Twins Minor League Report (5/2): Sire Jeferson Morales Powers Saints

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 13-20
St. Paul Saints: 14-14
Wichita Wind Surge: 15-10
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 15-9
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 14-11

TRANSACTIONS
St. Paul placed 3B Armando Alvarez on the 7-day IL with a left ankle sprain and activated SS/CF Will Holland from the IL.

Cedar Rapids placed 3B/1B Billy Amick on the 7-day IL with a left oblique strain. The Kernels also transferred LHP Ross Dunn from the 7-day IL to the 60-day IL. He is dealing with a left forearm strain.

Fort Myers transferred C Rafael Escalante from the 7-day IL to the 60-day IL. RHP Liam Rocha was transferred from Fort Myers to the FCL Twins.

The FCL Twins open play tomorrow, and it appears their roster page on MiLB.com has been updated to accurately reflect this year’s squad. Among the top names on that team are 2024 Twins Daily Short-Season Hitter of the Year Eduardo Beltre and last year’s Short-Season Pitcher of the Year Melvin Rodriguez.

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 6, Columbus 4 (6 innings)
Box Score
The Saints are having the most difficult time simply playing baseball games. They were scheduled to play a doubleheader today and, much like yesterday and Tuesday, could only get in one game — and it was called early!

Royce Lewis played third base and went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. On the plus side, he did have two more hard-hit balls with exit velocities of 98.4 mph and 96.4 mph. While we're discussing players coming back from injury, Emmanuel Rodriguez was in the starting lineup for the Saints for the first time since April 23. He went 1-for-2 with a walk as the DH.

Jeferson Morales continued his magical spring by delivering the first multi-homer game of his career. He’s hitting .291/.378/.488 (.866 OPS) in 27 games so far this season and .317/.399/.525 (.924 OPS) over his first 44 games at the Triple-A level. Are we witnessing a late-bloom or just a hot streak that carried over from one year to the next? Only time will tell, but never doubt a Sire of Fort Myers.

Mike Ford also homered for the Saints, his sixth of the season. The Saints had five hitters with an .800 OPS or higher in their lineup tonight. In addition to Morales (.866 OPS) and Ford (.824), Carson McCusker (1.023), Anthony Prato (.987) and Ryan Fitzgerald (.938) are above that mark. Gee, it’s too bad there’s no room for one of those guys on the big club. Alright, okay, minor league production doesn’t often translate to the big leagues, but the Twins have some bats they could turn to if they’re ever motivated to shake things up.

On the pitching side, Marco Raya got the start but struggled despite being provided with some early run support. He walked five of the 16 batters he faced and threw less than 50 percent of his pitches for strikes (30 of 62). After giving up four earned runs in three innings, Raya has a 9.00 ERA through five starts and has yet to record an out in the fourth frame.

On the other hand, Travis Adams continued to pitch great for the Saints. He delivered a pair of scoreless frames and has a 2.82 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 22 1/3 innings for the Saints. Adams has 20 strikeouts and just three walks on the year.

The Saints are going to take another crack at playing two tomorrow, but there’s a 99 percent chance of rain in Columbus, so … 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Frisco 3, Wichita 2
Box Score
Connor Prielipp was working out of trouble with the help of his defense through the first 2 2/3 innings tonight but gave up a two-run homer that ended his night there.

Prielipp’s first throw of the evening hit a batter but he eventually induced a 4-6-3 double play. In the second inning, any damage was avoided in part because right fielder Kala’i Rosario made a nice on-target throw to retire a runner trying to stretch a single into a double. The first two Frisco batters reached base in the third, but third baseman Tanner Scobel started an around-the-horn triple play attempt. The two lead runners were retired but the batter beat the throw from second. 

That’s where Frisco No. 3 hitter, lefty Abimelec Ortiz, took Prielipp deep into the lazy river beyond the right field fence (yes, this really is a thing at Riders Field in Frisco, Texas). Prielipp failed to record a strikeout for the first time in his minor league career. Burnsville product Aaron Rozek delivered 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball out of the bullpen.

The Wichita lineup had a tough time delivering on opportunities, as they went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Ricardo Olivar was 3-for-5 as the DH tonight and is hitting .354 with a .913 OPS on the season. Ben Ross also had three hits including a double, the only Wind Surge extra-base hit on the night. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
South Bend 8, Cedar Rapids 4
Box Score
Tanner Hall did something tonight I’ve never seen a Twins minor leaguer do. Hall threw 38 pitches in the first inning and went back out for the second frame. That’s obviously not an impressive accomplishment in terms of providing quality, but it’s the quantity that’s eye-opening.

Previously, anytime a Twins minor leaguer reached 30 pitches in any given inning it was a guarantee his night was done. I was so shocked that Hall came back out for the second inning that I checked in with Seth to see if he ever recalled seeing this. He couldn’t think of a single time in the last 10-15 years where a pitcher had that high of a pitch count in an inning and remained in the game.

So while that’s an interesting take away from tonight’s game, it’s not exactly a good reflection upon Hall. I suppose it’s a sign the org believes his arm can handle the stress, but he was alarmingly inefficient tonight, needing 63 pitches to record five outs.

Kaelen Culpepper served as the DH tonight, so it was interesting to see who would serve as shortstop on a team with plenty of other candidates. It was Brandon Winokur at shortstop with Kyle DeBarge playing second base and Danny De Andrade at third. Speaking of DeBarge, he hit a home run tonight. After hitting one home run in 26 games after being drafted last year, DeBarge already has four homers in 23 games so far this season.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 9, Tampa 2
Box Score
The Mussels lineup was consistently producing this afternoon, tallying runs in six separate innings. It was a consistent attack, as eight different hitters scored a run and eight also drove in a run. All this was accomplished while providing just three run-scoring hits. One run scored on a ground out, they hit a pair of sacrifice flies, another two runs scored on errors and there was a run-scoring balk.

Catcher Daniel Pena led the way with three hits while Jose Salas, Jay Thomason, Maddux Houghton and Yohander Martinez all tallied a pair of hits. Salas has hit .444 with a 1.254 OPS and three stolen bases in seven games on his rehab assignment with the Mussels. He’s played shortstop, center field and right field.

Jakob Hall, 2024 eighth-round pick, delivered 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball for Fort Myers, striking out three while not issuing a walk. Ivran Romero picked up the win after surrendering a run over his 2 1/3 innings before Tyler Stasiowski struck out the side in the eighth and ninth innings.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY 
Pitcher of the Day: Jakob Hall, Fort Myers (4 2/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K)
Hitter of the Day: Jeferson Morales, St. Paul (2-for-3, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, K)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 

2. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 1-for-2, BB
6. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 5 BB, 2 K
7. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, SB (1), R, K
8. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-4, BB, 2 K
10. Connor Prielipp (Wichita): 2 2/3 IP 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 0 K
13. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-3, HR (4), 2 BB, 1 R, 2 RBI, 
15. Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers): 0-for-4, BB, RBI, K
18. Kala’i Rosario (Wichita): 2-for-4, R
19. Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-5, R, 2 K
20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 3-for-5, K

TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul at Columbus, 1:05 pm CT: Darren McCaughan
St. Paul at Columbus, Game 2: Zebby Matthews
Wichita at Frisco, 7:05 pm CT: Ricky Castro
Cedar Rapids vs. South Bend, 6:35 pm CT: Jose Olivares
Fort Myers at Tampa, 11 am CT: Dasan Hill
FCL Twins at FCL Red Sox, 9 am CT: TBD

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!