Twins Minor League Report (9/20): Marco Raya Goes 5 Scoreless in Triple-A Debut

[Tom Froemming]

On Thursday, Cory Lewis delivered five solid innings for the St. Paul Saints in his Triple-A debut. Tonight, it was Marco Raya’s turn. In his first outing for the Saints, Raya impressed with five shutout frames. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 81-73
St. Paul Saints: 70-77
Wichita Wind Surge: 58-80 (season complete)
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)

SAINTS SENTINEL 
Indianapolis 8, St. Paul 6
Box Score

Prior to tonight’s game, manager Toby Gardenhire was asked about Marco Raya making his Triple-A debut by Saints broadcaster Sean Aronson.

“Maybe seeing Cory go out there and do what he did yesterday, maybe that’ll give Raya some confidence, “ Gardenhire said. “I think he’s a pretty confident guy, though, anyways.”

Raya not only answered Lewis’ performance, he one-upped him. 

Indianapolis was threatening in the first inning, but Raya struck out Jack Suwinski to strand a runner on second base. While Suwinski isn’t exactly a contact guy, he does have over 1,100 big-league plate appearances to his credit. Not a bad first feather in your Triple-A cap.

Impressive debut. Raya pitched five scoreless innings, did not walk a batter, struck out four men and threw 67.7% of his pitches for strikes (44 of 65).  He topped out at 96.2 mph. Raya finishes the season with 97 2/3 innings pitched. 

I would have loved to see the Twins take the training wheels off Raya sooner. He didn’t complete five innings in a game until his 17th start of the season and eclipsed 80 pitches in a start just one time. On the other hand, their plan did keep him on the mound. Not many pitchers make it through an entire season healthy these days.

As far as innings go, Raya logged more this year than David Festa (tonight’s Twins starter) did last season. Festa has stayed healthy, and look at him now. Maybe the Twins are onto something here.

Once Raya’s day was done, Justin Topa took over for his first game action since Aug. 7. The Twins bullpen could certainly use help, so it’s great to see the right-hander back on the mound.

As for Topa’s outing tonight, uh, it was great that he got some work in. Did I mention he hadn’t pitched in a long time?

Topa walked the first man he faced, which was immediately followed by a hit by pitch. It looked like he settled in after inducing a flyout to center field and a strikeout, but then Joshua Palacios smoked a three-run homer. The velo on Topa’s pitches were roughly three ticks down from his 2023 averages. Again, it was just great that he got some work in. 

Another arm trying to get back to the big leagues, Kody Funderburk, followed. In the fourth outing of his rehab assignment, Funderburk gave up two runs on four hits over 1 2/3 innings. He struck out three of the nine men he faced, but his velo was also down from usual. 

Luckily, the Saints lineup managed to tally three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to regain the lead. Chris Williams drove in Jeferson Morales on a homer before Rylan Bannon and Payton Eeles tacked on another run with back-to-back doubles. 

Indianapolis tied the game at 5-5 in the eighth inning by scoring a run on a Ryan Jensen wild pitch. They scratched across the go-ahead run in the ninth before Jack Suwinski delivered the knockout blow with a two-run homer later that inning. 

Topa, Funderburk and Jansen combined to give up eight runs over 3 1/3 innings pitched. And you thought the Twins bullpen was struggling …

Chris Williams added his second home run of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. He went 4-for-4 and hit a double in addition to the two home runs. The Saints still lost 8-6. 

DaShawn Keirsey Jr. got picked off at first base in the sixth inning before committing an error in center field in the ninth (a ball rolled under his glove, allowing the runner to advance an extra base). It wasn’t all bad, though, as he also went 2-for-4 to push his average to an even .300.

Speaking of guys having great seasons, Eeles went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and his 38th stolen base of the season (17 of which have come with St. Paul). 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Marco Raya, Saints
Hitter of the Day: Chris Williams, Saints

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

#2 Brooks Lee (Minnesota): 0-for-2 (entered the game in the top of the eighth as a pinch hitter)
#6 David Festa (Minnesota): 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 103 pitches
#10 Marco Raya (St. Paul): 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 65 pitches

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul vs. Indianapolis, 5:07 pm CT: Randy Dobnak

View full article

[FlyingFinn]

Wow, what a great month of September to end the season for Raya. Guess that's why the experts have him rated so highly.

[Doctor Gast]

Very encouraging performance from Raya against a tough Indianapolis team. He pitches much better from the mound than the IL. Keep up the good work! Too bad the RPs couldn't hold the win for him.

[jmlease1]

nice work from Raya. It's going to be interesting to see who fills out the rotation in AAA next season! Real possibility that you have Festa, Matthews, Morris, Adams, Nowlin, Lewis, and Raya all battling. A couple of guys might get slipped back down to AA for a few weeks. Good problem to have, especially since it makes it easier to not spend money on a back of the rotation veteran, since I expect the ownership to cut payroll again.

[LambchoP]

Glad to see Raya go 5. Biggest positive was NO walks. If he can keep his walk rate down and figure out how to pitch deeper into games, just like Festa, we just might have a few capable starters to call on. Good thing because we're not spending on any that's for sure. Sure looks like Topa and Funderburk are cooked and aren't an option anymore. Hopefully they can put something together next year. I've got to believe Keirsey and Eeles will make the Twins top 30 lists after this year. Those two, along with Mccusker and maybe Rodriguez should factor into the big league club next year at some point. It's nice to have depth, especially with all our players being so injury prone. 

[bean5302]

Raya has clearly made some adjustments in order to get into the zone more. His walk rate has decreased quite a bit, but unfortunately, the strikeout rate went with it. I had closed the book on Raya as of mid-July, but it appears the front office finally got around to seeing whether or not he was a starter after all.

I look forward to seeing what he can do in AAA next year.

[SaberNerd]

Finally have some Statcast data to look at Raya.  Was much more curveball heavy, while the scouting reports where much higher on the slider.  Gets good spin on both, as well as his cutter.  Threw more cutters than 4 seamers, and they really didn't miss bats but got weak contact.  Zero changeups; maybe his resurgence lately is partly due to scrapping that pitch.  Also threw a couple sinkers, both fastballs averaged around 94.

[SD happy]

4 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

nice work from Raya. It's going to be interesting to see who fills out the rotation in AAA next season! Real possibility that you have Festa, Matthews, Morris, Adams, Nowlin, Lewis, and Raya all battling. A couple of guys might get slipped back down to AA for a few weeks. Good problem to have, especially since it makes it easier to not spend money on a back of the rotation veteran, since I expect the ownership to cut payroll again.

A healthy Headrick is also in the picture. And, don’t forget Dobnak!!!!!!!

[HerbieFan]

Let's be honest.  The major league club...playoffs or not, appears dead in the water.  But it is a little bit exciting to think about the next couple years when they can run out Pablo/Ober/Ryan and then have young guys like Festa/Matthews/Raya, etc., coming behind them.

Now, about that bullpen approach.....take a bunch of average guys (below average?) and try to use analytics to play matchups.  Maybe some of the young arms can help them just actually have good relievers......

[DocBauer]

9 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

nice work from Raya. It's going to be interesting to see who fills out the rotation in AAA next season! Real possibility that you have Festa, Matthews, Morris, Adams, Nowlin, Lewis, and Raya all battling. A couple of guys might get slipped back down to AA for a few weeks. Good problem to have, especially since it makes it easier to not spend money on a back of the rotation veteran, since I expect the ownership to cut payroll again.

A nice problem to have, right?

I believe there's a small chance the Twins attempt to move Paddack, though if they have to eat even some of his $ I don't know if they'd do it. But I can see them trying to save some $ and put it elsewhere like a RH OF of decent quality, or at 1B, etc. But even if they don't over him, there's always the possibility of someone getting injured. 

Long way of saying the depth at St Paul might be so deep that even with Festa in the rotation, they might be crowded. Again, good problem to have.

Excited that 2 of Raya's best starts have been at the end of the season. But I still have to predict he begins 2025 at AA again just because of the numbers, and because being cut loose for more IP might be an easier transition ar AA for a month or so?

Just a gut feeling.

[DocBauer]

5 hours ago, SD happy said:

A healthy Headrick is also in the picture. And, don’t forget Dobnak!!!!!!!

I haven't forgotten about either. But I'm not so sure either is headed to the rotation. Dobnak will probably be a swing man as the 6th starter, which is fine. The way they move players to the "development" lust and back again is just a way of keeping a deeper roster at their disposal.

I tnink...and kind of hope...that Headrick is going to the pen. He's a big LH who has decent velocity that should uptick in the pen. Further, being a SP all this time, he might be able to hold his own against RH bats better than some. And he might be able to toss a pair of innings here and there instead of a single inning.

He's going to be 27yo at the start of 2025 and lost all but a handful of appearances this season. And there is depth at AAA, and need and opportunity in the Twins pen. I think his ticket to MLB, and sticking, is in the Twins pen.

[DJL44]

9 hours ago, SD happy said:

A healthy Headrick is also in the picture. And, don’t forget Dobnak!!!!!!!

Dobnak is mostly using up innings that should go to other pitchers. I think I might demote him to Double-A if I was in charge.

[SD happy]

18 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I haven't forgotten about either. But I'm not so sure either is headed to the rotation. Dobnak will probably be a swing man as the 6th starter, which is fine. The way they move players to the "development" lust and back again is just a way of keeping a deeper roster at their disposal.

I tnink...and kind of hope...that Headrick is going to the pen. He's a big LH who has decent velocity that should uptick in the pen. Further, being a SP all this time, he might be able to hold his own against RH bats better than some. And he might be able to toss a pair of innings here and there instead of a single inning.

He's going to be 27yo at the start of 2025 and lost all but a handful of appearances this season. And there is depth at AAA, and need and opportunity in the Twins pen. I think his ticket to MLB, and sticking, is in the Twins pen.

To be honest, I kinda added Dobnak’s name as a ‘tongue in cheek’ 😉