Minor League Report 5/26 Nate Baez Blasts a Pair; Pierson Ohl Dominates

[Matt Braun]

Oh, and Luke Keaschall and Emmanuel Rodriguez went deep, but you probably already knew that. 

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge

 

TRANSACTIONS
RHP Jay Jackson clears waivers, likely to report to AAA St. Paul soon.

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 3, Buffalo 8
Box Score
Louie Varland: 5 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
HR: DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (8)
Multi-hit games: Royce Lewis (2-for-5, 2B, R), DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (2-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI), Michael Helman (3-for-4)

St. Paul’s pitching betrayed them on Sunday.

It’s been a tough season for Louie Varland. He’s halved his MLB ERA with the Saints, but efficiency remains a critical Achilles heel; three of his last four starts have seen hit totals of at least seven. Buffalo banged out eight on Sunday. The big one came in the 3rd, when Addison Barger smoked a liner that just barely cleared the wall, giving him a three-run home that counts all the same.

The blast overshadowed a homer hit the previous half-inning by DaShawn Keirsey Jr. Is it his time? Thoughts vary. At least, that’s what 80 comments tell me. His production cannot be denied, however, as the homer fueled a multi-hit outing that saw his 16th successful stolen base of the season. 

 

 

Respectful deke attempt there.

Royce Lewis played his second straight rehab game for the Saints, collecting a pair of hits while satisfying the Twins front office with his plodding baserunning; no steals were attempted during the filming of this game. 

Nick Wittgren struck out a pair of batters in a scoreless inning. His ERA sits at 2.63 since joining the Twins organization.

Buffalo shortstop Leo Jimenez is Toronto’s 5th-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. He singled and walked in four plate appearances.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 3, San Antonio 1
Box Score
Pierson Ohl: 6 ⅔ IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
HR: Emmanuel Rodriguez (8)
Multi-hit games: Emmanuel Rodriguez (2-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB), Jeferson Morales (2-for-4, R, RBI), Jorel Ortega (2-for-4, 2B, RBI)

Pierson Ohl spearheaded a Wichita victory on Sunday.

The start embodied the best Ohl has to offer as a pitcher: he earned four 1-2-3 innings, struck out five, and only allowed a run when he finally broke down in the 7th. He threw 85 pitches. The start lowered his season ERA to 3.51—the 4th lowest of any pitcher in the Texas League with at least 40 innings pitched. Somehow, Logan Evans has a 1.39 ERA in that godforsaken pitching environment. 

Oh, and only one pitcher in the league has pitched more innings (Gunnar Hogland; 48 ⅔ IP to 49 ⅔ IP. 2024 might be the best we’ve seen from Ohl in his professional career so far (and maybe he should be a top-20 prospect!) 

Speaking of unsurprising things, Emmanuel Rodriguez hit a lead-off homer. He torched a liner into right and nearly knocked down an entire row of stands with a bomb reminiscent of prime Robinson Canó’s low-lining screamers. 

He also singled and walked. Totally normal player doing totally normal stuff.

Taylor Floyd and Jared Solomon combined to carry the game to a (relatively) unpainful conclusion. Solomon allowed a pair of runners, but that’s just par for the course for Wichita’s bullpen in 2024.

Tanner Schobel played in the outfield for the first time in his professional career. Are the Twins preparing for a Luke Keaschall promotion? 

Missions’ catcher Brandon Valenzuela is San Diego’s 11th-best prospect. He went 0-4 with a strikeout. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 6, Peoria 2
Box Score
Jeremy Lee: 3 ⅔ IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
HR: Luke Keaschall (7), Nate Baez 2 (2, 3), 
Multi-hit games: Luke Keaschall (2-for-5, HR, R, RBI), Nate Baez (2-for-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI)

The Kernels easily handled their opponents on Sunday.

The Wind Surge weren’t the only team to start their game with a homer; Luke Keaschall obliterated the third pitch of the game, blasting his seventh homer of the season over the left-center wall. He’s hitting .335 on the season. Midwest League pitchers may soon petition the Twins to give him a promotion. It was his sixth leadoff home run of the season. 

Cedar Rapids continued the rally, turning a pair of singles into a second run thanks to a Misael Urbina sacrifice fly.

South Alabama product Jeremy Lee—an alma mater brother with Luis Gonzalez, Lance Johnson, and Twins legend P.J. Walters—made his Kernels debut on Sunday. He breezed through his first two frames before finding trouble in the 3rd and 4th; that final frame proved to be his last, as Juan Mercedes entered the game following a two-out walk. The 13th-round pick lowered his minor league ERA to 2.03.

Mercedes opened for what became a tremendous showing for the Cedar Rapids bullpen: four relievers combined for 5 ⅓ innings with one earned run, striking out five in the process. The work culminated in a dominant 9th by Gabriel Yanez, who dropped his season ERA to 1.29. 

Though Keaschall began the game with a homer, the offensive star proved to be Nate Baez, a 2022 12th-round pick from the same college as Keaschall. Baez blasted a pair of homers to claim his second career two-homer day. He only has eight career home runs! Apparently, he only hits them in bunches. 

(For those counting at home, that means that Kernels who went to Arizona State outscored the Chiefs on Sunday.)

Peoria is the A+ affiliate for the St. Louis Cardinals, and their starter—Cooper Hjerpe—is a former 1st round pick and their 6th-best prospect. He went four innings and allowed two earned runs. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 7, Daytona 4 (10 Innings)
Box Score
Charlee Soto: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Gregory Duran (3-for-5, 3B, 2 R, 2 RBI)

The Mighty Mussels outlasted the Tortugas on Sunday.

Starter Charlee Soto was… dull, I suppose. He labored through two-plus innings—tossing 40 pitches in the process—before earning the hook with an opening-batter walk to start the 3rd. He also plunked a pair. Hopefully, Sunday is a critical lesson for the 18-year-old hurler; he’s too talented to continue to pitch so poorly.

The truncated start begat a three-man effort to deliver Fort Myers to the end of the game. 2023’s 14th-round pick, Xander Hamilton, enjoyed the finest outing of them all; he struck out five over 2 ⅓ innings and held the Manfred Runner at bay in the 10th.

Fort Myers turned in a strange offensive performance. You don’t often see a team score seven runs despite going 3-16 with runners in scoring position. The Mighty Mussels collected nine hits and seven walks, but the big, relaxing thank-god-someone-broke-the-curse knock didn’t occur until deep into the game. With two on, staring at two outs and two strikes, Gregory Duran smacked a triple to crack the game open. He later scored on a wild pitch. Three Mighty Mussels runs scored with a hit.

DH Ricardo Cabrera serves as the 9th-best prospect in the Reds’ system. He singled and struck out in five at-bats. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Pierson Ohl
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Nate Baez

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:

#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) - 2-4, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB, K
#7 - Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) - 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
#8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 2-5, 2B, RBI
#9 - Luke Keaschall (Cedar Rapids) - 2-5, HR, R, RBI, 2 K
#10 - Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) - 0-5, R, 3 K
#12 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-4, 2 K
#13 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-2, BB, K
#18 - Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 0-3, BB, 2 K

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Rochester (3:05 PM) - RHP Randy Dobnak
St. Paul @ Rochester (Game Two) - TBD
Wichita @ Springfield (7:05 PM) - TBD
Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM) - TBD
Bradenton @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM) - TBD
FCL Twins @ FCL Orioles (11:00 AM) - TBD

 

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[FlyingFinn]

Complaining about an 18 year-old kid pitching "so poorly" when he didn't give up any runs is just wrong. He's healthy and learning and not going to be anywhere near MLB for some time. Let the kid grow.

[Matt Braun]

2 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Complaining about an 18 year-old kid pitching "so poorly" when he didn't give up any runs is just wrong. He's healthy and learning and not going to be anywhere near MLB for some time. Let the kid grow.

That's... exactly what I advocated for? Is it wrong to point out that he's been terrible in May but is otherwise a very talented pitcher? I feel like we're on the same page here. 

[Doctor Wu]

6 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

Complaining about an 18 year-old kid pitching "so poorly" when he didn't give up any runs is just wrong. He's healthy and learning and not going to be anywhere near MLB for some time. Let the kid grow.

My first thought when I saw the line was: he gave no hits but only pitched 2 innings?! Uh-oh. But thankfully, there wasn't any injury concerns, just control issues. I agree with FlyingFinn; let him pitch through the mistakes and all. He's still very young. 

[Major League Ready]

Why is Keaschall DHing every game?  Is he nursing an injury?  He has plus speed.  Does not make sense they would give up on playing him in the field.

[Sielk]

21 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Why is Keaschall DHing every game?  Is he nursing an injury?  He has plus speed.  Does not make sense they would give up on playing him in the field.

Yes, he apparently has/had an arm issue that forces him to play DH most of the time. 

 

 

[Fatbat]

So when Keaschall is done taking batting practice in CR, he is going to play the infield in Wichita and T-off on Texas league pitchers? Sounds like he might be getting close to a promotion! 
The twins have their leadoff hitter and future LF starter struggling mightily in wichita to hide his superman cape.  For the love of god, promote Erod. 

[DJL44]

Last 7 days

Keirsey .423/.429/.692

Martin .333/.516/.524

Holland .286/.444/.786

Wallner .095/.222/.095

[LambchoP]

Keirsey deserves a shot. Replace him with AK or Larnach short term and see what happens. Also move E-Rod up to AAA, he's got nothing left to prove at Wichita.

[FlyingFinn]

Just now, LambchoP said:

Replace him with AK

AK just hit two game winning HR's this past series. Not the time to be sending him down.

[DJL44]

The Twins already have to bump someone off the roster to add Royce Lewis. They're not going to bump someone else this week to add Keirsey.

[jmlease1]

Excellent outing from Ohl. He's gone at least 5 innings in every start this season, which you have to like. Really the thing to watch with him is the big flies; if he's keeping the ball in the park, he's rolling. When he gets tagged for a couple of dingers his day isn't so good. (given up 2 runs or less in every game where he hasn't given up a HR) He's having a fine season and looks ready for a promotion to Saint Paul.

Rodriguez is just a monster. the batting average is going up, the on-base percentage is absurd, he's pounding the ball...he sure looks ready for AAA too. Hard to believe he's only 21, but no complaints.

This is a learning season for Soto. He's so young, and is going to have bumps along the way. It's his first professional season after all, and they thought enough of him to put him in A ball out the gate rather than rookie ball at the complex. Always thought it was going to take a while for him, but there's still loads of talent there. Refinement may take some time.

[Five minute major]

The offense here is still very below average.    The Margot trade is a bust and he needs to be released.   Farmer as well.    Bring up Lewis and Keirsay and give the fans two fun players to watch.  Vazquez just will never hit for this team.   This needs addressing as well.    This lineup simply is not going anywhere with so many automatic outs.  I personally wish we could address the hitting  coach but that will have to be an off season move.   This offense is simply unwathchable unless beating up low tier pitching. 

 

[Doctor Gast]

13 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

Complaining about an 18 year-old kid pitching "so poorly" when he didn't give up any runs is just wrong. He's healthy and learning and not going to be anywhere near MLB for some time. Let the kid grow.

Exactly, He's just starting to figure things out & trying to command his great stuff which isn't easy. They're probably have him work on a lot of new stuff, it's just too much to take in all at once. The fact that he didn't give up any earned runs is pretty exciting.

[Doctor Gast]

I hated from the beginning the bringing in someone from outside when we have plenty of talent in-house. They are taking up the playing time & roster spots from our young players. Keirsey is deserving of a 26-man roster spot & Emma needs to be in AAA. Acuna (ATL) is down (I was expecting this) maybe they be out on a flyer for Margot like they did for Rosario. & while we are at it we can find a home for Santana.

Cedar Rapids top four are awesome.

KeaschallDH
OlivarC
Cespedes3B
Maitan1B

They got Salas playing all over, maybe they could try catcher. Catching has to be in his genes & blood.

[Dman]

Ohl just keeps pitching well and gets no respect from top 30 lists.  He has pitched the 2nd most innings in the Texas league.  He is 4th in WHIP and top 10 in ERA.  He probably is the best pitcher on the WindSurge that started the season there.. 

He doesn't get a lot of love because his K rate is low, but his stuff is still hard to square up.  But when balls are finding holes he can have tough nights and when they are finding gloves he often goes deep into games.  He's not totally pitch to contact, but since he is around the zone so much it seems likely there will always be some pitch to contact in his game unless he can refine some things.  I think it is time to see what he has at AAA.  HIs control is good enough for MLB, but can he keep the ball off the barrels?  That will make or break him probably similar to Varland in that respect.

I was surprised they started Soto in A ball.  He likely is only going to pitch 50 innings to 60 tops. That's only 10 to 12 games at 5 innings an outing.  Which is why short season ball made more sense to me.  Still they must have felt he needed to go against better competition to learn the things he needed to learn.

I know he teased us a bit with a game where he no hit the opponent for 5 innings, but there were always going to be growing pains IMO.  He already has pitched 22 innings so I would expect to see shorter outings or skipping some starts so he can make it through the season within his pitch\innings limit this year.  There is a lot for him to learn his first year.

That being said he has pitched really, really well this year so far.  Although his ERA is high a lot of that has to do with the defense behind him as his FIP is 3.72 much better than his ERA.  His K rate is strong at 11.5/9 or 27% so his pitches have been affective.  He needs work not too surprisingly on command and control.  Too many walks and way too many hits are hurting him.  Kid is only 18 with extremely limited experience and now in pro ball.  I think he is doing great so far. 

[bigdave]

Do the Twins have a glut of minor league outfielders or are they cutting bait on some prospects who aren't producing? Saw Willie Garry got cut the other day and now Alerick Soularie has been cut. Both were once considered decent prospects.