhaps the strongest defender in the draft and thus the likeliest of all the shortstops chosen to remain at the position.

“Competition is great. It makes you better,” Houston said in a phone interview with reporters. “You know, with the competition in the ACC and out-of-conference games, you get better every year. Looking at my stats, I get better every year, and that’s how it should be.”

He’s right about the improvement. Houston batted .220 as a freshman for the Demon Deacons, but he started 59 games that season because of his defense. The batting average improved to .326 as a sophomore, and .354 this year as a junior. He has also developed more power, hitting 15 home runs this year and leading Wake Forest with 66 RBI in 61 games.

“I couldn’t be happier for or prouder of Marek,” Wake Forest coach Tom Walter said in a statement. “His hard work and sacrifice has paid off, and he has become the type of player a Major League team can anchor its defense around. The Twins are a great organization with a track record of development. Marek will thrive in the Twins organization, and his ascent to the big leagues will be swift.”

Shortstops were certainly popular Sunday. Nine shortstops were picked ahead of Houston, seven of them high school players, including overall No. 1 pick Eli Willits of Fort Cobb-Broxton (Okla.), chosen by the Washington Nationals. And even the Twins picked another one later Sunday night, choosing 18-year-old Quentin Young of Oaks Christian Academy in suburban Atlanta.

Young, a nephew of former Twins outfielder Delmon Young and his brother Dmitri, was chosen with the Twins’ second-round pick, No. 54 overall. He has committed to Louisiana State but could choose to sign a professional contract instead.

Houston, chosen as a third-team All-American by Baseball America, said Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson is his role model.

“When I first saw him play, he kind of reminded me of myself,” Houston said. “I wanted to play the game the way he did. I definitely saw some similarities.”

Houston also familiar with his new spring training home — he played for the state championship in Fort Myers, Fla., during his freshman year of high school, he said.

The bonus slot for the 16th pick is worth $4.93 million, though Houston said the sides have not yet discussed a contract.

Quick, a 6-foot-6, 245-pound righthander, was the hardest-throwing starting pitcher available in the draft, according to ESPN’s draft analysts, with a 97-mph average on his fastball this season for the Crimson Tide. He recovered from 2024 elbow surgery to pitch his way to the All-SEC second team, going 8-3 with 70 strikeouts in 62 innings.

In the third round, the Twins took another college pitcher, righthander James Ellwanger from Dallas Baptist. This past season, he went 4-2 with a 3.98 ERA. With a fastball that can hit 100 mph, he led Conference USA in strikeouts (95), ranking eighth in the nation with 13.6 strikeouts per nine innings.

The final 17 rounds of the draft will be conducted Monday.