Twins Minor League Report (7/27): Wichita Wins a Wild One!

[Seth Stohs]

Saturday in the minor-league parks, I'm pretty sure it is the 27th of July. 

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge

It was a Zebby Day! Connor Prielipp made his first non-rehab appearance for the Kernels in over a year. The Wind Surge offense was great, and somehow their pitching held on for a Wild Win. There was little offense in the Fort Myers and DSL Twins lineups on Saturday. Check out all that happened, and please make your voice heard. First, Rank the Twins Top 20 Prospect here. Second, leave some feedback in the comments, not only about today's article, but also about your thoughts on the daily minor league reports. What do you like? Love? Skip? What can we do better? Is our focus in the right place on these? Let us know. 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 57-46
St. Paul Saints: 50-50
Wichita Wind Surge: 40-55
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 53-40
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 49-43
FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete)
DSL Twins: 19-19 

TRANSACTIONS
The Twins activated Jose Miranda from the injured list. To make room, Edouard Julien was optioned to St. Paul. 

In very good news, RHP C.J. Culpepper was activated from the Kernels 7-Day Injured List. 

In Fort Myers, outfielder Carlos Aguiar was placed on the 7-Day Injured List with a left calf strain. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 2, Omaha 9
Box Score
It was Zebby Day in St. Paul on Saturday, and of course, he had no walks. But it was probably the first Zebby Day of the season that didn’t go well. In four innings, he gave up four runs on nine hits (one homer). He gave up two runs in the second inning and single runs in the third and fourth innings. 

Josh Winder came on and gave up three runs on four hits (2 homers) and a walk in two innings. He struck out three batters. Nick Wittgren came on and gave up two runs on two hits (1 homer). Caleb Baragar and Hobie Harris each threw a scoreless innings. 

The Saints scored both of their runs with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Chris Williams singled and scored on a Wynton Bernard home run. At the time, the Saints cut their deficit in half (4-2), and that was about it. 

Bernard went 2-for-4. The homer was his fourth of the season. He also stole his 14th base. The Saints had just other hits in the game. Jair Camargo hit his ninth double, and Rylan Bannon hit his 16th double. 

#OldFriend Tyler Duffey got the final four outs for Omaha, one on a strikeout. His Triple-A ERA is now 2.17. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 10, Amarillo 9
Box Score
There was a bit of an offensive shootout deep in the heart of Texas. Well, Amarillo is in that northern piece of Texas that, if they’d kept the pattern of North and South Dakota and Kansas, would have been part of a rectangular Oklahoma. Instead, like Nebraska, Oklahoma decided to go with a panhandle. Anyway, not sure if Amarillo is in “the heart of Texas” or not, but it is in the Texas panhandle. And, there was a high scoring affair between the Wind Surge and the Sod Poodles on Saturday night. 

Through three innings, the Surge held a 1-0 lead. They added three in the top of the fourth, but Amarillo counted with two of their own to make it 4-2. The Surge scored two in the fifth, one in the sixth and three runs in the top of the 7th inning to take a 10-2 lead. I’m sure the lead felt pretty safe. However, Amarillo scored three in the bottom of the seventh and four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Wind Surge went scoreless in the top of the ninth frame meaning that they were clinging to a 10-9 lead with three outs to go. 

Kyle Bischoff, making just his second Double-A appearance, got the final out of the eighth inning and tossed a perfect ninth inning to hold on and record his first save with the Surge. 

Cory Lewis started and did well. He gave up two runs on three hits (1 home run) and three walks. He struck out six batters. Ricardo Velez came on and got four outs. He was charged with two runs on three hits and a walk. He had two strikeouts. Jared Solomon got two outs, but not before giving up a three-run homer. Scott Engler gave up four runs on two hits and two walks in just 2/3 of an inning. He left with two runners on. Bischoff came on and both runners scored, but he did record three strikeouts and his first save. 

In the fourth inning, Tyler Dearden singled to lead off the top of the inning. After a strikeout, Jeferson Morales and Tanner Schobel hit back-to-back home runs that made it 4-0. 

In the top of the fifth, Luke Keaschall led off with a home run to make it 5-2. Jake Rucker singled, and after a pitching change, Dearden doubled him to third base. Carson McCusker drove in Rucker with a sacrifice fly.  

With two outs in the sixth inning, Jorel Ortega was hit by a pitch. He advanced on an errant pickoff attempt and scored on a Keaschall single. (7-2)

In the top of the seventh inning, Dearden led off with a single. McCusker followed with an RBI double. After Morales reached on error, Schobel doubled to drive in McCusker. Morales advanced to third base and scored on an Andrew Cossetti ground out. The Surge had a 10-2 lead and held on, barely, for the win. 

Dearden led the way with a 4-for-5 day with two doubles. He’s now hitting .406 with a 1.018 OPS in nine games with the Wind Surge after hitting .500 (1.193) in five games with the Kernels. And before that, he was hitting .361 (with a 1.044 OPS) in 55 games for Lew Ford and the Long Island Ducks. The 26-year-old had spent the 2017 through 2023 seasons in the Red Sox organization. 

Schobel went 2-for-5 with his 14th double and fifth home run. He went back-to-back with Morales whose homer was his sixth of the year. McCusker went 2-for-4 with his 19th double. Keaschall went 2-for-6 with a seventh home run since joining Wichita. Ben Ross went 1-for-3 with two walks. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 1, Quad Cities 4
Box Score
Earlier in the week, Connor Prielipp was activated from the 60-Day Injured List. On Saturday in Quad Cities, he made his first Kernels start in over a year. Obviously, the Twins will be quite cautious with such a young and talented arm. In this game, he had four strikeouts over the first two innings. He gave up no runs and two hits, but he walked none. He threw 32 pitches and 22 were strikes. 

Ricky Castro came on for his first Kernels appearance. He gave up four runs (two earned) on four hits and a walk over the next four innings. He had two strikeouts. Jacob Wosinski struck out two batters over two shutout, hitless innings. He had one walk. 

For the fifth time in five games this series, the Kernels took the first lead. With two outs, Rubel Cespedes knocked a single. He stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. He scored on a Kevin Maitan single. 

And that was it for the Kernels scoring. They had just one more hit over the final eight innings. Maitan had another single. He ended the day 2-for-3 with a walk. The Kernels had seven walks. Misael Urbina and Kyle Hess each walked twice. The team was just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base. 

After winning the first two games of the series, Quad Cities had won the past three games. On Sunday, C.J. Culpepper will be returning to the mound to face exciting Royals’ LHP prospect Frank Mozzicato. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 2, Dunedin 5 
Box Score
The Mussels offense was held scoreless for the first eight innings. By that point, they were down 5-0. They had a minor comeback attempt in the ninth that came up well short. 

Charlee Soto made his 16th start of the season. He was charged with two runs on three hits over four innings. He had four strikeouts and no walks. He took the loss and fell to 0-4 on the season. Of course, that doesn’t matter at all since: 1.) The Twins are going to be very patient with such a young pitcher, 2.) he is averaging 3 1/3 innings over his 16 starts, and 3.) He doesn’t even turn 19 until the final day of August. Of the 50 pitches, Soto threw 38 strikes, an incredible 76% strike rate. 

Devin Kirby came on for his first Mussels appearance. He gave up two runs on one hit, three walks, and a hit batter in the fifth inning. He had two strikeouts though. Tomas Cleto gave up one run on one hit and one walk over the next two innings. He had two strikeouts. Juan Mercedes struck out a batter in a perfect ninth. 

Through the first eight innings, the Mussels had just three hits, all singles. In the top of the ninth, Brandon Winokur led off with his second triple of the season. He scored on a ground out. Next, Nick Lucky hit his fifth homer since joining the team a month ago. This one was of the Inside-the-Park variety. 

Lucky and Maddux Houghton each went 2-for-4 in the game. Houghton stole his 14th base. Winokur had a walk to go with his triple. Walker Jenkins went 0-for-2 but walked twice. Yasser Mercedes has had a tough start with the Mussels. He was promoted when the FCL season ended earlier this week. In three games with the Mussels, he is 1-for-14 (.071) with seven strikeouts after going 0-for-4 with 4 strikeouts on Saturday. 

DOMINICAN DAILIES
DSL Twins 0, DSL Mets 4
Box Score
Melvin Rodriguez was the starter for the Twins in this game, and the 18-year-old was fantastic. He tossed five shutout innings and gave up just two hits and no walks. He had one strikeout.  

Manuel Compres came on and had a perfect inning. He started the seventh, and it didn’t go well. A walk was followed by two stolen bases. Then two more walks loaded the bases. Fabian Herrera came on in relief, trying to keep the game tied 0-0. The first batter he faced popped out to first base, but the runner from third scored to make it 1-0 on the sacrifice fly. A wild pitch put runners on second and third. The next two batters had RBI singles, and a fourth run scored on an error. 

The Twins offense was pretty non-existent in this game. They had two singles and a walk. Merphy Hernandez went 1-for-2 and was hit by a pitch. He also stole his 23rd base of the season. Alver Medina had the other single, and Ricardo Paez worked the walk. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Melvin Rodriguez (DSL Twins) - 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, K
Hitter of the Day – Tyler Dearden (Wichita) -  4-for-5, 2-2B(4), 2 R

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Saturday. Help(!) us update our Top 20 rankings by ranking the players here.

#1– Walker Jenkins (Fort Myers) – 0-for-2, 2 BB, K    
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 0-for-4,  
#5 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-2, BB, HBP, K.   
#7 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 4.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 50 pitches, 38 strikes (76.0%)
#8 – Austin Martin (Minnesota) – 0-for-2, BB    
#9 – Luke Keaschall (Wichita) –  2-for-6, HR(7), R, 2 RBI, 3 K  
#10 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 1-for-3, BB, 3B(2), K.
#13 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 2-for-5, 2B(14), HR(5), R, 2 RBI 
#14 – Zebby Matthews (St. Paul) – 4.0 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 84 pitches, 58 strikes (69.0%)
#15 – Cory Lewis (Wichita) – 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 75 pitches, 44 strikes (58.7%)
#17 – Connor Prielipp (Cedar Rapids) – 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 32 pitches, 22 strikes (68.8%)

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Omaha @ St. Paul (2:07 PM CST) – RHP Louie Varland (3-7, 5.34 ERA)
Wichita @ Amarillo (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Aaron Rozek (4-3, 1.88 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (1:00 PM CST) – RHP C.J. Culpepper (2-1, 3.26 ERA)
Ft. Myers @ Dunedin (11:00 AM CST) – LHP Cesar Lares (2-3, 4.37 ERA) 

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

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[Mike Sixel]

My feedback on these reports is that they are the best part of the site. You can tell all the writers are really into it. Just love this part. 

[cmoss84]

Just wanted to say I mentioned Tyler Durden and Tyler Dearden the last couple of days. It worked. 

You're welcome Tyler.

Prielipp has good stuff...but would almost be tempted to turn him into a closer. Could be filthy.

[Guest]

Soto's line would have been much better (4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K) but for a botched call on a liner to left, which was apparently ruled a trap.  The 2 runs came on a 2-out double afterwards.  Field umpire had a rough night, and both managers were constantly on his case.

[mark sills]

Prielipp looked great I wouldn't change from a starter, has the pitches just needs to stay healthy, don't think being ready every other day would be the right move. Luke Keaschal has been the real deal, tearing it up in double a. Luke and Andrew Morris need to be moved to triple a.

 

[Doctor Wu]

Encouraging to see another good, albeit very short, outing from Prielipp, and Soto didn't embarrass himself either. All in all, lots of encouraging signs down on the farm this week. I'll also add to the chorus: these reports are very much appreciated. Great stuff!

[tony&rodney]

The minor league reports are always what I look forward to on Twins Daily. They are excellent. These days I mostly listen to the Twins on the radio and have at least two milb games on the computer.

Prielipp looked like he was toying with those Hi-A batters. In only two innings his stuff was fantastic. One well placed weak ground ball to shortstop (in the hole) was beaten out and a little lopping fly ball to right should have been easily caught for an out. Only one outing but Prielipp has stuff.

I'm flummoxed at how long Emmanuel Rodriguez has been sidelined. He is missing some important development time.

[Dman]

Zebby with a tough night against a very good hitting team.  He has more to learn about getting high end hitters out as he struggled in AA against the one good hitting team he faced there.  I still am very impressed with what he has done this season.  I can't remember a pitcher moving three levels in one season before.  They usually get stuck at AA for a while.  More refinement needed but at least he can be challenged at AAA.

Man Prielipp has me sooo excited about his stuff and dreaming of having an elite lefty in the system. I would continue to take it slow, but golly gee wiz it's nice to see him back and dominating.

I saw Deardon when he was at High A and knew he didn't belong there.  At that time I thought he belonged at AAA.  Glad to see him proving me right so far.  His OPS in a smaller sample is higher than Keaschal's right now.  I think this guy has an elite tool, but more time needed to make sure..

[LambchoP]

Really good to see Prelipp and Cory Lewis healthy again. I agree that Keaschal and Morris are deserving of a call up to AAA. Next years Spring training could be very fun and Interesting. Lots of talent in the high minors battling for major league spot. Mathews, Keaschal, Morris. I'd say Emmanuel Rodriguez but what's up with him? He re hurt his thumb over a month ago and we've heard absolutely nothing since. Same with Canterino...

[Blyleven2011]

These reports on our prospects are always  encouraging and enlightening  ...

Seth is always thorough  ...

[bean5302]

Seriously, though. Every pitcher is going to have a rough day now and again. Matthews' FIP was 4.76, standing at the highest value it's been all year long. Thanks in part to a .533 BABIP, the 9.00 ERA was pretty unsightly. 

[madtowntwin]

Prielipp is only 22-23 right?? His pitch mix out of Alabama was pretty developed. As a Wisconsin kid (out of Tomah I believe) I've been pulling for him since the draft. Obviously, subsequent to the elbow injury and TJ surgery his development and innings will be very cautious and supervised - But here's hoping. That same talent and pitch mix should have him on a starter's trajectory for present time.  He and the recently drafted Dassan Hill add some definite dynamic left handed pitching  potential to the Twin's minor league system. Win Twins!

[darwin22]

Echoing the comments of others, the detailed analysis of games and features on our players is one of the main reasons I check out TD on a daily basis. 

Seth and the other TD writers do a great job!

The only suggestion I'd make is trying to update readers on the injury status of players ( ie: Rodriguez, Canterino) that have missed substantial time.

Keep up the awesome work!

[bean5302]

37 minutes ago, madtowntwin said:

Prielipp is only 22-23 right?? His pitch mix out of Alabama was pretty developed. As a Wisconsin kid (out of Tomah I believe) I've been pulling for him since the draft. Obviously, subsequent to the elbow injury and TJ surgery his development and innings will be very cautious and supervised - But here's hoping. That same talent and pitch mix should have him on a starter's trajectory for present time.  He and the recently drafted Dassan Hill add some definite dynamic left handed pitching  potential to the Twin's minor league system. Win Twins!

Prielipp turns 24 in January. Not sure what his inning limits will look like, but I doubt he'd be able to be a full time starter prior to 2026. I think the Twins will probably try to keep him a starter. Maybe 40 innings this year?

[madtowntwin]

Thanks Bean - about what I thought in terms of age...I look at the Tiger pitcher the Twins faced last night in Skubal who I think is 27. Same kind of pitch mix. Is that too high of a ceiling?? Similar build. Not sure if Tarik has had TJ Surgery as well.  40 innings seems reasonable. Off season program seems critical. 

[Seth Stohs]

13 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Prielipp turns 24 in January. Not sure what his inning limits will look like, but I doubt he'd be able to be a full time starter prior to 2026. I think the Twins will probably try to keep him a starter. Maybe 40 innings this year?

The nice part is that there is no reason for the Twins to rush Prielipp. Add him to the 40-man roster when required and keep the patience. I don't care if he's called up a 24, 25, or 27... Just when he's ready.