Twins Minor League Report (5/2): Sire Jeferson Morales Powers Saints

[Tom Froemming]

Image courtesy of © Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 13-20
St. Paul Saints: 14-14
Wichita Wind Surge: 15-10
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 15-9
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 14-11

TRANSACTIONS
St. Paul placed 3B Armando Alvarez on the 7-day IL with a left ankle sprain and activated SS/CF Will Holland from the IL.

Cedar Rapids placed 3B/1B Billy Amick on the 7-day IL with a left oblique strain. The Kernels also transferred LHP Ross Dunn from the 7-day IL to the 60-day IL. He is dealing with a left forearm strain.

Fort Myers transferred C Rafael Escalante from the 7-day IL to the 60-day IL. RHP Liam Rocha was transferred from Fort Myers to the FCL Twins.

The FCL Twins open play tomorrow, and it appears their roster page on MiLB.com has been updated to accurately reflect this year’s squad. Among the top names on that team are 2024 Twins Daily Short-Season Hitter of the Year Eduardo Beltre and last year’s Short-Season Pitcher of the Year Melvin Rodriguez.

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 6, Columbus 4 (6 innings)
Box Score
The Saints are having the most difficult time simply playing baseball games. They were scheduled to play a doubleheader today and, much like yesterday and Tuesday, could only get in one game — and it was called early!

Royce Lewis played third base and went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. On the plus side, he did have two more hard-hit balls with exit velocities of 98.4 mph and 96.4 mph. While we're discussing players coming back from injury, Emmanuel Rodriguez was in the starting lineup for the Saints for the first time since April 23. He went 1-for-2 with a walk as the DH.

Jeferson Morales continued his magical spring by delivering the first multi-homer game of his career. He’s hitting .291/.378/.488 (.866 OPS) in 27 games so far this season and .317/.399/.525 (.924 OPS) over his first 44 games at the Triple-A level. Are we witnessing a late-bloom or just a hot streak that carried over from one year to the next? Only time will tell, but never doubt a Sire of Fort Myers.

Mike Ford also homered for the Saints, his sixth of the season. The Saints had five hitters with an .800 OPS or higher in their lineup tonight. In addition to Morales (.866 OPS) and Ford (.824), Carson McCusker (1.023), Anthony Prato (.987) and Ryan Fitzgerald (.938) are above that mark. Gee, it’s too bad there’s no room for one of those guys on the big club. Alright, okay, minor league production doesn’t often translate to the big leagues, but the Twins have some bats they could turn to if they’re ever motivated to shake things up.

On the pitching side, Marco Raya got the start but struggled despite being provided with some early run support. He walked five of the 16 batters he faced and threw less than 50 percent of his pitches for strikes (30 of 62). After giving up four earned runs in three innings, Raya has a 9.00 ERA through five starts and has yet to record an out in the fourth frame.

On the other hand, Travis Adams continued to pitch great for the Saints. He delivered a pair of scoreless frames and has a 2.82 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 22 1/3 innings for the Saints. Adams has 20 strikeouts and just three walks on the year.

The Saints are going to take another crack at playing two tomorrow, but there’s a 99 percent chance of rain in Columbus, so … 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Frisco 3, Wichita 2
Box Score
Connor Prielipp was working out of trouble with the help of his defense through the first 2 2/3 innings tonight but gave up a two-run homer that ended his night there.

Prielipp’s first throw of the evening hit a batter but he eventually induced a 4-6-3 double play. In the second inning, any damage was avoided in part because right fielder Kala’i Rosario made a nice on-target throw to retire a runner trying to stretch a single into a double. The first two Frisco batters reached base in the third, but third baseman Tanner Scobel started an around-the-horn triple play attempt. The two lead runners were retired but the batter beat the throw from second. 

That’s where Frisco No. 3 hitter, lefty Abimelec Ortiz, took Prielipp deep into the lazy river beyond the right field fence (yes, this really is a thing at Riders Field in Frisco, Texas). Prielipp failed to record a strikeout for the first time in his minor league career. Burnsville product Aaron Rozek delivered 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball out of the bullpen.

The Wichita lineup had a tough time delivering on opportunities, as they went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Ricardo Olivar was 3-for-5 as the DH tonight and is hitting .354 with a .913 OPS on the season. Ben Ross also had three hits including a double, the only Wind Surge extra-base hit on the night. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
South Bend 8, Cedar Rapids 4
Box Score
Tanner Hall did something tonight I’ve never seen a Twins minor leaguer do. Hall threw 38 pitches in the first inning and went back out for the second frame. That’s obviously not an impressive accomplishment in terms of providing quality, but it’s the quantity that’s eye-opening.

Previously, anytime a Twins minor leaguer reached 30 pitches in any given inning it was a guarantee his night was done. I was so shocked that Hall came back out for the second inning that I checked in with Seth to see if he ever recalled seeing this. He couldn’t think of a single time in the last 10-15 years where a pitcher had that high of a pitch count in an inning and remained in the game.

So while that’s an interesting take away from tonight’s game, it’s not exactly a good reflection upon Hall. I suppose it’s a sign the org believes his arm can handle the stress, but he was alarmingly inefficient tonight, needing 63 pitches to record five outs.

Kaelen Culpepper served as the DH tonight, so it was interesting to see who would serve as shortstop on a team with plenty of other candidates. It was Brandon Winokur at shortstop with Kyle DeBarge playing second base and Danny De Andrade at third. Speaking of DeBarge, he hit a home run tonight. After hitting one home run in 26 games after being drafted last year, DeBarge already has four homers in 23 games so far this season.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 9, Tampa 2
Box Score
The Mussels lineup was consistently producing this afternoon, tallying runs in six separate innings. It was a consistent attack, as eight different hitters scored a run and eight also drove in a run. All this was accomplished while providing just three run-scoring hits. One run scored on a ground out, they hit a pair of sacrifice flies, another two runs scored on errors and there was a run-scoring balk.

Catcher Daniel Pena led the way with three hits while Jose Salas, Jay Thomason, Maddux Houghton and Yohander Martinez all tallied a pair of hits. Salas has hit .444 with a 1.254 OPS and three stolen bases in seven games on his rehab assignment with the Mussels. He’s played shortstop, center field and right field.

Jakob Hall, 2024 eighth-round pick, delivered 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball for Fort Myers, striking out three while not issuing a walk. Ivran Romero picked up the win after surrendering a run over his 2 1/3 innings before Tyler Stasiowski struck out the side in the eighth and ninth innings.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Jakob Hall, Fort Myers (4 2/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K)
Hitter of the Day: Jeferson Morales, St. Paul (2-for-3, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, K)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 

2. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 1-for-2, BB
6. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 5 BB, 2 K
7. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, SB (1), R, K
8. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-4, BB, 2 K
10. Connor Prielipp (Wichita): 2 2/3 IP 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 0 K
13. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-3, HR (4), 2 BB, 1 R, 2 RBI, 
15. Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers): 0-for-4, BB, RBI, K
18. Kala’i Rosario (Wichita): 2-for-4, R
19. Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-5, R, 2 K
20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 3-for-5, K

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul at Columbus, 1:05 pm CT: Darren McCaughan
St. Paul at Columbus, Game 2: Zebby Matthews
Wichita at Frisco, 7:05 pm CT: Ricky Castro
Cedar Rapids vs. South Bend, 6:35 pm CT: Jose Olivares
Fort Myers at Tampa, 11 am CT: Dasan Hill
FCL Twins at FCL Red Sox, 9 am CT: TBD

 

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[ryan189]

ok

[terrydactyls]

The Saints have five guys with an OPS over .800?  Twins have two and both are on the IL.  But they do have Clemens, Kiersey, and Gasper on the roster.  Makes no sense.

[mikelink45]

Why use AAA prospects in Minneapolis where the major league team is tearing the cover off the ball when the prospects can just languish in the tropics of St Paul.  This team is so stubborn when it comes to prospects and meanwhile around the league I am seeing more and more young call ups.

[DJL44]

14 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

The Saints have five guys with an OPS over .800?  Twins have two and both are on the IL.  But they do have Clemens, Kiersey, and Gasper on the roster.  Makes no sense.

Player Name AAA career OPS

Kody Clemens 838

DaShawn Keirsey 821

Mickey Gasper 944

The only guy I'm really interested in seeing is McCusker and I can wait. I think they are hoarding depth right now so there will still be enough players around to complete the season after the trade deadline. I think we'll be seeing plenty of Clemens, Keirsey, Gasper and McCusker from July to September.

That's to say, be careful about wanting the AAA team promoted to the majors. I'm pretty sure you're going to get it and you won't like it better than what you're seeing right now.

[Major League Ready]

5 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Why use AAA prospects in Minneapolis where the major league team is tearing the cover off the ball when the prospects can just languish in the tropics of St Paul.  This team is so stubborn when it comes to prospects and meanwhile around the league I am seeing more and more young call ups.

I am all for giving prospects a shot but let's keep in mind many posters said the same thing about Keirsey.  His OPS is 138 and wRC+ is -74.  Vasquez looks great in comparison.   

[LambchoP]

Does anyone know if Jefferson Morales or Ricardo Olivar are actually catching this year? It is well known that next year after Vasquez is gone we need a backup catcher to pair with Jeffers. It's really looking like Camargo and Cartaya are NOT going to cut it. Morales and Oliver are hitting well, I'm just not sure where they stand defensively. Pitching wise, Raya sure looks like a mess this year. I was always a bit skeptical of his high prospect ratings. Seems to have trouble with consistency and control. Travis Adams looks great so far. Has he being used as a reliever? Alcala needs to be taken off the MLB roster at least for now, maybe Adams could take his place in the pen? Funderburk and Tonkin sure don't look like they're ready for big league hitters. I was hoping Prelipp would have dominated early and got a chance to pitch in the big league pen. There's still a chance with how bad our big league relievers have been, but he's not exactly pushing the issue and with his injury history the team probably won't rush him up the ladder.

[DJL44]

24 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

Does anyone know if Jefferson Morales or Ricardo Olivar are actually catching this year?

Olivar has caught 7, DH 7 and LF 5 games. Not a great ratio if they're trying to develop a catcher.

Morales has not caught a game and only caught 5 last year. He's done catching.

[D.C Twins]

Raya to bullpen already and adjust his pitch focus accordingly.

Where in the world is Jenkins.... can TD get a proof of life at least?

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, terrydactyls said:

The Saints have five guys with an OPS over .800?  Twins have two and both are on the IL.  But they do have Clemens, Kiersey, and Gasper on the roster.  Makes no sense.

Sure do! Lets take a look at them, though.

Mickey Gasper has a 1.417 OPS at St. Paul. Let's get that MVP candidate up here!!!! Oh... wait. Austin Martin, .978! Then again... IL and we know what Austin Martin isn't (good.) Well, maybe that Anthony Prato guy! .978 OPS! Oh... but, I think we're all pretty sure he's not going to keep that up and he's probably a MiLB journeyman type, though, honestly, maybe he's not worse (or much better) than one of our waiver wire type guys we picked up recently? 

When a .750 OPS is pretty much league average, an .800 OPS in the minors isn't all that impressive, though I'd absolutely 100% fast track Patrick Winkel to get a look at him and hope this is a big bounce back year for him so we can DFA/release Vazquez mid season.

[bean5302]

35 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

Does anyone know if Jefferson Morales or Ricardo Olivar are actually catching this year? It is well known that next year after Vasquez is gone we need a backup catcher to pair with Jeffers. It's really looking like Camargo and Cartaya are NOT going to cut it. Morales and Oliver are hitting well, I'm just not sure where they stand defensively. Pitching wise, Raya sure looks like a mess this year. I was always a bit skeptical of his high prospect ratings. Seems to have trouble with consistency and control. Travis Adams looks great so far. Has he being used as a reliever? Alcala needs to be taken off the MLB roster at least for now, maybe Adams could take his place in the pen? Funderburk and Tonkin sure don't look like they're ready for big league hitters. I was hoping Prelipp would have dominated early and got a chance to pitch in the big league pen. There's still a chance with how bad our big league relievers have been, but he's not exactly pushing the issue and with his injury history the team probably won't rush him up the ladder.

Ricardo Olivar, yes. 33% split between LF/C/DH. Not sure why he's not catching more.
Jeferson Morales, no. Hasn't caught a single game.

I'd swap Olivar (AAA) with Camargo (AA), and release Cartaya soon or send him to Ft. Myers to work on his stuff and maybe rebuild some confidence. Cartaya wasn't good at AAA for the Dodgers, but he was never like this.

Not sure why people are so obsessed with tanking Prielipp's value, but it sure seems like a trend here.

[thelanges5]

18 minutes ago, D.C Twins said:

Raya to bullpen already and adjust his pitch focus accordingly.

Where in the world is Jenkins.... can TD get a proof of life at least?

Jenkins got a cortisone shot in his ankle and is out at least until the end of May. 

[mikelink45]

2 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

I am all for giving prospects a shot but let's keep in mind many posters said the same thing about Keirsey.  His OPS is 138 and wRC+ is -74.  Vasquez looks great in comparison.   

That does not change my opinion - bring them up, send them down - just don't settle for the status quo

[jkcarew]

Doesn’t seem like AA hitters have been as impressed with Prielipp as the Twins media shills were back in March watching him on the back fields. But for now, I’m still just glad he seems healthy. If that stays true, he’s got a shot.

I’m hoping Raya can work through whatever is going on, and he can become at least an option as a reliever. It’s like Groundhog’s Day with him, every year is the same.

[Major League Ready]

34 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

That does not change my opinion - bring them up, send them down - just don't settle for the status quo

You have the luxury of immunity from consequence.  If a GM keeps replacing players with players that perform horribly like Keirsey, they find themselves unemployed.

[mikelink45]

20 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

You have the luxury of immunity from consequence.  If a GM keeps replacing players with players that perform horribly like Keirsey, they find themselves unemployed.

I believe that a FO that has a losing record is also subjective to unemployment.  I stand by my recommendation 

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

That does not change my opinion - bring them up, send them down - just don't settle for the status quo

There has to be better players somewhere  , AA or AAA  that could at least be average  , our bench is not average  ...

[twinstalker]

 

Quote

Jeferson Morales Are we witnessing a late-bloom or just a hot streak that carried over from one year to the next? Only time will tell...

Well, stats will help.  If he's striking out a lot, none of this matters.  The difference between MLB pitchers and non-MLB pitchers is monstrously huge.  You strike out vs the latter, and you really have no chance against the former.  Hello, Edouard Julien.  There are exceptions, but those are generally guys (like Wallner) who chose to do things that would make him strike out because those things also allowed him to hit the ball extremely hard and often over the fence.  Morales isn't in Wallner's category, so we can just look at his K rates to start and eliminate him, potentially.  Age vs level needs to be considered, and if that doesn't seem out of line, really the last general stat to look at is exit velocity.

Morales is old for his level.  He turns 26 next week, which, while younger than the average AAA player, is old for a AAA prospect.  To wit, last year at AA he was older than his competition.  Combining these higher levels, we see in 529 PAs Morales struck out 15.7% of the time, which is Luke Keaschall territory.  Keaschall, though, was much younger for AA-AAA, and that matters.  Let's dig deeper.

In 2023 Morales was 1.7 years older than his competition at A+ and his K rate was 20.5% in 200 PAs.  This is not a great combination.  20.5% is an okay rate for a non-power hitter who is a couple years younger than his competition.  Morales was much older and repeating the level that year.  He was very clearly not a prospect, and I'm pretty sure no one disagreed with that back then.  I think it's pretty safe to say we don't need to look back further, but if we did, we'd find worse.

So the question becomes: did he transform himself?  While 15.7% is very good, the age takes away from that.  Subjectively adjusting, we might add five points to that K rate, which if he were a 22-23 yr old prospect would be minimally acceptable, maybe better.  To me this would indicate someone who could maybe hold his own if he can hit hard enough.  In fact, his average exit velocity this season matches what Payton Eeles did last season (86 mph vs 86.9), and it's reasonable to think they're both near their peak.  I'm struggling with the statcast data, and some of the summaries are misleading (11.8% launch angle could mean various things).  It appears, though, that his line drive rate is low (21%).

Not unexpectedly, Morales at this point and time seems like a cuspish prospect at best.  He would be better with the bat than Keirsey, probably, but he wouldn't be someone you'd choose to play in the stead of the frustrating lineup on the Twins.  His remarkable growth the last two years has brought him here, and if he were a couple of years younger, there might be some upside.  Seems a good story with a really low but possible chance of things working out in MLB for a short while.  I see 1.000+ yr service time at about 10% and a cup of coffee at about 60%

[Mike Sixel]

7 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

There has to be better players somewhere  , AA or AAA  that could at least be average  , our bench is not average  ...

Who do you take off the forty man? When guys get healthy, and they will, then you have to take off the guys you called up. It's not as simple as having sixty guys to choose from. Plus, the guys you don't like had big numbers in AAA....

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Who do you take off the forty man? When guys get healthy, and they will, then you have to take off the guys you called up. It's not as simple as having sixty guys to choose from. Plus, the guys you don't like had big numbers in AAA....

Clemens, Keirsey, Funderburk, Adams, Camargo, Bride... it's not hard to find some low hanging fruit on the team.