Twins Minor League Report (8/27): Kala'i Rosario's Impressive Return, Brandon Winokur Walks It Off

TRANSACTIONS
The Minnesota Twins selected the contract of RHP Caleb Boushley from the St. Paul Saints. 

The Wichita Wind Surge sent OF Kala’i Rosario on a rehab assignment with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.

Down in Florida, there was a bunch of roster shuffling. The Mighty Mussels placed RHP Julio Bonilla on the 7-day injured list, and OF Jose Rodriguez on the temporarily inactive list. They also added 2024 draftees RHP Christian Becerra and RHP Logan Whitaker in addition to undrafted RHP Tyler Stasiowski.

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 8, Omaha 2
Box Score
If you just went by the scoreboard, the Saints put an end to this one in the first inning. They batted around to open the game, taking a 5-0 lead before their defense ever took the field against perhaps the best team in all of the minor leagues this season. 

They didn’t exactly hit the crap out of the ball in doing so, either. It was more like death by a thousand cuts. Payton Eeles led off with a single. Brooks Lee went down on strikes. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. beat out an infield single. Yunior Severino loaded the bases with a single of his own. Michael Helman drove in the first run of the game with another single. Diego Castillo drew a bases loaded walk. Jair Camargo lifted a sac fly. Rylan Bannon then drove in two with a single before Eeles grounded out to end the inning. Add it all up and you have a five-run lead that would be enough for the rest of the game.

St. Paul went with a bullpen game as Caleb Boushley was pitching for the Twins on Tuesday, with four relievers all throwing at least two innings. Ryan Jensen got the start as the opener and went the first two scoreless innings. He allowed one hit and struck out three. Zack Weiss got the next two innings, being credited with the win after giving up one run on three hits and a walk, while striking out three. Nick Wittgren went the next three, surrendering the second Storm Chasers run on two hits and a walk. He also struck out three. Josh Winder finished off the final two innings, allowing one hit and striking out three of his own.

The Saints lineup added a single run in the fifth, and two in the sixth to pad their lead. In the fifth it was consecutive singles from Keirsey Jr. and Severino before an RBI groundout from Castillo. Carson McCusker led off the sixth inning with his first triple-A home run. Keirsey Jr. later added an RBI single.

Brooks Lee finished 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts in his third rehab game. Keirsey Jr. (3-for-5, 2 R, RBI, K), Severino (2-for-5, R, 2 K), and Helman (2-for-5, R, RBI, 2 K) had multiple hits from the middle of the lineup to lead the way.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Springfield 3, Wichita 4
Box Score
On the mound for Wichita on Tuesday was right-hander Travis Adams, looking to continue his run of five consecutive starts without allowing more than one earned run. In his last outing he allowed just one hit and struck out ten in six innings. While this one wasn’t that good, he kept that streak going with flying colors. In his five innings he did not allow a run, gave up just three hits and walked two, and struck out three. He had thrown just 66 pitches, with 43 of them going for strikes (65%).

While he was doing that, his lineup was building him a lead as well. In the bottom of the first it was a two-out rally to get the scoring started. After Tanner Schobel and Ben Ross both struck out to open the game, Alex Isola delivered a single for their first baserunner. Aaron Sabato followed with a walk before Andrew Cossetti clubbed a two-run double for the early 2-to-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth Tyler Dearden reached with a one-out double and came around to score on an error off the bat of Jorel Ortega, who ended up on second base. Schobel then traded spots with him with a double of his own that made it 4-0 Wind Surge.

Pierson Ohl came on for the sixth and finished out the rest of the game. It got a little interesting as he allowed three runs in the middle of his four innings, but he buckled down and set the Cardinals down in order in the ninth to lock up the victory. Ohl was charged with three earned runs on five hits in his four innings. He struck out two.

The Wind Surge got multiple hits from Schobel (2-for-4, 2B, RBI, K) and Isola (2-for-4, R), while Cossetti led the way by driving in two. Ortega also clubbed a double.

In his last six games during the streak mentioned above, Travis Adams has thrown 31 2/3 innings, allowing just four earned runs on 15 hits and seven walks (0.69 WHIP) with 32 K’s, which has been good for a 0.85 ERA.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 2, Lake County 5 (6 innings)
Box Score
Bad weather moved into the Eastlake, Ohio area on Tuesday, but before that the Kernels and the Captains got into the sixth inning so this one was able to become official.

Right-hander Tanner Hall was making his third start with the Kernels, and pitched into the fifth inning in this one. He allowed a single run in the first, and two in each of the second and fifth innings. In the latter he recorded one out before his outing came to an end. In those 4 1/3 frames, he was charged with five earned runs on six hits and a pair of walks. He struck out four.

Down 3-1 in the top of the fourth, the Kernels got on the scoreboard thanks to top prospect Walker Jenkins. He mashed a 2-1 pitch the other way for his second home run of the season in the Midwest League.

In the top of the fifth Jose Salas joined him with a long-ball of his own to bring Cedar Rapids within one, but that was as close as they’d get.

Lefty Gabriel Yanez recorded the final two outs of the fifth, allowing one inherited runner to score on a wild pitch for a 5-2 Captains lead. The Kernels then went down one-two-three in the sixth before the rain and lightning came calling.

The Kernels had just four hits in the game. Kyle Hess added a double so three-fourths of those went for extra bases, they just never had anyone else on the bases when they happened. They were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left only two men on base for the game.

2024 number one overall draft pick, Travis Bazzana, led off for the Captains and was 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Clearwater 7, Fort Myers 9 (10 innings)
Box Score
The Mighty Mussels built a big lead early to back starter Cesar Lares in this one. It started with a one-out double from Khadim Diaw in the bottom of the second. A single from Jaime Ferrer moved him to third, before Daniel Pena put the first run of the game on the scoreboard with a sac fly.

In the third, the rehabbing Kala’i Rosario made his presence felt, launching a two-run shot to make it 3-0. Not to be outdone, Billy Amick followed with a back-to-back solo shot of his own.

The offense added another run in the fourth thanks to a double steal from Brandon Winokur and Angel Del Rosario to make it 5-0. Then things went south.

Up to that point Lares had faced the minimum number of Threshers batters. He had allowed just one hit, a single, but promptly picked that runner off at first. But in the fifth, an error on the first batter threw off the vibe. A hit-by-pitch and single followed to score Clearwater’s first run. A one-out walk loaded the bases and was followed by an RBI single. After getting the second out, another single brought in two more and in the blink of an eye Fort Myers had just a one-run lead. Lares was lifted for Juan Mercedes who gave up an RBI single of his own and the game was tied.

Lares went a total of 4 2/3 innings. He was charged with five runs (one earned) on four hits and a walk, while striking out three.

The lineup did retake the lead in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single from Del Rosario, but the Threshers had some momentum. Logan Whitaker, the Twins 19th round pick this year out of High Point University (one of my favorite Twins prospects ever went to High Point…any idea who that was?) came on for the sixth to make his professional debut. He was promptly greeted with a double, but followed that up with his first strikeout. The next batter singled to move the runner to third, and then an errant pickoff throw led to a run scored.

Whitaker would go two innings, allowing an unearned run in each, and finished his time with the score 7-6 Threshers. He allowed three hits and struck out two.

In the bottom of the eighth Fort Myers got another huge blast from Rosario, who obviously was itching to make an impression after missing nearly three months. His second bomb of the game tied it back up at seven, and would push into extra innings.

After Whitaker was done pitching, the Mighty Mussels went to left-hander Wilker Reyes. He held Clearwater down for three innings, including the tenth, by retiring nine of the ten hitters he faced. He allowed just one hit and struck out two.

Winokur led off the bottom of the tenth with a runner on second base, and didn’t wait to put an end to this one. He jumped on the first pitch he saw and walked it off with his thirteenth home run of the season.

Fort Myers had 14 hits as a team in this one, with Winokur (2-for-6, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI), Rosario (2-for-3, 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB), Diaw (3-for-5, R, 2B, K), Ferrer (2-for-4, R, K), and Del Rosario (3-for-5, R, RBI) each collecting multiple.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day - Travis Adams, Wichita Wind Surge (W, 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K)
Hitter of the Day - Kala’i Rosario, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (rehab, 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB)

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

#1 – Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-3, R, HR (2), RBI, K
#2 – Brooks Lee (Rehab w/St. Paul) – 0-for-4, 2 K
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-3
#9 – Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-2, HBP, SB (1)
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 2-for-6, 2 R, walk-off HR (13), 2 RBI
#15 – Kala’i Rosario (Rehab w/Fort Myers) – 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 HR (2), 3 RBI, 2 BB
#17 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 2-for-4, 2B, RBI, K

WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM CDT) - RHP Louie Varland (4-8, 5.06 ERA)
Springfield @ Wichita (7:05 PM CDT) - RHP C.J. Culpepper (0-0, 11.81 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (11:05 AM CDT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (4-2, 4.78 ERA)
Clearwater @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CDT) - RHP Charlee Soto (1-5, 4.86 ERA)

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

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!