Twins Daily Minor League Report (5/3): Eduardo Beltre's Grand Slam Leads FCL Twins to Opening Day Win!

[Seth Stohs]

The Saints are breaking all kinds of records so far this season... Most of them have to do with rain, and rain outs. We get another team to keep up with starting today. The FCL Twins played their first game of the season. 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 14-20
St. Paul Saints: 14-14
Wichita Wind Surge: 15-11
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 16-9
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 14-12
FCL Twins: 1-0

TRANSACTIONS
Jose Salas’s rehab assignment in Fort Myers is now complete. He has been activated from the Kernels injured list. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul, Columbus
Box Score
The winner in this series has been clear. Mother Nature has wreaked havoc on this series. The teams were supposed to play a doubleheader on Saturday, but both games were canceled. Not just postponed at this point. They have been canceled. 

Saturday marked the 10th and 11th games already this season that the Saints have been rained out. The Saints will play a 148 game schedule. They hope to play the final scheduled game of this series on Sunday afternoon. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 2, Frisco 5
Box Score
The Wind Surge sent Ricky Castro to the mound for the start. He went 3 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on six hits (1 homer) and a walk. He had three strikeouts. Wichita worked to come back, but were unable to come up with an answer. 

In the fourth inning, Ben Ross hit his second home run of the season to make it 4-1. 

Relievers Michael Martinez and Jarret Whorff combined to provide 3 1/3 scoreless innings and had five strikeouts. Joel Cesar gave up one run on two hits and a walk in the eighth inning. 

Jorel Ortega's second home run of the season came in the ninth inning, but the Surge fell short. Coming into the game, the Wind Surge ranked second in the Texas League in home runs and added two more.

Seven different Wichita hitters had one hit. Kala'i Rosario added his third double. Outfielder Kyler Fedko went 0-for-2, but he walked and was hit by a pitch. He has reached base in 21 consecutive games, the current longest streak in Double-A.  

 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 8, South Bend 3 
Box Score
This is one of those games where a team should go home feeling pretty good about it. The pitching was generally solid, and they had some really strong hitting performances. 

Jose Olivares started and went three innings. He gave up one run on two hits. He walked four and had six strikeouts. The reports on Olivares early this season have been very encouraging, even beyond the 98 mph he's hitting with his fastball. 

Lefty Gabriel Yanez gave up two runs on two hits and two walks over 2 1/3 innings. He had one strikeout. Logan Whitaker inherited two runners and allowed one to score. He had one strikeout over 1 2/3 innings. Paulshawn Pasqualotto walked two and struck out two batters in the final two scoreless, hitless innings.  

The Kernels had 13 hits and were walked nine times. Kaelen Culpepper went 4-for-5 and stole his third base. Gabriel Gonzalez went 3-for-4 with four RBI. Danny DeAndrade hit his ninth double and second triple of the season. Kyle DeBarge went 1-for-2 with three walks. He added this 13th stolen base. Brandon Winokur hit a single and walked twice. Nate Baez walked three times. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 5, Jupiter 12
Box Score
In looking at the final score, it might be hard to believe that when Jupiter came to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning, they were behind 2-1. 

Lefty Dasan Hill started for the Mussels. He hit a batter and walked a batter in the top of the first but didn’t allow a run. He came out to start the second inning, but before he threw a pitch, there was an injury timeout. Presumably trainers came out to see Hill. He ended up getting the next batter to fly out, but he then came out of the game, replaced by Jacob Kisting. 

We don’t know much. StatCast wasn’t available and Tampa didn’t have the game televised, so little information is publicly available right now. 

What we know. In the first inning, Hill’s fastball was between 93 and 95.1 mph. In the second inning, he threw two fastballs, 93.7 and 94.2 mph, certainly nothing of concern there. And the final pitch he threw was an 81.1 mph slider. In the first inning, his slider was at 81.2 mph. Just 12 of his 27 total pitches were for strikes (44.4%)

Jacob Kisting came on. He gave up a run in the third inning and was charged with three more in the fifth inning. He gave up four runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings. When he was replaced in the fifth inning, he had two runners on base. Devin Kirby came on and allowed both of them to score plus another run. Kirby got seven outs, but he gave up six runs on five hits (2 homers). He started the eighth inning but the first two batters reached base. At that point, manager Seth Feldman turned things over to utilityman Miguel Briceno. Both inherited runners scored and Briceno was charged with two more of his own. But, he got the final three outs.

So while the Mussels scored in three of their final four innings (3 runs), the Tarpons scored in each of their final four innings (11 runs). 

The Mussels had six hits and walked eight times. Maddux Houghton was 2-for-5. Poncho Ruiz and Yohander Martinez each walked twice. Yasser Mercedes, Jay Thomason and Peyton Carr had a single and a walk. 

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Twins 4, FCL Red Sox 3
Box Score
The players have been in Fort Myers for months, getting ready for this day. For some, it’s a professional debut. For others, it’s their first game in the States. Saturday morning was Opening Day in the Florida Complex League.  

The Twins squad made the six-mile trek down Daniels Parkway to play the FCL Red Sox at Jet Blue Park Complex. It was quite the pitchers duel through five innings. 

20-year-old Joel Garcia made the start and gave up one hit and one walk over two scoreless innings. He pitched 18 innings in the FCL in 2024. 

23-year-old Mitch Mueller came on and worked the next four innings. He was charged with one run on five hits and a walk over four innings to record his first win. He had four strikeouts.  Born in the Twin Cities, he went to high school in Brookfield, Wisconsin. He spent a year at Parkland College and another at Winona State. He pitched at Utah Valley for two years. Upon completion of college, he pitched last summer in the independent leagues. In 30 1/3 innings, he had 51 strikeouts to just four walks. 

Let’s talk about some offense quickly. The Twins went into the top of the sixth inning with three walks, but no hits. Carlos Silva led off with a walk. Yilber Herrera pinch-ran for Silva. With one out, Merphy Hernandez walked. Herrera and Hernandez were successful on a double steal, but Daiber De Los Santos walked to load the bases. 

That brought Twins Daily’s 2024 Short-Season Minor-League Hitter of the Year Eduardo Beltre to the plate. He ended the Red Sox no-hit bid in about the best way possible, if you’re a Twins fan. He slammed a ball well beyond the mini-monster in left field. A 1-0 deficit turned into a 4-1 lead in a hurry. 

Mueller put a zero on the board in the sixth, and the Twins went scoreless in the seventh. 

Holding that 4-1 lead, the Twins turned the ball over to 6-5, 176 pound Venezuelan Aiberson Ventura to get the final three outs. Last year in the DSL, he went 3-1 with a 1.10 ERA in 10 appearances and 16 1/3 innings.

The inning started with a double. After a fly out, a wild pitch advanced the runner to third base. The next batter hit a triple to cut the lead to 4-2. Ventura got a groundout for the second out of the inning. The third run scored, but the bases were empty with two outs. Time to relax, right? No! Another triple, and the Red Sox are just 90 feet from tying the game. Fortunately, Ventura got another ground ball to third baseman Luis Fragoza who made the throw to first and ended the game. 

Beltre went 1-for-2 with a walk and the big, grand slam. Jayson Bass added a single in the seventh inning. Ricardo Pena walked twice. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
     Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins): 1-for-2, BB, HR(1), R, 4 RBI
     Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, 2 R, SB(3)
     Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 3-for-4, R, 4 RBI
Pitcher of the Day 
     Mitch Mueller (FCL Twins): 4 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. 

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

#7 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 K. (played CF)
#8 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 4-for-5, 2 R, SB(3). (played SS)
#10 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 3-for-4, R, 4 RBI. (played LF)
#11 - Dasan Hill (Fort Myers) - 1 ⅓ IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 27 pitches, 12 strikes.
#13 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-5 (DHd)
#14 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-2, 3 BB, 3 R, RBI, K, SB(13). (played 2B)
#16 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-for-4, BB, R,
#19 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B(3), K. 

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Columbus (12:05 PM CST) - RHP Zebby Matthews (2-1, 1.93 ERA)
Wichita @ Frisco (4:05 PM CST) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
South Bend @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Jeremy Lee (1-1, 11.57 ERA).
Fort Myers @ Tampa (11:00 AM CST) - RHP Dylan Questad (1-0, 1.38 ERA). 

Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Saturday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!

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[Dman]

Nice to see Beltre have instant success in the FCL.  1 for 2 with a home home run. a walk. four RBI's and no strikeouts has him continuing what he did in the DSL last year.  Long way to go, but he was great in his first game.

[Guest]

Shocked again:  another Twins' highly-ranked prospect yanked for injury.  This is REALLY getting tiresome....  Anyone seen Jenkins?

[Blyleven2011]

Thanks Seth  ,

I know it's minor league ball , but all these walks , is the pitching really this bad or are our players that patience ???

[jmlease1]

Lot of good hitting from the prospects in Cedar Rapids to start the season. It's going to be interesting to see who gets tapped for a call to Wichita if this keeps up through May? Culpepper, DeBarge, Amick, and DeAndrade are all positioning themselves to get moved up. (Winokur has a bunch of work to do) I suspect 1-2 will get the call, which will also open up some infield PT. But it's good to see them hitting well.

[LambchoP]

Culpeper and Gonzalez are hitting really well this year. Hopefully Beltre can develop into a true HR hitter for us. Been awhile since we've had a true 30 HR a year threat in our lineup. Hopefully Dasan Hill doesn't have anything too serious. Him and Prelipp could be a nasty 1-2 lefty combo..... Still waiting on a Mccusker call up.....Any news on Eeles yet? Jenkins? Are these guys still alive at this point?

[rdehring]

First thought has to be related to Hill's short start.  Please let it be something like food poisoning.  Please?

Great seeing Beltre begin his season just as last season ended, on a roll.  Let's hope he is for real and unlike so many of the stars ahead of him, he remains HEALTHY.  Is he related to the Beltre that joined the HOF last year?  Also curious why the short-season hitter of the year didn't make your Top 20?

With all the hitting in northern Iowa, don't recall seeing as much about Culpepper as his numbers suggest we should have.  Kid sure seems like a solid player and top prospect.

[bean5302]

Gen Alpha apparently hates Ohio. Ohio skibidi toilet, etc. Whatever. I agree with them after this insane rainout series. Guess it gives Royce Lewis a couple extra days to rest without him trying to overdo it.

Scary about Dasan Hill. Calling his start to the season impressive is a major understatement.

The quick glance coverage of the MiLB action is awesome!

 

[bean5302]

13 hours ago, Minderbinder said:

Shocked again:  another Twins' highly-ranked prospect yanked for injury.  This is REALLY getting tiresome....  Anyone seen Jenkins?

Jenkins is out until at least the end of May. Continuing ankle soreness. He got a cortisone shot a couple days ago.