Twins Daily Minor League Report (5/29): Matt Wallner Homers. David Festa Dominates in Saints Win. Cole Peschl Quality Start.

[Seth Stohs]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of John Klein)

The Twins and all four of their affiliates played on Saturday Lots of good content for you below. 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 30-25 (Tied for 2nd in AL Central with Cleveland, six games behind Detroit.)
St. Paul Saints: 27-24  (Tied for 5th place in the International League West Division, 4.0 games behind Nashville.)
Wichita Wind Surge: 24-24 (4th in Texas League North with Arkansas, 1.5 games behind Springfield.)
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 27-20 (2nd place in the Midwest League’s West Division, 2.5 games behind Quad Cities.)
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 21-27 (6th place in the Florida State League’s West Division, 7.0 games behind Lakeland.)
FCL Twins: 11-8 (2nd in FCL South, 2.0 games back of the FCL Rays. 

TRANSACTIONS
ICYMI: Carson McCusker was optioned to St. Paul following the Twins loss in Tampa on Wednesday. The Twins will make a corresponding move on Friday.  

RHP Jacob Bosiokovic is on the temporarily inactive list with the Saints. 

Khadim Diaw has been placed on the 7-Day Injured List, but he could be out for a while with a fracture of his right thumb. Poncho Ruiz has been promoted from Fort Myers to Cedar Rapids. 

Catcher Ricardo Pena has been promoted from the FCL to Fort Myers. Of his 81 games started since signing his first games in the DSL in 2022, he has started behind the plate 65 times with a dozen starts at first base. 

Jay Thomason was activated from the 7-Day IL for Fort Myers.     

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A day after we learned that the Twins had signed outfielder Blaze O’ Saben and infielder Caleb McNeely from independent leagues, it appears that the Twins have signed a pitcher from the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League. The Twins have signed RHP Nick Trabacchi. The 26-year-old started his college career at Maryland-Baltimore County in 2018. After two years, he transferred to Division II Shepherd University. Yes, the same school that Bears backup QB Tyson Bagent went to. He spent three seasons there. Since then (2022), he’s played in the Pecos League, the Atlantic League and the Frontier Leagues. This will be his first time playing in affiliated baseball. Where did we hear about this signing? Twitter/X, of course. 

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For those of you who have been following the Twins minor leagues as long as I have. The pitching coach for the New Jersey Jackals is former Twins left-handed pitching prospect Joe Testa. He signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He pitched well in the organization until the July 2010 trade deadline in a trade that I wonder if any Twins fans remember. The Twins traded Testa, and a catcher with very little MLB experience at that time named Wilson Ramos, to the Washington Nationals for Matt Capps. (Oh, you do remember? Sorry!) Testa peaked in Double-A, and the Nationals let him go after the 2012 season. Since then, he has pitched in the Canadian-American Association, the American Association, the Atlantic League, and he’s played in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and even in Italy. He apparently didn’t pitch between 2018 and 2019, but returned to the mound in the All-American Baseball Challenge in 2020. He then spent three seasons in the Atlantic League again. In 2024, he joined the Jackals in his home state of New Jersey. He pitched in seven games for them last year, and this season, he has pitched once, a perfect inning to earn a save in a 1-0 game. The 39-year-old lefty might be the story of them all.  

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And RHP Liam Rocha has been released by the Twins organization. He signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after four years at California Baptist. This comes a day after the Twins released knuckleballer Devin Kirby from the Mussels roster. He was pitching in Fort Myers. They both represented the Twins in the Arizona Fall League after the 2024 season. 

Then later in the day, the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League announced that two of their players have signed with the Twins.     

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Teague Conrad is 23. He stands 6-4 and a little over 200 pounds. He pitched at the University of Illinois-Chicago for two years, then spent the 2022 season at Heartland Community College. In 2023, he pitched at Southern Illinois-Edwards. He has spent the past two seasons with Gateway. He went 7-4 with a 3.29 ERA over 18 starts and 101 1/3 innings in 2024. He had 90 strikeouts and 49 walks. This season, he has made four starts and is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. In 21 2/3 innings, he had 24 strikeouts to go with just three walks.  The increased K-rate with the huge improvement in command might explain the Twins interest. He is likely to start out with the Mighty Mussels. 

Sam Coonrod may be a familiar name. The 32-year-old spent time in the big leagues with the Giants, Phillies and Mets between 2019 and 2023. He’s pitched in 115 MLB games and is 7-5 with a 5.54 ERA over 104 innings.  He also has five big-league saves. At his best, Coonrad was consistently hitting 98, 99 mph. He is reportedly hitting 97 this year after not pitching in 2024. He is likely best known for making a stand by refusing to kneel in 2020, “I can’t kneel before anything besides God” was his quote. The plan is for him to report to the Saints. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 3, Omaha 1
Box Score
Maybe I should have put Matt Wallner 3, Omaha 1. 

This game was quite the pitchers duel. When the Saints came to the plate in the top of the eighth, they were behind 1-0. They had just two hits and a walk. 

Anthony Prato led off with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Diego Cartaya followed with a walk. Long-time veteran Sam Long, a southpaw, may wish he would have walked the next guy too. Long started Wallner with a 96 mph slider just below the zone that Wallner swung at, and missed. Long tried to throw the same pitch. Unfortunately, for the pitcher, this second pitch was nearly down the middle of the plate, and, as he seems to enjoy doing, Wallner hit that ball over the fence for a three-run homer.     

 

It was the third straight game Wallner homered, and he has five homers in the seven games he’s spent rehabbing with the Saints. Could he be bound for Seattle?

The other big story from this game was the start by David Festa. He tossed five shutout innings and gave up just three hits and a walk. He had five strikeouts. He was also efficient, needing just 66 pitches to get through his outing. He used all four of his pitches. His fastball topped out at 96.3 mph and averaged 94.9 mph.

Richard Lovelady, Brady Feigl, and Anthony Misiewicz - who earned his sixth save - each tossed a scoreless inning. The lone run came on and unearned run against Ryan Jensen in the seventh inning.

The Saints had just four hits, and three of them went for extra bases. Wallner homered, and Mickey Gasper and Anthony Prato each hit a double.    

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 3, Tulsa 4
Box Score
Tulsa jumped ahead to an early lead. The Wind Surge mounded a mid-inning comeback, but fell just short. 

Darren Bowen made his first start since tossing five no-hit innings last week. He gave up three runs in the first inning and another in the second inning. He worked three innings and gave up four runs on five hits. He had one strikeout and no walks. 

Minnesotan John Klein was very impressive on Thursday. He had eight strikeouts over 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and one walk. Michael Martinez walked two and struck out three batters over 1 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings. Jaylen Nowlin gave up a hit and a walk in a scoreless ninth inning.   

 

The Surge tried to come back in the fifth inning. With one out, Andrew Cossetti walked. He scored on a triple off the bat of Ben Ross. Tanner Schobel followed with his sixth home run. It cut the team’s deficit to 4-3. 

Unfortunately, that was about it for the Wind Surge offense in this game. They had just five hits, but they also had five walks and two hit batters. Gabriel Gonzalez hit his first triple since joining Wichita. The team was 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base. Schobel and Ricardo Olivar were the two Wind Surge hitters with a hit and a walk. The homer extended Schobel's hitting streak to 16 games. 

Wichita faced one of the Dodgers top prospects, lefty Jackson Ferris. He worked the first six innings for the Drillers. #OldFriend Noah Miller’s season started late due to meniscus surgery. He played eight rehab games for Great Lakes and rejoined the Drillers on Sunday. With a 2-for-4 game on Thursday, he has two hits in all three games since coming back. 

 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 6, Lake County 2
Box Score
It was another well-played game for the Kernels, both on offense and defense. 

Cole Peschl made his second start for the Kernels and put together a Quality Start. He gave up two runs on three hits. He had seven strikeouts without issuing a walk. 

Gabriel Yanez worked two scoreless innings, and Cole Percival pitched a perfect ninth frame to close it out.  

Peschl gave up single runs in the second and fifth innings. The Kernels got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs, Poncho Ruiz recorded his first Kernels hit of 2025, a double. Jose Salas followed with a towering blast that landed well beyond the right-field wall. It marked his third homer of the season. 

 

With the game now tied at 2-2, Peschl finished his outing with a scoreless sixth inning. In the bottom of the inning, with one out, Nate Baez turned on a fastball and lined it over the wall in left field for his third homer of the season.   

 

Brandon Winokur followed by hitting his fourth homer. It landed outside the ballpark.   

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But they didn’t stop there. Danny De Andrade walked. He stole second and when the pitch went past the catcher, he raced all the way to third base. Caden Kendle walked and stole second base. Jaime Ferrer hit a fly ball to center, deep enough to score De Andrade with the fifth run. 

The bottom of the seventh gave the Kernels another run, but we also saw something we had not seen all season. With one out, Kaelen Culpepper struck out but reached first base on a wild pitch. Kyle DeBarge followed by lining a double over the center fielder’s head that drove in Culpepper from first. 

And then it happened. DeBarge took off for third base. He dove toward the base as the catcher threw toward the third baseman who caught the ball, and tagged DeBarge. He showed the ball to the umpire who made the call of “Out!” DeBarge looked up at the umpire and looked as if he was thinking, “Out? What do you mean? I haven’t heard that in a long time.” But, there is no replay in the Midwest League, so the call stands. After starting the season with 27 consecutive stolen bases, the streak comes to an end. Now he should start a new streak. 

The Kernels had eight hits, and five of them went for extra bases. Salas went 2-for-3, and Winokur went 2-for-4.                                                                                                                                                                     

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 4, Bradenton 6
Box Score
It may not look it from the box score, but Eli Jones put together a really strong start on Thursday night at Hammond Stadium. He started the game with five scoreless innings. 

 

However, in the sixth inning, nothing really went right for Jones and the Mussels. The inning started with a walk, but a ground out gave the team one out. The next batter blooped a ball into shallow center field to drive in a run. The next batter hit a well-placed bunt single. Next was a seeing-eye single to right field to score a second run. A sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third with two outs. Then a well-placed swinging bunt down the third base line drove in another run. Another slow grounder toward third base was perfect for another infield single and a fourth run.

Jones threw 82 pitches. His fastballs topped out at 95.6 mph and averaged about 93 mph. He mixed in his six pitches. He got just six swings-and-misses in the game. When that’s the case, you’re going to have an inning like Jones’s sixth inning from time to time. 

The Mussels got on the scoreboard first in the second inning. Maddux Houghton hit an inside-the-park home run that hit high off of the center field wall. It was his fourth home run of the season.   

 

Fort Myers responded to the Marauders’ four-run sixth with two runs of their own to cut the deficit to 4-3. Ricardo Pena and Yohander Martinez started the inning with singles. After a pitching change, Dameury Pena walked to load the bases. Miguel Briceno kept it going with a single to left to drive in a run. After a fly out, Luke Napleton hit a single down the third base line (the third baseman dove and knocked it down but didn’t have a play) to drive in the second run.  

 

 

Lefty Zander Sechrist came on and gave up two runs on three hits over two innings. He struck out four batters. Ivran Romero struck out two batters in a scoreless ninth frame. 

Napleton singled to start the bottom of the ninth inning. With one out, Caleb McNeely singled Napleton to second. The runners moved up on a wild pitch. When Blaze O’Saben grounded out to shortstop, Napleton scored. But that was as close as the Mussels got.

The Mussels had 10 hits in the game. Miguel Briceno, Luke Napleton, Maddux Houghton, and Ricardo Pena each had two hits. Newcomers Caleb McNeely played shortstop and batted sixth while Blaze O’Saben played center field and batted seventh. He made a terrific catch in the right centerfield gap that saved runs. 

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Twins 3, FCL Orioles 2
Box Score
Matt Gabbert continues to work back from injury. On Thursday morning, he made his fourth appearance of the season and worked up to four innings. He gave up two runs on three hits and a walk. He also struck out two batters.

Melvin Rodriguez came on and, despite three walks, gave up no runs, and no hits, to drop his season ERA to 1.93. 

The Orioles scored both of their runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Twins had a great opportunity to put several runs on the board in the top of the first  inning. Bryan Acuna led off with a double. Ramiro Domingue and Eduardo Beltre followed with walks to load the bases. However, Daiber De Los Santos popped up to the catcher. Maybe thinking the catcher was too far from home plate or that he could surprise him, Acuna took off from third and was thrown out at home for the second out. 

Probably painful, but this is how the Twins got on the board in the second inning. Ariel Castro was hit by a pitch. He was moved up a base on a wild pitch and went to third on a ground out. Next, Yandro Hernandez and Carlos Silva were hit by pitches to lead the bases again. After a strikeout, Castro scored on a balk. 

The fourth inning began with a walk by VIctor Leal. With one out, Carlos Silva hit an infield single. A force-out left runners on first and third. After a pitching change, Ramiro Dominguez hit his fifth double and drove in two runs to give the Twins the lead that Rodriguez was able to hold onto for the Win. 

Luis Fragoza was 2-for-3. The Twins had just five hits in the game. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Maddux Houghton (Fort Myers): 2-for-4, HR(4), R, RBI, K

Pitcher of the Day 
David Festa (St. Paul): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, BB, 5 K, 66 pitches, 40 strikes (60.6%)
John Klein (Wichita): 3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, BB, 8 K, 60 pitches, 43 strikes (71.7%)
Cole Peschl (Cedar Rapids): 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 71 pitches, 47 strikes (66.2%)

 

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

#6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, R, K (played SS)
#9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, HR(4), R, RBI, K (DHd)
#11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, RBI, CS(1) (played 2B)
#14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 1-for-3, 3B, HBP. (DHd)
#16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-3, BB (played CF)
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, HR(6), R, 2 RBI, BB, K. (played 2B)
#19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, K (played LF)
#20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-3, BB (played LF)

FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES
Minnesota @ Seattle (9:10 PM CT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (0-1, 7.71 ERA)
St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM CT) - RHP Andrew Morris (2-1, 3.80 ERA)
Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05 PM CT) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 1.06 ERA)
Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-3, 8.28 ERA)
Bradenton @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CT) - RHP Jason Doktorczyk (2-1, 4.55 ERA)
FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CT) - TBD  

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

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[rdehring]

Expect Wallner is on a plane to Seattle today, isn't he?  Is it possible Bader goes on the IL and they don't have to decide who either gets DFA'd or sent back to St. Paul?

Looking forward to how MacLeod does tonight.  When was the last time Prielipp pitched?  Did he miss a turn?  Also wondering if the Saints are limiting Festa to 60 or so pitches coming back from his recent pause?

Great seeing Winokur with another two-hit game.  Especially with one a home run.

Thanks for the report, Seth.  

 

[DJL44]

A little concerning that the Twins need to bring in this much depth from the indy leagues.

[LambchoP]

Ok seriously, Wallner needs to be in the Twins lineup today. Same with Buxton. When we've been struggling to score runs, you don't keep a guy in AAA that has 5 HRS in 7 days. Hopefully Bader doesn't need an IL trip, Keirsey needs to be the one sent down. Lewis also needs a reset in the minors. Problem is we don't have any viable IF that can be called up to help us. Not until Keaschal is ready. Hopefully Zebby can pitch a good game. I'm getting the feeling if it's another short start or he gets lit up, he'll lose his spot to SWR or Festa. Either way, SEA will be a true test. Both teams have great pitching, might see some close low score games.

[Dman]

First time watching Peschl on MiLB.com.  He looks physically a bit Zebby like.  Big thick legs and a solid body.  He's pitched well all year. Actually one of the few bright spots for A ball pitchers.  Still he gave up some pretty hard contact, was wild at times and didn't seem to throw very hard. Granted his FIP and xFIP aren't that far off his ERA so the underlying numbers look good and support his success.  Wondering if anyone has a good scouting report on him as his talent is intriguing.

It's only 16 games but nice to see Salas with a near .900 OPS.  He's not young for the level anymore, but would be nice to see him take off this year.  More time is needed, but so far so good for him.

Wallner has been a force at AAA.  Some kind of crazy bad K's swinging out of the zone at times, but when he hits it, it's usually trouble for the other team.  Nice to see him doing well.  Have to believe he will be with the big club soon.

[SD happy]

Great video of Trabachi getting the word. Thanks for sharing. Sorry to see Diaw going on the IL with a fractured thumb. He was having a solid year at Cedar Rapids.

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

A little concerning that the Twins need to bring in this much depth from the indy leagues.

I don't think they "need" to bring in this depth, but they feel they might have potentially identified a market where they can produce value. Guys like Eeles, Dobnak, McCusker, etc. have produced talent which has impressed at least at the upper minors levels with no real investment. With drafted players through round 10 getting at least $187k in terms of "slot," Indy leagues represent a pool of semi-proven talent for dirt cheap where the Twins might be able to strike gold.

[Seth Stohs]

6 hours ago, rdehring said:

Expect Wallner is on a plane to Seattle today, isn't he?  Is it possible Bader goes on the IL and they don't have to decide who either gets DFA'd or sent back to St. Paul?

Looking forward to how MacLeod does tonight.  When was the last time Prielipp pitched?  Did he miss a turn?  Also wondering if the Saints are limiting Festa to 60 or so pitches coming back from his recent pause?

Great seeing Winokur with another two-hit game.  Especially with one a home run.

Thanks for the report, Seth.  

 

I guess if Bader can't play, then it would make sense to IL him. 

Prielipp was placed on the Development List on 5/21. I assume he'll just miss a start and come back. Darren Bowen was placed on the Dev List today. 

I'm sure they are limiting Festa some. He was at 66 pitches 

[Seth Stohs]

6 hours ago, DJL44 said:

A little concerning that the Twins need to bring in this much depth from the indy leagues.

The draft going from 40 rounds to 20 rounds means 10-12 players signed each year. That's part of it. 

[DJL44]

6 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

The draft going from 40 rounds to 20 rounds means 10-12 players signed each year. That's part of it. 

How so? The guys previously drafted in rounds 30-40 are still there, they just get NDFA contracts now.

[Seth Stohs]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

I don't think they "need" to bring in this depth, but they feel they might have potentially identified a market where they can produce value. Guys like Eeles, Dobnak, McCusker, etc. have produced talent which has impressed at least at the upper minors levels with no real investment. With drafted players through round 10 getting at least $187k in terms of "slot," Indy leagues represent a pool of semi-proven talent for dirt cheap where the Twins might be able to strike gold.

And frankly, when guys are signed from indy leagues, no one is projecting them to be big leaguers. For the most part, they are signed as fillers. At this point, frankly, they need some arms at various levels, so they'll sign some older guys who have shown some ability to eat innings. And if they keep pitching or hitting well, they move up. And also, sign them at 24 or 26... if they stay healthy and actually do move up, you're probably talking about maybe a cup of coffee in the big leagues. So, the whole prospect thing, age to level of competition isn't a factor at all. 

Even these signings are all different. Sam Coonrod is 32 and throwing 97. He's going to AAA and has 5 seasons of MLB time. That's a signing for AAA and maybe even the big leagues. 

Signing Tyler Dearden after he already spent 4-5 years in the minors and then came from indy ball, and he's played in High-A and AA. 

Signing Dobnak as a 22-year-old undrafted free agent from the USPBL is different than signing a 26-year-old. 

Oh, and I do think it's worth mentioning the offensive struggles of some of the Fort Myers prospects. Yasser Mercedes and Jose Rodriguez and Byron Chourio have all struggled. The lineup barely has anyone hitting over .200. Jay Thomasson probably deserves a promotion to Cedar Rapids. The other player they get consistent performance from is Maddux Houghton, a non-drafted guy who based on age and productivity has more than earned a promotion. 

[DJL44]

31 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Maddux Houghton, a non-drafted guy who based on age and productivity has more than earned a promotion. 

Then there's Kevin Maitan, who will retire in A-Ball. There are a bunch of roster-filler guys in the minors for the Twins already: Ford, Alvarez, Dearden, Cerda, Prato, Hess, Houghton, Shuffield, Joel Cesar, Rozek. They'll add 10-12 more players in the draft but we won't see many of them right away because they spend so much time getting them into the system.

[jorgenswest]

4 hours ago, DJL44 said:

How so? The guys previously drafted in rounds 30-40 are still there, they just get NDFA contracts now.

Maybe the additional experience of the independent leagues makes a better chance of success than an NDFA. They can always replace any of these Independent leagues is signees with an NDFA later in the season. I am glad the Twins have scouts looking at these players.

[David HK]

9 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Ok seriously, Wallner needs to be in the Twins lineup today. Same with Buxton. When we've been struggling to score runs, you don't keep a guy in AAA that has 5 HRS in 7 days. Hopefully Bader doesn't need an IL trip, Keirsey needs to be the one sent down. Lewis also needs a reset in the minors. Problem is we don't have any viable IF that can be called up to help us. Not until Keaschal is ready. Hopefully Zebby can pitch a good game. I'm getting the feeling if it's another short start or he gets lit up, he'll lose his spot to SWR or Festa. Either way, SEA will be a true test. Both teams have great pitching, might see some close low score games.

True dat.  I don't see his name in the prelim stuff, and that's really disappointing.  Maybe they're keeping him with the Saints to chase their HR record, eh?  Good grief, I agree, tough RHP on the mound, he needs to be in that lineup!  Lee to 3B, Castro to 2B, and swap Lewis and Wallner in St. Paul.

[twinstalker]

Ha!  A little sarcasm, irony, and trivia thrown into the Minor League Report.  I like it.