Twins Minor League Report (4/16): Fort Myers Shines Brightest

[Ted Schwerzler]

While the Cedar Rapids Kernels had their schedule action postponed on Sunday, the rest of Minnesota's affiliates were in action. Fort Myers shined brightest, and the Wind Surge introduced a position player to the mound.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

TRANSACTIONS

• Twins recalled St. Paul LHP Brent Headrick
• Optioned RHP Louie Varland to St. Paul. 

SAINTS SENTINEL 
Indianapolis 7, St. Paul 0
Box Score

Brent Headrick was supposed to start on Sunday for the Saints. Instead, he was promoted to the big leagues. Jose De Leon made the sport start as the Saints continue to look for ways to get all of their arms work. He went three scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and a walk. The recently-optioned Cole Sands took over for the next two St. Paul innings and unfortunately things didn't go as well. He allowed three runs on three hits, one of which left the yard.

Toby Gardenhire's club never got on the scoreboard Sunday, and it was a pair of big flies that downed them. Tyler Heineman crushed a three-run blast in the 4th inning before Malcolm Nunez hit a 7th inning grand slam putting the game firmly out of reach.

Matt Wallner picked up a hit as the leadoff man, and he drew a pair of walks as well. Recently spending time with the Twins, he'll be looking to push for another promotion soon. Joey Gallo continued his rehab assignment and went 1-for-5 with a trio of strikeouts.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
NW Arkansas 15, Wichita 5
Box Score

The Wind Surge and Naturals played a high scoring affair today and it kicked off right from the jump. Making his Twins organization debut, Chad Donato was hit around in his first start for Wichita. Going just 1 2/3 innings, a pair of homers plated five runs on four hits and a couple of walks. With Northwest Arkansas putting up 15 runs in the contest, he was hardly the only arm to have a tough day.

Things started well for the Wind Surge as Jake Rucker singled in Brooks Lee during the bottom of the 1st inning. A crazy at bat for Yunior Severino ended with a strikeout, steal of second by Rucker, and Yoyner Fajardo stealing home. The pair of homers off of Donato came in the 2nd inning and quickly wiped away the Wind Surge lead as it was now 5-2.

WIchita did answer in the 3rd inning with Alex Isola grounding out but scoring Rucker. Cutting the deficit down to two, things looked to be trending upwards. In the 4th inning though, the Naturals added another pair of runs and pushed the score to 7-3. Answering again in the 5th inning, Fajardo scored from third as Rucker was thrown out on a stealing attempt. With the bases then loaded, Severino scored and gave Anthony Prato a run batted in on a walk.

That's where thing fell off a cliff. Northwest Arkansas scored a run in the 6th inning before adding three more in the 8th inning. Infielder Will Holland came on as a position player pitching needing to get the final out in the 9th inning. He allowed three more runs on a pair of homers. Former Twins prospect Steven Cruz closed out the game for the Naturals by striking out the side.

Rucker was the only Wind Surge player to record multiple hits on the day, and Brooks Lee was the only batter to grab an extra-base hit. Hit double puts the yearly OPS at .898.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Scheduled to wrap up a series with Quad Cities today, the Kernels game was banged to to inclement weather. They will head to Beloit next week.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 5, Clearwater 0
Box Score

Coming off a great start his last time out, Zebby Matthews took the ball today for Fort Myers and shoved again. Working five scoreless innings, Matthews punched out seven and walked just one. He didn’t give up a single hit, and now has gone thirteen scoreless innings to start his professional career after being drafted by the Twins in 2022.

As impressive as Matthews was on the mound, there was plenty of pop from the Mighty Mussels lineup as well. Carlos Aguiar started the scoring in the 2nd inning when he hit a solo blast to record his first home run of the year. Andrew Cossetti followed his lead when he crushed a dinger to left center, scoring Danny De Andrade. It was Cossetti’s first professional home run.

In the 3rd inning, Fort Myers applied the pressure as they loaded the bases. De Andrade took a walk and got an RBI the easy way as Jorge Polanco, still on a rehab assignment, walked home.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, leading 4-0, Aguiar blasted his second home run of the game. Another solo shot, he quickly put two on the board for the season. A power bat with plenty of potential, he now has an .820 OPS on the season. Aguiar was the lone Mighty Mussels batter to record multiple hits.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Zebby Matthews (Fort Myers) - 5.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
Hitter of the Day – Carlos Aguiar (Fort Myers) - 2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR(2), BB

PROSPECT SUMMARY
We will again keep tabs on the Twins top prospects. You’ll probably read about them in the team sections, but if they aren’t there, you’ll see how they did here. 

Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed:

#1 - Brooks Lee (Wichita) - 1-5, 2B, 3 K
#11 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 1-2, 2 BB, K

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Scranton/WB @ St. Paul (6:37PM CST) - TBD
Wichita @ Tulsa (6:05PM CST) - TBD
Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (6:35PM CST) TBD
Jupiter @ Fort Myers (6:00PM CST) - TBD

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Sunday’s games!

 

 

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[FlyingFinn]

Look at Zebby Matthews, even better than the last game - 5 IP, no hits, 1 BB, 7 SO.

Why did Will Holland pitch, anyone know? 2 outs in the 9th, down 11-5 and Scherf went 2/3's of an inning and hadn't given up a run. Weird, unless Scherf got hurt.

[mikelink45]

Gallo is on top of his form - 7 Ks in two games.

Cole Sands does not look like the answer - hopefully we have someone else who can take that role for the Twins. 

I like the idea of a SP for the Twins being named Zebby!

Now for a question for the TD experts - how long before Brooks gets promoted?

[Major League Ready]

5 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Gallo is on top of his form - 7 Ks in two games.

Cole Sands does not look like the answer - hopefully we have someone else who can take that role for the Twins. 

I like the idea of a SP for the Twins being named Zebby!

Now for a question for the TD experts - how long before Brooks gets promoted?

I would like to see Winder get a shot at the long relief role.  Henriguez is off the IL as of a day or 2 ago.  Hopefully, he is OK and will also compete for that spot.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

I would like to see Winder get a shot at the long relief role.  Henriguez is off the IL as of a day or 2 ago.  Hopefully, he is OK and will also compete for that spot.

Henriquez is not off the IL per the official website. There was a person named Henriquez pitching in the Ft. Myers game yesterday, but not for the Mighty Mussels. Definitely not Ronnie Henriquez.

[FlyingFinn]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Now for a question for the TD experts - how long before Brooks gets promoted?

Nobody else answered this yet so you get a non-expert. End of June is my guess for going to St. Paul. For the Twins, the Farmer injury does make a path for Brooks to go to the Twins if either Correa or Miranda get hurt and Farmer is out a long time. Some people have never liked Miranda and want him sent to St. Paul. I am not one of them. If Brooks goes to the Twins, it will be before the end of June because of an injury, because Farmer isn't back and Royce Lewis isn't ready yet. And, in that situation, I don't think the Twins would be afraid of jumping him from AA to the Twins. They would plan to send him back to St. Paul when the injury to whomever is healed unless he pulls an Arraez and hits so well that they keep him. Anyone else want to guess?

[jkcarew]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Nobody else answered this yet so you get a non-expert. End of June is my guess for going to St. Paul. For the Twins, the Farmer injury does make a path for Brooks to go to the Twins if either Correa or Miranda get hurt and Farmer is out a long time. Some people have never liked Miranda and want him sent to St. Paul. I am not one of them. If Brooks goes to the Twins, it will be before the end of June because of an injury, because Farmer isn't back and Royce Lewis isn't ready yet. And, in that situation, I don't think the Twins would be afraid of jumping him from AA to the Twins. They would plan to send him back to St. Paul when the injury to whomever is healed unless he pulls an Arraez and hits so well that they keep him. Anyone else want to guess?

I mean, I doubt seriously that they’re in a hurry to move him to AAA. He’s played all of 10 games now at the AA level…and it’s a level at which most organizations have their very best, most talented, young prospects…including pitchers. They’re not close to handing him the big-league starting 3B, 2B, or SS jobs…so no need to have him in the wings at St Paul. If something happens and they do want to give him one of those roles, they’d probably be willing to move him directly from AA. That’s not that unusual.

But that’s a long-term injury or two from happening…or a half-season of drastic underperformance from Miranda from happening (and maybe even not then if Lewis is back and healthy). Certainly, nothing imminent.

[tony&rodney]

The ability to watch the minor league games on milb.com has made for some interesting views in recent years. One can easily see both the athleticism and inexperience of the younger players. For example, Emmanuel Rodriguez has an impressive OPS but a near 50% K-rate. He looks both intimidating and hopeless at the plate because he needs a ton of polish to unlock his gem of a swing. Lee looks like he has trouble with his bat quite often and then has other moments like he knows what is coming. Young Brooks has looked very smooth in the field. I would say his glove is well ahead of his bat. 

Is anyone else concerned about the strikeouts? 41 in three games yesterday seems like an issue. Of particular interest is how futile Joey Gallo looks right now. The Twins saw his value early in a single game, but now minor league pitchers are throwing the ball right down the middle and dispatching him in a quick fashion. Sure hope an adjustment can occur because three or four pitches and back to the dugout looks bad and the Twins could sure use some offense.

[mikelink45]

10 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

Nobody else answered this yet so you get a non-expert. End of June is my guess for going to St. Paul. For the Twins, the Farmer injury does make a path for Brooks to go to the Twins if either Correa or Miranda get hurt and Farmer is out a long time. Some people have never liked Miranda and want him sent to St. Paul. I am not one of them. If Brooks goes to the Twins, it will be before the end of June because of an injury, because Farmer isn't back and Royce Lewis isn't ready yet. And, in that situation, I don't think the Twins would be afraid of jumping him from AA to the Twins. They would plan to send him back to St. Paul when the injury to whomever is healed unless he pulls an Arraez and hits so well that they keep him. Anyone else want to guess?

i like your answer.  I would love to see him be one of the phenoms that prosper right away at a very young age. 

 

[2wins87]

Personally I don't think I need to see much more from Lee in AA to think he could be promoted.  He's been very tough to strikeout there.  I want to see him hit a few more out, and the walk rate is low right now but in a small sample, so he hasn't missed a beat playing at that level.

I count playoff games, so he's had 14 in AA, and only had 28 in high-A last year before being promoted (though the promotion was probably largely just to get additional playing time by making him eligible for the AA playoffs).  Given his path so far, I don't necessarily think they wouldn't be willing to promote him in June, though I have no insight into their actual plans and opinions on it.

[terrydactyls]

Is there any update on Connor Prielipp?

[2wins87]

I've been checking out a lot of statcast data for low-A this year; Matthews is an interesting guy.

The velocity is good, averaging 93.8 in his two starts.  Statcast actually classifies 6 pitches for him: 4-seam, sinker, cutter, curveball, changeup, and slider.  The sinker and slider aren't thrown very often, so for the slider in particular I don't know if it is just inconsistency with his cutter/curveball, but they did show up in both starts.

The cutter and curve have both missed quite a few bats, and the change missed a couple too, which isn't always true for pitchers at that level.

[2wins87]

40 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

Is there any update on Connor Prielipp?

I guess there is concern about his repaired elbow right now, so probably some discomfort.  On the IL now, still in the evaluating phase from what I've read.

[chpettit19]

As far as the "Lee promotion" talk goes, I'd think him being up in June is probably a bad sign for the Twins offense. They aren't going to call him up for anything other than a fulltime starting spot. That would come at SS, 3B, or 2B.

If he's starting at SS it means Correa is hurt. That's bad. There's some other players (Lewis and Farmer mostly) who could claim the spot if Correa goes down, but it could be Lee if he's tearing the cover off the ball in the minors. But, no matter what, Correa going down and opening the SS spot is bad.

If he's starting at 3B it means Miranda is hurt or struggling mightily. Both bad options. Same situation with Lewis and Farmer being possibilities, but a red hot Lee maybe being the option by June. Either way, it's bad if Miranda isn't at 3B everyday in June.

If he's starting at 2B it means both Polanco and Julien are hurt or not performing. Not to mention Lewis/Farmer/Gordon/Solano who could be pushed aside for Lee if he's on fire. But if both Polanco and Julien aren't available to start at 2B in June it's bad for the Twins.

Overall I don't see many super great situations where Lee is called up in June. It likely means some combination of 2 of Correa, Polanco, Miranda, Julien, and Lewis are struggling or hurt. That'd be a bad situation for the Twins even if it is nice to have Lee as the backup to the backup plan. Seeing much of Lee at all this year is probably not a great sign.

[Matt Braun]

Zebby Matthews is definitely nearing “dude” territory. A few more starts and he could officially be the David Festa of 2023!

[2wins87]

55 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

As far as the "Lee promotion" talk goes, I'd think him being up in June is probably a bad sign for the Twins offense. They aren't going to call him up for anything other than a fulltime starting spot. That would come at SS, 3B, or 2B.

I don't think anyone is suggesting he skip AAA

[tony&rodney]

Brooks Lee has looked better than I anticipated in the field. He has shown range to both sides and come in on slow rollers past the pitcher with an accomplished aggressiveness seldom seen from someone with little pro experience. Lee fields everything with confidence.

At the plate, Lee fights with two strikes and puts the ball in play. I wish the Twins would incorporate this into their batting style. Brooks does look a little rough with a bat despite decent numbers. The swing looks choppy. He needs experience and repetitions. I will gladly take the results however.

My amateur impressions are based on watching most of the Wichita games thus far and made with a grain of salt.

The comment in a post above about seeing Brooks Lee at Target Field is right on, in my opinion. If the Twins call up Lee in June, so much has gone wrong that the season is likely well off the rails with the team hoping for another high draft choice in 2024. I do think a call is possible in August or more likely September. 

[chpettit19]

1 minute ago, 2wins87 said:

I don't think anyone is suggesting he skip AAA

I didn't say anything about skipping AAA. There's a number of posts on here talking about him debuting for the Twins in June. I was responding to those. Some of them spoke to it being an injury situation if he were on the Twins in June. I agree with that. But I'll be one to suggest that he skip AAA if that's what the situation calls for. I just think it'd mean things have gone wrong in the majors if he's up by June, whether he skips AAA or not. But getting time in AAA shouldn't be a requirement for any prospect. Especially not one we hope is a star.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

As far as the "Lee promotion" talk goes, I'd think him being up in June is probably a bad sign for the Twins offense. They aren't going to call him up for anything other than a fulltime starting spot. That would come at SS, 3B, or 2B.

If he's starting at SS it means Correa is hurt. That's bad. There's some other players (Lewis and Farmer mostly) who could claim the spot if Correa goes down, but it could be Lee if he's tearing the cover off the ball in the minors. But, no matter what, Correa going down and opening the SS spot is bad.

If he's starting at 3B it means Miranda is hurt or struggling mightily. Both bad options. Same situation with Lewis and Farmer being possibilities, but a red hot Lee maybe being the option by June. Either way, it's bad if Miranda isn't at 3B everyday in June.

If he's starting at 2B it means both Polanco and Julien are hurt or not performing. Not to mention Lewis/Farmer/Gordon/Solano who could be pushed aside for Lee if he's on fire. But if both Polanco and Julien aren't available to start at 2B in June it's bad for the Twins.

Overall I don't see many super great situations where Lee is called up in June. It likely means some combination of 2 of Correa, Polanco, Miranda, Julien, and Lewis are struggling or hurt. That'd be a bad situation for the Twins even if it is nice to have Lee as the backup to the backup plan. Seeing much of Lee at all this year is probably not a great sign.

It could mean AK is hurt, and Gallo is bad or in the OF, and Miranda moves to first....but none of those are good either.

It could mean that everyone is "fine" and not good....but that he's dominating AA and they need offense. 

They certainly look like they need a spark.

[chpettit19]

24 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

It could mean AK is hurt, and Gallo is bad or in the OF, and Miranda moves to first....but none of those are good either.

It could mean that everyone is "fine" and not good....but that he's dominating AA and they need offense. 

They certainly look like they need a spark.

Sure, there's some other options. But if Miranda moves to first they'd go with Lewis at 3B before Lee, right? I fail to see any situation where Lee in the majors mid-season is a good thing in the overall picture of the team. They're at least 2 deep at his positions in guys they hope are part of their future, unless they're moving Lewis to the OF. I don't see them calling up Lee if everyone is "fine." But I don't really see how they could all be "fine" and they'd still need offense so I'm not really sure exactly what you mean with that.

My point is simply that if Lee is up by midseason they're onto their 3rd option (at least) at some position. And that's not good for a team built with the intention of winning the division, and making some noise in the playoffs.

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Sure, there's some other options. But if Miranda moves to first they'd go with Lewis at 3B before Lee, right? I fail to see any situation where Lee in the majors mid-season is a good thing in the overall picture of the team. They're at least 2 deep at his positions in guys they hope are part of their future, unless they're moving Lewis to the OF. I don't see them calling up Lee if everyone is "fine." But I don't really see how they could all be "fine" and they'd still need offense so I'm not really sure exactly what you mean with that.

My point is simply that if Lee is up by midseason they're onto their 3rd option (at least) at some position. And that's not good for a team built with the intention of winning the division, and making some noise in the playoffs.

I agree with your point....I'd move Lewis to CF without even hesitating. Lee is your All Star 3B going forward. Buxton clearly isn't a long term OF anymore. 

"fine" means not all that good, adequate, mediocre, not gonna win you things, but not gonna lose you things. This pitching staff is good enough to win in the playoffs, this offense isn't. It's "fine" enough, but not all that good. 

[chpettit19]

29 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I agree with your point....I'd move Lewis to CF without even hesitating. Lee is your All Star 3B going forward. Buxton clearly isn't a long term OF anymore. 

"fine" means not all that good, adequate, mediocre, not gonna win you things, but not gonna lose you things. This pitching staff is good enough to win in the playoffs, this offense isn't. It's "fine" enough, but not all that good. 

Yeah, I don't see this FO dropping Lee into the lineup midseason if the offense is "fine." They're not going to start his clock if the offense is staying afloat. Could be wrong, but I wouldn't bet on them doing that. Unless he's hitting .400 and slugging .600. And I don't see that from him. I'm excited for him, but I don't think he has Lewis' ceiling, and think fans are setting themselves up for another Sano situation where they're disappointed that an above average hitter isn't a generational hitter. Lee will be a different kind of hitter than Sano, but I don't think he's the guy some people seem to think he is. I think he's more likely to be good at everything, and not great at anything, and fans will disappointed that he's not an perennial all star. So, because of all this, I don't see him debuting midseason.

[miracleb]

3 hours ago, 2wins87 said:

I guess there is concern about his repaired elbow right now, so probably some discomfort.  On the IL now, still in the evaluating phase from what I've read.

Went on the IL to "go see the doctor"

Unless the doctor is in Japan.....it seems like he could go to the Dr....today!  This can't be good ......and I had very high hopes for him!!   :(