Twins Minor League Report (7/1): Riley Quick Finds His Groove Again

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of Malamut Photography (photo of Riley Quick)

TRANSACTIONS
RHP Christian Becerra activated from 7-day IL (A+ Cedar Rapids)
RHP Eston Stull placed on 7-day IL with right elbow injury (A+ Cedar Rapids)
SS Kaelen Culpepper added to Future’s Game roster

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 2, Buffalo 3
Box Score
Ty Langenberg: 4 IP, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
HR: Cody Morissette 2 (4, 5)
Multi-hit games: Cody Morissette (2-for-3, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI)

The Saints fell in a close match on Wednesday.

You ought to know Cody Morrissette, perhaps. The St. Paul second baseman blasted two homers, the only runs of the day for the Saints. The Boston College product joined Minnesota’s organization this season after his fifth season in the Marlins system appeared to be going nowhere in particular. Might his luck be better with the Saints? We shall see. 

Sure, it’s not like rain on your wedding day, but there has to be some sort of irony in his two homers looking near identical. From the pitch location, to the swing, to the ball’s final resting place. 

Ty Langenberg enjoyed his third straight game walking two while striking out three. How unusual. The bizarre streak must bring some good luck: Langenberg has allowed just two earned runs over the 15 1/3 innings that make up his last four starts.

Buffalo infielder Josh Kasevich is the 11th-ranked prospect in the Blue Jays system. He went 0-for-3, with a walk. 

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 3, Tulsa 10
Box Score
Cory Lewis: 3 IP, 8 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
HR: Andrew Cossetti (10)
Multi-hit games: Khadim Diaw (2-for-5, 3B, R, RBI), Andrew Cossetti (2-for-4, HR, 2B, R, RBI)

The Wind Surge were thumped on Wednesday.

Whatever warlocks Cory Lewis entered into covenant with to keep his ERA low either deserted or tricked the young righty; he found no fortune or solace in any events on Wednesday. He allowed eight hits and an equal total of earned runs. Josue De Paula alone smoked three hits—a triple short of the cycle—off the hurler.

Andrew Cossetti blasted a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth.

The other notable extra-base hit came in the fifth, when Khadim Diaw smacked a deep fly ball to center that became a triple when the center fielder decided to see how soft the warning track dirt was.

The aforementioned De Paula is the fourth-best prospect in baseball. Solely as a hitter, he might be the most frightening: a strapping 6’3” lefty with power, contact, and the good sense to know when—and how—he should unleash his mighty stroke. He ended the day with four hits, two of them homers. Oh, and he’s only 21. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 9, Quad Cities 7
Box Score
Riley Quick: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
HR: Caden Kendle (5), Graham Brown (3)
Multi-hit games: Brandon Winokur (2-for-4, RBI), Yasser Mercedes (2-for-4, R, RBI)

The Kernels won an offensive flurry on Wednesday.

Hey, it finally happened. Riley Quick found his rebound. The righty elicited consternation and nerves—the worries that his early-season success was a fluke—but took a mighty step towards dashing those anxieties, whiffing seven over four innings with no earned runs. It was his first start since April 29th without allowing an earned run. 

The Kernels offense was here, there, and everywhere, plating runs in five separate innings. The scoring started with a two-run Caden Kendle shot in the second before lying dormant for some time. 

The third and fourth passed silently, laying the foundation for the rally to come. In the fifth, Brandon Winokur coaxed home a run on a sacrifice fly and Dameury Pena slapped an RBI single to center. That ended scoring matters until Graham Brown stepped to the plate in the seventh and walloped a two-run shot over the berm in left.

That sent the bats into overdrive. Or at least it spurned a three-inning run of… runs that gave the Kernels the lead. And it was more piranha-ball: the first eighth inning run came off an Enrique Jimenez walk, a wild pitch, a passed ball, and an RBI groundout. Kendle—who walked after Jimenez—touched home later off a Yasser Mercedes single. The final run arrived with a Brown walk, Winokur single, a double steal, and an Eduardo Tait sacrifice fly. All in all, Cedar Rapids went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position yet plated nine runs. The secret? Two-run homers and run-scoring non-hits.

River Bandits DH Blake Mitchell is the third-ranked prospect in the Royals’ system. He collected two hits in four at-bats.

Mussel Matters
Fort Myers 1, Clearwater 6
Box Score
Ramiro Villanueva: 3 2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
HR: Quentin Young (10)
Multi-hit games: Ramiro Dominguez (2-for-4, 2B)

The Mighty Mussels were thoroughly bested on Wednesday. 

Quentin Young homered in the fourth. This concludes the offensive portion of the evening. 

Mike McKenna provided two quality innings of relief, punching out a pair without allowing a run. Brent Francisco put forth an admirable effort too, yet—like the starter Ramiro Villanueva found out—poor defense would portend unearned runs, with four of them scoring in the game.

Clearwater’s starter Matthew Fisher ranks as the 10th-best prospect in the Phillies’ system; he allowed one earned run in four frames on Wednesday.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Riley Quick
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Cody Morissette

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

#1 – Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 1-4
#4 – Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, RBI, 3 K
#5 – Marek Houston (Wichita) - 1-3, RBI, BB, K
#6 – Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
#8 – Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 0-4, K
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-5, RBI, 2 K 
#13 – Khadim Diaw (Wichita) - 2-5, 3B, R, RBI, K
#14 – Quentin Young (Fort Myers) - 1-2, HR, R, RBI, 2 BB, K
#17 – C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
#18 – Yasser Mercedes (Cedar Rapids) - 2-4, R, RBI, 2 K
#19 – Billy Amick (Wichita) - 0-4, 2 K
#20 – Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-4, 2 K

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Buffalo @ St. Paul (7:07 PM) - RHP John Klein
Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05 PM) - RHP Preston Johnson
Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (6:30 PM) - RHP Ivran Romero
Fort Myers @ Clearwater (5:30 PM) - RHP Jason Reitz
FCL Twins @ FCL Orioles (11:00 AM) - TBD
DSL Angels @ DSL Twins (10:00 AM) - TBD

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[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Ready for a couple Culpepper sightings at Target Field 

[DJL44]

6 hours ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Ready for a couple Culpepper sightings at Target Field 

You will have to wait until after the All Star game. Culpepper will be playing in the Futures Game. 

[Wedman13]

How can Debarge be this bad?  I totally understand guys like Winokour and Young the are just out of high school and growing into their bodies.  Scouting isn't perfect but would think a 5'9 second baseman kinda 'is what he is'    But even his strikeouts and CS are terrible.  Seems like a rather large miss at 33 overall?  Has anyone actually seen him?

[jmlease1]

Nice to see Quick have a good start. Honestly, I haven't been that worried about him. The stuff is excellent, I think he just needs innings. He's really pitched very little at the college/pro level so far, so there's going to be some bumps and he'll need development time to find consistency. But the pieces are there. It's ok if he pitches the year in Cedar Rapids, IMHO.

Like seeing Winokur hitting. Not enthusiastic about him still getting run out at SS. He's having a pretty good season overall.

Nice to see Diaw get an xbh in AA; I'm sure there will be more coming. he's doing just fine on promotion I think. I find him fascinating as a player with the C/CF split. If he keeps hitting they'll find a spot for him.

Glad to see Mercedes have a good day. He's struggled with the new level a bit; he's not getting wrecked, but he's clearly getting a challenge. Will be interesting to see where he lands at the end of the month. 

[mikelink45]

Am I delusional?  It seems like our system is short on quality pitching, only a couple really seem like they have major league potential. I would love to see our prospect list dominating by pitchers. 

[tony&rodney]

12 minutes ago, Wedman13 said:

How can Debarge be this bad?  I totally understand guys like Winokour and Young the are just out of high school and growing into their bodies.  Scouting isn't perfect but would think a 5'9 second baseman kinda 'is what he is'    But even his strikeouts and CS are terrible.  Seems like a rather large miss at 33 overall?  Has anyone actually seen him?

Have only watched him via milb.com (on my laptop or on the TV). DeBarge takes big swings. The defense is fine but he doesn't look like much of a hitter. The choice of drafting DeBarge at #33 is water over the dam but having seen him many times I doubt he ever gets a look in MLB. He works as organizational filler. Talent is difficult to judge or project in baseball. The draft is never a sure thing.

[Matt Braun]

30 minutes ago, Wedman13 said:

How can Debarge be this bad?  I totally understand guys like Winokour and Young the are just out of high school and growing into their bodies.  Scouting isn't perfect but would think a 5'9 second baseman kinda 'is what he is'    But even his strikeouts and CS are terrible.  Seems like a rather large miss at 33 overall?  Has anyone actually seen him?

Eh, back-end of the first round probably has more misses than you would think. The year before the Brewers took Josh Knoth there and he missed 2025 and is now outside their top-20. At that point you're just hoping for a guy good enough to simply make the big leagues. Anything else is gravy. 

[Matt Braun]

28 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Am I delusional?  It seems like our system is short on quality pitching, only a couple really seem like they have major league potential. I would love to see our prospect list dominating by pitchers. 

I think it is weaker on the pitching side since the heyday of the team's magic with hitting on college arms late like Zebby and David Festa. It doesn't help, too, that two of their better pitchers graduated (Prielipp and Morris) and arguably the two best pitching prospects at the moment (Hill and Soto) are high school guys navigating the hurdles common for most prep arms. 

[Possumlad]

Any word on Culpepper's potential injury?

[Linus]

2 minutes ago, Possumlad said:

Any word on Culpepper's potential injury?

On the broadcast last night they said x- rays came back negative so no broken bones. 

[Elliot]

Kyle Debarge is a 22 year old drafted 2 years ago. Very good speed and arm. Apparently also seen as an above average defensive 2B based on those who give out awards. Good profile and tools to work with. Give him some time. Return to the bust conversation in a couple of years. 

[Jeff K]

45 minutes ago, Possumlad said:

Any word on Culpepper's potential injury?

day to day.  Nothing broken

[Jeff K]

Brankon Winokur's hitting continues to improve.  He must be getting close to a move to AA.

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, Wedman13 said:

How can Debarge be this bad?  I totally understand guys like Winokour and Young the are just out of high school and growing into their bodies.  Scouting isn't perfect but would think a 5'9 second baseman kinda 'is what he is'    But even his strikeouts and CS are terrible.  Seems like a rather large miss at 33 overall?  Has anyone actually seen him?

I think DeBarge got too much hype last season because of all the steals he was piling up in Cedar Rapids, along with the minor league gold glove. He hit a wall last season as a hitter and they promoted him anyways, and he's predictably struggled. He's been correctly moved down on the top prospect list, and will likely move off it soon unless he starts hitting again. Which may take some time and significant adjustments. They took a risk on him and it may not be playing out, but he's still got time, since he really hasn't spent that much time in pro baseball yet.

There's a lot of misses at #33, more than say the NFL.

[LambchoP]

Twins system is definitely weak on pitching. Hopefully we can remedy this at the trade deadline and get some high end, AAA/MLB ready type arms.

[DocBauer]

Injuries have forced both Langenberg and Gallagher up before they were ready. It hasn't been pretty all the time, but I've still noticed some growth from them.

Cody Morissette is more than likely only a depth piece at this point. But he's also an example how the ML draft sometimes just doesn't turn out as expected. The 26yo was a 2nd round pick of the Marlins in 2021. He's never distinguished himself in MILB. But what's kind of interesting is he's hitting WAY above his career MILB numbers this season. He plays 2B and 3B and definitely doesn't qualify as a prospect any longer. But his 2026 story is at least interesting. 

It's only 1 bad game, but I'm disappointed in Cory Lewis. I know he's just ramping up after missing most of the 1st half of the season recovering from injury. And he hasn't looked like the Twins MILB Pitcher of the Year for a couple seasons now. Still, I just have this gut feeling that if they'd move him to the pen, his offerings would play up a bit more, and his crazy knuckleball could really confuse hitters for a couple of innings. I'm hoping he gets that chance.

Nice to see Quick rebound. He's got the build, the velocity, and the secondaries to be very successful. But I never bought in to the hype that he might reach AAA in his first professional season. He's still somewhat inexperienced IP wise due to college injury. That's why he wasn't a 1st round pick. But it is still only July 2nd. If he can build on this throughout July, a late promotion to AA isn't out of the question. That would be a tremendous debut season for him.

[Mike Sixel]

3 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Twins system is definitely weak on pitching. Hopefully we can remedy this at the trade deadline and get some high end, AAA/MLB ready type arms.

That's got to be the target for any deals.

[Danchat]

Even DeBarge's best hitting season in the minors wasn't that good, they have been aggressive promoting him but what upside does a guy with a career .680 OPS in the minors have? At some point you have to remove the bias of being a 1st round pick and evaluate the player for who he is.

[DataNerd]

Good start for Quick.  While the 4.34 ERA/4.35 FIP don't look great, something is up in the Midwest League this year.  The league average ERA is 5.35, the previous worst (going back to 05) was 4.48 in 2021.  Quick has been a well above-average pitcher for the league

[twinstalker]

On 7/2/2026 at 7:23 AM, Wedman13 said:

How can Debarge be this bad?  I totally understand guys like Winokour and Young the are just out of high school and growing into their bodies.  Scouting isn't perfect but would think a 5'9 second baseman kinda 'is what he is'    But even his strikeouts and CS are terrible.  Seems like a rather large miss at 33 overall?  Has anyone actually seen him?

Somebody (super handsome) has been saying that since he was drafted.  Amick, too.  Twins have wasted, completely wasted so many top draft picks.  It's like they go see a guy play, see something good happen, and ignore all the information out there on the guys.  In DeBarge's case the scouting reports were that he couldn't really hit against the better college pitchers, that he was feasting on pitchers in his small-school conference.  Nobody is going to do as well versus the best pitchers, but it apparently wasn't all that competitive in DeBarge's case.  He was ranked much lower than the Twins took him, almost as if the Twins only saw him against bad pitching and somehow were afraid to lose him by waiting the few rounds until they could take him where he was projected.

The drafting process for hitters is extremely flawed, whatever it is.  They don't seem to account for college parks and think Tennessee hitters have miraculously fallen to them in the second round.  Or a Wake Forest hitter everybody was staying away from.  They don't appear to understand that strikeout rates that would be great in the minors are actually average in college.  

Twins 1st or 2nd round hitter draft failings this decade off the top of my head:  (2019 13th pick Cavaco was the start for this group), Sabato, Soularie, Noah Miller, Tanner Schobel,  DeBarge, Amick, Quentin Young, Marek Houston.  Note I said draft failings, not all can be labeled failures yet, as Young and Houston haven't spent a year in the org.

I wanted Waldschmidt over Culpepper and Kayson Cunningham way over Houston.