Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Month: August 2026

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey (photo of Preston Johnson)

Welcome to the August edition of our minor-league pitcher of the month series. Things are a little different this year. As an acknowledgement of patterns in minor-league pitcher usage, we’ve collapsed the “reliever” into the “starter” article. Because teams are in a constant struggle to get players work, they often become “out-getters,” entering whenever the manager deems the situation acceptable, regardless of the typical roles accepted in our shared baseball understanding. This puts short-inning hurlers at a disadvantage for a list like this, but if one was especially efficient in a month, they’ll receive consideration.

This author had to make some pretty serious cuts this month. The top five was straightforward enough, but there were a handful of guys who could have—and in other months, would have—made the honorable mention list. Because this article gets bloated enough already, they had to be nixed. With all that being said, let’s get to the list.

Honorable Mentions:
Matt Bowman, AAA St. Paul - 2.25 ERA, 16 IP, 4.14 FIP, 25.8 K%
Bowman gobbled up an impressive volume of innings in relief, earning more than three outs in seven outings in August with solid efficiency. A poor appearance on the 13th limits him to the honorable mention list.

Nick McAuliffe, A Fort Myers - 2.13 ERA, 12 ⅔ IP, 2.19 FIP, 40.7 K%
McAuliffe put forth an extreme “effectively wild” month of relief for the Mighty Mussels, striking out the world, while walking eight and uncorking five wild pitches. Crazy stuff. The whiffs were enough to net him a placement here. It was the kind of fun you can only have in Class A—and probably wouldn't want to have at any other level, anyway.

Kendry Rojas, AAA St. Paul - 0.75 ERA, 12 IP, 3.35 FIP, 26.7 K%
Rojas was well on his way to placing on the list proper, before an oblique strain cut his August 21 start short and curtailed his season. The improved command was good to see; he walked just three batters in the month.

Eric Hammond, A Fort Myers - 2.41 ERA, 18 ⅔ IP, 3.99 FIP, 23.7 K%
Hammond went undrafted after pitching for USC and Georgia, and has found mild success as a swing man for the Mighty Mussels in 2026. The six walks and three hit-by-pitches tinge a month that wasn’t quite as sparkling as his ERA suggests, but it was still solid.

Julian Merryweather, AAA St. Paul - 1.74 ERA, 10 ⅓ IP, 1.38 FIP, 41.5 K%
This might be the fewest innings thrown by any hurler to be mentioned in one of these articles, but Merryweather’s efficiency was impossible to ignore. A 41.5% strikeout rate! If this were the majors, only Mason Miller would have a higher one. It’s good to be in any sentence that contains the phrase “only Mason Miller”.

5. Trent Baker, AAA St. Paul - 3.00 ERA, 18 IP, 4.29 FIP, 32.5 K%
A former minor-league Rule 5 pick, Baker has established himself as a consistent presence on the CHS Field mound. He’s spent most of the year pitching wherever manager Brian Dinkelman needs him—whether it be at the end, in the middle, or at the beginning of games—but has been essentially a traditional starter since the end of July, albeit in outings that never go beyond 70 pitches or so.

The strategy has worked. Since July 25, the righty has a 2.62 ERA while punching out a third of the batters he's faced. His mid-90s heat paired with his screwball changeup has proved to be an effective combination, keeping hitters off-balance as they only see the hurler once or twice a game. At 27 years old and in his sixth season of professional baseball, Baker has never brewed much prospect hype, but if he continues to pitch the way he did in August, the Texan could force his way onto a major-league roster. He kicks off the countdown in earnest.

4. Michael Ross, A+ Cedar Rapids - 2.33 ERA, 19 ⅓ IP, 3.37 FIP, 23.0 K%
Dreadful though Michael Ross’s season had been entering August, he shook that misery off and pitched his finest ball of the season. The 24-year-old who went 13-0 with Samford in 2024 enjoyed a great year with the Mighty Mussels in 2025, holding a 3.18 ERA across 82 innings. Given that all highlights of him found on Twitter are from that season, you can probably guess how his 2026 with the Kernels has gone.

The righty entered the month with a 7.85 ERA, an impossibly high number. That’ll happen when you have six outings with at least six earned runs. August snapped something into place, though. Ross pitched back-to-back shutout starts to start the month, totaling 8 ⅓ frames between the games. Though he allowed five runs in his next 11 innings, the month began strongly enough to carry his overall performance and land him a spot on our list.

3. Ty Langenberg, AA Wichita - 1.00 ERA, 27 IP, 3.48 FIP, 22.1 K%
The prodigal son? Sort of. Depends on how you feel about Iowa. Anyway, it’s been a tough two seasons for Langenberg since his promising 2024 campaign. The righty saw his numbers turn for the worse in his second go-around with the Kernels in 2025, and his time spent in St. Paul this year was mostly as an observer, watching opposing batters dash around the bases as his ERA crept higher. That earned him a trip back to Wichita, where he has pitched much better.

Three earned runs in 27 innings says it all. The 24-year-old dominated. He allowed just 10 hits the entire month, and no more than three in any one appearance. The peripherals weren’t as convinced by Langenberg’s play, meaning he has to settle for a third-place finish in this month’s honors. 

2. Adrian Bohorquez, A+ Cedar Rapids/AA Wichita - 0.45 ERA, 20 IP, 3.75 FIP, 32.4 K%
What a return to play for the 21-year-old! Bohorquez missed nearly two months of action, spent some time building up, and locked into an overwhelming groove, smothering hitters with such acumen that he earned a promotion to Double-A.

And wouldn’t you know it, the promotion didn’t slow him down one bit. Bohorquez donned a Wind Surge jersey and immediately went to work: he punched out seven over five innings without an earned run (though with four unearned). That’s good stuff. Given how awesome his month was, this author isn’t absolutely convinced he doesn’t deserve the top spot. A well-earned silver medal should weigh and dangle with sparkling achievement, anyways.

1. Preston Johnson, AA Wichita - 1.44 ERA, 25 IP, 3.87 FIP, 35.6 K%
The man of the hour is also a man who may need some introduction. Born in Jackson, Mississippi (hotter than a pepper sprout), Johnson spent two years at Mississippi State, four in the Orioles’ system, and 11 innings with the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters, before joining the Twins organization earlier this year. The results have been fabulous: a 3.94 ERA and 95 strikeouts across 77 ⅔ innings at Double-A. Langenberg is the only Wind Surge hurler with at least 70 innings and a better ERA. 

A tall Southern man with a dastardly curve, Johnson found some extra giddy-up on his heater, which now sits in the mid-90s. Perhaps the real secret to his success is quite simple: he’s the father of twins.

Consistency was the driving force for the righty in August, as he never allowed more than two runs in an appearance and walked away scoreless on four occasions. Johnson’s monumental strikeout rate and impressive volume of innings gave him the edge over Bohorquez, whose month also waded in murky unearned-run waters, the nature of which makes his numbers harder to judge. So, Johnson will be the one to take home Twins Daily’s August Minor League Pitcher of the Month honors. Tell him to save some space on his digital mantel.

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[mikelink45]

Interesting group - glad they had a good month.  But I do not see any of them except Bohorquez making an impact with the Twins.