Twins Minor League Report (5/30): The Return of Payton ‘Wheels’ Eeles

[Tom Froemming]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Gabriel Gonzalez)

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 31-25
St. Paul Saints: 28-24
Wichita Wind Surge: 25-24
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 28-20
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 21-28
FCL Twins: 12-8
DSL Twins: Season starts June 2.

TRANSACTIONS
Payton Eeles joined the Cedar Rapids Kernels on rehab assignment. He had played 10 rehab games with Fort Myers.

Darren Bowen was transferred to Wichita’s Developmental List. 

Nick Trabacchi, a right-handed pitcher the Twins recently signed out of the Frontier League, was assigned to Cedar Rapids. 

The Twins signed OF Justin Connell, a 26-year-old former 11th-round pick of the Nationals in 2017 who was playing for the York Revolution in the Atlantic League. He had a .375/.535/.722 batting line (1.258 OPS) through 23 games with York. He was assigned to Cedar Rapids.  

Kevin Maitan, who had been with Cedar Rapids, was released.

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 9, Omaha 8
Box Score
Marco Raya not only got pointed in the right direction his last start, he delivered four perfect innings with seven strikeouts. So how was the encore? A mixed bag. There was a dreadful start followed by a flash of brilliance. 

Things got off to a rocky start when Edouard Julien committed an error at second base on the first hitter of the game. That runner stole second base and scored on a single by the No. 2 hitter. Next up was Royals prospect Jac Caglianone, who blasted a home run to put Omaha up 3-0 before Raya had even recorded an out.

Instead of wilting, Raya responded. He retired the next 11 batters he faced, seven of them on strikeouts. He also did not walk a batter in this outing. Raya topped out at 96.7 mph and got 11 swinging strikes, five of them on his changeup.

The Saints lineup was relentless, combining for 15 hits. Armando Alvarez provided the biggest blast, a three-run homer in the fourth inning. He also had some fireworks directed toward an umpire later in the game and was ejected. Alvarez got an RBI hit in the ninth inning, but was thrown out trying to stretch a single to a double. Or at least that was the call, and Alvarez didn’t like it. He gave the ump a piece of his mind — several pieces, in fact — before Toby Gardenhire could make it out to intervene. Though he had to hit the showers a bit early, it was a five-RBI night for Alvarez.

Another offensive star for St. Paul was Mickey Gasper, who had three hits and a walk. He’s hitting .365/.465/.729 (1.194 OPS) in 25 games for the Saints.

Emmanuel Rodriguez exited this game in the bottom of the sixth inning. There didn’t appear to be any obvious reason why he would have needed to come out of the game, though he did have a minor slip in the grass redirecting himself while playing a ball off the wall in the bottom of the fifth inning. He managed to play the rest of that inning without issue, so perhaps it was something else.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 7, Tulsa 1
Box Score
The Wind Surge exploded for five runs in the bottom of the first inning and got a trio of strong pitching performances that allowed them to cruise to victory. Tanner Schobel led things off with his seventh home run of the season, Gabriel Gonzalez followed with a triple, Aaron Sabato later hit a one-out double then Noah Cardenas hit an RBI double, giving Wichita a team cycle within their first six hitters of the game.

Christian MacLeod was the beneficiary of all that run support. He held Tulsa to one run over his 3 2/3 innings, but it was a bit of a high-wire act. The left-hander stranded the bases loaded in the first inning and left two men on in both the third and fourth innings. MacLeod gave up six hits and walked three batters but struck out five. He has a 1.31 ERA in 20 2/3 innings for Wichita so far this season.

Mike Paredes was the first man out of the Wind Surge bullpen. He stranded both runners he inherited from MacLeod and pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-hit ball to improve to 7-0 on the season. Joel Cesar finished things off with two perfect innings.

Kyler Fedko blasted his Texas League leading 11th home run of the season, adding an exclamation point to this victory. It’s been a remarkable run for Fedko so far this season, as he had hit just nine home runs in 136 games the two seasons prior combined. Fedko also stole his eighth base of the season.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 6, Lake County 5
Box Score
Payton Eeles’ rehab assignment moved up from Fort Myers to Cedar Rapids and he made his presence known in this one. The pesky Eeles was 3-for-4 with a double at the plate but he was even more of a problem on the bases. Eeles, who missed time due to knee surgery, swiped three bases. Two of those steals were of third base. Also encouraging: Eeles played all nine innings at second base. 

Kyle Hess hit what was scored as an inside-the-park home run thanks to perhaps the most minor league-y minor league defense I’ve ever seen. The Lake County right fielder charged in way too aggressively on the line drive, resulting in the ball sailing over his head. Their center fielder scampered over to fire the ball in toward the infield wildly, then cutoff man somehow lost possession of the ball while transferring it from his glove to his throwing hand. Hess circled the bases before the Captains could even get the ball back into the infield. 

It’ll look like a 450-foot blast on Hess’ stat sheet.

Things got a little dicey for the Kernels, who led 6-3 at one point, but they held on for the victory. Paulshawn Pasqualotto protected the one-run lead he inherited with two outs in the top of the eighth inning to earn his fifth save of the season. Pasqualotto, the Twins 12th rounder in 2023, has a 1.17 ERA and 1.04 WHIP this season.

Ty Langenberg got the start in this one and continued his sluggish start to the season. He now has a 7.98 ERA after surrendering three runs over his 4 1/3 innings. Nate Baez was 2-for-3 with a walk and has a .956 OPS on the season. He was behind the plate tonight and threw out one of three attempting base stealers. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Tampa 9, Fort Myers 3
Box Score
Dylan Questad’s night ended early due in large part to an inefficient second inning. The 20-year-old Wisconsin native faced eight batters and needed 29 pitches to complete the second frame, then opened the third inning with a four-pitch walk followed by a run-scoring triple. 

Tampa continued adding on, building an 8-1 lead by the end of the fourth inning. The one pitching bright spot for the Mighty Mussels was the marvelously mustachioed Jakob Hall. The Twins eighth-round pick in last year’s draft held Tampa scoreless over the final three innings.

A couple of Fort Myers newcomers had multi-hit games. Ricardo Pena, who was playing in his second game since being promoted from the FCL, went 2-for-4 and scored a run. Blaze O’Saben, who was recently signed out of indy ball, went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. He also lived up to his name by stealing a base. Caleb McNeely, another indy ball alum, hit his first home run playing in just his second game with Fort Myers. McNeely was the 2024 Frontier League MVP.

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Twins 3, FCL Red Sox 2
Box Score
The FCL Twins continued their strong start to the season thanks to another strong pitching performance. Juan Cota, a right-handed 19-year-old product of Mexico, got things started with three shutout innings. After that it was 2024 13th-round pick Xavier Kolhosser, who surrendered an unearned run over two frames. Venezuelan Eider Machuca gave up a run in the sixth inning but earned a hold before Brent Francisco, an undrafted free agent, pitched a perfect seventh inning for the save. 

That quartet of hurlers combined to walk just one batter today. The FCL Twins staff had an 8.5 BB% coming into today, which is comfortably below the league average of 13.7 BB%. 

Irvin Nunez opened the scoring for the Twins with a little league home run in the second inning.. He hit a triple to center field and came around to score on an error. The second run came across when Javier Roman drove in Nunez with a double in the fourth inning. Luis Fragoza added a much-needed insurance run with an RBI double of his own which scored Eduardo Beltre. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Jakob Hall, Fort Myers: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Hitter of the Day: Payton Eeles, Cedar Rapids: 3-for-4, 2B, 3 SBs

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 
3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 1-for-3, R (removed in the sixth inning)
6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-4, BB, 2 R, K
7. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 3 2/3 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-4, K
11. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-3, BB, 2 K, SB (28)
14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita): 3-for-5, 3B, R, K
16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 2-for-3, 2B, R, K, SB (8)
17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 2-for-5, HR (7), R, RBI, 2 K

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul at Omaha, 6:05 pm CT: Andrew Morris
Wichita vs. Tulsa, 6:05 pm CT: Trent Baker
Cedar Rapids vs. Lake County, 6:35 pm CT: Chase Chaney
Fort Myers at Tampa, 5:30 pm CT: Dasan Hill
FCL Twins at FCL Red Sox, 9 am CT: TBD

 

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[FlyingFinn]

Rodriguez getting pulled is almost never a good thing. Didn't hurt his thumb again batting in his last AB did he? Can we be so lucky that it's an illness and he will quickly recover?

[jmlease1]

GG has been utterly unfazed by his promotion to AA. Love seeing him mash away against better competition. He had shown a need for a second opportunity to figure it out down in A ball, so it's nice to see him show out immediately in AA. He's still pretty young, so his occasional struggles in A ball might just have been part of his physical development too. (he wasn't healthy last season either; he sure looks healthy this season!) He's taking his walks, he's hitting the ball hard...keep it up!

Fedko's another guy who has needed to repeat a level to figure it out, but he's sure swinging a hot bat. He's not a young guy, but maybe he's just a late developer. If this new found power stroke is for real, he might have a chance, especially if he can legitimately play all 3 OF spots.

[Aerodeliria]

BTW, can DeBarge bunt? If he can, and he makes the jump to light speed, he'll be an absolute nightmare to mlb pitchers, ala Mickey Rivers or Ichiro...

[rdehring]

Thanks for the report, Tom.

Looking forward to Hill getting the start tonight for Fort Myers.

[LambchoP]

Man Gabby Gonzalez looks great this year. Does he make it to AAA late this year? Sure seems like Eeles is healthy enough. If he continues to hit maybe he becomes an option later in the year too. I'm starting to really worry about Raya. The kid's got strikeout stuff, but he only pitches 2-4 innings tops. I think a move to the pen might be an eventual inevitability.

[D.C Twins]

Good to see Eales back in action.

Gonzales is really on a heater this season. 

E Rod is ranked too high on our prospect list.

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Man Gabby Gonzalez looks great this year. Does he make it to AAA late this year? Sure seems like Eeles is healthy enough. If he continues to hit maybe he becomes an option later in the year too. I'm starting to really worry about Raya. The kid's got strikeout stuff, but he only pitches 2-4 innings tops. I think a move to the pen might be an eventual inevitability.

Raya's K rate isn't bad, but it's not really impressive since Cedar Rapids, either. I doubt he'd K more than 18-20% of hitters at the MLB level.

[DocBauer]

IDK know what to think about Raya. The STUFF appears to be there, but command and control seems to come and go too often. He had a really nice last start and did recover from a bad 1st inning to flash. He's been held back, while also pushed. He may have the stuff to be an excellent reliever, but I'd keep him in the rotation for now and wait for something to click.

So nice to see Eeles back and doing well. Can't wait until he's back at St Paul. I really like his game and think he's more than just a good story. Being younger than McCusker, I'd like to think the FO looks at him more as a legitimate prospect. 

Has Fedko simply unlocked his potential at a later date? He's hitting, getting OB, and is on pace for a 20/20 season right now. That's hard to ignore for a not yet 26yo. He's not a TOP prospect by any means, but it's hard to ignore what he's doing.

Also hard to ignore what Gonzalez is doing after a very disappointing 2024. The bat has potential be solid with power and he's got a good arm. If he can be average defensively with the potential of his bat/power he could be a RH DH part time OF.

 

[purplesoldier4u]

On 5/31/2025 at 7:18 AM, FlyingFinn said:

Rodriguez getting pulled is almost never a good thing. Didn't hurt his thumb again batting in his last AB did he? Can we be so lucky that it's an illness and he will quickly recover?

Back on the IL with a hip injury.