Twins Minor League Report (8/2): Fort Myers Collects a 20-Piece

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (photo of Carson Tinney)

TRANSACTIONS
RHP Raul Brito released
RHP Xavier Kolhosser placed on 7-day IL (A+ Cedar Rapids)
LHP Michael Carpenter activated from 7-day IL (Cedar Rapids)
INF Jay Thomason activated from temporary inactive list (AA Wichita)
RHP Jack Anderson optioned to AAA St. Paul
C Enrique Jimenez transferred to 60-day IL (Cedar Rapids)

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 4, Omaha 2
Box Score
Trent Baker: 2 ⅓ IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Walker Jenkins (3-for-5), Hendry Mendez (2-for-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI)

The Saints were victorious on Sunday.

It was an ordinary, garden-variety win. Not that there’s anything wrong with such a thing. The Saints’ pitching staff allowed a smattering of baserunners, but found outs at critical junctures, holding the Storm Chasers to a meager 1-8 showing with runners in scoring position. Ruddy Gomez was probably the happiest of the bunch. He washed away his two-run Saints debut earlier in the week with a scoreless inning and the win. Julian Merryweather nailed down the save.

75% of St. Paul’s runs came on a two-out rally in the third. A pair of strikeouts appeared to steer the frame into empty territory. Then, Kaelen Culpepper smacked a double and Matt Wallner walked. Kyle Fedko bulleted a double into the left field corner to score them both; Hendry Mendez swapped places with his outfield brethren on a double of his own. 

Mendez added on with a final insurance sacrifice fly in the ninth, which proved unnecessary when the aforementioned Merryweather quickly earned the game’s final three outs. 

Vibes surrounding the win were neutered when, with two outs in the ninth, Kyler Fedko chased a ball hit into the left field corner and crumpled on a non-contact play. He lay hidden behind the wall for some time as his teammates gathered to check on the outfielder, who had to be helped onto his feet before he was carted off the field.

Omaha is an affiliate of the Royals system, which claims four players on MLB.com’s top 100 prospect list. None played in this game; the best youngster the Storm Chasers had to offer was the franchise’s 26th-ranked player, outfielder Gavin Cross. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. 

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 2, Springfield 9
Box Score
Cory Lewis: 4 IP, 3 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
HR: Caden Kendle (2), Jaime Ferrer (5)
Multi-hit games: None

The Wind Surge were thumped on Sunday.

Caden Kendle and Jaime Ferrer hit home runs in the third. The Ferrer homer was the final hit Wichita earned on the day.

Wichita hitters took six walks—demonstrating that they weren’t helpless on Sunday—though, for whatever reason, getting hits to fall proved difficult. Just one of 13 balls in play resulted in a knock. 

Jaylen Nowlin was the only Wind Surge pitcher to escape without an earned run attached to him. 

MLB’s 12th-overall prospect, catcher Rainiel Rodriguez, collected three hits, including a homer and a double. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 2, Peoria 3
Box Score
Ivran Romero: 3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Eduardo Tait (2-for-4, BB), Jayson Bass (2-for-5, K), Graham Brown (3-for-4, 2 2B, RBI)

The Kernels squandered a winnable game on Sunday.

Runs were hard to come by for Cedar Rapids. 11 hits—five of them doubles—should score a team more than two runs; yet the team found placing men on far easier than bringing them home, and a rough 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position did not help their chances of winning.

The first run came on a Jose Salas sacrifice fly in the second. The next arrived on a Graham Brown double that eked beyond the third baseman and slowly tucked itself into the left field corner.

Perhaps no sequence better encapsulated Cedar Rapids’ futility with men on than the ninth. Eduardo Tait singled and was pulled for a pinch-runner. Yasser Mercedes slammed a double into center. With men on second and third with no one out, Danny De Andrade went down swinging. No matter. They still had two outs to play with. Jayson Bass hit a dribbler fielded by the pitcher, who spun around and caught Byron Chourio advancing too far after third. A weak rundown ended with the lead running Chourio out, as the trailing Mercedes—who tried to run to third—scampered back to second, resulting in the team losing their man on third and an out without any other advancement. Salas then grounded out to end the game.

The Kernels bullpen combined to pitch 5 2/3 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and one hit allowed. 

Emmanuel Rodriguez was scratched from the lineup with thumb soreness. Like us all, he’s day-to-day. 

Chiefs’ center fielder Tai Peete clocks in as the 16th-best prospect in the Cardinals’ system. He singled and walked in four trips to the plate.

Mussel Matters
Fort Myers 20, Palm Beach 3
Box Score
Merit Jones: 4 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
HR: Carson Tinney (1), Luis Fragoza (11)
Multi-hit games: Ramiro Dominguez (2-for-6, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI), Vahn Lackey (2-for-5, 4 R, RBI, 2 BB), Carson Tinney (2-for-4, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB), Colby Turner (2-for-3, 2B, 4 R, 4 RBI, 2 BB), Aidan Teel (3-for-5, 2B, 2 R, RBI), Luis Fragoza (3-for-6, HR, R, 5 RBI), Charlie Scholvin (3-for-4, R)

The Mighty Mussels crushed their opponents on Sunday.

Do you think Fort Myers is enjoying the injection of college talent? The 2026 draftees combined for 12 hits, 14 runs, and nine RBIs on Sunday as they spearheaded the third Fort Myers 20-run game since 1992. 

Though attention will obviously go to what occurred in the batter’s box, the mound provided some history as well: starter Merit Jones collected his 102nd strikeout of the season, the most in a year for Fort Myers since the ditched the “Miracle” moniker after 2020. He’s also second in innings pitched with 93 ⅔. After the game, the righty said “[the records are] truly a blessing,” and that he’s grateful to “have gotten so many opportunities here.” He also leads the FSL in innings pitched this year.

Alright, on to the offensive explosion. What a melee. Fort Myers piled up 10 runs in the second alone, with a Carson Tinney vapor shot and a Luis Fragoza grand slam serving as the biggest knocks of the frame.

That Tinney blast—a 114.9 MPH projectile that stayed in the air for maybe four seconds—was hit harder than any Twins batted ball this year. 

On top of the 18 hits, Fort Myers also took nine walks and endured five hit by pitches. The only inning where a Mighty Mussels batter didn’t reach base was the ninth—and that was only because they didn’t play a bottom of the ninth. 

Five runs scored in the eighth thanks to an assembly line of walks, hit by pitches, and two singles. Three in the seventh concluded matters with Colby Turner and Aidan Teel, brother of Kyle, earning RBIs on doubles.

Matthew Dalquist and Michael Hilker combined for five shutout innings out of the bullpen, striking out nine.

Cardinals DH Yairo Padilla is the 13th-ranked player in the system. He went 0-4 as the DH.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Matthew Dalquist
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Carson Tinney

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

#1 – Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 3-5, K
#2 – Vahn Lackey (Fort Myers) - 2-5, 4 R, RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
#3 – Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-4, 2B, 2 R, BB, 2 K
#5 – Marek Houston (Wichita) - 0-3, BB, 2 K
#7 – Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 2-4, BB
#8 – Kendry Rojas (Twins) - 1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
#10 – Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI, K
#11 – Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-3, BB
#13 – Carson Tinney (Fort Myers) - 2-4, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB
#15 – Brandon Winokur (Wichita) - 0-3, BB, K

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
DSL Phillies @ DSL Twins (10:00 AM) - TBD

View full article

[Cory Engelhardt]

These are awesome, and I gotta say, seeing Vahn Lackey's name in these writeups is pretty great after reading about him for the last 3 months leading up to the draft. Fun times. Thanks!