Twins Minor League Report (5/9): Wichita Surges Back; Rotations Get Rocked

[Tom Froemming]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey (photo of Kala'i Rosario)

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 19-20
St. Paul Saints: 18-15
Wichita Wind Surge: 17-14
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 19-11
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 15-16
FCL Twins: 4-1

TRANSACTIONS
Wichita RHP C.J. Culpepper was transferred from the 7-day IL to the 60-day IL. The same can be said for Kernels LHP Rafael Marcano.
Cedar Rapids sent RHP Matt Gabbert on rehab assignment to the FCL Twins.

SAINTS SENTINEL 
Buffalo 17, St. Paul 3
Box Score
Marco Raya had a nightmare start. Unfortunately, that was a trend across the system this evening.

The top of the first inning in St. Paul started with a single, another single, a three-run homer, a single, a single, an RBI single and a walk. The first Buffalo batter retired was their No. 8 hitter. Raya gave up six runs on seven hits and a walk in his only inning of work and has a 12.46 ERA in 13 innings so far this year.

The Saints bullpen wasn’t able to do much better. Buffalo had already scored 12 runs by the fourth inning.

Mickey Gasper, last night’s hero, played his eighth game for the Saints and hit his fifth home run. He had a four-hit night and boasts a 1.625 OPS in his brief time with St. Paul. Emmanuel Rodriguez hit his first homer of the year, a sky high opposite field blast. 

Jose Miranda returned to action and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. He played third base for seven innings. Eduardo Julien was 0-for-3 with an RBI and a strikeout. Carson McCusker was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 5, Northwest Arkansas 3
Box Score

This game was a shutout on both sides until the bottom of the sixth inning. Wind Surge starter Aaron Rozek was cruising until Jac Caglianone, the No. 34 overall prospect per Baseball America, blasted a three-run homer. It felt like that homer may have been a fatal blow, but the Wind Surge lineup had a couple haymakers of their own to deliver.

Tanner Schobel lined a double to leadoff the seventh inning, but the next two batters were retired. Just when it felt like the Naturals might escape, Kala’l Rosario crushed an opposite-field two-run homer.

Wichita kept the two-out rally rolling. Ben Ross singled, Aaron Sabato drew a walk and Andrew Cossetti socked a three-run homer to complete the comeback and put the Wind Surge up 5-3.

Rozek had a quality start and managed to stick around long enough to earn the win. He struck out four batters over six innings and did not issue a walk. Rickey Castro delivered a pair of scoreless innings out of the bullpen while striking out three batters. Jaylen Nowlin finished things off with a scoreless ninth inning to earn his first career save.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Beloit 8, Cedar Rapids 4
Box Score
It was a rough start for Jose Olivares. He’d been pitching so great so far this season, but couldn’t get out of the first inning tonight. The most polished silver lining you’ve ever seen: Both of his outs were recorded via strikeout.

Olivares faced eight batters. He walked two, hit one and threw two wild pitches. Giving up five earned runs skyrocketed his ERA on the season from 0.66 to 3.77.

The Kernels lineup went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and combined to strike out 13 times. Caden Kendle, Gabriel Gonzalez and Jose Salas all had multi-hit games. Kendle slugged his second home run of the season and stole a base. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Dunedin 9, Fort Myers 1
Box Score
It was also a rough start for Michael Carpenter. In fact, I could basically copy/paste everything I wrote about Olivares’ start for the Kernels. Carpenter, a lefty out of Madison Community College, only recorded two outs. Jacob Kisting, who was born in Madison, stabilized the game as the first man out of the Mussels bullpen. He delivered 4 1/3 innings of two-run ball and struck out four batters. 

Dameury Pena was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. The only other Fort Myers hit came from Yohander Martinez.

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Twins 2, FCL Red Sox 0
Box Score
Three FCL Twins pitchers combined for the seven-inning shutout, with Matt Gabbert throwing two perfect innings to get things started, Hendry Chivilli covered the next two innings and St. Louis Park native Mitch Mueller finishing off the final three frames. 

Chivilli was among the centerpieces of the Twins 2023 international signing class … as a shortstop. He was ranked as the No. 38 prospect of that class by MLB Pipeline. He hit .194/.301/.282 (.583 OPS) with a 33.2 K% in 256 plate appearances over the past two seasons, so they’re trying something different. 

The Twins scored their runs on an error and a balk. Complex baseball, ladies and gentlemen!

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Aaron Rozek, Wichita (6 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 74 pitches, 49 strikes)
Hitter of the Day: Mickey Gasper, St. Paul (4-for-5, HR, 2B, R, RBI)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for more.
3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 2-for-4, HR (1), R, RBI, K
6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, RBI, 2 K
7. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 35 pitches
9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, 2B, 2 K
14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-5, 2B, K
16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 SB (2)
17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2B, R
18. Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers): 0-for-2, 2 BB
19. Carson McCusker (St. Paul): 1-for-4, 2 K
20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 1-for-4

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul vs. Buffalo, 2:07 pm CT: Zebby Matthews
Wichita at Northwest Arkansas, 6:35 pm CT: Christian MacLeod
Cedar Rapids at Beloit, 1:05 pm CT: Jeremy Lee
Fort Myers vs. Dunedin, 5:05 pnm CT: Dasan Hil

 

 

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[Dman]

I went to Beloit to watch the Kernels and I wish I could have my money and time back.  For the most part they looked horrible tonight. Poor plate discipline, Pitchers couldn't throw strikes and when they did gave up solid contact.  Wild pitches throwing errors. Just really ugly baseball. Hard to believe this team has a good record after what I saw tonight.

A few observations.  Culpepper has some very good bat to ball skills and made a great defensive play tonight.  He really looks the part as a strong defensive shortstop IMO.  However, Beloit scouted him well as he likes to swing at pitches low in the zone and they exploited him in key spots by throwing pitches in the dirt or very close to that to get swinging strikes out of him.  He needs to figure that out and if he does he has a bat that can do good damage.  If he doesn't he should be pretty easy to strike out staying out of the zone.

Funny part of the evening had Kendle as the player that if he strikes out they give 4 dollar beers to those that want them.  The announcer and the crowd got on him and he ultimately did strike out the first time, but his next time up he hit a home run and quieted the crowd some.  So he got his revenge in the end which was one of the few things to go right tonight for the Kernel's.

I came to this game to watch Oliveras pitch and he didn't make it out of the first inning.  He couldn't throw strikes and when he did they were all over it with solid contact.  Given what I saw it was hard to believe he was someone that has barely been scored on the last 11 innings or so.  He looked awful.  I will say he throws hard and the ball really makes a pop in the catchers mitt.  It is a good looking delivery, but the results were not there and I was extremely disappointed that he didn't make it out of the first inning.  That game was over after the first inning. 

The player that looked the most amazing tonight was Thomas White with Beloit.  He was masterful getting lots of swings out of the zone.  His control wasn't that great IMO , but he had them swinging and he made throwing 95 to 97 look easy.  Like playing catch.  He has work to do for sure, but was the best player out there tonight IMO.

I was thinking of heading out there for Sunday's matchup, but with such a sour taste in my mouth with this one I think I am going to skip. 

[Dantheman]

Is it possibly time to send raya back down to double A to build some confidence after such a bad start to the year? He has a walk per inning, people are batting .459 off him and he has a 3.15 whip. I mean strikeouts are good other than that it’s horrendous. One could say he wasn’t ready for triple A with the numbers he was putting up in double, career numbers 121.2 innings, 4.51 era, 1.35 whip, and just over a k per inning. He’s got great talent but maybe was rushed up to triple A to soon, yes I know he was put on the 40 man this past off season but he didn’t need to be in triple A could have started him off in double A like Rodriguez was in 2024 and when he should he was ready bring him up. 

[jmlease1]

GG having a very nice start to the season. Looks healthy and hitting well. He's a guy on track for a promotion to AA if he keeps this up for another month or so.

[bean5302]

Nice to see Rodriguez with the home run as it was his first in 129 plate appearances in AAA. It's also great to see Miranda back in the game. No info on him recently, but hopefully everything felt good swinging the bat in game.

I think it's time to move Raya to the 'pen.

[FlyingFinn]

Gasper continues his absolutely amazing AAA stats. Nice to see Rodriguez knock one over the fence.

[Blyleven2011]

My mama told me there would be days like these ...

[LambchoP]

Raya has been very concerning this year. Might be time to try him as a reliever for awhile. Nice to see E Rodriguez hit his first HR. Maybe this is what gets him going as he hasn't looked great this year. Mccusker seems to have at least 1-2 hits every night, he has more than earned a look in MLB. As long as he doesn't pull a Gasper. For whatever reason Mickey puts up all star AAA numbers but can't hit in the bigs lol. At least Gabby Gonzalez has looked like he's having a solid rebound season. Maybe he gets moved to AA this year.

[bean5302]

37 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

...As long as he doesn't pull a Gasper. For whatever reason Mickey puts up all star AAA numbers but can't hit in the bigs lol...

To be fair, Gasper only has 39 plate appearances this year in MLB and he's only had more than 3 PA in 4 games. His xwOBA looks rough as there haven't been many truly "hard hit" balls and no barrels, but his max EV is solid and so is his average exit velocity.

[Linus]

Raya has never really put up top notch numbers in the minors which is concerning. He has somehow made it to AAA anyway. He is very much a borderline prospect in my view. 

[FlyingFinn]

Any word on the DeBarge injury? He got hit by a pitch this week and hasn't played since. Too bad because he was playing well. 

[twinstalker]

I want to thank you for including strikeouts and walks in the top 20 lines.  Strikeouts give us a much better idea what's going on with a hitter, and walks/hbp explain the reduced number of plate appearances (though they don't really tell us anything good or bad).

Note: I've long believed a high walk pct is a negative for all but the power hitters, prospect-wise.  Of course, it's generally wonderful for MLB hitters.  

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Any word on the DeBarge injury? He got hit by a pitch this week and hasn't played since. Too bad because he was playing well. 

I haven't seen anything, but he played 2 games ago getting HBP at the very end of the game. Missed yesterday and today so far. He's not on the IL at the moment.

[jkcarew]

15 hours ago, Dantheman said:

Is it possibly time to send raya back down to double A to build some confidence after such a bad start to the year? He has a walk per inning, people are batting .459 off him and he has a 3.15 whip. I mean strikeouts are good other than that it’s horrendous.

Strikeouts are not good either. The only reason Raya’s K/9 looks good, is because he faces so many batters per inning. His K% is below 20% now….a pretty large drop off from last year’s K rate.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, jkcarew said:

Strikeouts are not good either. The only reason Raya’s K/9 looks good, is because he faces so many batters per inning. His K% is below 20% now….a pretty large drop off from last year’s K rate.

Raya only had 1 game last year in AAA and he had control problems in AA. He's never been a dominant strikeout guy, and the way the Twins have handled him with the ultimate kid-gloves, it's tough to evaluate his results as a starter. I think Raya should probably transition to the bullpen at this point.

Morris K% in AA last year? 25.2%. Raya? 24.8%. Raya ranked 40th among 101 pitchers with 50+ innings in AA in K percentage. Pretty middle of the road. People can talk about his age, I suppose, but he's now burning options in his 6th year in the organization, Raya is well beyond the development time for the typical upper end high school starter.