Twins Minor League Report (4/10): Riley Quick Dominant in Pro Debut; Danny De Andrade, Jacob McCombs Key Kernels Sweep

[Seth Stohs]

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (photo of Quentin Young)

TRANSACTIONS
Following their 10-4 loss in Toronto on Friday night, manager Derek Shelton announced that RHP Cody Laweryson (right forearm strain) and 3B Royce Lewis (knee sprain) will be going on the injured list. Corresponding moves will be announced on Saturday.

QUESTION OF THE DAY
Riley Quick made his professional debut. How long do you think he'll stick in Fort Myers?   

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 4, Toledo 3
Box Score
The Saints got Emmanuel Rodriguez back in the lineup, and maybe not coincidentally, they got back in the win column. 

Connor Prielipp made the start. He gave up two runs on four hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked three and had five strikeouts. 

Trent Baker was summoned from the bullpen and tossed 2 1/3 innings with no runs. He gave up two hits and a walk. Matt Bowman came on and got four outs, two of them on strikeouts. Drew Smith worked a perfect eighth inning. 

Toledo took the 2-0 lead after three innings, but the Saints immediately responded in the top of the fourth frame. Rodriguez led off with a single and scored on a double by Oswaldo Arcia. He advanced to third on an Eric Wagaman fly out and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Sabato to tie the game. 

Walker Jenkins led off the fifth inning with a walk and then stole second. He advanced to third base on a single to left by Gabriel Gonzalez. Following an Alan Roden walk, Jenkins scored on a sacrifice fly by Rodriguez. Arcia walked. Wagaman drove in Gonzalez with a single to center. Roden tried to score too, but he was thrown out by Tigers uber-prospect Max Clark. 

Marco Raya came on to protect the 4-2 lead. He got the first two batters out, But then Clark tripled and scored on a throwing error by Arcia to make it 4-3. But one batter later, he got a fly out to end the game and record his second save of the season. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 0, Arkansas 5
Box Score
Wichita’s bats have been a bit cold to start the season. That remained true in this game. 

Sam Armstrong made the start for the Surge. He gave up three runs on four hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out five batters. Unfortunately, the final line doesn't show how well he pitched the first time through the lineup. 

Spencer Bengard came on and got three outs, two via strikeouts. However, he allowed two of three inherited runners to score. Sam Ryan came on with two runners on base, but he left them stranded. He went 1 2/3 innings and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks. Alejandro Hidalgo came on and probably couldn’t have pitched any better. He faced six batters and struck all six of them out. That’s pretty good, right? 

Garrett Spain doubled in the eighth inning, the team’s second hit of the day. He had also previously walked. The only other Surge player to get a hit and walk was Ben Ross. Ross went 1-for-3 with a walk. 

The Surge created a lot of wind with the ol’ swing and miss. The team went 2-for-30 with two walks and an incredible (but not in a good way) 19 strikeouts! Kyle DeBarge led the way with four strikeouts. Kala’i Rosario and Billy Amick each struck out three times. Three players struck out twice. 

In Letterkenny voice: "To Be Fair." The starting pitcher for the Arkansas Travelers on Friday night was lefty Kade Anderson. He was the third overall pick in 2025 out of LSU. In his first pro start, he gave up five hits, walked one and struck out six batters over four scoreless innings. This was his second pro start. He tossed five shutout innings. He walked two batters but didn't give up any hits. He struck out 11 batters. He could move up very quickly. The Mariners need more pitching! 

A quick look at the Surge lineup shows eight players with a batting average of .200 or lower so far this season. In some cases, there is nothing to worry about. For instance, with his 0-for-4 tonight, Kala’i Rosario is hitting .074 with a .212 OPS. He’ll be just fine. Ricardo Olivar is hitting .053 with a .165 OPS. Again, he’ll be fine. 

KERNELS CHRONICLE 
Game 1: Cedar Rapids 3, Beloit 2
Box Score
Dasan Hill made the start for the Kernels in the first of two games in Beloit. He gave up single runs in the second and third innings, mostly due to a lack of control. The lefty gave up two runs on one hit and four walks over three innings. He had four strikeouts. 

The bullpen came on and did just what they needed to do. Nick Trabacchi came in and walked one and struck one out in the fourth inning. Jason Doktorczyk gave up a hit and a walk over two scoreless innings. He struck out three batters. Paulshawn Pasqualotto pitched the seventh and collected two strikeouts and his second save of the season. 

The Kernels’ bats were quiet through the first four innings. Rayne Doncon led off with a walk. He was still on first base with two outs when Marek Houston singled him to second. A wild pitch pushed the runners to second and third, and that’s when the Sky Carp pitcher balked which allowed Doncon to score the first run.

With one out in the top of the sixth inning, Brandon Winokur walked. Jacob McCombs was hit by a pitch. With Winokur bouncing off of second base, the pitcher turned and threw wildly toward second base and into center field which allowed both runners to advance a base. Danny De Andrade came up with the biggest hit of the game. He lined a single to left field which allowed both runners to score and give the Kernels the 3-2 lead. A lead that Doktorczyk and Pasqualotto protected well.   

The Kernels had just three hits in the game, and they walked four times. De Andrade had a walk to go with the two-run single. He also had two stolen bases. Winokur had a single and a walk and he stole a bag too. 

Game 2: Cedar Rapids 9, Beloit 6
Box Score
You’re welcome, Kernels fans. I was writing this report. Last I looked, the Kernels were losing Game 2 6-5 going to the seventh inning. I typed that into the score above. Thankfully, the Cedar Rapids hitters put up four runs in the top of the seventh and made me change the final score! 

The seventh began with a walk by catcher Luis Hernandez. Miguel Briceno pinch ran for him. Marek Houston successfully laid down a sacrifice bunt to get Briceno to second with one out. Khadim Diaw was hit by a pitch, and Brandon Winokur walked to load the bases. Jacob McCombs, the Twins seventh round pick a year ago out of UC-Irvine, followed with a bases-clearing triple. It turned a one-run deficit into a two-run lead. Great lefty-on-lefty at-bat. 

After the game, McCombs told Twins Daily, “The triple was the biggest hit so far in my pro ball career.” 

With two outs, Caden Kendle singled to drive in McCombs and give the Kernels the three-run lead with three outs to go. 

Adrian Bohorquez made the Game 2 start. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on four hits and four walks. And, yes, he had four strikeouts too. Eston Stull came in and struck out five batters (and walked one) over two scoreless, hitless innings. 

Nolan Santos gave up two runs on two hits and three walks over 1 2/3 innings. He did strike out three batters. Ivran Romero got the final out of the sixth inning with a strikeout, and then, after his teammates gave him a three-run lead, he struck out the three batters he faced in the bottom of the seventh inning. 

Earlier in the game, RBI singles from Houston and Diaw gave the Kernels a 5-1 lead in the top of the second inning. They gave up that lead but didn't give up on the game or themselves.     

McCombs added, “Our team is resilient, and we have the will to win no matter how much adversity we face.” 

MIGHTY MATTERS
Ft. Myers 2, Jupiter 0
Box Score  
Obviously, the big story from this game was the professional debut of Riley Quick. He was the Twins Competitive Balance pick from the 2025 draft. Aside from Twins camps, he had not thrown in a regular game since the end of his 2025 Alabama season. 

He couldn’t have been more impressive. He was limited, as you would expect. He tossed two scoreless innings. He threw 33 pitches. He got all six batters out that he faced, five of them on strikeouts. He mixed 95-98 mph fastballs with changeups in the upper ‘80s. His low-90s slider got swing and miss as did his cutter and sinker. 

And that’s when catcher Ian Daugherty really went to work. Fellow 2025 draft pick from Alabama Jonathan Stevens came in to start the third inning. Immediately he loaded the bases, but Daugherty went out to talk to him. The next batter lined into a double play, and that was followed by a strikeout. Stevens went 3 2/3 innings and gave up no runs on one hit. He walked five and had four strikeouts. 

Michael Hilker, the team’s 20th-round pick last year out of Arizona, got the next four outs, three of them on strikeouts. He gave up a hit and a walk.

Brian Zeldin came in for the final two innings. He gave up three walks and a hit, but no runs. He signed with the Twins in February after pitching for Wes Johnson at Georgia the last couple of seasons. 

The Mussels worked themselves into some tough situations yet came up with big pitchers or big plays when they needed to maintain the shutout. That’s good because the Mussels scored just two runs. 

They took the 1-0 lead in the top of the second. With two outs, Harry Genth was hit by a pitch. He stole second. He scored on a line-drive single by Byron Chourio. 

That's where the score remained through seven innings. With one out in the top of the eighth inning, Dameury Pena knocked his fourth single of the game. He went to second on a throwing error. Quentin Young followed with his first double of the season which made it 2-0.   

Those two hitters combined to go 7-for-8. The rest of the lineup combined to go 2-for-26. One of those hits was a double by Jayson Bass. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Dameury Pena (Fort Myers): 4-for-4, R
Quentin Young (Fort Myers): 3-for-4, 2B(1),
Caden Kendle (Cedar Rapids): 3-for-4, 2B(4), R, RBI, K

Pitcher of the Day 
Riley Quick (Fort Myers): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 33 pitches, 22 strikes (66.7%)
Alejandro Hidalgo (Wichita): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 28 pitches, 20 strikes (71.4%)

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

#1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, 2 BB, R, SB(1) (batted second, played CF, all 9 innings)
#2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 2-for-5, K (batted first, played SS)
#3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB, R, SF RBI, 2 K, CS(1) (batted fifth, DHd)
#4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1: 0-for-2, BB, K, (batted second, Catcher) Game 2: Did Not Play.
#5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (St. Paul) - 3 1/3 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 77 pitches, 45 strikes (58.4%)
#6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1: 3 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 64 pitches, 38 strikes (59.4%)
#7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 2-for-5, R, K (batted fourth, played RF)
#8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - Injured List
#9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1: 1-for-4, 2 K. Game 2: 1-for-2, BB, 2 R, RBI, SH, SB(1)   

#10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List
#11 - RHP Riley Quick (Ft. Myers) - 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 33 pitches, 22 strikes (66.7%)
#12 - RHP Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1: 1-for-2, BB, R, K, SB(3), Game 2: 0-for-1, 2 BB, R, K,  
#14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 3-for-4, 2B(1), RBI, SB(1), K (batted third, played 3B)
#15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(2), 13 pitches, 8 strikes (61.5%)
#16 - OF Hendry Mendez (Wichita) - Did Not Play.
#17 - 2B/OF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-4, 4 K, (led off, played 2B)
#18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - Did Not Pitch
#19 - C Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1: 0-for-3, 3 K, OF Assist (batted third, played CF), Game 2: 2-for-3, HBP, 2 R, RBI, K. (batted second, DHd)
#20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Pitch

UPCOMING PROBABLES
Saturday:
St. Paul @ Toledo (4:05 pm CT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (0-1, 12.27 ERA)
Wichita @ Arkansas (6:05 pm CT) - RHP Mike Paredes (1-0, 4.91 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (1:05 pm CT) - RHP Eli Jones (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Ft. Myers @ Jupiter (5:00 CT) - RHP Joel Garcia (0-1, 2.25 ERA) 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 7-7
St. Paul Saints: 5-7
Wichita Wind Surge: 2-5
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 5-2
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 5-2

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

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[Blyleven2011]

Thanks for the play by play Seth  , always appreciated  ..

[roger]

Heck of a pro debut by Quick.  Is Peña a legitimate prospect, Seth?  Great seeing Houston’s bat not cooling off.

[jorgenswest]

Did they wait to do imaging on Lewis until Friday in Toronto? Why not do it Thursday?

This should be an opportunity for Culpepper. Put him at SS with Lee and Gray at 3B. Maybe he plays well and doesn’t go back. Maybe he goes back with an idea of where he needs to work. They can DFA Kreidler or Wagaman. I would also bring up Matthews for the pen. He is rested to gives them length. He also gives them a higher velocity. I also would ignore those the poor starts as long as he is healthy. Shorten up his pitch mix and put him in the pen. Maybe he earns a late inning role in the pen. That job is wide open. I hope the Twins view this as an opportunity.

[jmlease1]

Nice start to the pro career for Quick. I'm not going to be too bothered if they keep him down in Ft. Myers for a while (he simply hasn't pitched a lot, so I won't be surprised if the Twins are very careful with his workload while building him up) but he's clearly got real talent and could end up being a fast riser once he demonstrates that his arm can handle the workload.

Hard to find any complaints in Culpepper's performance so far. It's tempting with Lewis going down to call him up and see if he's ready (wouldn't be hard to slide Lee over to 3B, where frankly he'd be better) but I don't know that the Twins are ready to throw him in the fire yet. Might depend on how long they expect Lewis to be out?

Bohorquez and Hill kind of nuked themselves with the free passes. Love the talent, but there's a reason they're in A-ball right now. Got to find the zone, boys.

Very pleased with Marek Houston's start. I was one of the ones sounding the alarm about his bat after he looked lost after promotion, but so far he's doing his level best to make me look like a foolish alarmist. Would be thrilled to have him make me look like a moron. He keeps hitting like this (we already know he can pick it) and he'll be in Wichita real soon. Maybe fewer on the K's, but hard to get mad at anything when he's got a 1.015 OPS.

[tony&rodney]

Great write-up Seth. Thanks as always.

I'm not comparing the two directly but Kade Anderson (2025 pick #3) looked untouchable at AA and Riley Quick (2025 pick #36) looked great at A yesterday. Both SEC pitchers last year. I totally agree with giving Quick a slower ramp up because the Twins wanted to break him in slowly. I do wonder if the Twins will let him get his pitches in at higher levels once the weather warms up a bit. Seems like if Quick is feeling strong he might be able to handle more competition, however Ft. Myers is a good spot to work on his pitches and command.

[Seth Stohs]

1 hour ago, roger said:

Heck of a pro debut by Quick.  Is Peña a legitimate prospect, Seth?  Great seeing Houston’s bat not cooling off.

Dameury Pena? I think he's worth watching. He should be moving up to Cedar Rapids by midseason, I'd think. 

[saviking]

Wichita is batting ..179 as a team. .. 

[Dman]

Great debut by Quick.  I assume they build him up at A ball before moving him up.  Every hitter was late on his fastball as best I could tell.  He is going to need better competition.  Fort Meyers has really strong starting pitching.  Ellwanger, Moring and Smith all have ERA's of zero right now with good K rates and low WHIP's.   Could be several arms in line to move up sometime in May.

Dameury Pena is off to a hot start.  Last year I was beginning to wonder about his bat.  Looks like maybe he has found a way to make better contact?  Will have to wait and see.  Normally guys get a high OPS using Slugging to get there.  Pena has .600 OBP and only .400 slugging.  Hard to keep a .500 batting average going with zero K's, but just nice to see him off to a good start.

With the high K rate I was already thinking Young was going to be in A ball for while.  Then of coarse he goes three for four.  I just want to see him make contact and keep those K;s down.  He has plenty of power already.  Once he masters contact he could be a beast. So here's hoping he keeps those hits coming.

Gonna have to keep my eye on Hidalgo again,.  I kind of gave up on him after last years results.  He has a tendency to give up runs so if he can reign that in his pitches have good movement so he has a chance to make it.

Hill really looked rough last night.  A solid first inning and then it felt like he couldn't reach back and throw strikes anymore.  Was lucky to get as far as he got.  Same for Bohorquez.  He always seems to run out of gas by the third or fourth inning.  Still early in the season so we'll see.  Was just hoping for more from both those arms.

Kendle is really looking good.  The guy is built like tank, runs well and been a really tough out at the plate. Not exactly young at 24, but he looks a bit like a Fedko type player.

Lots of good performances last night,

 

[Linus]

7 baserunners in 3.1 innings for Preilipp. Fairly typical which worries me. I believe his WHIP last year was 1.5. 

[tony&rodney]

35 minutes ago, Linus said:

7 baserunners in 3.1 innings for Preilipp. Fairly typical which worries me. I believe his WHIP last year was 1.5. 

Prielipp has good stuff but due to missing so much time from injuries he is behind the curve in his learning how to pitch. Prielipp can be a decent pitcher but Twins fans should be patient while he learns his craft.