Twins Minor League Report (3/30/24): Saints Dominate on Opening Day Behind Festa and Dobnak

[Theodore Tollefson]

After an extra day of rest to break away from snowy field conditions. The grounds crew exceeded expectations in expediting the spring thaw at CHS Field and laid the groundwork for these Saints to win their first game of the season. 

 

The St. Paul Saints were the first Twins Minor League affiliate to get their 2024 season started on Saturday. And while it’s still early, many former top prospects and rising names in the Twins system all had one of their best Opening Days in recent memory. 

TRANSACTIONS 
Infielder Austin Martin recalled by the Minnesota Twins
Infielder Dalton Shuffield transferred from Double-A Wichita

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 8, Columbus 1
Box score

David Festa had the first start of the season for the Saints making it through three shutout innings and throwing 50 pitches. The first inning was a rough go-around for him as most of his pitches struggled to find the strike zone, with 11 of 18 being called balls. He got out of the jam with a fly ball in foul territory caught by Jose Miranda.

The second and third went much better for Festa as he only allowed one walk after a bad first inning where he had two. He tallied three strikeouts in his last two innings and retired the side to end his day in the top of the third. 

After the game, Festa said… 

Alex Isola made his Triple-A debut on Saturday and was the man to get the first runs of the season on the board for the Saints in 2024. Ahead of him on the base paths were Yunior Severino and Anthony Prato, who both drew walks to start the bottom of the second. Isola saw a pitch he couldn’t resist and drilled it to left-center field, putting the Saints up 3-0 over the Clippers. 

But the offense would not stop there for the Saints. They tacked a few more runners in the bottom of the fourth following a one-out walk from Isola and a single by Chris Williams. The moment was set up for Yonyner Fajardo, who made his Triple-A debut on Saturday, and he delivered with the Saints second 3-run home run of the day to make it 6-0 over the Clippers.

Following Festa’s exit from the game, Randy Dobnak came in for the Saints on the mound. Dobank did everything the Saints could have asked for and more as he threw three perfect innings on 30 pitches, retiring three batters on strikeouts. But no pitcher does it all alone as second baseman Anthony Prato picked up his pal Dobnak in the top of the sixth catching a ball that bounced off Dobnak’s glove bare-handed to retire the first out. 

Dobnak returned to the mound in the seventh. After retiring the first batter on another strikeout, he gave up a double to Clippers’ left fielder Jhonkensy Noel that just barely stayed fair down the third base line. Two batters later, Clippers shortstop Daniel Schneeman hit an RBI double to end the Saints shutout effort and make it a 7-1 game. 

While his seventh inning didn’t remain perfect, Dobnak said this was one of the best outcomes to start his season following a slow build-up to his Spring Training. 

Saints pitching coach Pete Larson said he was impressed by both Festa and Dobnak’s performances after the game.

But the scoring was far from over in the bottom of the seventh. One player seeking his return to the majors is Jose Miranda. After a double in his second plate appearance, Miranda showed on Saturday the woes of 2023 were behind him as he hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to extend the Saints lead 8-1. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Randy Dobnak 4 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
Hitter of the Day – Yoyner Fajardo 2-4 HR (1) 3 RBI (3), K

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 prospects in this game performed :

6. David Festa: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

What’s next? 
The Saints will finish out their Opening Weekend at CHS Field against the Clippers at 2:07 p.m. Brent Headrick will be on the mound for the Saints against Connor Gillispie for the Clippers 

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[Linus]

Who is Yonyer Fajardo?

[Fatbat]

Is it just me or does Miranda look like he put on some muscle weight?

[FlyingFinn]

2 hours ago, Linus said:

Who is Yonyer Fajardo?

I believe we got him in the minor league Rule 5 draft last year. Played the full year at Wichita in AA last year. He isn't a power guy, despite hitting a homer today. High average hitter. Doesn't play CF either. Good player. Probably will do well for the Saints. Just don't see that path to the majors for him.

[Parfigliano]

Dobnak.  Lookin in from outside.  Knows inside.  Wants in.

[wyatt]

Dobnak still pushing, huh. could make a few starts in the bigs if needed..

[ashbury]

4 hours ago, Linus said:

Who is Yonyer Fajardo?

 

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

I believe we got him in the minor league Rule 5 draft last year.

You are correct.  https://www.mlb.com/news/rule-5-draft-results-2022

Weirdly, the official MILB player page has it as a waiver claim.  https://www.milb.com/player/yoyner-fajardo-679938

I just thought the discrepancy a little interesting. Don't believe everything you read.  😀

[nclahammer]

One of my favorites from Twins Daily is your always thorough coverage of the Minnesota Twins minor leaguers working their way up to the bigs.     As Carly Simon once sang, "Nobody Does it Better."  Thanks TD!

[DJL44]

Festa said?

[Alex Wilde]

10 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

I believe we got him in the minor league Rule 5 draft last year. Played the full year at Wichita in AA last year. He isn't a power guy, despite hitting a homer today. High average hitter. Doesn't play CF either. Good player. Probably will do well for the Saints. Just don't see that path to the majors for him.

I didn’t realize that, good information to have on hand. I had to look up how the minor league Rule 5 draft differed from the MLB one!

I actually followed him relatively closely last year as he seemed to be a top performer throughout the year for AA Wichita. You never know who will get their chance at the MLB level and they obviously selected him in the Rule 5 for a reason so I wouldn’t be so quick to rule him out of their future plans (especially if injuries incur at a high rate).

.305 AVG

.375 OBP

.446 SLG

.821 OPS

[FlyingFinn]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Festa said?

Apparently he spoke the words in the rest of the article 😃

[Dman]

1 hour ago, Alex Wilde said:

I didn’t realize that, good information to have on hand. I had to look up how the minor league Rule 5 draft differed from the MLB one!

I actually followed him relatively closely last year as he seemed to be a top performer throughout the year for AA Wichita. You never know who will get their chance at the MLB level and they obviously selected him in the Rule 5 for a reason so I wouldn’t be so quick to rule him out of their future plans (especially if injuries incur at a high rate).

.305 AVG

.375 OBP

.446 SLG

.821 OPS

Yeah don't forget he also had 50 stolen bases last year. With that bat he has a solid chance as a fourth outfielder and if the power starts to show up he could manage a starter role.  Things to work on would be a bit more patience at the plate and power.  Those are tough things to do and keep the average up.  This will be a big year for him, but as @FlyingFinn said with Larnach, Martin and likely Kiersey ahead of him he is going to have to up his game to make it to the 40 man and MLB.

[jmlease1]

Nice work from Dobnak; if he can show success in a piggybacking role that will open up opportunities for him to either start or relieve in MLB. He's been something of the forgotten man with the finger injuries and getting dropped from the 40-man, but he could still be an impactful player. That said, I hope the low pitch counts and short innings for Festa are just an early season ramp up and not a common practice.

Great to see Miranda start fast. Hope he settles in and mashes AAA pitching. I think if he stays healthy he will, but you never know exactly how guys respond to significant injuries and I think his shoulder woes weren't small time. It would be great for him to re-emerge as a solution for the future for the Twins as a 1B/DH option with a serious RH bat.

[FlyingFinn]

34 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

That said, I hope the low pitch counts and short innings for Festa are just an early season ramp up and not a common practice.

It will be. I believe the Twins like to manage many of the young guys total innings and start by doing this early in the season. Festa was throwing 6 innings in the playoffs in 2022 with Cedar Rapids. Last year, he wasn't as dominant and thus threw more pitches, which limited his per game innings pitched more in AA. I would really like to see his walks return to 2022 level.

[Guest]

Fajardo is an interesting prospect.  Stole 50 bases at Wichita last year and appears to have some pop in his bat plus some plate discipline

[IndianaTwin]

8 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Nice work from Dobnak; if he can show success in a piggybacking role that will open up opportunities for him to either start or relieve in MLB. He's been something of the forgotten man with the finger injuries and getting dropped from the 40-man, but he could still be an impactful player. That said, I hope the low pitch counts and short innings for Festa are just an early season ramp up and not a common practice.

Great to see Miranda start fast. Hope he settles in and mashes AAA pitching. I think if he stays healthy he will, but you never know exactly how guys respond to significant injuries and I think his shoulder woes weren't small time. It would be great for him to re-emerge as a solution for the future for the Twins as a 1B/DH option with a serious RH bat.

I’m not sure that Dobnak was piggybacking Festa so much as the Saints dealing with the reality that one of them was supposed to start Friday and the other Saturday. This kept their starters more on schedule, particularly given they have the regular off day on Monday.