Twins Minor League Report (4/13): Soto Dominant in Second FSL Start

[Seth Stohs]

Find out what all happened through the Twins minor-league system on Saturday. There were lots of transactions. All four affiliates played. E-Rod kept crushing Double-A. Keirsey had a huge game for St. Paul. Cespedes keep hitting Midwest League. And Charlee Soto was fantastic, dominant! 

Image courtesy of Seth Stohs, Twins Daily

 

It's been a fun week-plus away from home. I was at the Twins home opener. Then I went to the Kernels home opener and two more games in Cedar Rapids. And on Saturday, I enjoyed the day CHS Field watching a Saints game. I still need to get to Wichita. I've been saying that for three years or more. But now, the trek home. It's been busy. It's been fun. I've got photos of a lot of Kernels and some Saints. Minor League Baseball is the best!  

RECORDS 
Minnesota Twins: 6-7 
St. Paul Saints: 6-7
Wichita Wind Surge: 1-7 
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 3-4
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 4-4  

Let’s get to the report. As always, please feel free to discuss and ask questions. 

TRANSACTIONS
A couple of situations occurred that forced another busy day on the Twins transaction wire. 

The Thursday rain out created a doubleheader on Saturday. The Twins called up Simeon Woods Richardson as the 27th man. As you likely know by now, that was a good decision. Woods Richardson earned his first MLB win with six strong innings in Detroit. As per the rules, he was sent back to St. Paul after the game. 

The other unfortunate event was the Carlos Correa oblique injury. He was placed on the 10-day injured list. Taking his spot was catcher Jair Camargo. 

Additionally, the Twins DFAd Michael Tonkin and called up fellow reliever Matt Bowman. 

As I was thinking about which player could replace Correa on the roster, I thought that Michael Helman might make a lot of sense due to his versatility. Unfortunately, he injured his hamstring and was placed on the Saints 7-Day IL. Dalton Shuffield was promoted from the Wichita development list to the Saints. 

Outfielder Gregory Duran was promoted to the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels from the Florida Complex. 

On Sunday morning, the Twins activated LHP Caleb Thielbar and options RHP Jorge Alcala to St. Paul. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 3, Iowa 4
Box Score
Burnsville native and former Minnesota State-Mankato alum Aaron Rozek began the season with Wichita but before even making an appearance. On Saturday afternoon, he took Simeon Wood Richardson’s rotation spot and made his first start of the season. The southpaw battled through three innings. He gave up three runs on seven hits, a walk and two hit batters. The big hit was a two-run homer by first baseman Matt Mervis. 

The Saints started to claw back in the fifth inning. DaShawn Keirsey launched a two-run home run into the Twins bullpen in left center. 

Keirsey said, “I thought there was a chance, but I saw Pete Crow getting close and timing a jump. At that point, I was thinking Please, please go. It eventually did and that was a great feeling.” 

An inning later, Chris Williams hit a hustle double, showing off his speed as he slid safely into second base. That brought Alex Isola to the plate. He took a fastball near the outside corner and lined it just inside the right field line for an RBI double to tie the game at three. 

That is how the score remained until the top of the eighth. With Darius Hill on base, Chase Strumpf lined a single to center to drive in what proved to be the winning run Strumpf, who was the shortstop at JSerra High School during Royce Lewis’s first couple of years of varsity baseball. 

DaShawn Keirsey led the offense. He went 2-for-3 with two walks and the home run. 

Asked what he feels he needs to do to make one more jump into the big leagues; “I think it’s just staying true to myself, not trying to do too much or be something I’m not. Just go out there and play the game I play. I think everything at that point will take care of itself.”

Ryan Jenson came in after Rozek and tossed 2 2/3 scoreless, one-hit innings against his former team and many former teammates. He had two walks and six strikeouts. Scott Blewett took the loss, but he pitched well. In 2 1/3 innings, he gave up only an unearned run. He had five strikeouts. Diego Castillo pitched a scoreless ninth inning. 

On the weekends in Triple-A, they do the ABS Challenge system, which I really like. If a batter, catcher or pitcher question a call (usually by tapping their helmet). I was told in Friday night’s game only one pitch was challenged. On Saturday afternoon, there were 13 pitches challenged. Once, three consecutive pitches were challenged. However, the review is so quick that is hardly slows down the game. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 3, Springfield 5                                                                                                                                          Box Score
The Cardinals affiliate jumped out to a 4-1 lead off the first inning. The Wind Surge tried to claw back but came up short. 

Pierson Ohl made the start on the mound. He was credited with those four first-inning runs. He gave up two, two-run homers. But then he settled in and threw four zeroes on the board. Jack Nobel, who came up to Double-A earlier in the week, gave up one run over his three innings. 

Ben Ross got the game’s scoring started in the top of the first inning. Eight of nine starters had on hit. Kala’i Rosario, Jake Rucker, and Alerick Soularie each hit a double in the game. 

Emmanuel Rodriguez stayed on fire. He went 1-for- 3 and added his fourth homer of the young season. He also walked twice. Through his first eight games of the season, he is hitting a cool .385 with an on-base percentage of .556, and an OPS of 1.594. All incredible numbers. Of his 10 hits, he has three doubles, a triple and four home runs. He also has nine RBI. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 8, Dayton 5  
Box Score
It was back-and-forth game in Cedar Rapids, but a four-run fourth inning was the differentiator in this one. Rubel Cespedes continued to make a strong early impression. He went 2-for-5 including his third home run of the season. Jay Harry had two doubles in the game. MIsael Urbina was 2-for-4 with a double. Gabriel Gonzalez also had to hits. Luke Keaschall went hitless, but he walked three times. Keoni Cavaco launched his first home of the season. 

Christian MacLeod made his first start of the season. Unfortunately, after two innings, he had to leave the game before the third inning began. He had been working on a blister before the game, and it popped on him before the start of the third frame. He should be good to go. 

Miguelangel Boadas came in and worked three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and had just one strikeout. Juan Mendez worked an inning and gave up one run on three hits, though he did strike out three batters. Ricardo Velez gave up two runs on two hits over two innings. Kyle Bischoff came in for the ninth and recorded the save.  

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 10, Clearwater 0
Box Score
I’m not certain a coach could draw up a more-perfect win for his team. While the end score makes it look like a blowout, this was a highly competitive game through at least six innings. 

The Mussels got on the board in the third inning thanks to an RBI double from Byron Chourio. They got single runs in the fifth and sixth innings on sacrifice flies from Rayne Doncon and Maddux Houghton. In the seventh inning, Brandon Winokur hit another sacrifice fly, but they added a second run on a Poncho Ruiz RBI single. Trevor Larnach was 0-for-4 in his rehab outing, but he played the full game in right field. He hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning. Finally, in the top of the ninth, the Mussels scored four more runs. Rafael Cruz hit an RBI double. Houghton tripled to score two more runs. T game started with an RBI double from Byron Chouio, and a second double from Chourio scored the 10th and final run of the game. 

On the mound, Charlee Soto looked more comfortable in this one and the results showed. He threw four scoreless, hitless innings for the Mussels. He walked one and struck out seven batters. 

Tanner Hall, Xander Hamilton and Kade Bragg combined for five shutout innings and seven struck outs.

Poncho Ruiz had a 4-for-5 day at the plate. Maddux Houston went 2-for-2 with two walks, three runs and three RBI. Byron Chourio had two doubles, a single and a stolen base. Rafael Cruz had two hits including a double. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Hitter of the Day – DaShawn Keirsey, Jr (Saints) - 2-for-3, HR(1), 2 BB, R, 2 RBI, 2 SB(6). 
Pitcher of the Day – Charlee Soto (Mussels) - 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the new Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. 

#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) - 1-for-3, 2 BB, HR(4), 2 K
#4 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-5, R, RBI 
#7 – Austin Martin (Minnesota) - Game 1 (2-for-2, BB, K, 2 R, 2 RBI, played CF-2B), Game 2 (1-for-4, R, played LF) 
#9 - Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) - 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K. 49 pitches, 33 strikes. 
#10 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – (0-for-3, BB, K (played SS)
#12 – Luke Keaschall (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-2, 3 BB, 2 R, 3 SB. 
#13 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B, 2 K. 
#16 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 1-for-4, BB, 3 K (played 1B
#20 - Siemon Woods Richardson (Minnesota) - 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 80 pitches, 53 strikes.

SUNDAY’S SCHEDULE AND PITCHING PROBABLES
Iowa @ St. Paul (2:07 PM CST) - RHP Caleb Boushley (1-1, 7.84 ERA)
Wichita @ Springfield (1:05 PM CST) - RHP A.J. Alexy (0-1, 13.50 ERA)
Dayton @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CST) - RHP C.J. Culpepper (First Start)
Fort Myers @ Clearwater (5:30 PM CST) - Paulshawn Pasqualotto (0-0, 0.00 ERA) 

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Saturday’s games or any other Twins minor league topics!

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[Ghost of Kirby Puckett]

Just an FYI, the box scores are a little mixed up again. 

[Dman]

Soto was the story for me.   No hits allowed for four innings.  He put the ball all over the zone and I was surprised how little he appeared to use his fastball and how good to great his secondaries were.  Kid is only 18 so I thought for sure they would keep his innings down and start him in the FCL short season league.  I also thought they might work on his secondaries before short season ball to refine them, but when you can dominate an A ball game like that I can see why he started at A ball.

Watching on MiLB TV the ball just seems to come out so effortlessly and the hitters really struggled to hit him.  He did get a bit lucky with balls in play as a couple of them were scorched but right at guys.  Still no one recorded a hit against him for 4 innings.  At 18, in that league that is beyond impressive to me.  Still work to do, but Wow what a performance.

Emmanual Rodrigue is beyond hot right now. K rate is still up there but so is the walk rate (both at about 30%). The BABIP is over.500 so this isn't gonna last at least not at these insane numbers.  Still it is getting harder to not acknowledge that his approach is working and likely will the whole way up.

Can someone on TD tell me\us more about free agent acquisition Poncho Ruiz? On MiLB TV he looked liked he did a real nice job covering the plate and had a 4 for 5 night.  Too early to say much about the numbers, but I just liked how he looked at the dish and his results impressed  me as well.  I assume he was an after the draft pick?

Some good prospect watching Saturday.

[Fatbat]

Please promote Erod to AAA yesterday! He is clearly ready.  Game 14 today on varsity…. Kep on IL. Wallner and Buck getting rest days. Oooof dah. 

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, Fatbat said:

Please promote Erod to AAA yesterday! He is clearly ready.  Game 14 today on varsity…. Kep on IL. Wallner and Buck getting rest days. Oooof dah. 

Send him to Minnesota.... Just see what happens. .... Not totally serious, not totally joking. 

Exciting start for Soto!

[roger]

Don't know a lot about Cespedes, but the kid is having an incredible start to his season.  See he is an International kid who has been around for a few years now.

And kudos to Soto.  Heck of a nice game for his second time out this year.  Don't want to continue beating a dead horse, but ERod just keeps hitting'em out of the park.

[Jocko87]

22 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

Please promote Erod to AAA yesterday! He is clearly ready.  Game 14 today on varsity…. Kep on IL. Wallner and Buck getting rest days. Oooof dah. 

No dammit. I'm out of town all of April and would completely miss his Wichita stint if they go too fast. Such is the curse of the AA town. If they're good, they're gone.

Also Seth, Wichita is by far the nicest of the affiliate towns. How have you not been here yet?

Oh yeah, nobody stays here. Which is a good thing.

[Blyleven2011]

In the transactions ...

Tonkin dfa'd , bowman replaced Tonkin  , Acala optioned to AAA , theilbar added to roster ...

Did I read that right or do i need glasses , why was Acala optioned and bowman remained ...

[Schmoeman5]

Soto was dominant. Yet I'm not sure about him. Threw a lot of offspeed. Still. He had them off balance. Did his job. Hopefully his game plays up as he progresses and he can stay healthy.

[SaberNerd]

1 hour ago, Blyleven2011 said:

In the transactions ...

Tonkin dfa'd , bowman replaced Tonkin  , Acala optioned to AAA , theilbar added to roster ...

Did I read that right or do i need glasses , why was Acala optioned and bowman remained ...

Velo was down yesterday, so he may not throw for a few days to rest. With the bullpen getting used heavily yesterday, they need arms today.

[DJL44]

3 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Please promote Erod to AAA yesterday! He is clearly ready. 

It's important to realize that the week-long series means a minor leaguer can feast off favorable pitching matchups for an entire week. All we know right now is he can hit Springfield's pitchers.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

In the transactions ...

Tonkin dfa'd , bowman replaced Tonkin  , Acala optioned to AAA , theilbar added to roster ...

Did I read that right or do i need glasses , why was Acala optioned and bowman remained ...

Bowman doesn't have any options. It was option one of Alcala, Sands, Funderburk or release somebody.

[FlyingFinn]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

All we know right now is he can hit Springfield's pitchers.

E-Rod was 3 for 5 with 5 BB's vs. Frisco as well, a team that is 6-2. Springfield is 8-0. So those teams are 7-1 against other opposition. SSS but it was a little more than just Springfield.

 

[Steve Lein]

"On the weekends in Triple-A, they do the ABS Challenge system, which I really like. If a batter, catcher or pitcher question a call (usually by tapping their helmet). I was told in Friday night’s game only one pitch was challenged. On Saturday afternoon, there were 13 pitches challenged. Once, three consecutive pitches were challenged. However, the review is so quick that is hardly slows down the game."

Was there Saturday, too. And I also loved how this works, as it was the first time I'd seen it in-person.

With that being said, this was a really rough one for the umpire. In the third inning Saints hitters and the Cubs catcher were basically trading challenges on every pitch 🤣 There were 4 challenges while the Saints were up, 2 from each. All four calls were overturned. Our count got up to 6 pitch challenges in a row that were all overturned. The teams clearly knew the umpire had a terrible zone and were taking advantage of it, because there were several scenarios where I was thinking "why would you even bother challenging that pitch?" 

[Steve Lein]

On 4/14/2024 at 10:09 AM, Dman said:

Soto was the story for me.   No hits allowed for four innings.  He put the ball all over the zone and I was surprised how little he appeared to use his fastball and how good to great his secondaries were.  Kid is only 18 so I thought for sure they would keep his innings down and start him in the FCL short season league.  I also thought they might work on his secondaries before short season ball to refine them, but when you can dominate an A ball game like that I can see why he started at A ball.

Watching on MiLB TV the ball just seems to come out so effortlessly and the hitters really struggled to hit him.  He did get a bit lucky with balls in play as a couple of them were scorched but right at guys.  Still no one recorded a hit against him for 4 innings.  At 18, in that league that is beyond impressive to me.  Still work to do, but Wow what a performance.

This was a really good performance. You are not wrong with your observations. BaseballSavant is very fun to look at for this outing.

13 swings and misses total, and threw only 11 pitches it tracked as true 4-seamers, that averaged 95.6 MPH. (other FB varieties included sinkers and cutters)

Biggest one for me, was the 16 changeups that induced 9 swings and misses 👀