From a family of athletes, Brandon Winokur of Cedar Rapids Kernels making his mark as legit baseball prospect

CEDAR RAPIDS — His mom and dad excelled in the track and field world. His brother found his athletics niche with volleyball.

Brandon Winokur did those things growing up, and a few others. There wasn’t much he didn’t try.

“I played every sport,” he said. “But I always loved baseball.”

The Cedar Rapids Kernels infielder-outfielder is a guy to watch as the Midwest League season gets ratcheted up. The Kernels open 2025 with games Friday night, Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Wisconsin, then have their first homestand beginning Tuesday night against Beloit.

Winokur is intriguing, a tall (6-foot-6) and lean 20-year-old kid who is listed as one of the parent Minnesota Twins’ top prospects. He was drafted in the third round in 2023 out of high school in Huntington Beach, Calif., and held his own last season in low-Class A as a teenager.

Being good in sports definitely is an inherited thing. His mom, Christine, was a hurdler the University of California-Irvine, and his dad, Keith, an all-American decathlete at San Francisco State University.

“I still love playing as many sports as I can,” Winokur said. “(The Twins) don’t love me playing basketball, so I steer away from that. But I love all sports. I kind of knew in high school that I wanted to play baseball. I knew that my skill set was going to be good for baseball, and I always loved it, greater than any other sport.”

By the way, Winokur’s younger brother, Ben, is a freshman college volleyball player at Loyola University in Chicago. Yes, Brandon tried that sport, too.

“My brother is a whole lot better than me. I’m not able to do what he does,” he said with a laugh. “I played in middle school, but was not that great. I was kind of a loose cannon, I guess, play good sometimes and then played like I didn’t know what I was doing. But it was really fun. When I go back in the offseason, I’ll try and play with my brother, hopefully get on the beach. He’ll smoke me, but I’ll still try.”

  Buy Photo

Even with his height, Winokur is considered among the best athletes in the Twins system, if not the minor leagues.

He has speed, stealing 23 bases last season for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. His quickness and mobility, along with a arm, allow him to play the premium positions of shortstop and center field, and he’s gotten into games as a third baseman and right fielder as well.

“Super athlete, probably the best athlete that we have overall,” said Kernels Manager Brian Meyer, who managed Winokur last season at Fort Myers. “He’s 6-foot-6, but he doesn’t play shortstop like he’s 6-foot-6. Not at all.”

With the height comes the potential for power. Winokur hit 14 home runs in 94 games a season ago in the Florida State League. That’s a league that is hard on offense in general because of oppressive heat and humidity.

Also with Winokur’s height comes the potential for a lot of strikeouts. He had 115 of those in 362 at-bats last season.

“As I’ve gotten taller, I know I have to really hone in on the details,” he said. “Even on the infield, it’s staying low. I was not supposed to be this tall. I was only supposed to be 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. I don’t know what happened ... Be a little tighter because I do have long levers. The longer I can stay in my telephone booth, I’m going to be successful.”

Winokur apparently had a terrific spring training, which should give him confidence going into this season. He is part of a Kernels infield flush with talent: six guys who are ranked among Minnesota’s top 30 prospects.

“I think one of my things is if I can punch out a little bit less than I did last year ... I can be even more successful,” Winokur said. “Probably the average will go up, too, though I don’t really pay much attention to the points. It’s just fight. I know there are going to be some really tough matchups for me, and instead of just kind of having a similar approach, it’s kind of ‘OK, with this pitcher, I need to do this.’

“Then it’s just compete with two strikes. Just keep pushing it forward, because I can move really well, so I know that if I push it forward sometimes, I can have maybe 20 more hits in a season just by hitting one back to the shortstop and beating it out.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com