Twins Minor League (9/11): Aaron Sabato Sets Several Single-Season Saints Records

[Seth Stohs]

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson (photo of Aaron Sabato)

TRANSACTIONS

No transactions on Friday for the Twins.

SAINTS SENTINEL

St. Paul 4, Syracuse 10
Box Score
This game was over almost before it started. The Saints gave up nine runs over the first two innings. The Saints scored in four different innings, but it was way too little. 

Lefty Aaron Rozek started. He’s been tremendous for the Saints this year. Not so much on this night. He gave up 10 runs (9 earned runs) on 11 hits (3 homers) and four walks in four innings. 

Matt Bowman struck out four batters over two scoreless, one-hit innings. Eric Orze then struck out two batters over two scoreless, one-hit innings. Marco Raya struck out two in a perfect ninth inning.   

It was not a good night for the Saints in general, but Aaron Sabato had a couple of nice moments. He went 3-for-4 with a double, a homer and an RBI. The double was his 29th which sets the franchise record, one more than Jermaine Palacios had in 2022. The home run was his 24th of the season, tying him with Matt Wallner this year for the single-season Saints record. Not that the Twins season will not lead to a playoff berth, it would be great to see Jeremy Zoll and Company call Sabato.   

Cody Morissette went 2-for-3 with a walk and his 17th double. Emmanuel Rodriguez was 2-for-4 with a walk. Rodriguez also had an outfield assist in the game. 

When #OldFriend Billy Amick was traded to the Mets, he was hitting .217/.338/.482 (.820) with 14 doubles, 23 homers, and 72 RBI. After the trade, he went to Double-A Binghamton. In 12 games, he hit .304/.396/.783 (1.179) with one double, seven homers and 22 RBI. He was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse. In 17 games, he has hit .222/.275/.556 (.831) with three doubles, six home runs and 11 RBI. So, combining all of that, he has hit .227/.335/.526 (.861) with 18 doubles, 36 homers and 105 RBI. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM

Wichita 2, Frisco 14
Box Score
Frisco used a six-run third inning to take a huge early lead, and they scored in seven of their nine innings on offense. 

Riley Quick made his final Double-A start of the season, and it went about as well as most of his starts at the level. In four innings, he gave up eight runs (6 earned) on nine hits and two walks. He struck out two batters. Unless he makes a Triple-A start next week, his season comes to an end with 23 starts and 81 2/3 innings pitched. After pitching just three innings in 2024 due to Tommy John surgery, Quick pitched in 14 games and 62 innings at Alabama in 2025 before the Twins made him their Competitive Balance pick. One thing he did well was miss bats. He had 110 strikeouts in 81 2/3 innings. Unfortunately, he walked 48 batters too. So while he did not pitch well after three games in Fort Myers (4.14 ERA, 1.31 WHIP in Cedar Rapids, 6.68 ERA, 1.73 WHIP in Wichita), the most important thing was keeping him healthy all season. Now he can go through a full, “normal” offseason and some back next spring ready to throw strikes with multiple pitches, miss even more bats and compete for a big-league job sometime during the season. 

Jaylen Nowlin came in and gave up an unearned run on one hit and one walk in the fifth inning. He struck out three batters. Chris Vallimont came on and worked the final four innings. He gave up five runs (4 earned) on five hits, two walks, and a hit batter. He struck out three batters. 

Wichita had just two runs on three hits and five walks. Khadim Diaw tied the game at 1-1 with a home run in the first inning, his fourth with the Surge.   

Marek Houston went 1-for-3 with a walk. He had two errors in the game, giving him 10 errors in Wichita and 19 errors overall this season. 18 of the 19 errors have been at shortstop. He had one error in nine innings at second base in Cedar Rapids. 

Jaime Ferrer hit his 14th double with the Wind Surge. Andrew Cossetti walked twice. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Hitter(s) of the Day 
Aaron Sabato (St. Paul): 3-for-4, 2B(24), HR(29), 2 R, RBI, K.  

Pitcher(s) of the Day
Matt Bowman (St. Paul): 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 25 pitches, 19 strikes (76.0%).

 

PROSPECT SUMMARY

Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects. See how they did today.

#1 - OF Walker Jenkins (Minnesota) - 0-for-3, K, SH (batted first, played CF)
#3 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (Minnesota) - 1-for-3, RBI, K (batted second, played SS) 
#4 - SS Marek Houston (Wichita) - 1-for-3, BB, K, 2 E(10) (batted first, played SS)
#5 - RHP Riley Quick (Wichita) - 4 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, HBP, 79 pitches, 46 strikes (64.8%)
#6 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, BB, RBI, K, CS(3) (batted first, played CF)  
#7 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 0-for-5 (batted second, played LF)
#12 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Wichita) - 0-for-4, K (batted third, played 3B)
#13 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Wichita) - 1-for-4, HR(4), R, RBI, K (batted second, played DH) 

UPCOMING PROBABLES

Saturday, September 12
Syracuse @ St. Paul (5:07 pm CT) - RHP Ryan Gallagher (7-7, 6.35 ERA)
Frisco @ Wichita (6:05 pm CT) - RHP Adrian Bohorquez (0-1, 1.50 ERA)

CURRENT W-L Records

Minnesota Twins: 69-78 (Final Game 9/27)
St. Paul Saints: 78-63 (Final Game (9/20)
Wichita Wind Surge: 54-80 (Final Game 9/13)
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 48-82 (Season Complete)
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 68-60 (Season Complete)
FCL Twins: 33-26 (Season Complete)
DSL Twins: 19-35 (Season Complete)

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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[thelanges5]

Pitching depth? Do we have anyone in the minors - Quick, Gallagher, Bohorquez. Pickins are getting slim. 

[DJL44]

27 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Pitching depth? Do we have anyone in the minors - Quick, Gallagher, Bohorquez. Pickins are getting slim. 

Rojas was great this year.

Quick needs to cut his walks in half if he wants to get promoted from Wichita.

[jmlease1]

Houston with 2 errors? Clearly he'll never make it as a MLB SS, the Twins front office made a major mistake in drafting him, maybe they can dump him in the offseason for someone better. #sarcasm

I'm happy Quick got through the season healthy at AA. He's got some real development work to do in refining his pitches and establishing sufficient command and control...but he's pitched so few innings that the biggest thing he needs is innings and work still. The fact that he got through the season healthy is a good sign that there's no lingering effects from his surgery and he should be able to march forward. Good sign that he can have a normal off-season and put together a pro program. He pitched nearly as a many inning in his first pro season as he did in his entire college career, so while the talent is there, he's going to need some time.

[SE23]

38 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Pitching depth? Do we have anyone in the minors - Quick, Gallagher, Bohorquez. Pickins are getting slim. 

We've got our core group returning in the spring, which is pretty solid. But we'll need to add depth through trades and free agency. Especially minor league depth. 

[DJL44]

I think they should cut Tristan Gray from the roster and give Houston a week in AAA. They could do the same with Banuelos and Diaw.

[PuckettPond]

If the Twins do not improve the quality of their minor league pitching by trades or the draft target field will be a miserable place to watch baseball. How did we get to the lack of quality pitching prospects?

[FlyingFinn]

1 hour ago, thelanges5 said:

Pitching depth? Do we have anyone in the minors - Quick, Gallagher, Bohorquez. Pickins are getting slim.

Charlee Soto is very young and talented. Get him healthy next year and he would be added to the group.

[SE23]

Ethan Wachsmann, Brett Renfrow, James Ellwanger, Tommy LaPour, Steele Murdock, Santiago Castellanos

A few more names to watch closely in '27.

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Rojas was great this year.

Quick needs to cut his walks in half if he wants to get promoted from Wichita.

IF he blows out his arm about 17x he can become a guaranteed Cy Young legend like Matt Canterino. Speaking of, the Twins were content with that one game, I guess, LOL.

[D.C Twins]

So impressed by Sabato's perseverance. 

I and many had written him off years ago.

He kept plugging away and working on his craft. 

He is probably not an MLB player, but at one point we didn't think he would be a quality AA much less than a quality AAA player.... so who knows?!

I'm rooting big for him going forward (with my tail between my legs)

[LyleCole]

I have a 2nd home just north of Chattanooga so I went to the Chattanooga Lookout game (Cincinnati Reds AA Affiliate).   The Lookouts have a brand new stadium that opened this year so I wanted to take a look at it, and fortunately I was able to before the season ended.  I am glad I did.   It was a beautiful stadium that was built in a former industrial area so they kept a lot of that rustic look in and around the stadium.   They drew a nice crowd on Fan Appreciation night and put up some runs for the home crowd.

Really don't follow the Reds a lot.  The AA team did not have a lot of their higher minor league prospects.  The best hitter in the lineup was Carter Graham, a 2023 8th round draft pick out of Standford.   He had not had much success in his minor league career before 2026 with all of his minor league season posting sub-.700 OPS.  But this year he has split between A+ and AA and posted 31 2B and 29 HRS, along with 80 BB for a OPS of .990.   He absolutely crushed a home run early in the game and then hit a laser right at the LF.   I thought their catcher Alfredo Duno was a decent hitter, a big Venezuelan kid who has hit all through the minors.  Their DH  Ruben Ibarra has played 2 seasons for Nooga, hitting 20+ home runs each year and was very popular with the crowd.  He is listed at 6-3, 290 and he tomahawked a high fastball deeeeeep into LF.  

The Lookouts have a the Reds 2022 first round pick(18th overall) Cam Collier at 3B.  But he has struggled all season and really did not look good at the plate.  The other is Austin Hendrick, their first round pick, 12th overall, in 2020 out of high school.   He has really struggled to get past AA ball.   He started teh season at AAA but only had a .566 OPS there and was then sent back to AA for his 3rd sting at the level.

The pitching wasn't anything to write home about for either team.  Both starters had ERAs above 6.50 entering the game. Both relief pitchers who finsihed the game had ERAs above 6.50.   

But Chattanooga's first reliever was a former Twins 2021 draft pick, Jonathan Lavallee.  The Twins released him near the end of the 2023 season.  He signed with the Blue Jays organization and was with them for a couple of years.  Then signed with the Reds in 2026.  He pitched well in AA, but was promoted to AAA in June and he did not perform well at that level so he was sent back down to the Lookouts.

If you get a chance to go to a game in Chattanooga I highly recommend it.  

[bjorks]

1 hour ago, D.C Twins said:

So impressed by Sabato's perseverance. 

I and many had written him off years ago.

He kept plugging away and working on his craft. 

He is probably not an MLB player, but at one point we didn't think he would be a quality AA much less than a quality AAA player.... so who knows?!

I'm rooting big for him going forward (with my tail between my legs)

At this point if they're willing to waste 2 weeks on Ben Ross as a reward for a great MINOR LEAGUE season, they may as well give Sabato some/most/all of some combination of Bell/Lewis.