Twins Minor League Report (4/27): Saints March Home Early

TRANSACTIONS

• LHP Kody Funderburk promoted to St. Paul
• RHP Josh Winder activated off IL by Minnesota
• LHP Brent Headrick optioned to St. Paul
• RHP Andrew Cabezas reinstated from development list for Wichita

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 5, Rochester 1
Box Score

Playing an early morning contest against the former Twins affiliate today, Louie Varland was on the mound for St. Paul. Having worked recently with Minnesota, it was evident that Varland sought to overpower the competition. Working 5 1/3 innings, Varland allowed one run on four hits. He walked two, but struck out eight and continues to pile them up at Triple-A.

Before Varland ever took the mound, Mark Contreras stepped in for the Saints and blasted a three-run homer. Edouard Julien and Michael Helman drew walks to get on ahead of him, and Contreras continued his hot hitting with the fourth dinger of his season.

Alex Kirilloff continued his rehab assignment in this one for St. Paul, and he went 1-for-4 while being hit by a pitch. Kirilloff did play first base today, and attempted to steal a base. He continues to look good and is trending toward a return for the Twins.

Although St. Paul didn’t rack up hits today, the pitching continued to be impressive when Cole Sands took over for Varland. Working 2 2/3 innings, he allowed a single base runner on a walk and punched out four. Sands worked efficiently as well throwing 32 pitches, of which 20 were strikes.

This game remained close up until the 9th inning went a bit awry for Red Wings reliever Gerson Moreno. Matt Wallner was hit by a pitch before both Mark Contreras and Andrew Bechtold drew walks. Tony Wolters singled to drive in Wallner, and then Edouard Julien took a bases loaded walk to bring Contreras across the plate.

Contreras just keeps on hitting, and his 2-for-3 day represented half of St. Paul’s hits. He’s pushed his OPS up to .942 to begin the year.

Tomorrow’s game will be the first time St. Paul sees the challenge system being implemented for 2023. With all other contests now using the ABS system to call balls and strikes, it will be interesting to see how batters and pitchers adjust.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 12, Springfield 11
Box Score

The Wind Surge turned to Aaron Rozek tonight and while he did rack up five strikeouts, he also allowed five runs on seven hits. With three walks added in, there was significant traffic on the basepaths all night.

Springfield took the lead with a pair of first inning runs. Wichita immediately answered though, and four runs came across in the home half of the inning. Jake Rucker started things off with a two-run double, scoring Brooks Lee and Yoyner Fajardo. Then DaShawn Keirsey Jr. plated Rucker on a single of his own, and Pat Winkel lifted a single to score Keirsey Jr. before the inning came to a close.

As he did earlier in the game, Keirsey Jr. came through big time. Fajardo and Yunior Severino stood at 2nd and 3rd base just long enough for the Wichita outfielder to hit his third homer of the season. Tying things up at seven, it was a whole new ballgame in the 5th inning.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 4, West Michigan 1
Box Score

Alejandro Hidalgo made another start tonight for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, and he has done a good job of limiting damage since being acquired in the Gio Urshela trade. Tonight he went three innings allowing a single run on three hits. He did walk three batters and struck out one.

Runs were at a premium this evening, especially for the Kernels who mustered just one hit through six innings. After getting behind on a West Michigan single in the 3rd inning, Misael Urbina launched his first homer of the year to put Cedar Rapids on the board. His 5th inning solo shot knotted things at 1.

In the 7th inning, with things still tied at 1, 2022 Twins draft pick Tanner Schobel stepped in and launched his third home run of the season. With Noah Cardenas and Kala'i Rosario on, the three-run blast gave Cedar Rapids some much needed breathing room.

The Cedar Rapids bullpen was great all night as Mike Paredes, John Stankiewicz, and Miguel Rodriguez combined to go six innings allowing a hit a piece, and each registering at least one strikeout.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 5, Daytona 1
Box Score

Dealing with a brief delay, Jose Olivares only went one inning for the Mighty Mussels before Ben Ethridge was inserted in relief. Olivares did allow a run on a single hit, but Ethridge locked things down going three scoreless innings allowing just a single walk and fanning four.

After a rain delayed start, Olivares allowed a single in the bottom of the first. Carlos Jorge then stole second base, moved to third on a fly out, and scored on an infield ground ball. Things stood pat for both teams from that point until Ricardo Olivar stepped in during the top of the 7th inning. With the bases loaded, he lifted a grand slam scoring Dylan Neuse, Luis Baez, and Danny De Andrade. Fort Myers had their first lead of the evening, and it came with some breathing room.

Following Ethridge's lead, Zach Veen was amazing in relief. He worked three innings of his own, allowing just a hit and a walk, while picking up five strikeouts. The bullpen keeping the Mighty Mussels in this one to give them a chance was huge. Not ready to be done adding on offense late, Mikey Perez singled in Carlos Aguiar in the 8th inning to make it a 5-1 game.

Samuel Perez entered in the 8th inning for Fort Myers and he worked two scoreless innings to close this one out. Aguiar was joined by Rubel Cespedes as the only Mighty Mussels to record multiple hits on the day.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Louie Varland (St. Paul) - 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
Hitter of the Day – Mark Contreras (St. Paul) - 2-3, 2 R, 3 RBI, HR(4), BB

PROSPECT SUMMARY
We will again keep tabs on the Twins top prospects. You’ll probably read about them in the team sections, but if they aren’t there, you’ll see how they did here. 

Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed:

#1 - Brooks Lee (Wichita) - 1-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B, BB
#2 - Royce Lewis (IL) - Knee
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Cedar Rapids) - IL Abdomen
#4 - Marco Raya (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#5 - Edouard Julien (St. Paul) - 0-3, R, RBI, 2 BB, K
#6 - Simeon Woods Richardson (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#7 - Connor Prielipp (Cedar Rapids) - IL Elbow
#8 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-3
#9 - Louie Varland (St. Paul) - 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
#10 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - IL Elbow
#11 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 0-3, R, HBP, 2 K
#12 - Yasser Mercedes - Extended Spring Training: starting this week, the Twins extended spring team will get started. Each week, they will play four games against the Red Sox team, get two days of practice, and Sundays off. 
#13 - David Festa (Wichita) - Did Not Pitch
#14 - Noah Miller (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, K
#15 - Matt Canterino (IL) - Tommy John
#16 - Jordan Balazovic (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#17 - Ronny Henriquez (St. Paul) - IL Elbow
#18 - Tanner Schobel (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, R, 3 RBI, HR(3)
#19 - Jose Rodriguez (EST) - Same as Mercedes. 
#20 - Misael Urbina (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, R, RBI, (HR), 2 K

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Rochester (5:05PM CST) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson
Springfield @ Wichita (7:05PM CST) - TBD
West Michigan @ Cedar Rapids (6:35PM CST) - RHP Marco Raya
Fort Myers @ Daytona (5:35PM CST) - RHP Zebby Matthews

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Thursday’s games!