Twins Minor League Week in Review (8/19-25): DaShawn Keirsey Central

[Seth Stohs]

For the second straight week, DaShawn Keirsey put up huge numbers for the Saints. Carson McCusker and Jeferson Morales had very good weeks. The DSL Twins' season came to an end. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

TRANSACTIONS:
LHP Samuel Perez has been promoted to Cedar Rapids from Fort Myers. 
RHP Mike Paredes is heading back to Wichita from Cedar Rapids. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE CONTENT 
Minor League Report (8/25): Y'all Got Any Runs? 
Why Aren't the Minnesota Twins Giving DaShawn Keirsey Jr. a Chance?
Twins Minor League Report (8/24): Andrew Morris, Christian MacLeod Toss Quality Starts Again 
Twins Minor League Report (8/23): Walker Jenkins Hits First High-A Homer 
Who Has the Best Tools Among the Twins' Top Position Player Prospects? 
The Twins Have Two Red-Hot, High-Ceiling Prospects Turning the Corner at Fort Myers
Twins Minor League Report (8/22): DaShawn Keirsey Continues to Make his Case, Jeferson Morales Does It All for Wichita 
Is it Time for Twins to Move Louie Varland to the Bullpen? 
Twins Minor League Report (8/21): Jake Rucker, Carson McCusker Provide Power Surge
Twins Minor League Report (8/20): Cory Lewis Dominates, DSL Season Comes to an End 
Could Emmanuel Rodriguez Become the Top Prospect in Baseball? 
 

WEEK IN REVIEW
Triple-A: St. Paul Saints

• Overall: 59-66, Tied for 7th place in the IL West.
  • 2nd Half: 21-30, Ninth place in IL West. 
• Last Week: 3-3 hosting Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.  
• Hobie Harris and Ryan Jensen each pitched twice and threw three scoreless relief innings. 
• Andrew Morris provided a Quality Start (6 IP, 3 ER). 
• After a rough start on Tuesday, lefty Aaron Rozek faced the same team on Sunday. In that game, he gave up one run on just two hits over six innings. 
• DaShawn Keirsey played in five games last week. He went 9-for-18 and hit .500/.545/1.056 (1.601) with two triples, two homers and eight RBI. He also walked twice, and he was 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts. For his efforts, he was named the International League Player of the Week. 
• Diego A. Castillo played in all six games. He went 9-for-25, hitting .360/.429/.560 (.989) with two doubles, a home run, and eight RBI. 
• Payton Eeles played in all six games. He hit .348/.400/.565 (.965) with three doubles and a triple. 
• What’s Next: The Saints will head to Omaha to take on the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate this week.  They will return to CHS Field for a rare Monday game. They will play the Iowa Cubs on Labor Day.   

Double-A: Wichita Wind Surge

• Overall: 51-69. Fifth place in the Texas League North
  • 2nd Half: 20-31. Fifth place in Texas League North. 
• Last Week: 2-4, at Midland. Three of the games were one-run games.  
• Travis Adams had one of the best starts of the season, maybe even of his professional career to this point. He gave up just one hit and one walk over six scoreless innings. He also had 10 strikeouts. 
• Christian MacLeod was strong again this week. He gave up only an unearned run on two hits in six innings. He walked three, but he also struck out eight batters. 
• Cory Lewis made two starts, and while neither was a quality start, he gave up just three runs on nine hits in 9 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out 13 batters. 
• Kyle Bischoff (3 2/3 IP) and Taylor Floyd (3 1/3 IP) each pitched twice without allowing a run. They each gave up just one hit. 
• Carson McCusker and Jeferson Morales each had strong performances in their four Surge games last week. Morales hit .438/.500/.688 (1.188) with a double and a home run. McCusker hit .278/.316/.944 (1.260) with four home runs and seven RBI. On Saturday morning, we learned that the two outfielders were promoted to Triple-A St. Paul. The both played on Saturday and Sunday. Morales had three hits in eight at-bats. McCusker was 2-for-7 with a walk. 
• Jake Rucker has quietly filled up the stat lines all season. In four games last week, he hit .294 (1.000) with a double, two homers and six RBI. And that was a really great game! 
• Jorel Ortega played in five games. He hit .400/.526/.467 (.993) with a double. He also had four walks. 
• What’s Next: The Wind Surge return home to take on Springfield, the Double-A affiliate of the Cardinals. 

High-A: Cedar Rapids Kernels

• Overall: 62-56 Second place in the Midwest League West
  • 2nd Half: 25-29: Tied for Fourth place in the MWL West Division (6.5 GB) 
• Last Week: Went 1-5 in Dayton, the High-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. 
• Rafael Marcano, a left-hander acquired in the minor-league Rule 5 draft in December, made two appearances last week. Over four scoreless innings, he gave up two hits, walked one and had six strikeouts. 
• Connor Prielipp continues to ease his way back into more action and more work, but wisely the organization is going to be cautious with him this season. In his start this week, he gave up one hit and hit one batter over three scoreless innings. He had four strikeouts.
• Tanner Hall went 5 1/3 innings in his start. He gave up two runs on two hits. He walked three and had four strikeouts.
• Walker Jenkins led the Kernels last week with a .953 OPS. In six games, he went 8-for-25, hitting .320/.393/.560 (.953) with three doubles and a home run. He also drove in six runs. 
• Rubel Cespedes went 9-for-25 and hit .360/.407/.520 (.927) with a double and a home run. 
• Nate Baez played in five games. He hit .333 with a double and a big  extra-innings home run.    
• Gabriel Gonzalez hit .280 with three doubles, a homer and five RBI.  
• What’s Next: The Kernels will stay out east and play a series at Lake County. They will return home on September 3rd (the day after Labor Day) for their final series of the season. They’ll be taking on Cooper Pratt and the Wisconsin TimberRattlers. 

Low-A: Fort Myers Mighty Mussels

• Overall: 63-52. Second place in Florida State League West
  • 2nd half: 32-18, First place in FSL West (4 game lead over Lakeland) 
• Last Week: The Mussels split their six-game series in Tampa against the Yankees, er, Tarpons. It was a week of close games (three, one-run games, two, two-run games) and some crazy comebacks.  
• Sam Perez has been in the organization, and specifically with the Mussels, for a few years now. He tops out at 86, 87 mph. He just often gets the job done. In Perez’s 5 2/3 scoreless innings, he gave up no hits, no walks, and he struck out nine batters. The only blemish was one hit batter. He is heading up to Cedar Rapids this week.
• Jay Thomason was the Twins 17th round pick out of the Air Force. In six games, he hit .286/.412/.714 (1.126) with two home runs and three walks. 
• Khadim Diaw played in four games. The Twins third-round pick from Loyola Marymount went 8-for-17 and hit .471/.500/.529 (1.029) with a double. He had two stolen bases and has played first base, center field, right field along with catching a few games. 
• Jaime Ferrer, the Twins fourth-round pick from Florida State, played in all six games. He went 7-for-19, hitting .368/.500/.421 (.921) with a double. He was 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts. 
• Second-round pick, Billy Amick from Tennessee, went just 3-for-18. He hit .167, but thanks to six walks, he posted a .385 OBP, and his two homers helped him to a .500 Slugging Percentage. 
• Derek Bender, the sixth-round pick from Coastal Carolina, hit a single, two doubles and a home run. 
• What’s Next: The Mussels will head home to take on the Clearwater Thrashers.  

Dominican Summer League: DSL Twins

• Overall: 30-25: Fourth place in Dominican Summer League South
• Anderson Ramos struck out six batters over four scoreless innings in a relief appearance. He gave up three hits and walked none. 
• Melvin Rodriguez made a start and tossed four scoreless innings. It may be more impressive because he gave up base runners. He gave up three hits, walked two and hit two batters. He had four strikeouts. Rodriguez, 18, signed in January. He really ended the year strong. In his final four starts, he gave up just two earned runs in 18 2/3 innings. 
• Aiberson Ventura struck out four batters over two scoreless relief innings. He gave up one hit and walked none.
• It was only two games, but Daiber De Los Santos went 8-for-10 with a double. He went 5-for-5 in the season’s final game on Tuesday.  
• Eduardo Beltre had an Eduardo Beltre final week in his two games. He went 3-for-9 with an OPS of 1.178, a double, a homer and four RBI. 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects. And, be sure to note the new, updated Top 20 rankings.

#1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 6 G, 8-for-25, .320/.393/.560 (.953), 3-2B, 1-HR, 5 R, 6 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K.
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 2 rehab games in St. Paul, 4-for-8, .500/.500/1.125 (1.625), 2-2B, 1-HR, 1 R, 3 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
#5 – Zebby Matthews (Minnesota) – 2 GS, 0-1, 2.70 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, .205 BAA, 10.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K.
#6 - David Festa (Minnesota) - 1 GS, 0-1, 7.36 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, .214 BAA, 3.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 6 G, 7-for-25, .280/.333/.520 (.853), 3-2B, 1-HR, 3 R, 5  RBI, 1 BB, 5 K. 
#8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 1 GS, 0-1, 6.75 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, .389 BAA, 4.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 6 K.   
#9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 6 G, 5-for-21, .238/.304/.286 (.590), 1-2B, 4 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K. 
#10 - Marco Raya (Wichita) - 1 GS, 0-1, 6.75 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, .294 BAA, 4.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K. 
#11 - Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 1 GS, 0-0, 4.50 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, .261 BAA, 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 4 K.
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 6 G, 7-for-26, .269/.296/.462 (.758), 3-2B, 1-3B, 6 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 11 K, 2 SB.
#13 – Cory Lewis (Wichita) – 2 GS, 0-2, 2.89 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, .265 BAA, 9.1 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 13 K.
#16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 6 G, 5-for-23, .217/.333/.304 (.637), 1-3B, 4 R, 5 RBI, 3 BB, 8 K, 4 SB
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 6 G, 0-for-24, .000/.172/.000 (.172), 0-2B, 2 R, 0 RBI, 5 BB, 8 K.
#19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - 1 GS, 0-0, 13.50 ERA, 2.25 WHIP, .200 BAA, 2.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 2 K.
#20 – Connor Prielipp (Cedar Rapids) – 1 GS, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP, .111 BAA, 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K. 

Players of the Week 
Hitter of the Week - DaShawn Keirsey (Saints)
5 games, 9-for-18, .500/.545/1.056 (1.601), 2-3B, 2-HR, 6 R, 8 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K, 4-for-4 SB

Pitcher of the Week - RHP Travis Adams (Wind Surge)
1 GS, 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K

 

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[Blyleven2011]

Thanks for the week in review ...

Nice to see keirsey Jr  have another solid week ...

[Dman]

After a bit of slow start to the season MacLeod has pitched consistently the rest of the way.  It's a nice K rate. good ERA (2.45) and very good WHIP. Guys are really struggling to get hits off of him so if it wasn't for the walks his WHIP might be even lower. The only concern is that FIP has his ERA two points higher at 4.24 while xFIP looks better at 3.21, but there is likely going to be some regression there at some point. If you like RA9 better he is at 2.85 there which puts him pretty much in line with his ERA.

I don't have him as a lock to be protected from Rule V as he isn't in the top 30 and most teams don't protect players not in the top 30, but given the numbers and consistency I do wonder if they will add him.  Does anyone remember if Headrick was on the top 30 the year he was added?  I know he was a surprise add in 2022.  Starting to wonder if MacLeod just might end up on the 40 man in the end.

 

[Doctor Gast]

It has been amazing watching Eeles sky-rocketed to AAA from lower minors! He can do everything! I hate to lose him but he has a bright future, I'm afraid it might not be with MN, He deserves to play MLB someplace. Talking about deserving to be in the MLB, Keirsey had another great week. Congrats on being named the International Player of the Week! When will the Twins wake up? Maybe when it's too late.

[LambchoP]

If Kepler goes on the IL I will be upset if they don't finally call up Keirsey. Guys done everything he can in AAA, plus he can play all three OF spots very well. Steal some bases, lay down a bunt. He could be the spark plug that we need. Unfortunately they'll probably make the dumb choice and roll with Martin and Margot in the OF and just call up Julien again....Julien is obviously not ready for MLB action. At the plate or on defense. Farmer should not be on a contending roster either. Call up Lee and Keirsey immediately. Also, as soon as Winder is able, call him up and replace Richards. Dudes a disaster and will only hurt us. Send Varland to the pen as well to cover all these innings from 4-5 inning starts lately. That'd be a start at least. Sure would help to get our "stars" back in Correa and Buxton, but I'm not counting on them until either the big series against KC or CLE or maybe not at all in the regular season.

[jorgenswest]

6 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

It has been amazing watching Eeles sky-rocketed to AAA from lower minors! He can do everything! I hate to lose him but he has a bright future, I'm afraid it might not be with MN, He deserves to play MLB someplace. Talking about deserving to be in the MLB, Keirsey had another great week. Congrats on being named the International Player of the Week! When will the Twins wake up? Maybe when it's too late.

Why would they lose Eeles?

[twinstalker]

On 8/27/2024 at 9:10 AM, Doctor Gast said:

It has been amazing watching Eeles sky-rocketed to AAA from lower minors! He can do everything! I hate to lose him but he has a bright future, I'm afraid it might not be with MN, He deserves to play MLB someplace. Talking about deserving to be in the MLB, Keirsey had another great week. Congrats on being named the International Player of the Week! When will the Twins wake up? Maybe when it's too late.

LOL.  Twins will have to place Eeles on the 40 man roster by November 2027.  I, too, hope they don't lose him.

[twinstalker]

Raya, DeBarge, Rosario, and Schobel are not top 20 worthy.  Winokur and K. Culpepper are much too high (maybe 19 and 20?).  Right now Culpepper is playing against guys he should be better than.  The rest of the college players drafted this year are playing against guys they should be way better than.  DeBarge looks like I feared he would.  He could never hit quality stuff.  He hit stuff that was complex league at best.

I doubt any of these guys will be as good as Payton Eeles will be, and he's not even on your list.  And the first four I mention are actually close in age to him, though the batters are older or the same in the age vs level qualification.

CJ Culpepper is struggling, and imo probably has TJS or similar in his near future.  Get it done.  He's a good prospect, and I don't understand how the player or team or whoever is suggesting rehab actually thinks he'll be the one guy with his symptoms who doesn't need surgery.

[Doctor Gast]

20 minutes ago, twinstalker said:

LOL.  Twins will have to place Eeles on the 40 man roster by November 2027.  I, too, hope they don't lose him.

 

22 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Why would they lose Eeles?

I might be jumping the gun here. He's very talented & could be a valuable guy who deserves to play in the MLB soon. IMO right now there isn't a place for him but a lot could change next year with the salary crunch. We can stash him like twinstalker said until 2027 to put him on the 40 man for insurance. IMO that's not fair.

[jorgenswest]

3 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

 

I might be jumping the gun here. He's very talented & could be a valuable guy who deserves to play in the MLB soon. IMO right now there isn't a place for him but a lot could change next year with the salary crunch. We can stash him like twinstalker said until 2027 to put him on the 40 man for insurance. IMO that's not fair.

If he continues to put up wRC+ over 130 in the minors he will get a chance. The Twins signed him from independent and have moved him aggressively.