Twins Minor League Report (5/9): On Minnesota's Fishing Opener, Jayson Bass Plays Hero in Fort Myers

TRANSACTIONS   
The Twins placed RHP Taj Bradley on the Injured List with a sore right pectoralis muscle. Taking his place on the roster is RHP Travis Adams. 

In addition, Dan Hayes reports that LHP Kendry Rojas is with the team, on the taxi squad, and could be activated before Sunday’s game. 

The Twins have now signed their third player from Lew Ford’s Long Island Ducks. They have signed catcher Caleb Roberts. In 15 games this season for the Ducks, the 26-year-old is hitting .339 with an OPS of .948. He is expected to report to the Wichita Wind Surge. 

Roberts was the fifth-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021 out of North Carolina. He ended the 2022 season with nine games in Double-A Amarillo. In 2023, he hit .278/.382/.523 (.906) with 23 doubles, eight triples and 17 homers.  He played 42 games in left field, caught 30 games and made starts at first base (7) and right field (6). He went to the Arizona Fall League that season. He returned to Amarillo in 2024, and in 113 games, he hit .243/.339/.454 (.793) with 20 doubles, four triples, and 20 homers. In that season, he caught 62 games and played one game each at first base and left field. Then for some reason, he returned to Amarillo in 2025. In 104 games, he hit .237/.327/.388 (.715) with 21 doubles, three triples, and 10 homers. He only caught one game (and just two innings) that season. He started 64 games in left and a dozen in right field.  

RHP Yael Retituyo was released from the DSL Twins roster. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 13, Las Vegas 8  
Box Score
It was a bullpen game for the Saints on Saturday, but as they have been most games of late, the Saints offense continues to put up big numbers. In fact, the Saints scored at least two runs in five of the first six innings. 

In the first inning, Gabriel Gonzalez walked with one out. With two outs, Orlando Arcia remained hot, driving his ninth double of the season off the wall in left field to drive in Gonzalez with the game’s first run. Arcia scored when Kyler Fedko reached on an error. 

The first two batters in the third inning got out, but Ryan Kreidler and Orlando Arcia followed with singles. An errant pickoff throw allowed both runners to advance. Fedko lined a single to center to drive in both runners and make it 4-1. 

The top of the fourth inning began with an Aaron Sabato home run. It was his seventh home run of the season and fifth this week in Las Vegas. 

With one out, Kaelen Culpepper doubled and went to third on a fly out. Ryan Kreidler drilled his fifth home run of the season to give the team a 7-3 lead.  

Trent Baker started and went the first two innings. He gave up a solo home run to Michael Stefanic in the second inning. Raul Brito pitched the next two innings. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on three hits (including a solo home run by Henry Bolte). 

The top of the fifth inning began with walks by Kyler Fedko and Hendry Mendez. Alex Jackson drove in Fedko with a single to center. With one out, Ben Ross drove a double off of the wall in the left center field gap to drive in two more runs and make it 10-3.

Aaron Sabato came to the plate with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning. He muscled a soft liner into center field to drive in Fedko and Mendez.   

Marco Raya worked the fifth and sixth innings. He gave up one hit over two scoreless innings. He had three strikeouts. 

Grant Hartwig gave up four runs on five hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings. Jon Brebbia got the final five outs, though he gave up a run on three hits. He struck out three.

The Saints added one run in the eighth inning on Alex Jackson’s sixth home run.

Aaron Sabato went 2-for-5 with his seventh home run and three RBI. He has had 12 RBI in these five games in Vegas.  He is 10-for-22 this week with two walks, two doubles, five home runs and 12 RBI. When the week began, he was hitting .229/.296/.458 (.754). Following Saturday night’s game, he is now hitting .300/.359/.700 (1.059). 

Ben Ross went 2-for-3 with two walks and his fifth double. Alex Jackson went 2-for-4 with a walk and his sixth homer. Ryan Kreidler went 2-for-5 with a walk and his fifth home run. Orlando Arcia went 2-for-4 with his ninth double. Hendry Mendez went 2-for-4 with a walk. Kyler Fedko went 1-for-4 with two walks and stole his fifth base. Gabriel Gonzalez also walked twice.    

Last night, I wrote about A’s prospect Henry Bolte. On Friday night, he went 5-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, and two home runs. On Saturday night, he went 5-for-5 with two doubles, two home runs and five RBI. He had singles in his final two at-bats on Thursday night. He set the franchise record with hits in 12 straight at-bats. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 7, Amarillo 9 (10 innings)
Box Score
The Wind Surge jumped out to an early lead in this game. A five-run first inning is always helpful, but they also scored a sixth run in the top of the second for an early 6-0 lead. What could go wrong? 

With one out in the first, Kyle DeBarge walked and stole second base. He advanced to third base on a wild pitch, but there were two outs. Billy Amick came up and grounded to third base, but a fielding error allowed Amick to reach and DeBarge to score the first run. More importantly, the inning continued and the Wind Surge took advantage. 

Jake Rucker lined a single. Andrew Cossetti singled to center to drive in Amick with the second run. Murphy Stehly reached on a throwing error. Rucker scored on the play. Cossetti scored on a Jorel Ortega single. Then Maddux Houghton singled in Stehly and the Surge had a 5-0 lead. 

The second inning began with a DeBarge walk. Ricardo Olivar singled. They each advanced on a double steal. DeBarge scored the sixth run on a sacrifice fly by Jake Rucker. 

The Sod Poodles fought their way back with two runs in their half of the second and single runs in the third and fourth innings. 

The Wind Surge added a run in the top of the fifth frame. Rucker singled and stole second. Cossetti walked. After a pitching change, the runners advanced on a wild pitch. Rucker scored on a Jorel Ortega sacrifice fly to bump the lead to 7-4. 

Ricky Castro started and gave up three runs on five hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out four. Jacob Wosinski came on and gave up just one run on two hits over 2 2/3 innings. Alejandro Hidalgo pitched a scoreless sixth inning, but he gave up three runs (2 earned) in the seventh inning. He gave up five hits and walked two over his two innings. Jaylen Nowlin struck out two batters over two perfect innings. 

Tied at seven, the game went to the 10th inning. The Wind Surge were unable to even move the Manfred Man to third base. In the bottom of the 10th, Kyle Bischoff came on and gave up a leadoff, two-run homer to end the game. 

The Wind Surge had nine hits in the game. Ricardo Olivar, Jake Rucker, Andrew Cossetti, and Maddux Houghton each had two hits. DeBarge walked twice and stole his 10th and 11th bases. 

KERNELS CHRONICLE 
Cedar Rapids 6, Quad Cities 3
Box Score
There was a lot of good pitching in this game. Of the 18 half-innings, 14 of them resulted in zero runs. The River Bandits started the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. 

The Kernels got on the board with four runs in the top of the third inning.  Brandon Winokur was in the leadoff spot for the Kernels for the first time. He led off the first inning with a single and then led off the third inning with a single. Eduardo Tait singled, and Khadim Diaw walked to load the bases. Jaime Ferrer grounded out but Winokur scored the first run. Danny De Andrade followed with the game’s biggest hit. He launched his third home run of the season to the berm beyond the fence in left field.

Quad Cities cut the lead to 4-3 with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Young Ramon Ramirez hit his fifth home run. The 20-year-old backstop was 2-for-3 with a walk, a triple, and a home run.  He is the #7 prospect at Royals Keep.  

In the top of the eighth, Khadim Diaw led off with a walk. Jaime Ferrer stayed hot, hitting his eighth home run of the season. 

Eli Jones tossed the first five innings. He gave up two runs on four hits. He walked one and had six strikeouts. Nolan Santos went three innings and gave up just one run on one hit, a solo home run. He walked one and struck out three batters. Eston Stull came on and had one walk and one strikeout to earn his second save. 

Winokur led the way by going 4-for-5. De Andrade had a single to go with his huge home run. Tait went 2-for-4 with a walk. Khadim Diaw went 1-for-3 with two walks. 

MIGHTY MATTERS
Ft. Myers 11, Tampa 9
Box Score   
For the second time this week, the Mussels used a big inning late to claim a lead and secure a win. 

Tampa scored a run in the top of the first inning, but the Mussels responded with three runs in the bottom of the first. Dameury Pena led off with a single and went to second on a passed ball. Ramiro Dominguez walked. After a successful double steal, Yasser Mercedes walked to load the bases. After a strikeout, Ryan Sprock walked to tie the game at 1-1. Quentin Young followed with a single to left field to drive in two runs and make it 3-1. 

Justin Mitrovich started and gave up just an unearned run on one hit and one walk. He had four strikeouts. 

Brian Zeldin came on and gave up four runs on four hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings. Jake Murray came on and got five outs. He gave up one run on one hit and one walk. He had three strikeouts. Michael Hilker was next. He gave up two runs on four hits and a walk. He had three strikeouts. 

The Mussels scored a run in the seventh inning on a balk. Going to the bottom of the eighth inning, the team was down 8-5. 

The bottom of the eighth inning started with singles by Dameury Pena and Ramiro Dominguez. Yasser Mercedes drove in both runners with his second triple. 

Henry Kusiak walked. Then Ryan Sprock singled to left to drive in Mercedes with the game-tying run. 

With two outs and after a pitching change, Jayson Bass came to the plate and untied the game with a two-run triple. 

Byron Chourio singled to drive in Bass and give the Mussels an 11-8 lead. 

Mitch Mueller came in for the ninth. He gave up one run on one hit and a walk. He struck out two and earned his second save. 

Quentin Young went 2-for-5 with three RBI. Jayson Bass went 3-for-5 with his fifth double, first triple, and two RBI. Ryan Sprock went 2-for-4 with a walk. Dameury Pena went 2-for-6. Yasser Mercedes went 1-for-3 with two walks, a triple, and two RBI. The team also has seven stolen bases. Chourio and Dominguez each had two steals.  

COMPLEX CHRONICLE
FCL Twins 2, FCL Red Sox 9
Box Score  
The Twins fell behind early on Saturday. Miguelangel Boadas made the rehab start. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on six hits over two innings. He had three strikeouts. Rainer Marin came on and gave up three runs on five hits over 1 1/3 innings. He left the game with two runners on, and Nick McAuliffe allowed both to score. He allowed two more unearned runs to score on two hits before getting out of that fourth inning. Yoel Roque came in and had three strikeouts over two scoreless innings.  

The Twins avoided being shutout with two runs in the seventh inning. With one out, Ricardo Pena reached on an error. Daiber De Los Santos walked, and Pena advanced to third on a wild pitch. Pena scored on another wild pitch. With two outs, De Los Santos went to third on a wild pitch. Miguel Caraballo walked. After a pitching change, De Los Santos scored on a balk for the second run. But that was it. 

The Twins had just two hits, and five walks is a pretty solid number. They struck out 13 times in seven innings. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Jayson Bass (Fort Myers): 3-for-5, 2B(5), 3B(1), R, 2 RBI, K
Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, R

Pitcher of the Day 
Marco Raya (St. Paul): 2 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 21 pitches, 15 strikes (71.4%)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today.

#1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (left shoulder)
#2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-6, 2B(7), R, 4 K (batted first, played 2B) 

#3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (thumb)
#4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, BB (batted second, played catcher). 
#5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch
#6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, 2 BB, R (batted second, played DH)
#8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - On Twins taxi squad. Could be activated Sunday.
#9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Play. Missed fourth straight game.
#10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List
#11 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K, 11 pitches, 7 strikes (63.6%) - Will also start for the Twins on Sunday.                                         
#13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 4-for-5, R, (batted first, played CF)
#14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 2-for-5, 3 RBI, K (batted sixth, played SS).
#15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 21 pitches, 15 strikes (71.4%)
#16 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, BB, 2 R, K (batted sixth, played LF)
#17 - 2B/SS/CF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-4, BB, 2 R, 2 K, 2 SB(11), (batted second, played SS)
#18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch.
#19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 R (batted third, played DH)
#20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 Day Injured List (right elbow sprain)

UPCOMING PROBABLES
Sunday, May 10:
St. Paul @ Las Vegas (2:05 pm CT) - RHP Ryan Gallagher (0-0, 6.14 ERA)
Wichita @ Amarillo (1:05 pm CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-2, 4.08 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (1:00 pm CT) - LHP Dasan Hill (0-3, 8.44 ERA)
Tampa @ Ft. Myers (11:05 am CT) - RHP Matthew Dalquist (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
FCL Twins - No Game Scheduled.  

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 17-23
St. Paul Saints: 19-18
Wichita Wind Surge: 16-16
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 17-15
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 18-14
FCL Twins: 3-3
DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) 

Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!

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!