Twins Minor League Report (5/7): Mike Ford Sends Everyone Home Happy

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Rubel Cespedes)

TRANSACTIONS
No moves were made on Wednesday.

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 8, Buffalo 7
Box Score
Andrew Morris: 5 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
HR: Ryan Fitzgerald (3), Mike Ford (7)
Multi-hit games: Ryan Fitzgerald (3-for-5, HR, 2B, 2 R, RBI), Mickey Gasper (2-for-3, 2B, 2 R, 2 BB), Edouard Julien (2-for-5, R, RBI), Jeferson Morales (2-for-4, R)

The Saints won on a walk-off on Wednesday.

Yet again, Andrew Morris demonstrated his unique ability to deliver pitching lines rarely seen by man. Only he can turn eight hits into zero earned runs—with six strikeouts to boot. At this point, I’m in awe; this is a master of a specific craft and every time he pitches we see something new. (The good news is that, for the most part, these lines are in his favor.)

The Saints offense sputtered for a few innings before roaring into gear, turning the middle frames into a bloodbath spilled upon Buffalo pitchers. First, Will Holland crushed a pitch about as far as possible without netting a homer, instead settling for an RBI double.

In the next inning, Ryan Fitzgerald homered before Mickey Gasper walked and stole second, leading to Carson McCusker pulverizing a run-scoring double.

 

Finally, with two men on in the sixth, Edouard Julien cracked a single the other way, scoring two as the Bison’s left fielder forgot the process on how a human is supposed to pick up a baseball.

For a time, that seemed to be the zenith of the game for St. Paul. Kyle Bischoff and Kody Funderburk endured brutal relief outings, with the latter surrendering a pair of back-breaking lead-relinquishing homers.

Yet, St. Paul had one more rally in them. Julien singled to lead off the ninth, and McCusker walked to bring the winning run to the plate. That run—Mike Ford, perfectly capable of sending a ball into orbit—proved true, as the big man cracked a signature sky-scraper out to right field to win the game for the Saints.

The Bisons are affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays, and their third-ranked prospect, Orelvis Martinez, played second base in Wednesday’s game. He went 0-for-5.

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 5, NW Arkansas 6 (10 Innings)
Box Score
Trent Baker: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
HR: Rubel Cespedes (3)
Multi-hit games: Tanner Schobel (4-for-6, 2B, 2 R, RBI), Rubel Cespedes (3-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI, 2 BB), Kala'i Rosario (2-for-6, 2B, K), Ben Ross (2-for-5, RBI, BB)

Once again, Trent Baker was magnificent. He entered the game with an already miniscule 2.49 ERA on the year, and found a way to lower the number; his five scoreless frames brought it to 2.03. The minor-league Rule 5 pick from the Cardinals has been electric so far in 2025.

Wichita ensured their starter would have early support. Tanner Schobel doubled on the fifth pitch of the game, and Rubel Cespedes homered three offerings later. 

Not to be outdone, the two again jumped on the Naturals’ starter for RBI knocks in the second; this time, Schobel singled and stole second base, while Cespedes doubled him home.

That starter, by the way, was one-time 21-game-winner Kyle Wright, rehabbing to potentially pitch again in the big leagues for the first time since 2023.

That second inning proved the height of Wichita’s offensive powers, as they fought rabidly to put runners on in subsequent frames, but couldn’t break through like they did so easily to start the game.

As well, what looked to be a breezy victory turned sour thanks to one man: Gavin Cross. What a terror. The Naturals DH launched a two-run shot in the seventh, and repeated his feat in the ninth to tie a game two outs away from its potential conclusion. 

Instead, we went into Manfred Man territory. The Wind Surge plated their run, but came up short on a second score when Cespedes was called out at third on a sacrifice fly double-play. NW Arkansas made them pay for that mistake: they jumped on Cody Laweryson, walking off the game just three batters into the bottom of the tenth.

18th-ranked MLB prospect, Jac Caglianone, singled and walked in five plate appearances. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 6, Beloit 5
Box Score
Alejandro Hidalgo: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Kyle DeBarge (2-for-5, 2 R), Danny De Andrade (2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI)

The Kernels eked out a win on Wednesday.

Cedar Rapids drew first blood, turning a Kyle DeBarge single and stolen base—typical DeBarge activities these days—into a run with a Danny De Andrade double. That would be the only score in the first, but three runs were ushered in the following frame, with the Kernels doing so without netting a base hit.

The sequence went as follows: pop out, hit by pitch, stolen base, walk, hit by pitch, walk, strikeout, hit by pitch, wild pitch, groundout. It was ugly, and painful, but three runs are three runs. 

The scores aided starter Alejandro Hidalgo, who glided through the first inning before running into trouble in the 2nd and 3rd; Beloit scored twice in each frame, although because of a Brandon Winokur error, one of the runs was unearned. 

The two squads were knotted at five heading into the eighth. Kaelen Culpepper walked and DeBarge took his place after a groundout. After advancing to second, DeBarge skated home when De Andrade singled into right, giving him the game’s opening and ending RBIs. 

In total, the Kernels were hit by six pitches, with Jamie Ferrer suffering the worst of it; he was hit three times by three different pitches. He may need some extra ice.

The Sky Carp are an affiliate of the Miami Marlins, and sent the 79th overall prospect in baseball, Noble Meyer, to the mound on Wednesday. He allowed five earned runs across 2 1/3 innings. 

DeBarge is slashing .284/.402/.477 so far this year with 16 stolen bases. 

Mussel Matters
Fort Myers 3, Dunedin 7
Box Score
Adrian Bohorquez: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
HR: Yasser Mercedes (2)
Multi-hit games: None

The Mighty Mussels found a dearth of hitting on Wednesday.

Adrian Bohorquez continued his rough start to the year. His 2 2/3 inning, two-run season debut on May 1st portended Wednesday’s tepid outing, which was mostly ruined by a two-homer third inning. Still, the righty struck out five and earned six whiffs off 10 swings at his breaking balls. He topped out at 95.7 MPH. 

Fort Myers’ batters faced a tough foe, as Dunedin’s starter was the 82nd-ranked prospect in MLB, Trey Yesavage. The 2024 first-round pick diced them up, punching out seven across five frames with just two hits allowed and one earned run.

But did those hits ever count. The first was an RBI double by Peyton Carr, while the second was a two-run shot by Yasser Mercedes, plating a pair of unearned runs.

(Statcast is somehow blanking on the metrics for that homer, which is a shame; he smoked that one.)

Bohorquez’s departure left an opening for Cole Peschl to soak up innings. The righty entered the game with a perfect ERA across 17 1/3 innings in 2025… and he finally revealed mortality. Orel Hershiser can sleep peacefully. Still, he totaled 4 1/3 frames with seven strikeouts and five baserunners allowed, which is far from a disastrous outing.

The Mighty Mussels failed to get a hit following Mercedes’ third-inning homer.

Fort Myers pitchers struck out 16 batters on Wednesday.

The aforementioned Yesavage was Dunedun’s highest-ranked prospect in the game. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Trent Baker
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Rubel Cespedes

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:
#2 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-3, BB, 3 K
#5 – Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
#7 – Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
#8 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, RBI, 3 K
#13 – Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-5, 2 R
#15 – Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, 2 K
#18 – Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 2-6, 2B, K

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Buffalo @ St. Paul (6:37 PM) - RHP Cory Lewis
Wichita @ NW Arkansas (7:05 PM) - LHP Connor Prielipp 
Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (6:05 PM) - RHP Tanner Hall
Dunedin @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM) - RHP Jakob Hall
FCL Twins @ FCL Orioles (11:00 AM) - TBD

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[mikelink45]

Interesting set of games - McCusker has to slow down or all of us calling for his promotion with go crazy! 

Morris lines give me less expectations for MLB call up and success at this point.  

As the season progresses I am less and less sure that Emmanuel Rodriguez should be number two in our prospect rankings.  

[jmlease1]

The Kernels hitters getting 6 HBP in one game does highlight the challenge in evaluating prospects based on their stat lines. The inconsistency of so many pitchers at that levels does mean that hitters with a decent understanding of the strike zone can really rack up an inflated OBP. While I'm pretty happy with what we're seeing so far with the hitting prospects in Cedar Rapids so far this season, AA should be a much better test to see where they really are...I think?

DeBarge, Amick, De Andrade, Culpepper, and GG all doing well so far. A nice group.

[Bodie]

It would be nice to see Morris cut down on the base runners.   One hit away from a really messy line at AAA far too often results in a really, really ugly line in the majors.  Simply (and so obvious that it hardly needs to be mentioned) put, he will face hitters that are much more likely to punish him for allowing those hits.

 

That said, he shows the mental toughness to face adversity head on, and successfully.  The next step needs to be to learn/adapt to keep himself out of some of those lesser situations. 

Easy to get excited about guys breezing through the competition and utterly dominating. It is intriguing to see guys progress with less than dominant stuff who show that they can "win" without being the obviously most talented guy on the field. 

[Matt Braun]

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

The Kernels hitters getting 6 HBP in one game does highlight the challenge in evaluating prospects based on their stat lines. The inconsistency of so many pitchers at that levels does mean that hitters with a decent understanding of the strike zone can really rack up an inflated OBP.

I completely agree. I think this is what makes evaluating hitting in the low levels of the minors such a crapshoot. It really can't be understated how underdeveloped these pitchers often are. 

[LambchoP]

What will it take for a Mccusker call up? Injury? Keirsey is a non factor in our OF. Why not give Mccusker a shot until Wallner comes back? Could be the power boost that takes this offense to the next level ....

[jkcarew]

9 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

As the season progresses I am less and less sure that Emmanuel Rodriguez should be number two in our prospect rankings.

I 1000% expect to hear more about the thumbs soon.

The K’s and the low BA easily fit a ‘normal‘ development hiccup narrative as he moves up the ladder. But the complete disappearance of power…for him? 4 XBH in 125 AAA PA…54 balls in play total, not one hit over the fence. Sure seems something’s going on beyond normal developmental cycles.

[yeahyabetcha]

Gasper is raking!!  Why are they wasting his bullets in the minors?  He should be called up immediately, return Lewis to the Saints.