Twins Minor League Report (9/2): Saints, Surge Work on Labor Day

[Seth Stohs]

Most get Labor Day off, but the St. Paul Saints and Wichita Wind Surge gave people a place to go on their day off to watch some baseball. Wichita even worked a little overtime. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Yunior Severino)

In a rarity, there were two full-season affiliates that played on Monday.  Find out how St. Paul and Wichita performed. 

Of note, because of the Labor Day weekend, having a regular minor-league report each day, and our August Awards articles, we won't have the Minor League Week in Review this week. 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 75-62
St. Paul Saints: 63-69
Wichita Wind Surge: 54-73
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 64-60
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-55
FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete)
DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) 

TRANSACTIONS
Byron Buxton was sent to St. Paul to start a rehab assignment with the Saints.
Trevor Richards cleared waivers and was outrighted to St. Paul.
In some very surprising but fantastic news, OF Emmanuel Rodriguez ended his rehab in Fort Myers and will continue his season with the Saints.
RHP Jarret Whorff was promoted from Wichita to Fort Myers. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 8, Iowa 11 
Box Score
To celebrate Labor Day, the Saints played a very rare Monday game. To celebrate, the Saints gave free tickets to expecting women for the game. Unfortunately, Iowa had a big seven-run third inning. The Saints tried to come back, but it was too little too late. 

Caleb Baragar started and gave up one run in the top of the first inning. After a scoreless third inning, he started the top of the third frame by giving up a single, a walk, and a three-run homer to Kevin Alcantara. That ended his game. He gave up four runs on four hits and a walk over two-plus innings. 

Nick Wittgren came on to replace Baragar. He was welcomed by a Moises Ballesteros home run. After a strikeout, he gave up two singles and threw a wild pitch. Then he got the second out on a strikeout. However, Caleb Knight drilled a three-run homer which gave the Cubs an 8-1 lead. But Wittgren did get a third strikeout to end the inning. Wittgren stayed in and tossed two scoreless innings. Over his three innings, he gave up four runs on five hits. He had four strikeouts. 

Ryan Jensen was next and he gave up two runs on two hits and a walk in his inning. Zack Weiss tossed a scoreless inning. Scott Okert came in for the seventh inning. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk and recorded two outs. Jarret Whorff came in with the bases loaded and stranded all three runners. He had three strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. 

Down 10-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Saints tried to comeback. Byron Buxton led off with a single to center. Emmanuel Rodriguez walked. With one out, Diego A. Castillo singled to drive in Buxton. Payton Eeles followed with a single to drive in Rodriguez. 

Down 11-3 going to the bottom of the eighth inning, Yunior Severino led off with a double. Two batters later, Eeles singled to center to score Severino. With two outs, Patrick Winkel singled and then Rylan Bannon singled on a ground ball to shortstop to drive in Eeles. 

Down 11-5 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Saints tried one more time to come back.  led off with a single. With one out, Severino hit his 20th home run. Castillo walked and then scored on a Carson McCusker triple that made it 11-8, but that was as close as it got. 

The Saints scored their eight runs on 13 hits and five walks. Winkel went 3-for-5. Severino was 2-for-4 with his 18th double and 20th home run. Eeles was 2-for-5. 

Byron Buxton made his first rehab appearance. He batted second and played in center field for the first seven innings. He was 1-for-3 with a walk. 

Emmanuel Rodriguez made his Triple-A debut. He went 0-for-3 with two walks and an RBI groundout.  

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 2, Frisco 3 (11 innings)
Box Score
Both teams scored two runs in the third inning, and then the game went seven-and-a-half innings without another run scoring. 

The Wind Surge got on the board first in the top of the third inning. Dalton Shuffield reached on an error. He advanced to second on a Jorel Ortega single. Ben Ross lined a single to left to load the bases. Kala’i Rosario kept the carousel rolling when he drove in Shuffield with a single. The second run scored on a double play grounder. 

C.J. Culpepper started and gave up two, third-inning runs on three hits in 3 2/3 innings. Cody Laweryson got six outs. Mike Paredes gave up a walk and had two strikeouts. Taylor Floyd gave up three hits and a walk over three scoreless innings. He had two strikeouts. 

The Surge had just seven hits and two walks combined. Ben Ross went 2-for-4. Kyler Fedko was 2-for-5. 

 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – RHP Cody Laweryson (Wichita): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 
Hitter of the Day – 1B Yunior Severino (St. Paul): 2-for-4, BB, 2B(18), HR(20), 2 RBI, 2 R, BB

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

#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 2-for-4, BB, 2B(3), HR(3), R, RBI
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-3, 2 BB, R, RBI 2 K
#15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-5, RBI, 2 K.
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-2, K.
#19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - DNP    

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) – TBD
Ft. Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CST) – LHP Cesar Lares (3-3, 4.31 ERA) 

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

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[Wizard11]

I wonder how Jarret Whorff felt about his “promotion” from Wichita to Fort Myers? 🤔🤭

[tony&rodney]

St. Paul will be interesting to watch with McCusker, Rodriguez, and Severino in the lineup as well as tuning in when Andrew Morris takes his turn.

[jmlease1]

So happy to see E-Man off the IL and playing. Hope he finishes the season strong in AAA. He was absolutely mashing it before he got hurt. I expect him to start in AAA next season but we will certainly see him in MLB in 2025. Huge talent.

Good to have Laweryson pitch well, but he's really had a rough last 2 seasons. I really thought he was going to become a bullpen option for the Twins by now after he looked so good in 2022, but he wasn't very good in 2023 in AAA and got demoted to AA this year...and has somehow been worse? Oof.

Outside of some injuries it's been a very good year for the farm system , I think.

[stringer bell]

Winkel had three hits. It seems his AAA hitting is on a par with Camargo (albeit with less power). Which is the better receiver and thrower? I honestly don’t think Camargo will ever be more than an AAAA guy. Is there hope for Winkel?