Twins Minor League Report (8/13): Andrew Morris Dominant in Saints Debut

[Steve Lein]

While Zebby Matthews was stealing the major-league headlines in the Minnesota Twins organization on Tuesday, another up-and-coming pitching prospect took his place in the rotation with the Saints and made minor-league headlines in his own debut. Hits were hard to come by in a few of the other games for Twins affiliates, but the first career home run of one player led his team to victory.

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Andrew Morris)

TRANSACTIONS

• The Minnesota Twins officially selected the contract of RHP Zebby Matthews from the St. Paul Saints, and he made his MLB debut at Target Field Tuesday evening. Though he didn’t make the cut for my preseason debut prediction list, he is the fifth Twins player to make their MLB debut so far this season.
• To take his place on the Triple-A roster, RHP Andrew Morris was promoted to the Saints from Wichita. One could argue Morris has been just as good as Matthews so far this season and both of them have been huge risers this season on our Top 20 prospect list.
• LHP Christian MacLeod made one start with the Saints, but was sent back to the Wind Surge on Tuesday.
• In Double-A, RHP Kyle Jones was transferred to the 60-day injured list, RHP Cody Laweryson was placed on the Development List, and RHP C.J. Culpepper was promoted from Cedar Rapids.

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 4, Indianapolis 5
Box Score
While his fellow pitching prospect that started the year in the Cedar Rapids Kernels rotation was making his MLB debut at Target Field, Andrew Morris hit the road in Indianapolis to make his Triple-A debut for the St. Paul Saints. 

Morris also passed with flying colors at his new level. He gave a quality effort, finishing six innings and allowing just two hits and one walk. The one blemish was a solo home run, and he struck out two batters. Of his 81 pitches, 57 went for strikes (70.4%), and he topped out at 96 MPH. After that home run in the second, Morris retired 14 of the final 15 hitters he faced.

While he was on the mound, the Saints built a 4-1 lead with most of that damage coming in the fourth inning. Michael Helman led off with a single. Edouard Julien followed with a walk. Jair Camargo then brought in their first run of the game with a double. A sac fly from Diego Castillo brought in their second run, before a ground ball from Patrick Winkel turned into a double play, but also let Camargo score to make it 3-1.

They added one more in the fifth after Rylan Bannon led off with a walk. Payton Eeles followed with an infield single that also had a throwing error that allowed Bannon to take third. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. then brought him in with an RBI single.

Unfortunately for Morris, reliever Jeff Brigham didn’t have his best stuff in the seventh as three consecutive walks put the go-ahead run in the batter's box. After a strikeout the first pitch of the next at bat was blasted for a grand slam to put the Saints down by one. Brigham finished the seventh, striking out two in total. Giovanny Gallegos pitched a one-two-three eighth to give the Saints their final chance.

After a two-out walk to Winkel, the Saints pinch ran Anthony Prato, and he ended up on third base after a steal, but Bannon grounded out to the pitcher to end the game.

St. Paul outhit Indianapolis 5-3 on the game, but the opposition got the big one when it counted. Camargo’s double was the Saints only extra-base hit. Keirsey Jr., Bernard, and Eeles each reached base twice.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Arkansas 8, Wichita 3
Box Score
The Wind Surge fell behind early and weren’t able to claw their way back in Tuesday night’s series-opening game against the Travelers.

Taylor Floyd took the bump for Wichita, making his first start as a professional, and was unceremoniously ambushed in the first inning. A leadoff walk, single, and two doubles put Arkansas up 3-0 before the home team had their first at-bat.

They did their best to answer as Tanner Schobel and Jeferson Morales hit back-to-back singles to start it off. Two outs later, Andrew Cossetti delivered a big triple to make it 3-2.

Floyd wasn’t able to make it through another inning, however, as his outing was ended after a two-run double made it 5-2. He was credited with five earned runs on five hits and three walks in 1 1/3 innings.

Jarret Whorff came on in relief and did his best to stabilize it through the fifth. He was charged with one earned run on three hits and two walks in his 3 2/3 innings. He struck out five.

Wichita added a single run in the bottom of the sixth after Carson McCusker led off the inning with a triple. Cossetti followed with a sac fly to drive him in and make it 6-3, but that’s as close as they would get.

John Stankiewicz allowed two runs (one earned) in his two innings of relief. He gave up two hits and struck out two. Kyle Bischoff finished the final two innings, giving up one hit, walking two, and striking out five.

Schobel had two hits in four at-bats out of the leadoff spot, taking over for Luke Keaschall who underwent Tommy John surgery now so he’d be ready to go for spring training next season. The triples from McCusker and Cossetti were the only extra-base hits, and Cossetti drove in all three of the Wind Surge’s runs.

KERNELS NUGGETS
South Bend 4, Cedar Rapids 1
Box Score
Darren Bowen got the starting nod for the Kernels on Tuesday night against the Cubs and he finished the first four innings. He allowed single runs in the first and the third, allowing four hits and two walks in total, while striking out two.

Cedar Rapids tied the game at one in the bottom of the second thanks to Rixon Wingrove’s first home run in a Kernels uniform. But that was going to be it from the offense on the night as the team tallied just five hits total, went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, and left seven men on base.

After Bowen’s outing was done the bullpen trio of Jacob Wosinski (2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, BB, 4 K), Rafael Marcano (2 IP, 2 H, BB, 3 K), and Juan Mendez (IP, K) finished it out.

Wingrove (2-for-4, R, HR, RBI, 2 K) and Rubel Cespedes (2-for-4) had four of the team's five hits, with Nick Lucky chipping in the other single. Walker Jenkins finished 0-for-4 with a strikeout and is still looking to find his groove in the Midwest League. Don’t get down about that however, as he also just moved up to #4 in MLB Pipeline’s latest update to their Top 100.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Lakeland 2, Fort Myers 6
Box Score
The Mighty Mussels jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning, as a 2024 draft pick delivered the first big fly of his career. Khadim Diaw got it started with a one-out single. One out later, Daniel Pena was hit by a pitch to put multiple runners on, and sixth-round pick Derek Bender launched a three-run homer.

They remained in complete control for the rest of the game, as they got a scoreless effort from their starting pitcher, Cesar Lares. He went the first five innings, scattering seven hits (all singles) with no walks, and striking out two, and inducing a pair of double-play balls.

The home team extended their lead with three more runs in the bottom of the fifth, which was started by a leadoff walk from Caden Kendle. Kaelen Culpepper and Kyle DeBarge each followed with a double, with DeBarge’s driving in two. After advancing to third, DeBarge scored on an errant pickoff throw to make it 6-0. 

Cleiber Maldonado came on to start the sixth inning and went two scoreless. He allowed one hit and struck out four. Paulshawn Pasqualotto gave up a pair of runs in the eighth, but it was nearly enough for the Flying Tigers. Jack Noble finished it off by striking out the side in the ninth.

Bender led the way with two hits in three at bats, with his homer and three RBI pacing the lineup. Billy Amick drew two walks and struck out twice in four plate appearances. DeBarge stole his sixth base in six games with the Mighty Mussels.

DOMINICAN DAILY
DSL Twins 6, DSL Rangers Red 4
Box Score
The Twins lineup gave them an early lead, scoring five of their six runs in the first three innings.

Merphy Hernandez led off the game with a single, and promptly scored the first run of the game on an RBI double from Daiber De Los Santos. He then stole third base and was able to make it 2-0 on a groundout.

In the second inning Nestor Urbina drew a leadoff walk, and Carlos Silva brought them both in with a two-run homer, his first of the season.

Then in the third Ramiro Dominguez scored their fifth run of the game after drawing a walk, advancing to second on a hit-by-pitch, and coming home on an RBI single from Silva.

Right-hander Santiago Rojas made the start for the Twins and pitched into the fourth inning. Though he gave up some runs, the Twins stayed in front the entire time he was out there. In 3 1/3 innings, Rojas was charged with four earned runs on five hits and four walks, while striking out two.

Anderson Ramos went the next 3 1/3 frames and held the Rangers in check. He allowed one hit, walked two, and struck out six to pick up his fifth win. Aiberson Ventura finished the last 2 1/3 for his first save. He allowed one hit and struck out three.

The Twins added an insurance run in the seventh when Eduardo Beltre delivered an RBI double.

De Los Santos (2-for-5, 2 R, 2B, RBI, 2 K, 2 SB), Beltre (2-for-4, 2B, RBI, K, SB), and Silva (2-for-4, R, HR, 3 RBI, SB) each collected two hits in the game to lead the way.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day - Andrew Morris, St. Paul Saints (6 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 2 K)
Hitter of the Day - Derek Bender, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (2-for-3, R, HR(1), 3 RBI, K)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Tuesday.

#1 – Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-4, K
#5 – Zebby Matthews (Minnesota) – MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT: W, 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-4
#9 – Kaelen Culpepper (Fort Myers) – 1-for-4, R, 2B, K
#11 – Andrew Morris (St. Paul) – 6 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 2 K
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 0-for-4, K
#16 – Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) – 1-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 K, SB
#17 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 2-for-4, R, K

WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Indianapolis (12:35 PM CDT) - LHP Caleb Baragar (0-1, 4.11 ERA)
Arkansas @ Wichita (7:05 PM CDT) - TBD
South Bend @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CDT) - RHP Ricky Castro (0-2, 5.25 ERA)
Lakeland @ Fort Myers (5:30 PM CDT) - RHP Charlee Soto (1-4, 5.15 ERA)
DSL Mets Blue @ DSL Twins (9:00 AM CDT) - TBD

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

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[FlyingFinn]

Andrew Morris doing his Zebby imitation was great again. Keep it up!

[mikelink45]

Morris has definitely moved up in the prospect rankings, but I suspect also in the pipeline - I expect him up if Varland fails in his starts.  The lineup of prospects looks good, but it also looks like we are coming to the end of the line.  Morris might be ready, who would be next?

Camargo at first looked good in the field.  Are they prepping him for Santana's place next year?  I wondered who would be at first now that Kiriloff has lost his luster and seems to be almost an after thought.  I still hope he does well, whether following the Rooker and Raley route with another team or finally getting healthy and producing in MN.  

[Dman]

It's always an interesting ride with Laras.  He gave up no runs but 7 hits in 5 innings or work with only 2 K's. He is good there's no doubt there, but he is going to need more to move up.  I think he really needs to work on upping the fastball velocity and get that changeup working.  The difference in speeds could really help him IMO.  He is only 21 so still time to work on getting a few more ticks on the Fastball.

Amick 0 for 2 but he had two walks. Unfortunately he also struck out twice.  I like the walks but would like to see contact than K's for him. His line still looks good though.

Bender hitting HR's like he was drafted to do.  It's an interesting profile and if he conquers the zone he looks like he could be a bat that makes it.  Nice to see the power and a 2 for 3 night.

Morris with a great debut at AAA pretty much everything you could hope for except maybe K rate.  I waffle with K rate sometimes as being efficient and getting quick outs is important too as it allows for opportunities to pitch into the 6th or 7th inning. I was not able to watch the game to see what kind of contact he gave up so hard to say if he was more lucky that good but his line of two hits, one walk and one run scored is really. really good.  If he keeps that up he is going to be just fine and looing to be added to the 40 man next year.

Starting pitching continues to be a strength in this system.  Hopefully more bats get going.

[roger]

First time seeing Zebby pitch last night.  Love the way he fills the zone with noooo walks.  Kid sure looks like he might be a good one.  And Morris seems to be following in his footsteps.  Assuming Festa, Matthews and Varland don't self-destruct, Twins look in great shape for 2025 and beyond.

Took a look at the DSL Twins box score.  That Beltre kid seems like a hitting machine.  See he was an All-Star.  Considering how many teams and players are in that league, that's saying something.  Also saw they had a kid pitch all 9 innings last night.  Was curious how many pitches he threw, but it didn't say.  Bit surprised they would let a 17 year old go that deep into a game.

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Morris has definitely moved up in the prospect rankings, but I suspect also in the pipeline - I expect him up if Varland fails in his starts.  The lineup of prospects looks good, but it also looks like we are coming to the end of the line.  Morris might be ready, who would be next?

Camargo at first looked good in the field.  Are they prepping him for Santana's place next year?  I wondered who would be at first now that Kiriloff has lost his luster and seems to be almost an after thought.  I still hope he does well, whether following the Rooker and Raley route with another team or finally getting healthy and producing in MN.  

Maybe Lewis or Raya. But more likely they fall back on Boushley, Henriquez, or even Dobnak if they have to keep going through starters and no one comes back.

It's going to be a problem if Varland totally bombs or someone else gets hurt before Paddack comes back, but there aren't very many teams that aren't going to have a problem if they're on their 10th or 11th choice for the rotation. Twins are a little tight right now because of Ryan's injury, but they've still had 106 out of 119 starts made by 5 guys.

[Omgbenji]

THANK YOU for adding the name of the pictured player! Credit where credit is due. It is much appreciated!!

I'm not as hyped about Morris's outing as some others. The results (run prevention) look nice, but the lack of K's isn't as encouraging. You need a really good K rate in the minors at least to make it in the bigs. It sort of tells me lack of stuff. 

[LambchoP]

Nice to see our top pitching prospects finding success. SWR, Festa and Zebby all having various degrees of success at the top levels, and it looks like Morris is right behind them. If these guys can continue their development and stay healthy, we should have some solid SP depth for years to come. Then we can move Varland and possibly Paddack to the bullpen where they could be a big weapon like they were late last year. As for rotation next year I'm hoping for:

Lopez

Ryan

Ober

SWR 

New free agent. Only worthwhile if they are a 1-2 type pitcher. We have plenty of 4-5's.

Festa/Zebby/Morris

Raya, Lewis waiting in the wings

Varland, Paddack and hopefully Canterino to the bullpen

[Steve Lein]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Morris has definitely moved up in the prospect rankings, but I suspect also in the pipeline - I expect him up if Varland fails in his starts.  The lineup of prospects looks good, but it also looks like we are coming to the end of the line.  Morris might be ready, who would be next?

There's a few who had some success like this last year, but have had some bumps or injuries this year.

Cory Lewis was their MiLB Pitcher of the Year in 2023, but he's only made 9 starts this year with Wichita. Walks have been a bit high but he has been trending up recently:

I'll also be very interested to see if Connor Prielipp can stay healthy, and whom from this years draft class comes out of the gates throwing 2-5 MPH harder next season. Maybe Marco Raya will have some reins taken off. C.J. Culpepper and Christian MacLeod have also been very good.

[Steve Lein]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

Morris with a great debut at AAA pretty much everything you could hope for except maybe K rate.  I waffle with K rate sometimes as being efficient and getting quick outs is important too as it allows for opportunities to pitch into the 6th or 7th inning. I was not able to watch the game to see what kind of contact he gave up so hard to say if he was more lucky that good but his line of two hits, one walk and one run scored is really. really good.  If he keeps that up he is going to be just fine and looing to be added to the 40 man next year.

Looking into the statcast data, there were some long fly balls (one out was farther than the home run he gave up), and the batted-ball data looks high as far as exit velocity goes (7 of 18 balls in play 95+ MPH), but I wouldn't say he was getting lucky or anything while I watched. In that run of retiring 14 of 15 to get through the sixth it looked like dominance to me. 

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, roger said:

First time seeing Zebby pitch last night.  Love the way he fills the zone with noooo walks.  Kid sure looks like he might be a good one.  And Morris seems to be following in his footsteps.  Assuming Festa, Matthews and Varland don't self-destruct, Twins look in great shape for 2025 and beyond.

Took a look at the DSL Twins box score.  That Beltre kid seems like a hitting machine.  See he was an All-Star.  Considering how many teams and players are in that league, that's saying something.  Also saw they had a kid pitch all 9 innings last night.  Was curious how many pitches he threw, but it didn't say.  Bit surprised they would let a 17 year old go that deep into a game.

Same, I just looked at Beltre's BBR page, wow. Is he going to escape the DSL in only one year? Love the hitting and the power, but that 15% BB% for a 17-year-old might be the most encouraging thing.

[SaberNerd]

Morris showed promising results, but there is a good amount he needs to work on.  

A large part of his dominance at A+/AA was HR prevention, and he certainly did not show that with 3 100+MPH and 6 95+MPH flyballs.  Way too many sliders/cutters left in the heart of the zone, and that just isn't going to play in MLB.

Fastball was solid.  Not a ton of whiffs, but guys weren't squaring it up either.  94mph average.  Changeup location was in mostly in the zone, but not in bad areas so it got weak contact but no whiffs.

He's still 22, so it really isn't a problem if he needs to spend a year in AAA before getting his first shot.

[MN_ExPat]

2 hours ago, Omgbenji said:

I'm not as hyped about Morris's outing as some others. The results (run prevention) look nice, but the lack of K's isn't as encouraging. You need a really good K rate in the minors at least to make it in the bigs. It sort of tells me lack of stuff. 

Let's perhaps hold off on the "He lacks the stuff" for just a moment.  It's only one (1) start at AAA.  His overall track record since his Freshman year in college to now is pretty good.  I'm willing to give him a little more time yet 🙂.

[mikelink45]

1 hour ago, Steve Lein said:

There's a few who had some success like this last year, but have had some bumps or injuries this year.

Cory Lewis was their MiLB Pitcher of the Year in 2023, but he's only made 9 starts this year with Wichita. Walks have been a bit high but he has been trending up recently:

I'll also be very interested to see if Connor Prielipp can stay healthy, and whom from this years draft class comes out of the gates throwing 2-5 MPH harder next season. Maybe Marco Raya will have some reins taken off. C.J. Culpepper and Christian MacLeod have also been very good.

I hope they keep challenging the young arms to see what we have. 

[KirbyHawk75]

Is ERod ever playing again?  

[Steve Lein]

17 hours ago, KirbyHawk75 said:

Is ERod ever playing again?  

Right?! Man, with how he was going and the Buxton hip stuff now, E-Rod might have been a guy being considered to come up now.

[KirbyHawk75]

EROD is the next Buxton/Lewis.  Superstar talent, but never healthy.  Lee has been hurt a couple of times this year.  Jenkins has even missed time.  LK is out for the season.  Hopefully he will be ready by Spring Training.  

 

 

[ashbury]

On 8/14/2024 at 7:11 AM, roger said:

Also saw they had a kid pitch all 9 innings last night.  Was curious how many pitches he threw, but it didn't say.  Bit surprised they would let a 17 year old go that deep into a game.

Was his name by any chance "Totals"?  I saw him in the box score.  He's been around a while now.