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    Twins Daily Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month - July 2024

    Ted Schwerzler

    By Ted Schwerzler

    The Minnesota Twins saw a handful of their minor league talent go through promotions due to strong performances in July. With multiple arms vying for the top spot, who took home Starting Pitcher of the Month honors for July?

     

    Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge

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    Starting pitching has been something that the Minnesota Twins have keyed in on all season. When Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda sought new homes and went unreplaced, internal talent became that much more imperative. Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa have both eaten innings after starting on the farm. There’s a possibility they may not be the only ones.

    For the month of July, there were quite a few players that took their turns in the rotation and dominated. Let’s get into them:

    #7 Randy Dobnak (St. Paul) - 5 G, 2.39 ERA, 26.1 IP, 1.41 WHIP, .272 BAA, 22/9 K/BB
    The culmination of years of hard work came together when Dobnak earned himself a promotion back to the big leagues. Dobnak took the ball in relief against the New York Mets, and he ended a stretch of more than 1,000 days in between appearances for the Twins. He has been among the best and most consistent starters for the Saints over the past handful of months.

    #6 Adam Plutko (St. Paul) - 4 G, 2.82 ERA, 22.1 IP, 0.85 WHIP, .190 BAA, 20/4 K/BB
    Plutko pitched in Korea the past two seasons and was dominant. The former Cleveland Guardians staple is looking to work back to the big leagues, and he has been putting his best foot forward in St. Paul. Plutko posted nearly a strikeout per inning in July, and he showed excellent command as well.

    #5 Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) - 3 G, 2.77 ERA, 13.0 IP, 0.92 WHIP, .191 BAA, 16/3 K/BB
    The fastball was what drew the Twins in on Soto, but pitching is always a developmental process for prep arms. July saw Soto put things together at a level he has yet to reach. The dominance from a strikeout-to-walk perspective was there, and Soto showed an ability to work around opposing hitters. This could certainly be a launching point for his career.

    #4 Louie Varland (St. Paul) - 4 G, 19.1 IP, 2.33 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, .174 BAA, 20/11 K/BB
    Varland started the year in Rocco Baldelli’s rotation. He struggled out of the gate and found himself pitching in St. Paul. After a slow start at Triple-A, Varland has turned things around and was even recalled for a spot start. He could be another depth option down the stretch, or a shift back to the bullpen for the postseason would work as well.

    #3 Christian MacLeod (Cedar Rapids) - 3 G, 2.12 ERA, 17.0 IP, 1.00 WHIP, .197 BAA, 22/4 K/BB
    One of the few lefty starters across the Twins system, MacLeod had an impressive month for the Kernels. He has allowed a few too many walks on the season, but was great in that department last month. The 2021 fifth-round pick earned a recent promotion to Double-A Wichita, and his 3.05 ERA on the season comes with a 10.7 K/9.

    #2 Spencer Bengard (Fort Myers) - 4 G, 1.93 ERA, 18.2 IP, 1.13 WHIP, .239 BAA, 11/4 K/BB
    It has been a great year for Bengard. With a 1.64 ERA across 60 1/3 innings, he has been stellar each time he has taken the ball. The Fort Myers starter dialed back the strikeouts a bit in July, but he was every bit as stingy when showing command and staying in the zone. As a 15th round pick last year, he is showing a significant amount of earl-career promise. After month's end, he was promoted to Cedar Rapids. 

    Pitcher of the Month - Andrew Morris (Wichita) - 4 G, 1.04 ERA, 17.1 IP, 1.21 WHIP, .243 BAA, 20/4 K/BB
    One of the most intriguing arms in Minnesota’s system, Morris is beyond worthy of attention. He continues to rise the ranks among his peers, and the 2022 fourth round pick has done it at two levels this season. Earning a promotion from Cedar Rapids after posting a 2.15 ERA, he has been a shade better with a 2.14 ERA at Wichita across 54 2/3 innings.

    Morris is just 22 years old and has continued to show an ability to rack up strikeouts while limiting walks. He doesn’t get beat by the long ball, and he has been a pillar of health as his professional workload continues to creep up. It’s possible that Morris reaches Triple-A by the end of the season, but either way, he will be an arm for the Twins to consider in 2025.

    Interested in learning more about the Minnesota Twins' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!

    View Twins Top Prospects
    A blogger for over a decade, passion for baseball and the Minnesota Twins runs deep. Whether at the ballpark or on the couch, I'm probably tweeting.
    Follow Ted Schwerzler on Twitter: tlschwerz

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    Dman

    Dman 13,644

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    I've been watching MaCleod all season long and after a tough start he is really looking good.  My only concern as with all of our lefties is that he tends to give up HR's at too high a rate.  If he can limit those he certainly has a chance to make it.

    I have been surprised by Morris's dominance all year and most outlets are not giving him the accolades that Matthews is getting.  Morris still sits in the teens in most top 30's with Culpepper ahead of him.  I know his xFIP is a solid run to run and a half higher than his ERA and he's not s huge ground ball guy but still pretty solid.  As mentioned in the article he doesn't give up many HR's.  His hits are under his innings pitched with a 1.10 WHIP.  It just seems like he is underrated for reasons I don't understand.  Happy to see him number 1 on this list.

    Been wanting Bengard moved up for a long time, but I guess there just weren't enough healthy arms at A ball to make it work earlier.  Will be interesting to see how well he does moving up a level and if he does well could be a fast mover next year.

    If the K rate and ground ball rates were higher Plutko he would be on an MLB team IMO.  Still he has been pitching really well.  Will have to see if he can keep it up.  He should try and miss a few more bats and I bet teams will be more interested in him next year.

    Fatbat

    Fatbat 3,179

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    This is quite the development train rolling thru out the organization!  If Soto keeps up his development, we will see him in Wichita next year (at 19 yo!!)  He is such a great guy as well.  
    It’s fun to dream about how good these young kids will be.  

    bean5302

    bean5302 9,279

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Honestly, Soto gets it here for me. All three games were good starts, all 3 had great FIPs, great K rates, reasonable to great BB rates. No clunkers. That's important to me.

    Morris definitely deserves some praise, but the 5 hit, 5 (unearned) run 1.0 inning start on 7/14 wasn't pretty. That said, he only had an FIP of 3.46 there. Just brutal with a .500 BABIP. Still, 3 outs from 10 batters? Sorry. That doesn't work even if you mix 2 errors in there. Went Ground out, Ground out/Error, Liner base hit. Ground ball base hit. Line drive base hit. Ground ball out/Error. Ground ball base hit. Line drive base hit. Fly out. 

    Connor Prielipp gets on this list for me as well despite the super short rehab starts. Varland does not. He ran an FIP over 5.00 in July. Sorry, but luck doesn't get you rewards IMHO.

    None of these pitchers had a great month, to be honest. Morris and Bengard had clunkers of games, MacCloud ran some pretty pedestrian FIPs, Varland had a clunker and a bad FIP for the month.

    Clunkers (RA > 6.00)
    Soto - 0 clunkers, FIP 2.28 for the month
    Morris - 1 clunker (1.0 IP, 5 runs allowed), FIP 1.84 for the month
    Plutko - 0 clunkers, FIP 2.85 for the month
    MacCloud - 0 clunkers, FIP 4.93 for the month
    Dobnak - 0 clunkers, FIP 4.09 for the month
    Bengard - 1 clunker (2.2 IP, 2 ER), FIP 4.45 for the month
    Varland - 1 clunker (2.2 IP, 2 ER), FIP 5.33 for the month

    roger

    roger 5,069

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Great seeing Soto on this list.  Long way to go, but encouraging.

    Was surprised seeing Varland as every once in a while he has a real clunker.  Guess I remember those more than the good ones.  Gotta admit his overall results were worthy.

    mark sills

    mark sills 189

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    52 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

    Honestly, Soto gets it here for me. All three games were good starts, all 3 had great FIPs, great K rates, reasonable to great BB rates. No clunkers. That's important to me.

    Morris definitely deserves some praise, but the 5 hit, 5 (unearned) run 1.0 inning start on 7/14 wasn't pretty. That said, he only had an FIP of 3.46 there. Just brutal with a .500 BABIP. Still, 3 outs from 10 batters? Sorry. That doesn't work even if you mix 2 errors in there. Went Ground out, Ground out/Error, Liner base hit. Ground ball base hit. Line drive base hit. Ground ball out/Error. Ground ball base hit. Line drive base hit. Fly out. 

    Connor Prielipp gets on this list for me as well despite the super short rehab starts. Varland does not. He ran an FIP over 5.00 in July. Sorry, but luck doesn't get you rewards IMHO.

    None of these pitchers had a great month, to be honest. Morris and Bengard had clunkers of games, MacCloud ran some pretty pedestrian FIPs, Varland had a clunker and a bad FIP for the month.

    Clunkers (RA > 6.00)
    Soto - 0 clunkers, FIP 2.28 for the month
    Morris - 1 clunker (1.0 IP, 5 runs allowed), FIP 1.84 for the month
    Plutko - 0 clunkers, FIP 2.85 for the month
    MacCloud - 0 clunkers, FIP 4.93 for the month
    Dobnak - 0 clunkers, FIP 4.09 for the month
    Bengard - 1 clunker (2.2 IP, 2 ER), FIP 4.45 for the month
    Varland - 1 clunker (2.2 IP, 2 ER), FIP 5.33 for the month

    They had three errors in the inning should of been out of the first easily, can't blame the pitcher hard to get six outs in a inning

    jimbo92107

    jimbo92107 8,175

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    I see some serious talent, but...Whoa, look at Andrew Morris! That young man is built like an Olympian, did you notice? And did you see his self-confident strut after that last heater for a K to end the game? 

    Dooods, Andrew Morris has the look of a future stud horse starting pitcher. He looks like he could handle major leaguer hitters right now. I wonder if Twins could stick him in the bullpen for the playoffs...

    DocBauer

    DocBauer 22,263

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

    Agreed Morris has been taking second seat to Matthews, and over a year younger, he really shouldn't be. When you look at the numbers, he's only about a half step behind Zebby at this point. Having a great year!

    I don't know if Varland is going to stick in the rotation or move to the pen permanently at some point. but I knew the guy we were seeing to begin the season wasn't the real version.

    I can't wait to see what Soto does once he actually gains more experience and really figures out what's going on!

    Wouldn't it be great if Dobnak keeps this up? Already been a good story once, a second chapter would bed awesome.

    Been very encouraged by MacLeod this season. His career got off to that late start due to TJ and missing a whole season, but he's been on a bit of a roll the past month or so. Not sure I'm ready to move him or Nowlin up the prospect lists, but they are a pair of interesting LH arms that should see AAA in 2025.

    Jocko87

    Jocko87 5,696

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    5 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

    I see some serious talent, but...Whoa, look at Andrew Morris! That young man is built like an Olympian, did you notice? And did you see his self-confident strut after that last heater for a K to end the game? 

    Dooods, Andrew Morris has the look of a future stud horse starting pitcher. He looks like he could handle major leaguer hitters right now. I wonder if Twins could stick him in the bullpen for the playoffs...

    Went out to watch Morris last Thursday (thirsty Thursday, at that) and came away pretty impressed.  It was certainly not his best outing by results, 5.1 ip 6 ER 4 walks and 4 K's, but there were still plenty of good things to see.  It didn't look like his best stuff and things got away from him in the 5th where 5 of the runs scored. 

    On a hot muggy night in the upper 90s at game time, he carried 96 into the 6th at almost 100 pitches.  Delivery is smooth and easy, he did not look like he labored until the end of the 5th.  With two outs in the 5th he froze a guy with a fastball and didn't get the call.  It looked like a pretty good call but I didn't get the video in time.  He had a pretty significant reaction and from then on he was off his game.  He got the next guy to get out of the 5th.

    The 6th quickly went, placement double, K, bloop single, loud double, infield single, walk and done at 99 pitches. 

    Watching from behind the plate he looked shook by the missed (his opinion) strike three and then couldn't work around a couple weak hits and one loud double.  By my count he gave up about 3 hard hit balls.

    All in all, pretty impressed with some obvious things to work on.  The issues I saw are relatively easy to fix, carrying the velo without additional effort in this heat is not.  He certainly wasn't efficient with the 99 pitches but it was not his best effort.  I like to see how the bad days go.  This was a good bad day.

    twinstalker

    twinstalker 761

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Top prospects:

    Just for reference (and by memory from a couple of weeks ago), I had Lee #2, Keaschall 4, EmRod 5, Mercedes 11, Eeles 16, Olivar 17, Beltre 21, Raya 25, Severino 30 prior to the draft picks being mixed in (the best of which would fit around 15).  So, I had my starting pitchers Zebby 3, Morris 6 (and he's my personal favorite), Lewis 8, Festa 10, Bengard 13, CJ Culpepper 14 (due to injury), Soto 15, Lares 24, Raya 25.

    I don't have McCleod on there, though I likely would have put him in the 26-29 range (I went through 25 then made a point to put Severino at 30, knowing there were guys not listed still better than him).  Raya is a reliever (or a bad starter).  Bengard actually had me excited when I did the list, but I don't like the July Ks above if that's right.  I won't worry a ton about it yet, given what the Twins are doing in their development system.

    FYI, for hitters I put a ton of weight on age vs level, K rate, as well as production.  EmRod, frankly, is likely to struggle like Julien, though there might be more positives for me.  For pitchers I'm not quite as detailed, more of "I know it when I see it" than it should be.  But velocity, K rate, K:BB play into it, along with different-criterioned age vs level.  What makes it tough is that the Twins are developing these guys quickly.  BB rate is maybe more important than you'd think, given the Twins are increasing velocity and K rate.

    Finally, last year I was absolutely disgusted with the system after the first few players, some of whom were "gifted" to them in various ways (Jenkins/Lee).  I saw so little and pretty much came to the conclusion that our scouts and development suck.  However nearly everybody with any hope whatsoever seems to be having a great year.  I absolutely love the system this year.  I love the pitching development and the signings of undrafteds, and the hitters who could shine have. 

    I have very little doubt the Twins could have done damage at the deadline had they dealt their future.  Given that their handcuffs don't appear to be short-term, I tend to agree with their not giving up anybody teams would have wanted.  Cleveland is still the model, though we all wish it were in the old way, not the new reality.

    I guess I'll list the ones I didn't:  Jenkins 1, De Andrade 7, Gonzalez at 9, Dameury Pena at 12, Doncon at 18 (dropping), Keirsey 19 (dropping fast and ceiling was low), Winokur 20 (dropping), Daiber De Los Santos 22 (rising with Beltre), Schobel 23 (dropping).

    I'll bring my top 30 at end of August perhaps, which should include 3 of top 4 picks plus the 11th rd guy.  Not sure whether Amick makes it, but he'll be in the 25-30 at best.

    Jocko87

    Jocko87 5,696

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    9 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

    I see some serious talent, but...Whoa, look at Andrew Morris! That young man is built like an Olympian, did you notice? And did you see his self-confident strut after that last heater for a K to end the game? 

    Dooods, Andrew Morris has the look of a future stud horse starting pitcher. He looks like he could handle major leaguer hitters right now. I wonder if Twins could stick him in the bullpen for the playoffs...

    Forgot why I quoted this in the first place.  Morris absolutely has a bit of attitude, swag or whatnot.  He was in command, even with his bad stuff.

    bean5302

    bean5302 9,279

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    10 hours ago, mark sills said:

    They had three errors in the inning should of been out of the first easily, can't blame the pitcher hard to get six outs in a inning

    Box score says 2 errors there including a play at 1B, but I didn't watch the game so if there was a 3rd, I missed it.

    Otaknam

    Otaknam 1,245

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    I do wonder about the light workload of these starters. While the organization wants to be careful and manage their innings, it seems like college and older pitchers should be able to consistently pitch five or six innings at minimum. McCloud is the only one who averaged as much as 5.67 innings per start. Many of these guys averaged four+ innings as starters. Hmmm?



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