Twins Minor League Report (8/29): Emmanuel Rodriguez Set to Begin Rehab Assignment

[Tom Froemming]

One of the Twins top prospects is back. Well, he should be tomorrow. Emmanuel Rodriguez joined the Mighty Mussels to start a rehab assignment, but their game tonight was rained out. The forecast for Friday afternoon is looking reasonably clear in Fort Myers, so hopefully we’ll see him return to action.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (left), Ed Bailey (right)

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

TRANSACTIONS
As previously mentioned, Emmanuel Rodriguez was activated off the IL. He played a pair of rehab games in early July, but you have to go all the way back to June 5 for the last time he played in Double-A.

Rodriguez was slated to leadoff and play center field tonight, but it can be quite difficult to play baseball in Florida. He’s been out all this time due to a pesky thumb injury suffered on a slide. He also missed time with a hand injury prior to that. It would be wonderful to see him get in some games, have a healthy offseason and position himself to make his Major League debut at some point in 2025.

I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s just hope it doesn’t rain in Fort Myers again tomorrow.

Rookie-Level All-Stars and Awards
Minor League Baseball announced their award winners and all-stars for the rookie levels. Yasser Mercedes was selected as a Florida Complex League all-stars and Eduardo Beltre made the Dominican Summer League all-stars. It feels worth pointing out these are all-star honors and not an actual roster for an all-star game, so only 16 players are selected in each league.

Mercedes hit .331/.421/.568 with six home runs and 18 stolen bases in 61 games for the FCL Twins. That .989 OPS ranked second among the qualified hitters in the FCL. The only hitter above him was the MVP of the league (Franklin Arias from the Red Sox). Beltre posted a .326/.453/.518 line in 43 games. His 1.071 OPS ranked third in the DSL.

SAINTS SENTINEL
Postponed (inclement weather), game to be made up as part of a doubleheader on Friday.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Springfield 6, Wichita 3
Box Score
It has been a tough year for Tanner Schobel, but his first swing in this game made hitting look easy. The former second-round pick crushed a two-run homer well onto the berm of Wichita’s Riverfront Stadium in the bottom of the first inning. 

Great way to get things started, but the Wind Surge (well I guess Turbo Tubs) went silent after that. Unfortunately, those were the only two runs the Wind Surge scored until they were down to their final out.

On a night in which his high school teammate Lawrence Butler homered three times for the A's, Jaylen Nowlin had an outing that was fairly representative of what he brings to the table. The lefty flashed swing-and-miss stuff, striking out six batters, but also struggled with his control, issuing four walks. Nowlin surrendered three runs over his 4 2/3 innings and threw 86 pitches (49 for strikes, a strike rate of 57%).

Wichita held the lead until the fifth inning, and the score was 3-2 entering the ninth, but Springfield managed to tack on three runs in the final frame. Kyler Fedko hit a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning, but the damage had been done.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 5, Lake County 2
Box Score
Walker Jenkins has been flexing. He snapped a 22-game homerless streak last Friday by hitting his first home run with the Kernels. He went deep again Tuesday. He did it again tonight. After hitting three home runs through his first 62 games of the season, Jenkins has only needed six games to hit his next three homers.

The lead didn’t last long. Brooklyn Park product John Klein gave up a leadoff double to 2024 No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana and Lake County was able to tally two runs in the bottom of the first inning. That was all the damage Klein would allow over his four innings, however, as he struck out six batters. Jordan Carr fanned another hitter in his scoreless inning of work before Spencer Bengard struck out five more batters over his four clean innings.

Altogether, that’s 12 strikeouts against just one walk (on Klein’s ledger) for Cedar Rapids pitching tonight. Bengard earned his first professional save, and has a 1.42 ERA in 19 innings for the Kernels and 1.59 mark in 79 1/3 innings on the season.

The Kernels fought their way back from that early deficit, with Kyle Hess hitting a game-tying solo home run in the third inning — his first homer in 47 games with Cedar Rapids. The go-ahead run scored on a missed catch error committed by the Lake County right fielder in the fourth inning.

An error also led to the fourth Kernels run. Kaelen Culpepper led off the top of the eighth inning by reaching on an error by Lake County’s first baseman and advancing all the way to third base. Culpepper scrambled home on an RBI groundout by Rubel Cespedes. Nick Lucky plated the fifth Cedar Rapids run with another RBI groundout in the ninth inning. The Kernels lineup managed to score those five runs despite recording only four hits.

Agustin Ruiz made the defensive plays of the night. In the sixth inning, Ruiz had to cover a lot of ground to make a great sliding catch in right field foul territory. He also made a play in the bottom of the ninth inning on what looked like it was going to be a routine flyball. Ruiz slipped, fell square on his back, but managed to make the grab anyway. 

Jenkins, who was the DH , went 1-for-4 with a home run and a strikeout. His OPS is up to .853 in 25 games since being promoted to Cedar Rapids. Culpepper was 0-for-4 but drew a walk, reached on an error and scored a run. He played third base and made a pair of catches on pop-ups in foul territory. There was also an infield single hit in his direction, but it died in the grass on its way over. Basically like a well-placed swinging bunt. It wasn’t even close enough for him to attempt a throw over to first base.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Postponed (wet grounds), game to be made up as part of a doubleheader on Friday.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Spencer Bengard (Cedar Rapids) 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K
Hitter of the Day: Kyle Hess (Cedar Rapids) 2-for-4, HR (1), R, RBI

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects.

#1 Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-4, HR (3), R, RBI, K 
#7 Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-4, BB, R
#17 Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 1-for-4, HR (10), R, 2 RBI, K

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul at Omaha, 5:05 pm CT: Randy Dobnak
St. Paul at Omaha, Game 2: Andrew Morris
Wichita vs. Springfield, 7:05 pm CT: Marco Raya
Cedar Rapids at Lake County, 6:00 pm CT: Jeremy Lee
Fort Myers vs. Clearwater, 3:30 pm CT: Jose Olivares
Fort Myers vs. Clearwater, Game 2: TBD

 

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[Dman]

Only two games so not as much going on.  Nice to see Jenkins showing more power.  That seemed like the last thing to conquer on his todo list for this year.  After a tough start his OPS just keeps climbing.  He's looking more and more like the player we thought he would be.

[LambchoP]

Jenkins finding his power is real nice to see. E Rodriguez coming back is a good sign. Hopefully with a normal off season he can come to Spring training healthy and dominate at AA if they start him there. A move up to AAA and a possible MLB debut could be in the cards for next year. This Beltre guy in DSL sure put up some numbers. Hopefully next year he can do it again stateside. Mercedes is no slouch either. We've got quite a bit of high and lower minors OF's playing well. I'm not so high on Gabriel Gonzalez, I think if we can we should use him in a package to try and get some pitching before his value drops any more. Next year should be fun as far as prospects and debuts go...

[DJL44]

Emmanuel Rodriguez is getting a rehab but Wichita only has two weeks left. If he does well maybe he'll get promoted to St. Paul for the last couple weeks.

[jmlease1]

I hope Rodriguez is able to get some game time in before the end of the season and finish up healthy and positive. Bummer that the hand/wrist issues have kept him off the field so much, because he was a having a great season. Tons of talent there, and his plate discipline will serve him well as he heads towards MLB. dude can flat-out hit. Maybe he'll be a candidate for the AFL or some winter league work this off-season.

Jenkins is doing great, really turned it on lately as he's gotten more comfortable in high A. Not bad at all for 19! It'll be interesting to see how fast the team pushes him next year. He might be ready for AA from the jump, but there's a reasonable argument for him to start next season back at cedar rapids. Regardless, I expect him to spend most of his time in Wichita and it's going to be fun to see how he fares against more advanced pitching. Dude has all the tools, despite being so young. Please stay healthy!

Love seeing these two OFs rise through the system. 

[Fatbat]

He’s coming!! Erod will debut in September with a DFA of Margot. We may not wn the WS this year but the seeds have been planted and the farm has been cultivated and its time for a fall harvest of more young talent! Get him the experience that he build upon!!

[roger]

Was scratching my head, Tom, when reading your comment about Beltre's numbers.  The 1.071 OPS was correct, however, his slugging was .618, not .518.  Assume you had a typo.

Thanks for a great report.  Really like ERod, Jenkins and this Beltre kid.  When does Prielipp next pitch?

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, Dman said:

Only two games so not as much going on.  Nice to see Jenkins showing more power.  That seemed like the last thing to conquer on his todo list for this year.  After a tough start his OPS just keeps climbing.  He's looking more and more like the player we thought he would be.

He absolutely needs to show the power. An article earlier this year was praising his exit velocity which maxed at like 106? Impressive for a high school draft pick for sure, but Jenkins' body was hardly "high school" sized, and not really up to MLB standards.

It's clear Jenkins has adopted a much more aggressive approach at the plate in high A as his BB rate has evaporated. I think we're seeing the flashes of his potential as he tries to hone his game before final polishing. Hopefully, as he moves forward he'll better learn his swing/take profile, but I'm really happy with what I'm seeing right now. A far more impressive prospect than he was a couple months ago in my eyes.

[DJL44]

Just now, bean5302 said:

Hopefully, as he moves forward he'll better learn his swing/take profile, but I'm really happy with what I'm seeing right now. A far more impressive prospect than he was a couple months ago in my eyes.

Sometimes you have to swing to know what you can hit.

[bean5302]

51 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

He’s coming!! Erod will debut in September with a DFA of Margot. We may not wn the WS this year but the seeds have been planted and the farm has been cultivated and its time for a fall harvest of more young talent! Get him the experience that he build upon!!

LOL, dude hasn't played a single at bat in AA in 3 months, where he only has 167 PA anyway.

[Tom Froemming]

48 minutes ago, roger said:

Was scratching my head, Tom, when reading your comment about Beltre's numbers.  The 1.071 OPS was correct, however, his slugging was .618, not .518.  Assume you had a typo.

Thanks for a great report.  Really like ERod, Jenkins and this Beltre kid.  When does Prielipp next pitch?

You are correct, I just fat-fingered that one, my mistake. Always seems to happen on the last thing I add to these things.

Prielippp is scheduled to start Saturday night. I’m also keeping an eye on him as things wind down. It’s been a lot of fun to see him back out there.

[Seth Stohs]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Emmanuel Rodriguez is getting a rehab but Wichita only has two weeks left. If he does well maybe he'll get promoted to St. Paul for the last couple weeks.

Very possible just to get him more at-bats. I would think that if he's healthy for the final couple of weeks that he'd be a great candidate for the Arizona Fall League. 

[High heat]

2 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

Very possible just to get him more at-bats. I would think that if he's healthy for the final couple of weeks that he'd be a great candidate for the Arizona Fall League. 

I was thinking the same thing but can 40 man players go the AFL?  
 

Get healthy and get a last month of ball in at the very least. 

[roger]

4 hours ago, bean5302 said:

LOL, dude hasn't played a single at bat in AA in 3 months, where he only has 167 PA anyway.

Sure is reasonable to expect his debut in September.  September, 2025!

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, roger said:

Sure is reasonable to expect his debut in September.  September, 2025!

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rodriguez earlier than that next season. He will be on his 2nd option year plus Buxton always gets hurt and Rodriguez is probably the best fielding CF in the minors.

[bean5302]

I think Rodriguez could potentially break camp with the Twins out of Spring Training next year at the earliest. Minnesota desperately needs a center fielder.

[tony&rodney]

More rain.

[roger]

15 hours ago, bean5302 said:

I think Rodriguez could potentially break camp with the Twins out of Spring Training next year at the earliest. Minnesota desperately needs a center fielder.

True.  But let’s hope Buxton is the center fielder to start the season.  That would put ERod sharing time in right and left with Waller and Larnach.  Would it be better for him to be playing full time in St Paul?

[tony&rodney]

EmRod needs to get some plate appearances. Twin bill cancelled in FM, again. It's Sunday, send him back to Wichita or even better to St. Paul. Neither level would be difficult for him - he just needs at bats. Arizona Fall League is not at the level he needs to see.