Twins Minor League Report (7/6): Ricardo Olivar Spearheads Massive Wind Surge Comeback

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Ricardo Olivar)

TRANSACTIONS
No moves were made on Sunday. 

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 1, Gwinnett 12
Box Score
Connor Gillaspie: 3 ⅔ IP, 8 H, 9 ER, 4 BB, 1 K
HR: Patrick Winkel (6)
Multi-hit games: None

The Saints were crushed on Sunday.

Evidently, the team takes the day of rest a little too seriously: St. Paul is 1-6 in their last seven series finales and have been outscored 68-38 during those games (h/t Sean Aronson.) Few escaped the carnage unscathed. Or at least a little embarrassed. Starter Connor Gillespie was knocked around for nine runs, with a seven-run fourth serving as the damage’s zenith. It’s probably not your day when David Fletcher is hitting homers off you.

The bats didn’t do any better. They struck out 15 times. They went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. A seventh-inning solo shot from Patrick Winkel marked the only run they could push across. 

Old friend Sandy León caught for the Stripers and went 0-for-5.

Erasmo Ramírez pitched his third scoreless inning for the Saints.

Gwinnett is an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Their habitual prospect fast-tracking has left their system thinner than usual; as a result, their best youngster on Sunday was reliever and 11th-ranked player, Jhancarlos Lara. He allowed a run in one inning of work. 

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 15, Tulsa 13
Box Score
John Klein: 2/3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
HR: Kala’i Rosario (9), Ricardo Olivar (10)
Multi-hit games: Kaelen Culpepper (3-for-4, R, BB), Walker Jenkins (2-for-4, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB), Gabriel Gonzalez (2-for-3, 4 R, 2 BB), Kala’i Rosario (2-for-4, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI, BB), Ricardo Olivar (3-for-4, HR, 2B, R, 7 RBI), Nate Baez (2-for-5, 3B, R)

The Wind Surge won a blistering slugfest on Sunday.

You know, there was a time Wichita was losing 7-0. John Klein could not find anything that worked; even the “unearned” runs were a function of his own error, making him fully culpable for the onslaught. Aaron Rozek entered with two outs, allowed the inherited run to score, and then surrendered the sixth and seventh runs of the frame. When the Wind Surge started hitting, their win probability stood at 5.7%.

Here’s a short summary of the action: Wichita’s first five hitters in the lineup reached base at least three times. Here’s a longer summary of the action: fueled by a Kala’i Rosario grand slam, the Wind Surge started systematically chipping away at the lead, needing just two innings total to knot the game at eight. By the third, they were ahead. 

The Drillers briefly retook an advantage before a final Wichita blitz sealed the game for good. Once again, Olivar provided a critical knock, as his sky-scraping fly ball to right-center fell safely and cleared the bases. Olivar ended the day with seven RBIs.

The game was the biggest comeback win in Wind Surge history.

The Drillers are, of course, an affiliate in the famous Dodgers minor league system. None of their top 30 prospects appeared in Sunday’s game. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 3, Quad Cities 5
Box Score
Alejandro Hidalgo: 4 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: None

The Kernels' offense short-circuited on Sunday.

The River Bandits brought pressure first. Quad Cities jumped on starter Alejandro Hidalgo for three runs in the first, capped by a two-run shot by Carson Roccaforte, his third homer of the series. Kernels' pitching celebrates his departure.

Cedar Rapids plated a run in response by turning a Billy Amick hit by pitch into a manufactured trip around the plate; he eventually scored on a wild pitch. 

Then things turned lukewarm. Not quite cold. The Kernels found reaching first base easy; yet the journey beyond proved to be a difficult endeavor. Between the first and ninth frames, a Cedar Rapids runner reached second base just twice. No one touched third. By the time Kyle DeBarge and Amick worked to score two in the ninth, the team ran out of outs. 

The aforementioned Roccaforte is the 21st-ranked prospect in the Royals system. He may need to jump a few spots.

Mussel Matters
Fort Myers 7, Bradenton 5
Box Score 
Jason Doktorczyk: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
HR: Caleb McNeely (2)
Multi-hit games: Dameury Pena (2-for-5, R, RBI), Emmanuel Rodriguez (3-for-4, 2 RBI, BB), Peyton Carr (3-for-4, 2B, R)

The Mighty Mussels rallied for seven runs in the ninth to stun Bradenton on Sunday.

Let’s jump to the consequential inning. Daniel Pena walked, Peyton Carr singled, and Yohander Martinez was hit by a pitch. Angel Del Rosario’s flyball to center was too short to score a run, but Javier Roman pushed across Fort Myers’ first run by reaching on a fielding error. Dameury Pena singled. Emmanuel Rodriguez singled. Suddenly, the score stood at 5-4, and the offensive malaise that came before was long forgotten.

A new pitcher coaxed a groundout from Yasser Mercedes, yet he hung a breaker that Caleb McNeely leaned back and obliterated, sending the runners into a frenzy until everyone realized his hit had safely cleared the fences for a walk-off three-run homer.

It was the first walk-off homer for the Mighty Mussels since August 27th, 2024. Brandon Winokur supplied the blast.

Rehabbing minor leaguer Emmanuel Rodriguez singled thrice and walked while playing center field for all nine innings. 

Marauders’ shortstop Wyatt Sanford is the 8th-ranked prospect in the Pirates system. He doubled and tripled in three at-bats. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Pierson Ohl
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Ricardo Olivar

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:

#1 – Walker Jenkins (Wichita) - 2-4, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB
#3 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (Fort Myers) - 3-4, 2 RBI, BB, K
#4 – Kaelen Culpepper (Wichita) - 3-4, R, BB
#9 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-3, BB, K
#10 – Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-5, K
#12 – Billy Amick (Cedar Rapids) - 0-3, R, RBI
#13 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 2-3, 4 R, 2 BB
#18 – Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 3-4, HR, 2B, R, 7 RBI
#19 – Danny De Andrade (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, BB
#20 – Payton Eeles (St. Paul) - 1-4, 2B, 2 K

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
FCL Twins @ FCL Orioles (9:00 AM) - TBD
DSL Twins @ DSL NYY Yankees (10:00 AM) - TBD

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[Dman]

Olivar always pretty rock solid around an .800 OPS year in and year out. Walk rate is always 10% and his K rate this year so far has improved to 15%.  He is just always a good solid hitter. Nice to see him have a heck of day, but not surprised.

The top 6 bats in that lineup all have .800 OPS's or really close to it and they all had multiple hits.  Culpepper with 3.  Jenkins has continued to hit as well.  It might be the lineup that is most fun to watch in the Twins system as they always seem to score a bunch of runs.

I was wondering if Klein was going to run out of gas like last year and he really struggled in this one. I think they have an All Star break coming up so maybe he can rest that arm a little for the second half.

Awesome job by the Surge players to come back and win that one.  Love those scorching hot bats.

[DocBauer]

Klein and Rozak had a bad game that belies what they've done the rest of the season. Stuff happens. 

When do we start to talk about how good Rosario has been since his poor start?

Hidalgo had been good and not so good. But isn't this his full season back from surgery?

Nice to see Emma back healthy. Can't wait to see him back at St Paul, do great, and come up to the Twins before the season is done.

I'm telling you to watch this Doktorczyk kid. He's a mix of Matthews and Ober from watching him. Hopefully he has a good 2nd half to this season. But don't be surprised if he's a fast riser in 2026. 

[stringer bell]

Wow, the hitters in Wichita had a game! That is a really solid lineup for the Surge. Some of those guys will need to move up.

Based on this year's stats, Winkel is a better hitter than Camargo or Cardenas for that matter. How is his defense? I don't see him talked about as a potential big leaguer. I like to see LH hitting catchers.

Speaking of catching, I noticed Olivar was behind the plate on defense while having a memorable day as a hitter. Is there a chance he can stick behind the plate?

 

[Major League Ready]

Some of these guys in Wichita can't get here soon enough.  Culpepper's OBP is .406, Jenkins  .429 and Gonzalez is .460. 

BTW .... Austin Martin has a .479 OBP with the Saints.  Perhaps there is help on the horizon.   

[jmlease1]

10 hours ago, DocBauer said:

When do we start to talk about how good Rosario has been since his poor start? 

He's had a complicated season, I think. Just an awful start that's kept his overall numbers down, but until yesterday's breakout he'd been in a little mini-slump again to start July. His K rate and ability to make consistent contact is still a concern? A quick look at his splits shows he's pounding away at LHP, but really struggling vs RHP, and I think he needs to even that up a little just because there are so many more RHPs. But points to him for crawling out of a rotten start to make us think about him again.

It's a nice collection of hitters going right now at Wichita, even with Sabato & Schobel getting promoted. Jenkins, Culpepper, GG, Fedko, Rosario, and Olivar are all looking good. Even Cossetti's having a nice bounce back season after a rotten 2024, though his low average at this level is still concerning and probably limiting, Ben Ross is looking like he's hit a AA wall, though.

[rdehring]

It was realistic to expect Jenkins to struggle a bit when coming back from a long injury to start his season.  We would hope that after the rust was gone, he would begin hitting like the future superstar we hope he will be.  Is that starting to happen?  Looks to me like it might.

Still cannot believe that GG and Culpepper continued being so hot after taking that feared move up to AA.  And it has now been more than just a small sample, at least for Gonzalez.  

[Doctor Gast]

I was hoping to hear something about Gillispie. He was with another team last year, started this season with a different team & had a promising start & now with us, all AAA INT. IMO. he is adjusting to another new team. IMO, the game was a bad experiment gone wrong. Miranda & Julien need time at 1B, but are instead given to Bride. Eeles at SS and Martin at DH.

I like Noah Cardenas but I believed that Olivar had a leg up hitting. Olivar has the tools to be a good catcher, why hasn't he been developed to become one? His hitting has always been there.

[Major League Ready]

6 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

I was hoping to hear something about Gillispie. He was with another team last year, started this season with a different team & had a promising start & now with us, all AAA INT. IMO. he is adjusting to another new team. IMO, the game was a bad experiment gone wrong. Miranda & Julien need time at 1B, but are instead given to Bride. Eeles at SS and Martin at DH.

I like Noah Cardenas but I believed that Olivar had a leg up hitting. Olivar has the tools to be a good catcher, why hasn't he been developed to become one? His hitting has always been there.

Olivar still needs further development defensively.  He only threw out 7% of runners in 2022.  He got to 13% for 2023-24 which just does not cut it at the ML level.  He is up to 20% in 2024 so there is hope but Cardenas is a better receiver and throws out over 30% of runners.  Cardenas also had a slightly higher OPS at AA as compared to Olivar.  Olivar is 2 years younger so he might end up overtaking Cardenas but for right now Cardenas is the only one of the two IMO that could possibly takeover the BU catching role next year.

[madtowntwin]

Doktorczyk caught my eye when the Twins drafted him in 2024. At 6'6" and 220# his physical stature was similar to Ober's though he is able to throw harder. And with "Doktor" as part of his surname both Bauer & Gast much be drooling over the wordplay / puns!!

[jkcarew]

Gonzalez has the highest floor of any hitting prospect we have, IMO. There’s Jenkins…but then there’s Jenkins health.

Gonzalez doesn’t K…K-rate didn’t so much as blip on the AA promotion, and now it looks like the walk rate is going up. At 21, he’s doing what he’s doing as one of the youngest guys (other than Jenkins) on the Wichita roster.

The fear is that the power never really shows up. If not, he would still have a good chance of being a mid-to-upper 700’s OPS guy…above-average BA and OBP…and corner OF with average-ish range, but a cannon for an arm.

 

[Mike Sixel]

3 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

Some of these guys in Wichita can't get here soon enough.  Culpepper's OBP is .406, Jenkins  .429 and Gonzalez is .460. 

BTW .... Austin Martin has a .479 OBP with the Saints.  Perhaps there is help on the horizon.   

He should be on the roster right now. 

[Doctor Gast]

57 minutes ago, madtowntwin said:

Doktorczyk caught my eye when the Twins drafted him in 2024. At 6'6" and 220# his physical stature was similar to Ober's though he is able to throw harder. And with "Doktor" as part of his surname both Bauer & Gast much be drooling over the wordplay / puns!!

With a nickname like "Doktor" how can you go wrong? I'm ready for him to operate & dissect batters at the MLB level. 

[Doctor Gast]

Just a note. Noah Miller was promoted to AAA & have been predicted to reach the MLB next year. He has been evaluated to not only to have a MLB glove but also a golden glove caliber one now. He had a respectable bat at AA this year before being promoted.

[LambchoP]

Great bunch of guys at AA having great seasons and are looking like they could make AAA by seasons end. Culpeper, Gonzalez, Rosario, Fedko and Olivar. Martin is hitting well in St Paul, he should take Keirsey's spot on the roster. Sabato could earn some playing time at first if France is traded. Anyone else think it's awesome that DeBarge already has like 43 steals in A+ ball this year? The only problem is, all this potential help coming in the next year or two is all position players. Our minor league pitchers have not had a good year for the most part. Maybe we can get some pitching talent at the deadline....

[jorgenswest]

4 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Just a note. Noah Miller was promoted to AAA & have been predicted to reach the MLB next year. He has been evaluated to not only to have a MLB glove but also a golden glove caliber one now. He had a respectable bat at AA this year before being promoted.

Yes. That is one of the dominos of the Max Muncy injury on July 2. The Dodgers really don’t have a 3B solution in the majors. They have moved one of their top prospects in Alex Freeland off of shortstop and to third base in AAA the last three games. My guess is they hope he can be at 3B in the majors after the break. Muncy is out 6-8 weeks. They have filled his AAA shortstop role with Noah Miller. Miller had a respectable 103 wRC+ in AA this year. His BABIP this year is .372 after .284 last year with .271 and .289 the years before that. Has his skill level changed or is it the random variation of BABIP in a small sample? Otherwise his walk rate is down this year and his strike rate is up. His line drive rate is virtually the same and his ground ball rate is up 10%. His singles rate is up.

I suspect his move was due to the Max Muncy injury. I do look forward to seeing that glove when he gets to the majors but the bat appears to be the same question mark it was when he was with the Twins..

[Linus]

Hmmm….Royce Lewis for Daulton Rushing?

[Fatbat]

We will regret trading Noah Miller away.

[DJL44]

Took advantage of the Saints $4 ticket deal (after fees) and got a pair for Saturday night. Sale ends tonight.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Fatbat said:

We will regret trading Noah Miller away.

He'll be available in the Rule 5 draft this offseason. The Dodgers won't protect a guy with a .700 OPS in Double-A.

[jmlease1]

13 hours ago, Fatbat said:

We will regret trading Noah Miller away.

Not when he can't hit his weight in MLB. There's little to suggest that he's improved as a hitter at all, and it gets harder and harder to draw walks as you go up a level with no power to punish a pitcher for throwing a "get over" pitch. He's never finished a season with a SLG close to .400, and his BA this season is propped up by an unsustainable BABIP.

Did he improve last season in the vaunted Dodgers farm system, away from the evils of the Twins supposedly dogmatic ways that were holding him back? He did not. OPS of .633, which is pretty poor. Yes, he's doing better this season to date, but he's had stretches like this before...and has always reverted to being an empty singles hitter who gets overwhelmed at the plate by quality pitchers who can locate their stuff.

The glove plays, but he's profiling as a no-hit, all glove infielder and even at SS that's not enough to keep you on a roster in MLB. He's Christian Vazquez at a position where there are actual options, not utter desperation.

Who would you rather have, Kaelen Culpepper or Noah Miller?

[Linus]

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

Not when he can't hit his weight in MLB. There's little to suggest that he's improved as a hitter at all, and it gets harder and harder to draw walks as you go up a level with no power to punish a pitcher for throwing a "get over" pitch. He's never finished a season with a SLG close to .400, and his BA this season is propped up by an unsustainable BABIP.

Did he improve last season in the vaunted Dodgers farm system, away from the evils of the Twins supposedly dogmatic ways that were holding him back? He did not. OPS of .633, which is pretty poor. Yes, he's doing better this season to date, but he's had stretches like this before...and has always reverted to being an empty singles hitter who gets overwhelmed at the plate by quality pitchers who can locate their stuff.

The glove plays, but he's profiling as a no-hit, all glove infielder and even at SS that's not enough to keep you on a roster in MLB. He's Christian Vazquez at a position where there are actual options, not utter desperation.

Who would you rather have, Kaelen Culpepper or Noah Miller?

Or DeBarge, or Winokur, or DeAndrade

[madtowntwin]

17 hours ago, Fatbat said:

We will regret trading Noah Miller away.

My Wisconsin Baseball Heart is still happy for him - But you are probably correct...