Twins Minor League Week in Review (6/10-17): Saints Go Streaking, First Round Pick Released

[Ted Schwerzler]

It was a streak that never ends for the St. Paul Saints as they swept the Louisville Bats through six games on the road. A former first round pick was released, and a recently promoted prospect just keeps hitting. Check out the week that was on the farm.

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

TRANSACTIONS:

• IF Keoni Cavaco released by Twins
• RHP Miguelangel Boadas placed on IL with a forearm strain by Cedar Rapids.
• IF Payton Eeles promoted to Cedar Rapids from Fort Myers

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Orioles 4, FCL Twins 3
Box Score

Juan Cota got the start and gave up a first inning run across his 1 1/3 innings of work. The Twins hurler allowed a pair of hits, three walks, and recorded a strikeout. Tying things up in the fourth inning, Ariel Castro’s groundout scored Daniel Pena.

Gregory Duran gave the Twins their first lead with a sixth inning single that scored Pena. The Orioles answered with three in the seventh inning to go up 4-2, and Yilber Herrera’s solo shot in the bottom half wasn’t enough to bring the Twins back.

Herrera had a pair of hits while Mercedes drew two walks. Anthony Narvaez struck out four while allowing a single hit across 3 2/3 of relief. Ezequiel Ventura took the loss.

DOMINICAN DAILIES
DSL Rockies 7, DSL Twins 4
Box Score

Anderson Chacon took the ball for the Twins and allowed a run on two hits while striking out one. He gave up another in the second and then a four spot in the third inning. Chacon exited allowing six runs on eight hits over three innings.

The Twins scored their first run in the third inning when Irvin Nunez came home on a passed ball. Guillermo Sosa then scored on an errant throw down to second base. Down 6-2 after three innings, the Twins played their third run on a Ruben Velazquez sacrifice fly that scored Victor Leal.

Irvin Nunez drove home Velazquez on a seventh inning single, but the 7-4 score held. Nunez was the only hitter to post a pair of hits. Eudy Garcia worked three innings of relief allowing only a single run.

WEEK IN REVIEW
Triple-A: St. Paul Saints

• Overall: 33-35 (6-0 last week) Seventh place in the IL West
• Overview: Handed a couple more big leagues returning to the farm, the Saints swept the top affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds on the road.
• Matt Wallner was ridiculous batting .519 (14-for-27), he had five homers and a crazy 1.700 OPS in six games.
• Yunior Severino and Michael Helman both batted over .400 (as did Tony Kemp). Severino launched three home runs while Helman had two. Severino took eight walks.
• Brooks Lee settled in to the tune of a .333 average going 8-for-24 with a double and a home run.
• Will Holland had a pair of doubles while batting .308, but it was the highlight-reel catch worthy of a watch that should be noted.
• Randy Dobnak shoved, throwing six shutout innings with ten strikeouts and just a single walk. He allowed a pair of hits.
• Scott Blewett, Ronny Henriquez, Ryan Jensen, and Josh Winder combined to go scoreless in their relief appearances. Blewett struck out five.
• What’s Next: Home at CHS Field this week, the Saints will look to dodge raindrops as they take on the Toledo Mud Hens

Double-A: Wichita Wind Surge

• Overall: 27-36 (4-2 last week) Fifth place in the Texas League North
• Overview: Back to a six-game week, Wichita took a series victory over Midland at home.
• Luke Keaschall doesn’t care where he plays, he’s going to hit anyways. 10-for-27 this week, he had three doubles and a home run while stealing a pair of bases.
• Aaron Sabato had another good week, batting .316 (6-for-19). He blasted three home runs and his seven RBI led the team.
• Scott Engler struck out five in three perfect innings of relief across two appearances.
• Andrew Morris made a scoreless five inning start with four strikeouts.
• Jaylen Nowlin pitched eight scoreless innings giving up just a single hit and striking out four.
• Zebby Matthews continues to avoid walks, making a start with seven strikeouts and no walks in six innings.
• Cory Lewis made his Double-A debut and worked four innings allowing two runs (one earned) in four innings of work.
• What’s Next: Going out to Arkansas, the Wind Surge face the Texas League North’s top team.

High-A: Cedar Rapids Kernels

• Overall: 36-26 (4-2 last week) Second place in the Midwest League West
• Overview: Back to their winning ways, the Kernels grabbed a series win against Lansing on the road.
• Nate Baez led the squad with a 1.224 OPS thanks to three home runs and a double.
• Agustin Ruiz tied Baez for a team-high eight RBI this week.
• Both Ricardo Olivar and Kevin Maitan posted an OPS north of 1.000 while batting .400. The paid both had 13 total bases with the former hitting a home run and the latter recording three doubles.
• Jay Harry hit .304 with a double, triple, and home run to his credit across five games.
• Ty Langenberg’s seven strikeouts were a team-high this week.
• Jacob Wosinski acted as both a starter and reliever combining to throw four shutout innings.
• What’s Next: Welcoming Peoria to Cedar Rapids, the Kernels have a chance to pad the win column facing the Midwest League West’s worst team.

Low-A: Fort Myers Mighty Mussels

• Overall: 30-32 (2-3 last week) Fourth place in Florida State League West
• Overview: Fort Myers had the same amount of games played as they did games canceled this week. Lakeland came to town and did a lot of waiting.
• Rixon Wingrove hit .467 across five games going 7-for-15 with three home runs. His six RBI were a team high.
• Poncho Ruiz went 4-for-10 with a pair of doubles.
• Spencer Bengard, Charlee Soto, and Jose Olivares each had five strikeouts this week in their one appearance.
• Tanner Hall worked a scoreless four innings with a pair of strikeouts during his start.
• What’s Next: Going to St. Lucie, the Mighty Mussels face the worst team in the Florida State League East.

Complex League: FCL Twins

• Overall: 15-14 (1-2 last week) Third place in Florida Complex League South
• Yasser Mercedes played in all three games for the Twins this week as rain wreaked havoc on their schedule. He had a pair of doubles.
• Jayson Bass hit the only home run for the club.
• Every single pitcher that threw at least one inning this week struck out exactly three batters.

Dominican Summer League: DSL Twins

• Overall: 5-5 (4-2 last week) Seventh place in Dominican Summer League South
• Daiber De Los Santos was 6-for-18 with a pair of doubles and hit the club’s only home run.
• Luis Fragoza played in five games and hit .357 with a double and a team-high five RBI.
• Fabian Herrera and Christian Hernandez each had seven strikeouts on the bump.
• Yoel Roque threw four scoreless innings during his start.

PROSPECT SUMMARY

#1– Walker Jenkins (Fort Myers) – 2-10, 2B, 4 RBI, BB, 2 K
#2 – Brooks Lee (St. Paul) – 8-24, 5 R, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, BB, 3 K
#4 – David Festa (St. Paul) – 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
#6 – Marco Raya (Wichita) – 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
#7 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 4.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
#8 – Austin Martin (St. Paul/Minnesota) – 6-16, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K, SB
#9 – Luke Keaschall (Wichita) – 10-23, 7 R, 3 2B, HR, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 5 K, 2 SB
#10 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 2-6, 2 R, RBI, 2 K
#11 – Simeon Woods Richardson (Minnesota) – 4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
#13 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 1-8, RBI, BB, 3 K
#14 – Zebby Matthews (Wichita) – 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
#15 – Cory Lewis (Wichita) – 4.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
#18 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 10-21, 8 R, 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 8 BB, 5 K
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) – 10-24, 7 R, HR, 2 RBI, 5 BB, 5 K

Hitter of the Week - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 14-27, 11 R, 2 2B, 5 HR, 11 RBI, 2 B, 4 K

Pitcher of the Week - Randy Dobnak (St. Paul) - 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K

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[Dman]

Happy to see Eeles promoted as the Kernel's need to lengthen the lineup. Hopefully they get Gonzalez and De Andrade back soon as that would help as well.  They just need to Steal Bengard from Fort Myers and then they should be in pretty good shape for a second half playoff run.

[SotaSports in NM]

How about Cavaco finally getting released? Man, I didn't like that pick when we made it, but I didn't think it would turn out this bad. Unfortunate whiff, but every organization has 'em.

[cmoss84]

How long until Wallner and Lee are up? By the weekend?

[bean5302]

23 minutes ago, cmoss84 said:

How long until Wallner and Lee are up? By the weekend?

Honestly, the roster is pretty packed. Even with Wallner hitting so well, it's not going to be an easy call of how to shoehorn him in. There will be similar questions for how to fit Eddie Julien

Margot, Santana and Farmer have all been hitting well recently, and none of the short term veterans have options.

Kepler, Buxton, and Castro are clearly not going anywhere.

Miranda's hitting .280/.320/.473 OPS .793 wRC+ 125 in almost 200 plate appearances.

Austin Martin could be the swap call, but the Twins still place him in to cover center field, and he's arguably the prototypical 4th outfielder. I think the Twins are going to give him a relatively long look at this point.

The easiest candidate for replacement is Larnach as they're both LHB corner OF/DH guys, but Larnach is also playing solidly. His xwOBA and actual results have waned hard from the time he was called up, but his actual production has lagged behind expected metrics every single year of his career. It does look like Larnach's adjustment has been to be less passive in the attempt to draw walks, and more aggressive at protecting the plate. His swing rate is up quite a bit, but his overall whiff rate is down. The K rate has plummeted (40% lower than career), but the walk rate has dropped a lot, too (25% lower than career). His exit velocities were exceptional when called up, but they've tailed off a lot to mostly average levels recently. Larnach was probably considered outfield depth only coming into the season, but he's on his last option, and the Twins will probably want to give him plenty of room to test out the new approach before making a decision. As of right now, he's .261/.318/.440 OPS .758 wRC+ 116 on the year so I don't think he's going to get demoted for Wallner.

Basically, unless there's an injury, I don't think Wallner has a great way to fit into the Twins' lineup this month.

[MMMordabito]

Cavaco has to be a top five all-time worst pick for the Twins. Couldn't even get to AA as a first rounder.  Hope he saved his bonus baby money.

[LambchoP]

Twins need to dump Farmer any way they can. If there's a team out there desperate for a shortstop like the Dodgers, maybe they take him off our hands. That opens a spot for Wallner. I also think Theilbar needs to go ASAP. He's unplayable at this point and taking up a bullpen spot. Easy replacement would be Funderburk but I think they should look for a high leverage lefty at the deadline.

[DocBauer]

Guessing Martin won't get going just yet...or not be playes enough to allow him to...or Margot will suddenly turn back in to a pumpkin and Martin will be his "replacement" on the roster and Wallner will come up at that time.

Castro is still used best, IMO, as a super utility player. I think it's better for the roster, and he seems to excel in the role. But how do they fit Lee/Julien in at 2B come mid July or 1st of August? Need 2B to be settled and I don't think Farmer is that guy.

I also didn't like the Cavaco pick when it was made. I had hopes in the "helium" riser and his tools and he'd be a surprise. Unfortunately, the surprise was that he just was never a good prospect. 

Anyone paying attention to Severino? After just an awful start to the year he's been mashing since the calender flipped to June. Terrible April, better May, over 1.300 OPS and .400 AVG for June. There were comments made in ST about hie much he had slimmed down... presumedly to keep him affective at 3B/2B...and I wonder if that threw off some of his timing initially? Regardless, he's starting to look really good.

[KirbyHawk75]

How serious is ERod's injury?  He is another Twins prospect that can't stay healthy.  

What about Gonzalez?

Sabato has been pretty good.  Any chance he could become a prospect again?

[Doctor Gast]

Congratulations, to Dobbie. IMO he should be a SP depth piece inside him somewhere.

Did aliens abduct Canterino & Kiriloff? They have disappeared from the planet w/o a clue.

Congratulations to Eels for his promotion. Hope he continues his hitting.

[Dman]

1 hour ago, KirbyHawk75 said:

How serious is ERod's injury?  He is another Twins prospect that can't stay healthy.  

What about Gonzalez?

Sabato has been pretty good.  Any chance he could become a prospect again?

I am not in the "know", but I think ERod is gonna be out a while. It sounds like just a sprained thumb and he tried to play through it only to injure it further so I am thinking 6 weeks to two months for something like that to heal properly?

Gonzalez I thought was back spams and he has been out a while so I would assume he could be back soon, but I suppose it depends how long it takes to make sure it won't be a reoccurring issue.

Sabato needs to keep his slugging up and K rate down for the rest of the year to likely get any prospect love.  He has had splashes of good play only to regress.  He just turned 25 if he doesn't improve this year he probably isn't a prospect anymore.  Doesn't mean he can't make it (i.e. Brent Rooker) but after 25 you generally kind of are who you are so dreaming on upside is generally gone. A good year and move to AAA would probably buy him one more year as a "prospect".  Kind of make or break year in that respect IMO.

[Blyleven2011]

Cavaco , surprise or not surprised ....

Cavaco was definitely a reach , They played him at multiple positions in his his professional career and he just didn't succeed  with the twins , he'll catch on with another mlb or independent ball and try and get his career back on track  ...

A ŵake up call might get his head straightened out , bonus money could have gone to his head and being a 1st round pick too and he figured he was on the gravy train to the show  ....

Didn't like his interview he gave after the first round selection ....

[Guest]

4 hours ago, MMMordabito said:

Cavaco has to be a top five all-time worst pick for the Twins. Couldn't even get to AA as a first rounder.  Hope he saved his bonus baby money.

Does anybody know,; was he a favorite of the analytics department, or the scouting department?

[Dman]

52 minutes ago, Verified Member said:

Does anybody know,; was he a favorite of the analytics department, or the scouting department?

Its been a while. He was a pop up prospect.  He hadn't been at a lot of events that most top prospects go to.  He held some private workouts and from what I understand had good power, great speed, and a great arm.  His actions at third looked pro ready at 18.  They took a chance that the hit tool would develop as they loved, loved the other tools.  Never bet on tools outside of the hit tool.  Cavaco is just one of many cautionary tales.  The Brewers and Cory Ray would be another.

I have no inside knowledge, but I have to believe the scouting department overrode the analytics dept as it seemed well known that Cavaco might not hit.  I just don't see how analytics could have been on board when so many others were not.  I think Keith Law was not a fan of the pick at that point in the draft and he was right about Cavaco's hit tool.  Other pundits thought it was a long shot as well.

For context. At the time the Twins needed shortstop help in the worst way and the system had very few high end infield prospects.  Its hard to find 5 tool players where the Twins were picking and if, if ,if the the hit tool hit they would have had a very talented player at a position of need, but he didn't really improve with the bat at all.  It was an all in gamble that failed.

[FlyingFinn]

2 hours ago, KirbyHawk75 said:

How serious is ERod's injury?

After injuring his thumb, he immediately slides head first (actually thumb first) into second base for a double. Looked like he injured it much worse than the first time on the video. Just not a smart play in my opinion. Practice your feet first slides. If you make an extra out because of it, oh well. I think he will be out awhile just because they don't want him injuring it a third time and don't want him to change his swing because of the thumb hurting.

[jkcarew]

I think there was one day. One…where our 3 top prospects were all playing. Sigh.

[DJL44]

5 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Did aliens abduct Canterino & Kiriloff? They have disappeared from the planet w/o a clue.

Did Canterino ever re-appear?

Kirilloff is now on the injured list with a back injury. They backdated it so his option didn't actually happen. My guess is he will get the full 20 rehab starts when he's deemed healthy enough to return.

[jkcarew]

4 hours ago, Verified Member said:

Does anybody know,; was he a favorite of the analytics department, or the scouting department?

He was a “we’re smarter than everyone else” pick. Very good frame, bat speed and athleticism. Hit tool was highly questioned from day one. Not as heavily scouted as most top guys as he was late to the showcase circuits.

Hit tool never showed, even a little bit. Honestly, the promotion this year to A+ was a pure gift. Probably indicating that he was a good soldier. But as another group of draft picks and international signings hit, promotions will continue, and he just can’t eat up a spot anymore.

[Doctor Gast]

49 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Did Canterino ever re-appear?

Kirilloff is now on the injured list with a back injury. They backdated it so his option didn't actually happen. My guess is he will get the full 20 rehab starts when he's deemed healthy enough to return.

Thanks DJL, I had imagined that Kiriloff was hurting where it affecting his swing but it didn't show on the tests. Alex needed to communicate his ailment right away.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, jkcarew said:

He was a “we’re smarter than everyone else” pick. Very good frame, bat speed and athleticism. Hit tool was highly questioned from day one. Not as heavily scouted as most top guys as he was late to the showcase circuits.

Hit tool never showed, even a little bit. Honestly, the promotion this year to A+ was a pure gift. Probably indicating that he was a good soldier. But as another group of draft picks and international signings hit, promotions will continue, and he just can’t eat up a spot anymore.

Thanks for the response.

[Doctor Wu]

17 hours ago, Verified Member said:

Does anybody know,; was he a favorite of the analytics department, or the scouting department?

Either way, it's unfortunate that he was picked so high and once he was in the organization, he never showed any signs that he was worth the pick. 

[bean5302]

On 6/18/2024 at 8:38 AM, MMMordabito said:

Cavaco has to be a top five all-time worst pick for the Twins. Couldn't even get to AA as a first rounder.  Hope he saved his bonus baby money.

I don't know about that. Results wise, it was rough, but Cavaco was always a high risk/high reward type of player. I think the front office (like some others) certainly got caught up in the helium around the prospect so they wound up reaching for him. Since Cavaco had so little scouting around him, I suppose he was more of an extreme risk than "high risk" and that made him an poor pick due to the imbalance in the risk/reward in retrospect.

Hudson Boyd, Matt Bashore, Shooter Hunt, Henry Sanchez. All 1st round guys who never made it higher than A+ in the past 15 years or so. 

Personally, I'd rather reach for high risk/reward types than settle for low ceiling guys who are deemed low risk.

[MMMordabito]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

I don't know about that. Results wise, it was rough, but Cavaco was always a high risk/high reward type of player. I think the front office (like some others) certainly got caught up in the helium around the prospect so they wound up reaching for him. Since Cavaco had so little scouting around him, I suppose he was more of an extreme risk than "high risk" and that made him an poor pick due to the imbalance in the risk/reward in retrospect.

Hudson Boyd, Matt Bashore, Shooter Hunt, Henry Sanchez. All 1st round guys who never made it higher than A+ in the past 15 years or so. 

Personally, I'd rather reach for high risk/reward types than settle for low ceiling guys who are deemed low risk.

The players that you mention were all 1b or 1c picks, and I know I didn't qualify that in my post.  Players like Aaron Hicks, Kyle Gibson and Matt Garza had already been selected.

2011 (Boyd) was a disaster in hindsight, as none of the first rounders even got a cup of coffee in the show and the Twins got zero WAR out of the entire draft.  

Cavaco was 1a and top half of the draft, so I look at that differently.