Twins Minor League Report (7/26): Homer Happy and Loving It!

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Billy Amick)

TRANSACTIONS   
7/26 - Twins optioned RHP Jack Anderson to St. Paul Saints, recalled Cole Sands and Connor Prielipp from 15-day IL, and placed Mike Paredes on the 15-day IL.

7/25 - The Twins activated RHP Marco Raya from the 15-day injury list and optioned him to St. Paul. Cedar Rapids Kernels placed C Enrique Jimenez on the 7-day injured list.

RHP Woo-Suk Go suspended 10 games (St. Paul Saints) for having an illegal substance on his glove on Friday night. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 6, Columbus 3  
Box Score
The Saints got the scoring going right away in the top of the first, as Kaelen Culpepper took one for the team and Matt Wallner took a Trenton Denholm changeup deep for a 2-0 lead.

In the top of the third inning, it was Wallner again. Will his pleas for a call-up go unheard? 3-0 Saints.

Aaron Rozek performed well, scattering three hits over four innings, striking out four and allowing nothing on the scoreboard. Garrett Acton got into another rehab game, and he gave up a solo shot to Cooper Ingle to bring things to 3-1. John Klein came in for the top of the seventh, and he had been alternating stinker outings with lights out performances in July. He was due for a stinker, and the Clippers took him for two runs via two walks and two singles. The Saints immediately struck back in the bottom of the seventh, when Wallner went small ball and singled in Culpepper and Walker Jenkins to increase the lead back to three at 6-3. That was all of the scoring in St. Paul, and Eduardo Salazar and Eric Orze made sure that it stayed that way by hurling perfect eighth and ninth innings.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 16, Midland 2
Box Score
How do you follow up a combined no hitter if you are Ty Langenberg? You can’t, really, but six strike outs across four frames of two hit, one run baseball is pretty good. Meanwhile the Wind Surge bats struck early and often on a hot July afternoon, and Billy Amick played a key role in the offensive onslaught. Amick drove in the first run of the game in the first inning with a single, and his 22nd homer of the season plated two more in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 6-1 ballgame. Also of note was Khadim Diaw crushing his first homer at Wichita, a solo shot in the third. 

After two scoreless frames from Sam Armstrong, the Wind Surge again unleashed against RockHound pitching. Jay Thomason started things off with a single, and Marek Houston mashed his fourth homer of the season to make it 8-1. Andrew Cossetti singled, but then Midland quickly got two outs. Brandon Winokur made them pay for thinking the threat was over by crushing his third home run to raise the lead up to nine runs. Midland changed pitchers, which suited Garrett Spain just fine as he launched his 15th homer to make it 11-1. Kyle DeBarge singled and Jake Rucker doubled to make it 12-1 in the blink of an eye.

Houston and Amick teamed up again in the bottom of the seventh, and their bloop-and-a-blast made it 14-1. The seventh and eighth homers on the day came from Rucker and Thomason in the bottom of the eighth to make the rout complete at 16-1. It wasn’t a no-hitter, but Langenberg, Armstrong, Jaylen Nowlin and William Fleming only surrendered five hits and two runs. What a day!

KERNELS CHRONICLES
Cedar Rapids 10, Dayton 7
Box Score
The Kernels finished up their series in Dayton, having borne the brunt of the Dragon’s six game winning streak. Justin Mitrovich took the hill, and hopes were high considering that Mitrovich hadn’t given up a run since July 5. Today proved to be a challenge, as the red hot Dragon’s cashed in four runs over Mitrovich’s five innings, thanks to five hits, two walks, and an error while fielding a bunt that led to two of the runs. Nolan Santos came in next, and he surrendered two runs of his own, to make it 6-1 Dayton.

Offensively the Kernels, things began to catch momentum in the top of the seventh as Danny De Andrade and Henry Kusiak doubled and scored on a mix of ground outs and fielder’s choice events. The big hit never materialized, however, and they had to settle with closing the gap to 6-4. Santos remained in for the bottom of the seventh, and Tyson Lewis greeted his second pitch by slamming it out of the ballpark. A hit by pitch and a single chased Santos, and Xavier Kolhosser was brought in to put out the fire and keep the Kernels in the game with runners on the corners and only one out. The winning combination for Kolhosser was 5-6-3, and the fire was put out for now.

An Eduardo Tait single and Quinn McDaniel double put runners at second and third with one out in the top of the eighth, but Kusiak popped up and Jose Salas struck out to end the last threat of the afternoon. In the top of the ninth, Andy Lugo laced his second hit of the game, and Jacob McCombs doubled him home to pull within two. Then it was time for a Yasser Mercedes hero moment, as he golfed a game-tying homer to left for his eighth of the year!

The Kernels weren’t done yet. After a Tait strike out, De Andrade and McDaniel singled, and Kusiak called ball game with his third bomb of the year. Kudos to Kolhasser and Christian Becerra for holding the line out of the bullpen, but we end with the game winner highlight from Kusiak.

MIGHTY MATTERS
Fort Myers 8, St. Lucie 11
Box Score
After an offensive night on Saturday, the Mighty Mussels looked to continue the momentum into a Sunday afternoon rematch with St. Lucie. Fort Myers picked up right where they left off when Ramiro Dominguez doubled to open the action. Byron Chourio walked, and then they both swiped a base to put runners in scoring position with nobody out. Both runners eventually scored, and then Jhomnardo Reyes followed in their footsteps via a double steal home to put the Mussels up 3-0. Dominguez and Chourio each hit again in the top of the second, with Chourio’s second knock bringing home Ricardo Perez for a 4-0 lead. Once again, the Mussels tried to pull off a double steal, and in sort of worked in that Dominguez scored when Chourio was thrown out at second base. 5-0 Mussels and another rout was on…until it wasn’t.

Callan Fang survived baserunners in the first inning without giving up a run, but he only achieved one more out in the game. Two walks and two singles by the Mets got them on the board, while another single and a hit by pitch ended Fang’s day early at four hits, three walks, and six runs in only 1 1/3 innings.. Jonathan Stevens came in and struck out Marco Vargas with the bases loaded, but then he gave up a walk and two more singles to lose the lead and then some. Suddenly it was 8-5 in St. Lucie’s favor as the third inning began. Steven’s woes continued in the bottom of the fourth, as two doubles, a single, and a sacrifice fly plated three more Mets runs for an 11-5 score and Steven’s day ended early as well after surrendering five runs (three earned) on five hits and one walk and one strikeout in 1 2/3 innings.

The good news? It was still early, and Eric Hammond came in to toss four scoreless frames of one hit ball to keep the Mussels in the game. The bad news? The Mussels couldn’t muster any offense through the middle innings either.. Things began to turn around in the top of the seventh, however, and the usual suspects were responsible. Paez walked and scored on another Dominguez double. 

Chourio singled again and stole successfully this time to put runners at second and third again with nobody out. A groundout plated Dominguez, and a balk plated Chourio to pull the Mussels within three. That’s as close as they could come, however, as the early inning pitching woes undercut another strong offensive performance for the only loss of the day for the Twins' system.

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
DSL Twins - No Game Today

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter(s) of the Day  
Quinn McDaniel (Cedar Rapids): 3-3, Double (3), 3 R, 2 BB, SB(5)
Matt Wallner (St. Paul): 3-4, 2 HR(19), 2 R, 5 RBI, SB(5)
Billy Amick (Wichita): 3-5, 2 HR(23), 2 R, 3 H, 5 RBI

Pitcher(s) of the Day 
Aaron Rozek (St. Paul): 4 IP, 3H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today. Notice that the prospect rankings have been updated to include the 2026 draft picks. 

In addition, keep up with the Twins draft pick signings at our Twins 2026 Draft Board. As you’ll be able to see, all 21 players have signed. They have also signed four undrafted pitchers.

#1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, R, BB, K (batted first, played CF).
#2 - C Vahn Lackey (Signed 2026 Draft) -
#3 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, double(12), 2 R (batted second, played DH)
#4 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - Injured List (thumb)
#5 - SS Marek Houston (Wichita) - 2-6, home run(4), 2 H, 2 R, 2 RBI, (batted first, played SS)
#6 - RHP Riley Quick (Wichita) - Did Not Pitch
#7 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, 2 K (batted third, played DH)
#8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch
#9 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#10 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB, K (batted fifth, played LF)
#11 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - Did Not Play
#12 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#13 - C Carson Tinney (Signed 2026 Draft) -
#14 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Wichita) - 1-for-3, home run(1), 2 R, 1 RBI (batted second, played C)
#15 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Wichita) - 3-for-4, home run(3), R, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 2 SB(5) (batted fifth, played CF)
#16 - RHP Brett Renfrow (Signed 2026 Draft) -
#17 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-4, 3 K (batted sixth, played SS)
#18 - RHP Ryan Gallagher (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#19 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 Day Injured List (right elbow sprain)
#20 - RHP Ethan Wachsmann (Signed 2026 Draft) - 

UPCOMING PROBABLES
Monday, July 27
DSL Twins @ DSL Giants Black (10:00 am CT) - TBD

Tuesday, July 28
St. Paul @ Omaha (7:05 pm CT) - TBD 
Wichita @ Springfield (7:05 pm CT) - TBD
Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 pm CT) - TBD
Palm Beach @ Ft. Myers (6:05 pm CT) - TBD 
FCL Twins - Season Complete. 
DSL Twins @ DSL Rangers Red (10:00 am CT) - TBD

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 53-54
St. Paul Saints: 58-43
Wichita Wind Surge: 37-57
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 38-56
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 51-43
FCL Twins: 33-26
DSL Twins: 10-27 

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[Dman]

I don't know.  It sure looks like Wallner is ready to come back to the MLB team.  Might not be room, but I don't think they can keep him down there much longer.  Maybe dealing Wallner or Larnach at the deadline to make things work?  Not sure but he looks like he is back to his regular homer happy self right now.

Ever since the surge got Kendle, Houston and Winokur up this has been a different team offensively.  All three of those guys are on fire with the bats and it appears to be contagious as Amick and others are piling on as well.  8 home runs for the team in one game.  Two off of each pitcher they put out there is just crazy.  It's been a tough year for AA this year but maybe they will have a better second half.

I had turned away from the Kernel's game late as it looked like they would be hard luck losers again.  Had to look twice to make sure I had the score right when I checked back.  Six runs in the 9th doesn't happen often.  Kudos to them for not giving up.  Mercedes has been getting to his power recently.  Would love to see him make a strong finish and be ready for AA next year.

Nice day for the bats in all the systems today. Hope they keep it going.

[Fatbat]

Bring Wallner up and then trade him….

also, Houston is out performing his A+ league numbers in AA.   He should be moved to AAA next month when KC gets a call to MLB. 

[tony&rodney]

The vibe has changed in Wichita .... at least for now. Leading the charge are Houston, Diaw, Kendle, and Winokur. Each of these players have made some adjustments to find success at AA baseball. Houston and Winokur look like their work has paid off; fun to watch.

[Sampson5]

Idk how they can keep wallner in St Paul with a near .1000 ops probably tells you they plan on moving on my guess is if he's not called up prior to the deadline he's getting moved to a team who believes in him personally rather have him in the lineup over roden especially when they have clemons & keashall in the outfield mix . Need culpepper to get hot so he can force the twins to call him up that way kriedler can get more days off the magic means to be running out in a everyday role even if defense still elite not to mention it's clearly about time for Houston to be moved up a level I mean he's hitting over .300 in AA in about 30 game sample safe to say he's ready for a challenge.

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

7 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Bring Wallner up and then trade him….

If they really wanted to trade him, and get something of value for me, they should have brought him up already. Don't see the Twins getting much in return for him at this point. 

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

RHP Woo-Suk Go suspended 10 games (St. Paul Saints) for having an illegal substance on his glove on Friday night. 

Hmm ...  I want to  know more. What was this mysterious substance?

[jmlease1]

Houston is doing great in AA so far, but it's still only 105 ABs. Moving him up to AAA for an extra month or so won't make a ton of a difference to his development, not really going to fret if he spends most or all of the rest of the season in Wichita. If he's positioned himself to be starting at AAA next season he'll be in a great spot. Right now the big hurdle for him to clear is to show he can handle the grind of a full professional season and not get ground down in the dog days. Have to be happy with what we're seeing this year, so far he's answering the questions about his bat.

Winokur is off to a very nice start at AA. If he's able to find consistency, that bat could be special. Maybe all the tools are starting to come together. Pretty good at only 21 in AA.

Wallner is a bit stuck, and so are the Twins with him. He's got himself back into a groove and should be called back up...but who does he replace? They simply don't need another LH bat who adds nothing on D. He's ripe for a trade, but what do you get for a guy his age who is beating up on AAA pitching but shown a history of extended slumps in MLB? He's a platoon DH at this point who can stand out in RF.

Very happy to see Culpepper back. Can't wait for him to get a few more games under him at AAA and get his long-awaited call up to MLB, which I expect will happen around the trade deadline once the Twins catching situation is resolved and a roster spot opens up.

[DJL44]

I can’t predict if the Twins would be better off with Wallner or Bell as the DH for the rest of the season. Too much error bar.

[mikelink45]

Wallner deserves to come up as the comments indicate, but so does Jenkins and this is part of the OF traffic jam.  Now that we have moved Kreidler and Clemens and Keaschall to OF options we really don't need Martin, but Larnach is going to well to be replaced and no one will remove Buxton so what is the solution?  Trades?  Who?  Where? Houston, Cleveland, Tampa Bay look like the teams that need the most - and Phillies need a right handed bat - but we specialize in left handers.

[DJL44]

13 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Wallner deserves to come up as the comments indicate, but so does Jenkins and this is part of the OF traffic jam.  Now that we have moved Kreidler and Clemens and Keaschall to OF options we really don't need Martin, but Larnach is going to well to be replaced and no one will remove Buxton so what is the solution?  Trades?  Who?  Where? Houston, Cleveland, Tampa Bay look like the teams that need the most - and Phillies need a right handed bat - but we specialize in left handers.

Jenkins needs to stay in AAA and work on turning his raw power into home runs.

[rdehring]

Just another day for Houston, 2 hits including a home run.  Didn't check if he stole a base.  Winokur gets 3 hits including a home run.  Most interesting, my math tells me he was striking out over 30% of the time in Cedar Rapids, but that is down to just under 25% in Wichita. 

I believe the Saints play a couple weeks longer than everyone else, don't they?  If that's the case, would be a great time to promote Houston.  Expect Culpepper will be up with the Twins before late September.

As for Wallner.  The Twins have to find that G.M. who is intrigued by his power and would like to add him to their roster.  Maybe add another mid-level prospect to get something back for the future.

[HrbieFan]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

I can’t predict if the Twins would be better off with Wallner or Bell as the DH for the rest of the season. Too much error bar.

Exactly where I am at. We all love Wallner's big bombs, but he has proven to have more holes in that swing than Swiss cheese. Why can't a reliable bat like Bell be our DH next year? I believe the Twins hold an option on his contract.  Has Wallner cut down on his Ks or is he just taking advantage of bad AAA pitching? 

[terrydactyls]

10 hours ago, Sampson5 said:

Idk how they can keep wallner in St Paul with a near .1000 ops probably tells you they plan on moving on my guess is if he's not called up prior to the deadline he's getting moved to a team who believes in him personally rather have him in the lineup over roden especially when they have clemons & keashall in the outfield mix . Need culpepper to get hot so he can force the twins to call him up that way kriedler can get more days off the magic means to be running out in a everyday role even if defense still elite not to mention it's clearly about time for Houston to be moved up a level I mean he's hitting over .300 in AA in about 30 game sample safe to say he's ready for a challenge.

At least you used one period in the middle of this paragraph.  That may be a record high for you.

[DJL44]

11 minutes ago, HrbieFan said:

Exactly where I am at. We all love Wallner's big bombs, but he has proven to have more holes in that swing than Swiss cheese. Why can't a reliable bat like Bell be our DH next year? I believe the Twins hold an option on his contract.  Has Wallner cut down on his Ks or is he just taking advantage of bad AAA pitching? 

Bell is anything but reliable. He regularly goes cold for a month at a time. Both players have huge variance in performance. This makes it nearly impossible to predict which would perform better over a two month sample from here until the end of the season.

[Mike Sixel]

I'm still predicting Wallner to Houston. 

 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Winokur and Houston are outperforming expectations significantly.  They have brought optimism, and a defensive and offensive jolt Witchita sorely needed.   Now Winokur is one who tends to heat up as the year gets going and did something similar in his jump to high A then he leveled off.  I am hoping something is clicking with him.  These 2 are unicorns.   Houston elite defense with very good contact bat with a little bit of pop.   Winokur is an elite athletic talent, with potential high end power.   At the beginning of the year I said we had 2 lotto tickets in Young and Winokur and that we wanted 1 to hit (literally and figuratively).    Winokur was my hope and this ones appears to be working out.    

As to Wallner - him and Roden can fill in for Larnach if he gets traded or maybe Wallner gets traded to someone wanting to cash in on a bat that get hot for an ok prospect.    

The baseball being played in the minors right now is much better than even 2-3 weeks ago.  I still feel like we are a little light on pitching and hitting,  but some of the younger pitchers are starting to figure it out.   

[bean5302]

Wallner is no longer worth anything. The Twins have made it abundantly clear how they view him, and that's AAAA. It's not like other teams haven't noticed that. Other teams have to take the Twins' view of Wallner into account because the Twins are the team who should know him far better than anybody.

Wallner is in the exact same boat as Rooker was a few years ago with the Twins. Wallner needs to play for a team who will give him 200+ plate appearances as an every day player, even if he's sucking, to determine if there's any value there as an MLB player.

Calling him up doesn't help anything. Where's he going to play on a team full of left handed DH's who are already masquerading as positional players more than they should? If the Twins don't believe Wallner is MLB, they should trade him and get a mid level prospect.

[DJL44]

I don’t think Wallner or Bell has any trade value at the deadline. Which contenders are looking for a 700 OPS DH?

Bell would be a downgrade at DH for the Astros, Dodgers, Rays, Phillies, Mariners, Yankees, and Rangers. He would be almost as good as the current option for the Guardians, Brewers, Nationals, Orioles, Cardinals, Cubs and White Sox.

That leaves the Braves, Pirates, Red Sox and Diamondbacks as teams who might find Josh Bell useful. 

[rdehring]

2 hours ago, HrbieFan said:

Exactly where I am at. We all love Wallner's big bombs, but he has proven to have more holes in that swing than Swiss cheese. Why can't a reliable bat like Bell be our DH next year? I believe the Twins hold an option on his contract.  Has Wallner cut down on his Ks or is he just taking advantage of bad AAA pitching? 

It will be likely the Twins will have at least two guys on the bench every day who are good hitters.  Makes a ton of sense, at least to me to leave the DH spot open to keep those players bats in the lineup more than waiting to start.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm still predicting Wallner to Houston. 

 

Houston has Yordan Alvarez at DH. Why would they want Wallner?

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, DJL44 said:

Houston has Yordan Alvarez at DH. Why would they want Wallner?

They are looking for corner OF/LHH......and their farm system is "meh", so I'm not sure how high they can aim beyond Wallner. 

[Fatbat]

5 hours ago, Bangkok Twins Fan said:

If they really wanted to trade him, and get something of value for me, they should have brought him up already. Don't see the Twins getting much in return for him at this point. 

He needed to fix his set up and swing. If he can keep producing at the mlb level, someone will want him but probably won't pay much until he has a larger sample size. The offseason may get a good return for him. He just needs a different team so he can be our next Rooker to leave and be an allstar.  The kids behind him have a much higher ceiling! 

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

I don’t think Wallner or Bell has any trade value at the deadline. Which contenders are looking for a 700 OPS DH?

Bell would be a downgrade at DH for the Astros, Dodgers, Rays, Phillies, Mariners, Yankees, and Rangers. He would be almost as good as the current option for the Guardians, Brewers, Nationals, Orioles, Cardinals, Cubs and White Sox.

That leaves the Braves, Pirates, Red Sox and Diamondbacks as teams who might find Josh Bell useful. 

I think Wallner could bring back an org #6-15 reliever prospect as there's going to be somebody out there willing to bet on Wallner being the next potential Rooker. Bell probably doesn't do more than PTBNL due to the contract.

[DJL44]

3 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I think Wallner could bring back an org #6-15 reliever prospect as there's going to be somebody out there willing to bet on Wallner being the next potential Rooker. Bell probably doesn't do more than PTBNL due to the contract.

That’s about what Ed Julien returned from the Rockies. I looked up Jace Kaminska - he is out all of 2026 after missing all of 2025.

[DJL44]

Marek Houston named Texas League player of the week 

[tony&rodney]

FWIW, Winokur made a few swing adjustments. Some times he still wants to crank one but he has adherred more closely to the changes in the last month. The guy is and always has been an outlier, speed, good baserunner, scary power, big arm that is very accurate, and  well above average defense pretty much anywhere. The hit tool is going to be his ticket. Right now Winokur is going well. I'm sure a ton of teams are asking about him.