One place to look for hope when it came to the Twins in recent years — in spite of five 90-loss seasons in the past six — was in rankings of their minor league system.

Fans became accustomed to seeing a handful of increasingly household names dominate the lists — from Byron Buxton (at the top of some MLB-wide lists) to Miguel Sano to Jose Berrios to Max Kepler, just to name a few, talented prospects gave Twins fans genuine hope for the future.

That hope still exists, of course … but they guys we also became so accustomed to thinking of as "prospects" are no longer that. Now it's time to get acquainted with the next wave — five of whom made Keith Law's top 100 list on ESPN:

Shortstop Nick Gordon (No. 53); righthanded pitcher Fernando Romero (No. 65); righthanded pitcher Kohl Stewart (No. 87); lefthanded pitcher Stephen Gonsalves (No. 91); and outfielder Alex Kirilloff (No. 97).

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.