Twins Minor League Report (8/28): Louie Varland Dominates out of Saints Bullpen; Aaron Sabato Powers the Wind Surge

[Seth Stohs]

I'm not sure it counts as "moving to the bullpen," but Louie Varland pitched in a slightly different role on Wednesday and did great. Aaron Sabato hit a double and a homer, but was it enough. How did the Kernels first-round picks combo play? Brandon Winokur hit a walkoff winner for the Mussels on Tuesday. How did he and the team follow up that performance? 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 72-61
St. Paul Saints: 61-66
Wichita Wind Surge: 52-70
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 63-57
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-53
FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete)
DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) 

TRANSACTIONS
With Michael Tonkin officially re-joining the team, Caleb Boushley was optioned to the Saints. 
LHP Brent Headrick started a rehab assignment with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 3, Omaha 2 
Box Score
Jeff Brigham got a surprise start for St. Paul on Wednesday night. He went two innings and gave up one run on two hits. Then the Twins brought in the scheduled starter, Louie Varland, and he was fantastic. The St. Paul native tossed five shutout innings. He gave up just one hit. He walked two and struck out nine batters. 

Hobie Harris gave up a run on a hit and two walks in the eighth inning. Diego Castillo recorded his eighth save with two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.  

The Saints got on the board with two runs in the top of the first inning. Payton Eeles and Brooks Lee took walks to start the game. Eeles stole third before DaShawn Keirsey drove him in with a sacrifice fly. After the second out, Michael Helman

With a 2-1 lead in the third inning, Keirsey led off with a single. He stole second, his 32nd steal of the year. Yunior Severino singled him to third. With one out, Jair Camargo fly out to center, just deep enough for Keirsey to score. However, Severino was thrown out at second base to end the inning. That was all the run support the pitching staff got in this game. 

The Saints had just five hits, and Keirsey had two of them. Keirsey also had two steals to give him 33 on the year. They also walked six times. Eeles walked twice. Carson McCusker was the only Saints player with a hit and a walk. He hit his first Saints double. The team was just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 1, Springfield 2 
Box Score
With C.J. Culpepper understandably being brought back slowly from his forearm injury earlier in the season, his starts essentially become a bullpen game. Culpepper went the first 2 2/3 innings. He gave up two runs on five hits and two walks. He had one strikeout.

John Stankiewicz came in and got four outs. Cody Laweryson and Michael Paredes each provided two scoreless innings of relief. Kyle Bischoff then struck out two batters in a scoreless top of the ninth. 

Down 2-0 going to the bottom of the fourth inning, Aaron Sabato’s 10th home run put the Surge on the board. Unfortunately, that was all they were able to score and lost a tight 2-1 decision. 

Things did get interesting in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Dalton Shuffield and Kyler Fedko each hit singles to put runners at the corners, but Ben Ross lined out to the right fielder to end the threat, and end the game. 

The Wind Surge had just six hits. Sabato had two hits including the home run and his 13th double. Andrew Cossetti and Dalton Shuffield each had a single and a walk. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 7, Lake County 5 
Box Score
The Kernels grabbed the early lead. Then they had a five-run sixth inning that made it 7-0. It gave them just enough to hang on at the end.  

The Kernels scored first when the scored one in the top of the second inning. Rubel Cespedes led off with a double and scored on a Misael Urbina single. 

In the top of the third inning, Walker Jenkins led off with a triple. He scored on a Gabriel Gonzalez single to make it 2-0.  

That’s where the score was when former Twins draft pick Steve Hajjar came in for Lake County. The lefty walked Cespedes, Urbina, and Salas to load the bases. Kyle Hess singled in one run. Matthew Clayton came through with a grand slam to give the Kernels the 7-0 lead. 

Ty Langenberg was the recipient of the run support, but he was fantastic on his own. Langenberg tossed six scoreless innings. He gave up just two hits, walked three, and had three strikeouts. He improved to 5-2 with a 4.25 ERA since he joined the Kernels. 

Jacob Wosinski came on and gave up two runs on two hits and a walk over two innings. Through eight innings, the Kernels held a 7-2 lead. Juan Mendez came in. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on two hits and a walk without getting an out. Rafael Marcano came on and gave up one hit but got three outs and held on to a 7-5 lead. 

Walker Jenkins went 3-for-5 with his second triple. He also stole his fifth base. Gabriel Gonzalez was 2-for-3. Misael Urbina was 2-for-4. Obviously the big hit of the game was the Matthew Clayton grand slam. It marked his first Kernels home run. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 1, Clearwater 8
Box Score
This wasn’t a great game for the Mussels at Hammond Stadium. They had won on a walkoff from Brandon Winokur the night before. However, in this game, they were able to manage just three hits in the game. Winokur had two of them. Khadim Diaw had the other, his third double of the season. 

A key development in this game was the announcement shortly before first pitch that lefty Brent Headrick was going to start a rehab program. The 26-year-old had not pitched since he tossed five, two-hit innings for the Saints on April 6th. It’s been a long road, so starting rehab is a big step. He went 1 1/3 innings. He gave up two hits, hit a batter and issued a walk, but no runs. He threw 35 pitches. 21 were strikes. So, he wasn’t really sharp, but it was a nice milestone to be able to check off the list. 

Cleiber Maldonado came in and got the final two outs, leaving two inherited runners on base. 

Charlee Soto came in for the third inning. He’s been pitching well, but on this night, he just couldn’t find it. Soto went three full innings. He gave up three runs on three hits. He had five strikeouts, but uncharacteristically, he also issued five strikeouts. I don’t know about you, but at this point, I would be fine with shutting him down, rather than get him two more starts. Call his first professional season a success, end the season healthy, and have plenty to learn from this offseason. 

Jack Noble worked the next two innings. He gave up one run on two walks. He had three strikeouts. Ben Ethridge got five outs, but he gave up four runs (2 earned) on six hits and a walk. Maddux Houghton came in and issued a walk before getting the final out.  

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Louie Varland (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, 74 pitches, 48 strikes (64.9%).
Hitter of the Day – Aaron Sabato (Wichita) - 2-for-4, 2B(13), HR(10), R, RBI. 

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

#1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 3-for-5, 3B(2), R, SB(5), K. 
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Rehab St. Paul: 0-for-3, BB, R.
#6 - David Festa (Minnesota) -  6 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 88 pitches, 58 strikes (65.9%)
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-3, HBP, RBI, K. CS.     
#8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 6 BB, 1 HB, 5 K, 71 pitches, 31 strikes (46.5%)
#9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, BB, K.  
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 2-for-4, K. 
#15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - Rehab with Fort Myers: 0-for-3, BB
#16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 0-for-4, K.
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-4, 2 K.
#19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - 2.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 61 pitches, 38 strikes (62.3%)    

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM CST) – RHP Randy Dobnak (10-6, 3.81 ERA)
Springfield @ Wichita (7:05 PM CST) – LHP Jaylen Nowlin (5-5, 4.96 ERA) 
Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (6:00 PM CST) – RHP John Klein (8-3, 4.94 ERA)
Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (6:05 PM CST) – RHP Anthony Narvaez (0-0, 18.00 ERA) 

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

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[Jocko87]

Nice to hear Headrick is alive.  Get loose, quick. 

[tony&rodney]

Varland needs to be in St. Petersburg next Monday or Tuesday.

Jenkins is looking fine.

[TwinsDr2021]

The Twins need to get Eeles up, see if he can be a spark plug, the kid is on a heater lets see if he can do the same in the majors.

[SF Twins Fan]

Nice to see Walker Jenkins putting together a nice stretch of games and hopefully he can continue for the remainder of the season.  End the year on a high note and start next year at AA.

[LambchoP]

Looks like Lee is healthy, can we swap him for Julien yet? I'd love to see Keirsey or Eeles get a shot, but this late in the year, I don't see it happening without some more injuries. Service time and all that. Headrick actually could help the MLB team this year though if he can get right. Theilbar is basically a DFA candidate but he's got a spot because he's our only lefty. Nice to see Jenkins hitting well, just too bad he only has what, like 3 homers all year? When are we going to hear something about Rodriguez or Canterino? Varland looked good, why are we wasting his arm in the minors when our bullpen is desperate for quality innings?

[SaberNerd]

Jenkins has been looking like the player scouts saw out of HS lately.  Up to a 136 wRC+ at CR with a 16 K%.  Probably needs a couple of years just to get stronger and those long flyballs turn into HRs.

[Doctor Gast]

Great win for the Saints. Eeles although he didn't get a hit had 2 walks, 2 steals & put himself into position to score. Keirsey 2 hits & Varland shined & showed what he could do for the Twins this whole season at the MLB level in this role of long relief besides showing prior in the spot starter role.

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Looks like Lee is healthy, can we swap him for Julien yet? I'd love to see Keirsey or Eeles get a shot, but this late in the year, I don't see it happening without some more injuries. Service time and all that. Headrick actually could help the MLB team this year though if he can get right. Theilbar is basically a DFA candidate but he's got a spot because he's our only lefty. Nice to see Jenkins hitting well, just too bad he only has what, like 3 homers all year? When are we going to hear something about Rodriguez or Canterino? Varland looked good, why are we wasting his arm in the minors when our bullpen is desperate for quality innings?

Brooks Lee - .253/.309/.333 OPS .642 wRC+ 81 <--- not good
Eduoard Julien - .217/.320/.354 OPS .673 wRC+ 96

Canterino's career is over. I'll help you out with that.

[tony&rodney]

I put this elsewhere - Lee looked gassed in his last couple of games; all things slow. Maybe he turns the switch on but right now he would not be an improvement on Julien on either side of the ball. However, there is a game today and things can always change in a hurry.

[FlyingFinn]

Emmanuel Rodriguez is alive! He is on a rehab assignment in Fort Myers today.

[Mike Sixel]

29 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Emmanuel Rodriguez is alive! He is on a rehab assignment in Fort Myers today.

Lost year. bummer. Would have been nice to have him in CF after Buxton got hurt!

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

Emmanuel Rodriguez is alive! He is on a rehab assignment in Fort Myers today.

.... and the game is rained out.

 

[Doctor Wu]

Saw that Hajjar had pitched against Cedar Rapids (for the Indians' affiliate), and looking at his stats this year it seems as if he isn't making much progress. For a second round pick his future doesn't look so good at this point.