Lewis Thorpe (baseball)

Career

As an amateur, Thorpe trained at the Melbourne Aces Baseball Academy. He competed in international youth baseball tournaments. In 2011, Thorpe won the "Golden Arm" award from the Australian Baseball Federation. In 2012, he signed with the Twins, receiving a $500,000 signing bonus.

In the 2013 season, Thorpe made his professional debut with the Gulf Coast Twins of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League (GCL). He pitched to a 4–1 win–loss record and a 2.05 earned run average (ERA) in 44 innings pitched, and a GCL-leading 64 strikeouts. He pitched in the 2013 18U Baseball World Cup after the season for the Australian national baseball team. He pitched Australia to victory against the United States national baseball team, the only game the United States lost. After the season, Baseball America named him the seventh-best prospect in the GCL. Thorpe made his Australian Baseball League debut with the Aces on 22 November 2013.

After participating in extended spring training, the Twins assigned Thorpe to the Cedar Rapids Kernals of the Class A Midwest League in June 2014, where he became the youngest player in the league. He finished the year with a 3–2 win–loss record and a 3.52 ERA in 16 games started. At the end of the 2014 season, Thorpe was diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his pitching elbow. He will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair the UCL in March 2015.