Twins Minor League Report (9/19): Connor Prielipp Completes 6 Innings

[Tom Froemming]

TRANSACTIONS
Twins recalled CF DaShawn Keirsey Jr. from St. Paul.
LHP Anthony Misiewicz sent on rehab assignment to St. Paul.

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 7, Memphis 3
Box Score
Tonight’s game opened with a pop. Walker Jenkins led things off with a towering infield fly that somehow the entire Memphis infield lost in the lights. Though the ball only traveled 54 feet, it was scored a double for Jenkins. We’ll take it.

The rehabbing Christian Vázquez stroked the very next pitch into center field for an RBI single, then Kyler Fedko drew a five-pitch walk. Jonah Bride fell behind 1-2 but ripped the next pitch into the bullpen in left-center field for a three-run homer.

The Saints built a four-run lead before even recording an out.

For a moment, it appeared Saints starter Connor Prielipp was going to return the favor. The Sconnie southpaw ran into trouble in the first frame but managed to escape after allowing two runs. From there forward, however, Prielipp was stingy and efficient. That allowed him to accomplish something for the first time in his pro career.

The oft-injured Prielipp has been managed extremely carefully, but during his previous outing was allowed to complete five innings for the first time. He also logged 77 pitches, the second-most he had thrown this season. He went even deeper tonight.

Prielipp completed six innings — logging a quality start — and threw 84 pitches, 66.7% of them for strikes. He yielded three runs on five hits while walking two batters and struck out four. He topped out at 96.1 mph and got seven of his eight swinging strikes on fastballs.

What a way to end his year. There was already reason to be positive about Prielipp simply pitching through an entire season. He entered 2025 with 30 innings over the prior two seasons and managed to log 82 2/3 innings this year. There’s still a ways to climb, but that’s a significant jump year-over-year.

While Prielipp was cruising, the lineup continued to tack on, scoring single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Bride and Fedko were menaces throughout. In addition to his three-run homer in the first inning, Bride also had a single, a sacrifice fly and a pair of walks. Fedko hit a double, drew three walks and stole his 37th base of the season. Tanner Schobel hit a home run and made a fine defensive play at second base.

After the rehabbing Anthony Misiewicz pitched a scoreless seventh inning, Mike Paredes made his Triple-A debut and followed with a pair of scoreless frames of his own. The 25-year-old former 18th-round pick had a 2.43 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 103 2/3 innings for Wichita this season. 

There are just two more days of minor league action for the Twins system in 2025. Thanks for reading these Minor League Reports all season, we appreciate your support.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Connor Prielipp
Hitter of the Day: Jonah Bride

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 

1. Walker Jenkins (St. Paul): 1-for-5, 2B, R, 3 K
6. Connor Prielipp (St. Paul): 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 84 pitches, 66.7% strikes
18. Kyler Fedko (St. Paul): 1-for-2, 2B, 3 BB, 2 R, SB (37), K

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul at Memphis, 3:05 pm CT: Kendry Rojas

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[DJL44]

With Wallner out for the season this would be a great opportunity to have Rodriguez make his debut. Instead they bring up Keirsey again.

[DocBauer]

Obviously the story of this game wasn't even the win itself, it was the pitching, most notably Prielipp.

He's had a healthy and solid season, flashing his vast potential. And he finishes the season with probably the best 2 games of his year...and brief career...at AAA. Now, he just needs to keep working on his new 2 seamer, and continue LEARNING how to pitch. IMO, that's his next big step. In a lot of his starts he threw too many pitches per innings. That may also explain why his BABIP was so high this season. It's one thing to have nasty stuff and be in the zone consistently, but it's another thing to learn how to set hitters up and polish them off more quickly.

Good game back for LH Misiewicz. The Twins reportedly like him a little, and he didn't have a bad season for St Paul. I wouldn't mind him back as a non rostered arm for the Saints next season.

Parades had an outstanding year! Really though, he's never had a bad one. Other than not being a big K arm, all he does is go 1-2 innings and keep guys off the bases and get outs. Too bad he's only going to get 1-2 games at AAA this season. 

Another good day for Fedko. I would have cleared a 40 man spot a couple weeks ago and had him up. And now Keirsey is up again to replace the injured Wallner? But if all he would have done is sit on the bench, I guess I'd rather see him playing daily for the Saints. I'll say again, no proof he's going to succeed at the ML level. And I don't care that his breakout came in his age 25 season. There's some talent there and need/opportunity.  He needs to be added to the 40 man this offseason.

Bride seems to have made some positive adjustments and is closing the season strong. He was pretty solid for Miami in 2024. No way he's a rostered player, but I wouldn't mind seeing him back as a depth piece for the Saints next season as well.

But Prielipp is the shiny part of today!

[DocBauer]

24 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

With Wallner out for the season this would be a great opportunity to have Rodriguez make his debut. Instead they bring up Keirsey again.

Right or wrong, the Twins wanted to see what they have in Roden...now injured of course...Martin, and Outman. Poor McCusker gets hus 3rd shot on the roster and is getting splinters in his backside for the 3rd time. 

For the last month of a disappointing, lost season, why not take a look at McCusker or Fedko in the mix as well? I can understand Rodriguez just coming back from injury and rehab and just letting him finish out the year at AAA at this point. But even though he finally broke out at 25yo, why not give someone like Fedko...pushing for a 30/30 season...a ML looksee?

He may or may not make it at the ML level. But there's some OB% ability there to go along with speed and some power, as well as positional flexibility. He just might be a 4th OF for 2026. And if you don't add him to the 40 man, someone will probably grab him in the rule 5 for those very reasons. And what kind of message does it send when a 25yo player having a breakout season doesn't get a shot? He's not a top prospect based on previous history, but how can you afford to just ignore your own internal talent? 25yo is not exactly ancient! 

But if they would have kept playing Outman and keep Fedko on the bench the way they have with McCusker, I guess I'd just rather just see him play daily at St Paul to finish out the season. 

But I really don't understand some of the recent roster decisions AT ALL.

[mrguy]

Prielipp's first fully healthy year has had its ups and downs, but it's good he ended with a quality start and generally solid outing. I don't think we'll see him in a major league game until at best, the middle/later end of next year though unless they want to rush him up and give him some bullpen experience. Lots of stuff he clearly still needs to work out, he has great quality stuff, but it feels like it doesn't quite feel like he gets the results that those pitches should be getting. Definitely needs to take some time figuring out how to efficiently utilize what he's got, he still gets lots of strikeouts but there's definitely some control/sequencing issues and batters are catching onto it and the higher ERA, WHIP and the 5.57 BB/9 he's had in St. Paul so far definitely show that.

Good on Paredes finally getting a chance in St. Paul and he definitely delivered exactly what could've been expected after his season in Wichita. Finally getting proper statcast data on his stuff is going to be interesting to be able to look at since his results have always been surprisingly solid as an under the radar arm. Obviously won't have a lot of data to look at with him given there's only 2 games left in St. Paul's season, but it's something I'll be curious to check out next season(maybe even spring training, i imagine they'll be desperate for bullpen options in general next season)

[old nurse]

5 hours ago, DJL44 said:

With Wallner out for the season this would be a great opportunity to have Rodriguez make his debut. Instead they bring up Keirsey again.

There is always the possibility that the management doesn’t think Rodriguez is better than Keirsey.  Why else would have they taken on both Outman and Rodon if they had any faith in him 

[old nurse]

Pitch counts are used by the Twins. Not innings. The amazement should be that a Twins pitcher could be efficient enough to get through 6 inning on an 85 pitch count 

[Doctor Gast]

I had high hopes for Prielipp to make it to the Twins' BP to help them advance in the postseason. But alas, he wasn't needed. His remaining healthy & having a good final outing is one of the few positives for the season. Happy that Miranda played 1B & had a good game. I agree that Emma should have been called up to get his feet wet & maybe spark a fire within him. Games don't count anyway. Keirsey needs regular ABs, but at this point, what does it matter?

[FlyingFinn]

6 hours ago, DocBauer said:

And if you don't add him to the 40 man, someone will probably grab him in the rule 5

I disagree with you on this point. Pitchers get taken more than hitters in the Rule 5 draft. On top of that, you almost never see a 26 year-old hitter taken. I predict Fedko won't be taken in that draft.

[mrguy]

13 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

I disagree with you on this point. Pitchers get taken more than hitters in the Rule 5 draft. On top of that, you almost never see a 26 year-old hitter taken. I predict Fedko won't be taken in that draft.

That's true, and the twins system has a lot of solid pitchers in AA/AAA that would be eligible for Rule 5 this year. Those guys should be more of a priority to protect than him

[mikelink45]

48 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

I disagree with you on this point. Pitchers get taken more than hitters in the Rule 5 draft. On top of that, you almost never see a 26 year-old hitter taken. I predict Fedko won't be taken in that draft.

There are teams like Pirates and A's, Angels, and White Sox who could use another bat - my hope is that one of them grabs him and we get to root for another Rooker type ex-twin. 

[JD-TWINS]

9 hours ago, DJL44 said:

With Wallner out for the season this would be a great opportunity to have Rodriguez make his debut. Instead they bring up Keirsey again.

Am not a big rules guy but my assumption is they would burn a year of control for an 8-9 game look? Not very smart if that’s the case. I think the call-up would be more to appease curious fans than it would be if real value for Team/Rodriguez. ……. I too am curious!!

[tony&rodney]

Thank you for the report. Always interested in reading these posts.

Usually watch a fair part of the Saints games but skipped them last night.

[Jeff K]

9 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Right or wrong, the Twins wanted to see what they have in Roden...now injured of course...Martin, and Outman. Poor McCusker gets hus 3rd shot on the roster and is getting splinters in his backside for the 3rd time. 

For the last month of a disappointing, lost season, why not take a look at McCusker or Fedko in the mix as well? I can understand Rodriguez just coming back from injury and rehab and just letting him finish out the year at AAA at this point. But even though he finally broke out at 25yo, why not give someone like Fedko...pushing for a 30/30 season...a ML looksee?

He may or may not make it at the ML level. But there's some OB% ability there to go along with speed and some power, as well as positional flexibility. He just might be a 4th OF for 2026. And if you don't add him to the 40 man, someone will probably grab him in the rule 5 for those very reasons. And what kind of message does it send when a 25yo player having a breakout season doesn't get a shot? He's not a top prospect based on previous history, but how can you afford to just ignore your own internal talent? 25yo is not exactly ancient! 

But if they would have kept playing Outman and keep Fedko on the bench the way they have with McCusker, I guess I'd just rather just see him play daily at St Paul to finish out the season. 

But I really don't understand some of the recent roster decisions AT ALL.

I completely agree.  Fedko or Gonzalez.  So what if you have to remove someone from the 40 man roster.  There are plenty of candidates. 

[Jasper]

IMO seems like late callups are a thanks for your minor league games and see ya down the road.

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, old nurse said:

There is always the possibility that the management doesn’t think Rodriguez is better than Keirsey.  Why else would have they taken on both Outman and Rodon if they had any faith in him 

If they have decided that Rodriguez is worse than Keirsey then they need to trade him this offseason while he is still rated as a top prospect. Keirsey is not an MLB level player.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Am not a big rules guy but my assumption is they would burn a year of control for an 8-9 game look?

If they option him once next season they gain back that control.

I think they’re still trying to prove that the Outman trade was a good idea.

[twinstalker]

How is Kyler Fedko the Twins #18 prospect?

<researching>

Oh, boy.  Seriously, folks, this is a bad system for hitters.  Jenkins and maybe no one else (Keaschall graduating) who will be a good MLB hitter.  Probably no one else.  You should see Milwaukee.

 

[old nurse]

7 hours ago, DJL44 said:

If they have decided that Rodriguez is worse than Keirsey then they need to trade him this offseason while he is still rated as a top prospect. Keirsey is not an MLB level player.

Keirsey would be considered the prototypical AAAA player. Elite at the AAA level, miserable at MLB level. Rodrigues strikes out at 32 % in the minors.  That is a lot of swing and miss. Better pitchers will be able to hit the spot until he learns how to not miss it. If the Twins could manage some sort of blockbuster type trade with multiple players, but I doubt there is a straight up trade.  

[ashbury]

10 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

my hope is that one of them grabs him and we get to root for another Rooker type ex-twin. 

By which you mean you hope he finds himself after a fourth major league organization gives him an opportunity?

[DJL44]

3 hours ago, old nurse said:

Keirsey would be considered the prototypical AAAA player. Elite at the AAA level, miserable at MLB level. 

No, he’s just an average AAA player, not elite. He’s not good enough for MLB.

[mikelink45]

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

By which you mean you hope he finds himself after a fourth major league organization gives him an opportunity?

Doesn't matter how many I just would love to see him succeed

[gman]

I'm hoping Prielipp gets about 125 innings next year between the Twins and St Paul.