Twins Minor League Report (4/8): Good Night for The DBo Show, Strong Starts from Zebby Matthews and Dylan Questad Squandered

[Steve Lein]

The starting pitching was a bright spot in each game on Tuesday, but the efforts of Zebby Matthews in St. Paul and Dylan Questad in Fort Myers were wasted by their defense and the bullpens. 

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (photo of Dylan Questad)

TRANSACTIONS

• After a quick stint in Fort Myers, IF Brooks Lee’s rehab assignment was transferred to the St. Paul Saints and he was in their starting lineup, playing second base on Tuesday.
• In his place, the Mighty Mussels received a replacement in the form of 1B Aaron Sabato, who was sent on a rehab assignment from the Wichita Wind Surge.

SAINTS SENTINEL
Omaha 3, St. Paul 0
Box Score
Zebby Matthews took to the bump for the second time this season, and he was (perhaps) even more dominant in this one than his scoreless first go-round. 

Through the first two innings he allowed just one hit, a comebacker to him on the mound he couldn’t quite get his full glove on, with three strikeouts. Then he struck out the side in the third on just 11 pitches.

In the fourth, he walked (gasp!) somebody a whole 40+ innings before he had walked anyone last year, but struck out another to keep the game scoreless. In the fifth, Zebby didn’t get the help from his defense he needed to keep his ERA unblemished. He allowed a one-out single before picking up his eighth K of the game for the innings second out, but then a pop-up into right snowballed the inning a bit. Yunior Severino either lost it in the lights, or badly misjudged it (he has played very little outfield before this season) and wasn’t able to recover enough to make the catch. The ball fell on the outfield grass for an RBI double and 1-0 Storm Chasers lead. The next hitter drove in a second run with a single before Matthews struck out another for his final out.

Overall Matthews finished five innings and was (unceremoniously) charged with two earned runs on four hits, one walk, and struck out nine to tie his career high. He topped out at 98.8 MPH with his fastball and racked up twelve swings and misses on his 80 pitches.

Jacob Bosiokovic worked the next two scoreless innings for the Saints, allowing one hit, two walks, and striking out three. Alex Speas gave up one run in the eighth on a single, a pair of walks, and a sac fly. He struck out one.

There wasn’t a ton of offense in this one for the Saints, but Brooks Lee batted second in the lineup, played second base, and finished 1-for-3. Austin Martin picked up their only other hit, while Mike Ford, Severino, and Luke Keaschall each drew a walk to account for all five of their baserunners. They had just two at-bats with runners in scoring position the entire game.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Midland 1, Wichita 3
Box Score
The Wind Surge scored early and held on late to take down the RockHounds in their home opener at Equity Bank Park in front of nearly 6,000 fans.

In the bottom of the second Wichita used three walks to load the bases before Jake Rucker got them on the scoreboard with a sac fly. Allan Cerda followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0. Tanner Schobel led off the third with a solo home run to make it 3-0, and that would turn out to be plenty for Darren Bowen and the Wind Surge pitching staff.

Bowen got the starting nod and was fantastic in his five innings. He allowed just one run on three hits, walked none, and struck out five to pick up his first win of the season. He threw 70 pitches, with 49 of them going for strikes (70%). His lone run allowed came on a solo home run in the fourth, but finished his outing strong by striking out two in the fifth.

Angel Macuare came on for the sixth and pitched into the seventh. After a two-out walk Jarret Whorff came on for the final out, and also pitched a scoreless eighth. Macuare allowed two hits, walked one, and struck out one in 1 2/3 innings. Whorff struck out two in his 1 1/3. Cody Laweryson came on for the ninth and set the RockHounds down in order to pick up the save. He struck out two.

Ricardo Olivar led the offense with two hits in four trips to the plate out of the leadoff spot. Kala’i Rosario (1-for-4, 2 K, SB) and Rucker (1-for-2, RBI) had the other hits in the game for the home team.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Beloit 2, Cedar Rapids 3
Box Score
The Kernels kicked off their 2025 home schedule against the Minnesota Twins former affiliate, the Beloit Snappers at Veterans Memorial Stadium in this one.

Right-hander Jose Olivares made the start and pitched into the fifth inning. He mowed down the Snappers one-two-three in each of the second and fourth frames, as well as facing just three men in the first thanks to a double-play ball. In his 4 2/3 innings he allowed just one hit, walked three, and struck out six. Two of those walks came in the fifth inning after he struck out the first two hitters, and put an end to his outing after 66 pitches. Five of his final six outs came on strikeouts.

When he left the game the Kernels had a 1-0 lead, as a double from Billy Amick in the fourth scored Kyle DeBarge from first to open the game’s scoring. That is Amick’s fifth extra-base hit in four games so far on the season.

Juan Mercedes finished off the fifth inning before Spencer Bengard came on to start the sixth. Twins Daily’s 2024 MiLB Relief Pitcher of the year kept the Beloit offense off the board through the ninth, and in the meantime the Cedar Rapids offense extended their lead.

Caden Kendle led off the sixth with a walk, Kaelen Culpepper followed with a single, and DeBarge drew another walk to load the bases for Amick. He delivered the rare two-RBI sac fly to put them out front 3-0 at the time.

After three scoreless innings in which he struck out three and walked two, Bengard came back out in the ninth looking to close out the game. It probably was one inning too many, as he walked the first two batters of the inning, and then a one-out double put the Snappers on the scoreboard and ended his appearance. Jacob Wosinski came on to finish the game, and gave up a sac fly before picking up a strikeout to end the game and pick up the save. For his efforts, Bengard earned the win to improve to 2-0 on the young season.

It is a bit of a quirky box score when you look close, as the Kernels were outhit 4-to-3, left only five men on base, and were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position on the game, but came out with the victory anyway. Catcher Khadim Diaw was the other batter to pick up a hit, and DeBarge drew two walks in front of Amick’s heroics.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Tampa 5, Fort Myers 3
Box Score
The Minnesota Twins drafted right-hander Dylan Questad out of high school from Wisconsin in the fifth round of the 2023 MLB Draft. He had a bit of a learning experience playing with the FCL Twins last season, but you wouldn’t know it if this game was your introduction to him.

Questad was excellent, working five scoreless innings and needing just 66 pitches, with 41 of them going for strikes (62%). He allowed just one hit, walked one, and struck out eight. After allowing a leadoff walk in the second, Questad retired the final 11 hitters he faced to put an emphatic bow on his full-season debut.

When he exited, the Mighty Mussels were up 2-0 as Dameury Pena got them on the board in the second inning. With the bases loaded, he sent a liner into deep center that found the grass and bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double and two-run lead.

The first man out of the bullpen was Zander Sechrist and he worked the next 3 1/3 innings. The first three of those were scoreless, but he ran into a bit of trouble in his fourth, partly due to an error. He was charged with three runs (two earned) on two hits, two walks, and struck out three. 

Liam Rocha came on to try and snuff out the rally, but wasn’t able to. Before it was over the Tarpons had a 5-2 lead and Rocha only recorded one out. Both inherited runners scored, and he was charged with two of his own before Devin Kirby came on and picked up a strikeout to stop the bleeding.

The Mighty Mussels gave themselves a chance in the bottom of the ninth as multiple runners were put on via walks, before a wild-pitch strike-three to Yasser Mercedes made it 5-3 and put the tying run in scoring position. After a walk to Aaron Sabato loaded the bases, Jose Rodriguez wasn’t able to get them in as he grounded out to short to end the game.

Pena (2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) and Poncho Ruiz (2-for-3, 2B, BB) each had two hits. Angel Del Rosario finished 1-for-3 with two runs scored, a triple, and a walk. The Mighty Mussels were unable to get any clutch hits, as they finished a paltry 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position, and left 11 men on base for the game.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Dylan Questad, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (5 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 K)
All starting pitchers on Tuesday: 19 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 9 H, 5 BB, 28 K
Hitter of the Day – Dameury Pena, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they performed on Tuesday.

#2 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 0-for-4
#3 – Luke Keaschall (St. Paul): 0-for-3, BB, K
#7 – Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-3, R
#8 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-3, 2 K
#13 – Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-2, R, 2 BB
#15 – Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers): 1-for-4, BB, 2 K
#16 – Rayne Doncon (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-4, 3 K
#17 – Billy Amick (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-3, 2B, SF, 3 RBI, 2 K
#18 – Kala’i Rosario (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2 K
#19 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-3, 2 K
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 2-for-4, K

WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Tampa @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CDT) - LHP Michael Carpenter (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Beloit @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CDT) - LHP Ross Dunn (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Midland @ Wichita (6:35 PM CDT) - RHP Ricky Castro (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Omaha @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CDT) - RHP Andrew Morris (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

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

View full article

[mark sills]

Zebby looked awesome needs to be on the 26 man and not wasted anymore, wish he would have pitched one moe inning to get to ten strike outs. 

[tony&rodney]

I watched the Saints game until Matthews was done pitching. Zebby was crazy good: fastball, slider, and cutter were difficult for Omaha batters and their entire lineup has MLB experience. Matthews is ready. The only nitpick would be that he needs more stamina but I believe some of that is on the organization for not stretching him out to 100 pitches yet. It can be suggested that the Twins wanted to take it slow with Matthews because they anticipated a need before or by the start of May. The injury to Pablo Lopez almost certainly means Matthews is dropped into the Twins rotation next time Lopez's spot is due.

None of the Saints batters look very good thus far. Martin battles and Keaschall is getting some good experience at recognizing pitches but they both need to make better contact. Emmanuel is trying too hard to be superman. Once he settles down he should be fine. Hopefully. Emmanuel does play a good outfield. I wish the Saints/Twins saw fit to use Carson McCusker on a regular basis. He is best as a DH but is not as embarrassing in the outfield as some others and his bat has wicked line drives in it. 

[FlyingFinn]

Love to see so many good starts from our starting pitchers. Matthews and Questad get the headlines but Olivares and Bowen seemed almost as good. Severino in right field, woof. He's just a warm body at this point and so bad on D. As @tony&rodney said, just give his playing time to McCusker.

[nclahammer]

Love all these good outings from these young arms so far this season.   

[ryan189]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Love to see so many good starts from our starting pitchers. Matthews and Questad get the headlines but Olivares and Bowen seemed almost as good. Severino in right field, woof. He's just a warm body at this point and so bad on D. As @tony&rodney said, just give his playing time to McCusker.

mccluster is a awful outfielder also put martain Rodriguez and morales as your outfield everyone else rotate DH

[LambchoP]

Zebby sure looks ready for MLB. I was hoping he could replace Paddack in the rotation, but if Pablo goes on the IL he is lined up to take his spot. Then it might be Festa or Morris replacing Paddack instead. Two weeks in and we are already testing our pitching depth both in the rotation and the pen. Going to be a long year guys..... Best we can hope for is debuts for all our young talent. Get some much needed experience for next year.

[rdehring]

Thanks a lot for today's report, Steve.  Great seeing an explanation of how those two runs scored against Zebby, who should have been out of the inning without any runs scored.  Expect he will slide into Lopez' spot in the rotation.  Is it on Sunday?

Also great seeing Questad with an eye-opening start.  Should be fun watching this trio of Wisconsin kids pitching for the organization this summer.   

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, ryan189 said:

mccluster is a awful outfielder

Carson McCusker is his name. A polished outfielder is not part of his resume. However, McCusker is pretty much similar to Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner out on the grass. Twins fans, including me, have grown to like our current guys and thus put a little shine on their actual play that we might not if these players were wearing a White Sox uniform. In any event, all three of the boppers are bat first baseball players. 

I'm not privy to what the Twins think about McCusker. Simply based on my watching him from the beginning of last year until the present, Carson has made massive gains in pitch recognition, swing decisions, and overall play. Nobody hits the ball harder. Will he continue to progress enough to require an MLB uniform? That is hard to determine but currently there isn't any reason to use others in the system while Carson sits. McCusker should be in the lineup every day he is healthy, batting in the fourth or fifth spot. McCusker can DH and play right field when the Saints need others for the DH. 

On a darker note, I wish the Twins would just release players who have some promise that this (Twins)  organization/front office does not believe in. At least these players might get a shot in another organization. I was happy for Ronny Henriquez and Brent Headrick. They are now earning MLB wages.

[jmlease1]

Zebby is looking great so far; nice to see his velocity high on the fastball. It's a small sample, but he seems to have no concerns facing AAA hitters. No fear if he gets called up to take Pablo's spot in the rotation for a turn or two...and I hope that if he does well the Twins start thinking seriously about giving him Paddack's spot. He's off to an excellent start.

A little concerned about Winokur, who is definitely scrabbling at the plate. Doncon is off to a slow start as well. Hope it's just early season/cold weather/small sample noise.

Culpepper and Amick are both off to good starts, however and that's nice. I've heard Culpepper is good enough at SS to potentially stick there and he's hitting like a first round draft choice for sure. It'll be interesting to see how they manage time in the field for him & DeAndrade (who is also starting well). Amick is interesting and someone I'm going to be paying more attention to. Like the quick start to the season from him and the XBHs, but the K's are something to watch. Would love to know more about where his defense is at and whether he can stick at 3B? Wouldn't mind seeing him develop as a 3B-1B guy.

[Mike Sixel]

How are they managing who plays short with all those guys in one place so far?

[Steve Lein]

1 hour ago, rdehring said:

Thanks a lot for today's report, Steve.  Great seeing an explanation of how those two runs scored against Zebby, who should have been out of the inning without any runs scored.  Expect he will slide into Lopez' spot in the rotation.  Is it on Sunday?

Also great seeing Questad with an eye-opening start.  Should be fun watching this trio of Wisconsin kids pitching for the organization this summer.   

I think he'd be the obvious choice given their days line up, but they could move Festa there, too. If you're giving me the choice, it would be Matthews without question. He is done with triple-A.

Questad's outing should be good confidence boost for him. I'll be very curious to see any ups and downs with him this year!

[jmlease1]

33 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

How are they managing who plays short with all those guys in one place so far?

It is a question, isn't it? Winokur is playing some CF, deAndrade & debarge are both playing 2B, but I'd think someone needs to get pushed up to AA or slid back to Ft. Myers. Maybe the good start for DeAndrade gets him to Wichita faster?

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, jmlease1 said:

It is a question, isn't it? Winokur is playing some CF, deAndrade & debarge are both playing 2B, but I'd think someone needs to get pushed up to AA or slid back to Ft. Myers. Maybe the good start for DeAndrade gets him to Wichita faster?

I'd move DeAndrade now. Let's see what everyone can do at SS....

[Fatbat]

On 4/9/2025 at 9:37 AM, tony&rodney said:

Carson McCusker is his name. A polished outfielder is not part of his resume. However, McCusker is pretty much similar to Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner out on the grass. Twins fans, including me, have grown to like our current guys and thus put a little shine on their actual play that we might not if these players were wearing a White Sox uniform. In any event, all three of the boppers are bat first baseball players. 

I'm not privy to what the Twins think about McCusker. Simply based on my watching him from the beginning of last year until the present, Carson has made massive gains in pitch recognition, swing decisions, and overall play. Nobody hits the ball harder. Will he continue to progress enough to require an MLB uniform? That is hard to determine but currently there isn't any reason to use others in the system while Carson sits. McCusker should be in the lineup every day he is healthy, batting in the fourth or fifth spot. McCusker can DH and play right field when the Saints need others for the DH. 

On a darker note, I wish the Twins would just release players who have some promise that this (Twins)  organization/front office does not believe in. At least these players might get a shot in another organization. I was happy for Ronny Henriquez and Brent Headrick. They are now earning MLB wages.

Headrick will be an allstar if he keeps up a .000 era and whip under .80

5.1 innings small sample size but crap, we could have used him….