Twins Minor League Report (9/12): Cory Lewis Provides Quality Start

[Seth Stohs]

The Saints are scoring plenty of runs. They're just giving up too many runs late in their games. The Wind Surge got a great start from the organization's top minor-league pitcher in 2023 is pitching very, very well again. 

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Cory Lewis)

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 78-68
St. Paul Saints: 68-72
Wichita Wind Surge: 56-79
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 67-63 (season complete)
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 66-59 (season complete)
FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete)
DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) 

TRANSACTIONS
The Twins officially announced that Byron Buxton was being activated from the IL and Austin Martin was optioned to St. Paul.

Probably no surprise, but Emmanuel Rodriguez was placed on the 7-Day Injured list with a thumb sprain, the same injury that cost him so much time this season. Most likely, he is done for the season.

LHP Jaylen Nowlin was promoted from Wichita to St. Paul. The Twins released LHP Caleb Baragar to make room. 

Per multiple reports, the Twins have released 2024 sixth-round draft pick Derek Bender. You can read much more about that here.   

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 7, Columbus 8 
Box Score
The night after losing in a walkoff, the Saints lost their lead to the Clippers late in the game. 

The Saints jumped ahead early. Michael Helman hit a solo home run in the top of the first inning. He has hit 14 for the Saints this season. 

Andrew Morris started for the Saints. He gave up a run in the second and two more in the third. In all, he went five innings. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on five hits. He had three strikeouts and walked none. 

Down 3-1 through three innings, the Saints scored four runs in the fourth inning. With two outs, Carson McCusker doubled. After Jair Camargo walked, Jeferson Morales singled to make it 3-2. The game was tied when Camargo scored on a Rylan Bannon double. Anthony Prato then drove in two more runs with his 20th double of the season. 

The Saints made it 6-3 in the top of the sixth. McCusker led off with a walk. Camargo singled him to third. He scored on an infield single by Morales. 

Kyle Bischoff came in for the bottom of the sixth. He walked the leadoff man who stole second. He advanced to third on a groundout and then scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-4. Zack Weiss got the seventh inning, and he gave up a run on two hits and a walk to cut the lead to 6-5. 

McCusker led off the top of the eighth inning with another single. With one out, Morales was hit by a pitch. Bannon walked to load the bases. After a line out for the second out, Payton Eeles walked to score McCusker and make it 7-5. 

Nick Wittgren was brought out for the bottom of the eighth inning. He gave up three runs on two hits and a walk. The big hit was a two-out, three-run homer by Raynel Delgado that put the Clippers ahead 8-7. 

The Saints were unable to score in the top of the ninth and fell by one run again. Morales went 2-for-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. In 13 games with the Saints, he is now hitting .375 with five doubles and a triple. McCusker went 2-for-4 with a walk and double. He scored three runs. In his 16 games since joining the Saints, he is hitting .339 with four doubles, a triple and four home runs.  

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 0, Tulsa 5
Box Score
Tanner Schobel had a single. Noah Cardenas had a walk, and he stole a base. 

That has been your Wind Surge offense report for the night. 

Cory Lewis has been pitching really well of late. In this game, he gave up one run on two hits. In six innings, he had two walks and struck out six batters. While his record fell to 2-6, his ERA fell to 2.59. 

Taylor Floyd came into the game and threw a scoreless seventh inning. However, he hit a batter, gave up a single and walked one to load the bases. With two outs, Jarret Whorff came in and gave up a slow-rolling infield single. Then a single to center scored two and made it 4-0. Noah Miller followed with another single to center to drive in the fifth run. A ground ball ended the inning, but Floyd was charged with four runs, and Whorff gave up one run of his own too. He pitched a scoreless ninth. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day - Jeferson Morales (St. Paul) - 2-for-2, BB, HBP, R, 2 RBI, SB(14).
Pitcher of the Day - Cory Lewis (Wichita) - 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 85 pitches, 55 strikeouts (64.7%)

 

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

#1– Walker Jenkins (Wichita) – 0-for-4, K.   
#11 - Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 82 pitches, 62 strikes (75.6%)
#13 – Cory Lewis (Wichita) – 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 85 pitches, 55 strikeouts (64.7%) 
#15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 0-for-4, 2 K.
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-3.

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Columbus (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Aaron Rozek (1-5, 6.20 ERA)
Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05 PM CST) – RHP Marco Raya (2-4, 4.52 ERA) 

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

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[FlyingFinn]

Cory Lewis with a great ERA and a bad win/loss record. Tells you a lot about the Wichita hitters (and sometimes the bullpen) after Rodriguez was injured.

[Doctor Wu]

Very cool to see Nowlin promoted. He could still turn out to be an MLB player yet!

[Old Twins Cap]

Help me if I am wrong, but put Eeles on one side and McCusker on the other, there's a foot of height difference there.  Kind of an odd couple to be ripping it up in AAA.

[Trov]

Hopefully E-Rod will get thumb looked at over offseason and whatever is the issue gets fixed and not a career altering thing.  To be on the injured list 3 times for the same injury in a season is a big deal. 

[Trov]

1 hour ago, Old Twins Cap said:

Help me if I am wrong, but put Eeles on one side and McCusker on the other, there's a foot of height difference there.  Kind of an odd couple to be ripping it up in AAA.

Eeles is 5'5" McCusker is 6'8" so yeah bit of a difference.  Both were signed out of independent ball too.  McCusker last year, he made big jump this year.  Eeles this year.  Both made huge jump to AAA.  I know they are both older to be on the top prospects lists generally and not draft status, but both may make an impact next year. Both are limited on defense though. 

[FlyingFinn]

10 minutes ago, Trov said:

Both are limited on defense though. 

That is the really bad news for Eeles and McCusker. It's hard to give guys a shot in the majors when they usually struggle early AND aren't playing good defense.

[jmlease1]

Glad to see Cory Lewis finishing the year strong. he certainly looks like he's back in the groove and I expect we'll have him in AAA next season. It's going to be very interesting to see how the Twins figure out the back end of the rotation in MLB and staff AAA to start next season, but there should be very good depth from the jump and if/when we need starting pitcher reinforcements in MLB we're going to be drawing on real prospects again, which is exactly where we want to be.

(My guess on the rotations as of right now: MLB is Lopez, Ober, Ryan, SWR, Paddack and AAA is Festa, Matthews, Morris, Adams, Lewis, Nowlin. yes, i think they'll run a 6-man in AAA. But maybe Nowlin or Lewis starts in AA. I think Varland is done being a starter; he's been passed by SWR, Festa, and Matthews and there's enough other depth that they're better off moving him to the bullpen and letting him be a force there. I'm betting Raya repeats AA at the start of the season.)

That's real depth. will any of the AAA guys emerge as a playoff-caliber starter? we'll see but there's plenty to like from guys like Festa, Matthews, and Lewis. Lot of good development being done in the the minors. 

Now, if we could just keep the hitters healthy...

[LambchoP]

Cory Lewis should make AAA next year if he keeps pitching well. St Paul should have quite the stash of promising SP. Festa, if he's not in MLB as 5th starter, Mathews, Morris, Lewis, Adams. Nice to see we got some good pitchers in our system finally. Whether any of them turn out to be playoff caliber or ace level guys remains to be seen. On the position players side, sure looks like Eeles and Mccusker should impact the team next year. Hopefully E Rod can get his thumb issues fixed in the off-season because I think he's got the best chance to improve the Twins outfield next year. Good things are coming, as long as we can keep guys healthy and limit injuries!

[DocBauer]

3 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Glad to see Cory Lewis finishing the year strong. he certainly looks like he's back in the groove and I expect we'll have him in AAA next season. It's going to be very interesting to see how the Twins figure out the back end of the rotation in MLB and staff AAA to start next season, but there should be very good depth from the jump and if/when we need starting pitcher reinforcements in MLB we're going to be drawing on real prospects again, which is exactly where we want to be.

(My guess on the rotations as of right now: MLB is Lopez, Ober, Ryan, SWR, Paddack and AAA is Festa, Matthews, Morris, Adams, Lewis, Nowlin. yes, i think they'll run a 6-man in AAA. But maybe Nowlin or Lewis starts in AA. I think Varland is done being a starter; he's been passed by SWR, Festa, and Matthews and there's enough other depth that they're better off moving him to the bullpen and letting him be a force there. I'm betting Raya repeats AA at the start of the season.)

That's real depth. will any of the AAA guys emerge as a playoff-caliber starter? we'll see but there's plenty to like from guys like Festa, Matthews, and Lewis. Lot of good development being done in the the minors. 

Now, if we could just keep the hitters healthy...

100% agree.

Couple comments:

1] I wonder if the Twins try to move Paddack to save $ to spend elsewhere and open up the #5 spot to competition?

2] A 6 man rotation for St Paul is possible. (Dobnak is also under contract still as well). They could also take turns skipping someone every week and let them throw out of the pen as a long man. But could Nowlin join Headrick in the pen as early as next year? I think it's possible.

3] Agree Varland is a reliever from here on out. Potentially a very good one.

4] AA Wichita could have a pretty good group in the rotation as well.