Minor Leagues

In the Twins' minor leagues on Saturday night, the E-Twins were on the road but got a huge late-inning home run to take a lead. In Cedar Rapids, as they await the arrival of Byron Buxton, they did have a walk-off win. One of the newest Twins prospects pitched well and earned another win for the Miracle. Another new prospect got the save in that game. The Miracle and Red Wings had plenty of offense. Oh, and Brusdar Graterol pitched.

Also, the Twins topped Detroit 8-5.

Unfortunate news from the Minnesota Twins minor league system came out on Saturday night. According to Le Soliel, a French Canadian newspaper in Quebec, Twins 2019 draft pick Edouard Julien will have Tommy John surgery in early September.

Jhoan Duran was having a tough first taste of Double-A action, but everything seemed to click tonight. Duran carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Blayne Enlow picked up a win in his return from the IL, Matt Wallner hit his first homer with the Kernels and Seth Gray walked it off for E-Town. Come see what else happened Friday.

Quietly, Twins infield prospect Nick Gordon has put together some really strong numbers in 2019 for the Rochester Red Wings. Unfortunately, he has had a couple of stints on the injured list this season that have cost him almost half of the season. Recently, we caught up with Gordon, who is rehabbing in Ft. Myers, to talk about 2019, a new perspective, and several other topics.

Today saw a few key promotions on the farm with Gilberto Celestino (acquired in the Ryan Pressly trade) moved up to Fort Myers after a torrid run for Cedar Rapids. 2019 draft pick Matt Wallner went to Cedar Rapids, and Twins fan favorite Willians Astudillo is now in Rochester. The action itself was great as well with Bailey Ober dominant on the bump, the star trio of top prospects putting their stamp on the Blue Wahoos game, and both promoted players picking up first hits at their new levels.

It was a long day in the Minnesota Twins' farm system on Tuesday, as three of their six affiliate’s games went into extra innings. Hits were also hard to come by overall on the night, but luckily their pitchers picked up the slack and helped them to victories in each of the contests that went extra frames. Devin Smeltzer also matched a top pitching prospect in the Blue Jays system in Triple-A, helping allow his offense to pull out a win.

It was a night full of intrigue in the Twins minor leagues on Monday night. First, there were several interesting transactions. Pensacola played a doubleheader, and in one of the games they got a strong pitching performance and in the other, they got some big hits from top prospects. The GCL Twins were actually able to play and won two good games as they received one of the top prospects from the Dominican Summer League.

Rochester is three games out of first place with 15 games left in the season. One problem with their position is there are two other teams between them and the first-place club. The Red Wings play both teams in front of them over the next two weeks, so they have an opportunity to be in charge of their destiny. They will also get some pitching help with top prospects Brusdar Graterol and Jorge Alcala set to be added to the club on Monday.

Was Rochester able to help themselves on Sunday? Read on to find out.

In his last appearance as a AA-Pensacola Blue Wahoo, Twins #3 prospect Brusdar Graterol hit 103.8 MPH on a pitch and then was promoted to AAA-Rochester along with fellow fireballer Jorge Alcala. The move aligns with recent news that Graterol could be promotedto the Twins bullpen for their postseason run.

Hey, look at that, a bad pun, love it. Anyways, there was a number of great performances from a number of bullpens, a great start from a typical starter, and a number of rehabbing MLB players. All that and more in this edition of the minor league report.

Willians Astudillo has been in Pensacola for two games. He’s homered in both of them. La Tortuga hit a bomba, Wander Javier had a four-hit night, Bailey Ober impressed in his Double-A debut and Matt Canterino had the most impressive outing of his young career. Come check out what else happened across the system Friday.

The big story is that Willians Astudillo (aka, La Tortuga) made his first rehab appearance on Thursday night with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, and he made an immediate impact on the prospect-laden lineup. There was also a first win in Rochester. There was a first save in Cedar Rapids where a young pitching prospect continued to pitch great. There was a walkoff in the Elizabethton game too.