Matt Braun

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images Box Score Bailey Ober: 7 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K Home Runs: Trevor Larnach (10) Bottom 3 WPA: Bailey Ober (-.283), Harrison Bader (-.147), Kody Clemens (-.141) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) Early results favored Minnesota. Trevor Larnach found a 2-0 fastball to his liking and obliterated the pitch 421 feet out to right center to start the scoring. He made the great right-center wall look tiny. The next frame, Brooks Lee singled sharply and Royce Lewis blasted a double into left-center to place two men in scoring position. Kody Clemens grounded out productively. Christian Vázquez smoked a run-scoring double. The Twins' offense was moving; it seemed like the team was going to roll into a straightforward victory. An uneventful third begat a fortune change. That 3-0 lead—appearing even greater thanks to a feeling of untapped potential—lost potency in a second. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was hit by a Bailey Ober pitch, which looked innocuous enough; Addison Barger’s two-run homer the very next pitch completely altered the tenor. Suddenly, Minnesota’s lead looked slim. The good vibes from earlier were completely gone. One inning later, Ober allowed a single and a frankly catchable double that Matt Wallner bailed on to place two runners on. Bo Bichette—famous for his contact and unusual swing choice—dropped the droopiest single man could conceive into center to plate both Blue Jays. Those three previous runs never felt further away. A George Springer homer extended Toronto’s lead to two. All the while, the frames for Minnesota’s hitters melted into themselves; the Blue Jays “starter,” Paxton Schultz, gave way to Eric Lauer, who gave way to Mason Fluharty, who gave way to [insert every other pitcher here] with each subsequent reliever holding the once seemingly potent offense scoreless. And then the Blue Jays plated a sixth run in the eighth. Sure. The Twins finally fought back. At least a little. Larnach and Ty France reached base, auguring Rocco Baldelli to pinch-hit Ryan Jeffers against the lefty Brendon Little. He worked the count full before a curve below the zone inspired umpire Jordan Baker to punch him out. The pitch wasn’t a strike. The only solace Jeffers could take was in offering his displeasure to Baker. He was then ejected. So it goes. Royce Lewis later singled to bring the game within two, yet the sense of missed opportunity hung over the team as the game lurched into the ninth inning. That sense was well-placed: Minnesota never offered a legitimate threat on the lead again. Jeff Hoffman walked one on his way to striking out the side to send the team home wondering what happened to the feeling they conjured after such a successful start to the game. Notes: Lewis, whose slump has increasingly become a concern in Twins Territory, may have broken out of it tonight. Lewis was 3-3, with a double, an RBI and a run scored Attendance for the Toronto series is typically high, as Canadians often travel to Target Field to see their team. With the ongoing trade dispute with Canada, there was some question if that would be the case this year. If it slowed visitors down, it's not apparent. Tonight's attendance was 26,847, and the Friday night game for last year's Blue Jays game, on August 30th, was 24,623. Larnach is five homers away from tying a single-season career-high. Byron Buxton played his 820th game as a Twins, the 27th-most in team history. He's 12 away from tying Jorge Polanco. Post-Game Interview: What’s Next? The Twins and Blue Jays continue their melee with a Saturday scrum starting at 12:10 PM. Chris Paddack will start opposite Kevin Gausman. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints Before we get to the list, let me quickly explain how I like to analyze starters. My balancing has shifted: previously, I emphasized innings, but I think that led me to overvalue older pitchers and downplay efficiency. You'll see that has changed in this list. I've rewarded pure dominance, as I questioned how much I should value extra innings if the tradeoff is much worse run prevention. Finally, defining a "starting pitcher" in the minors is somewhat nebulous, as bulk hurlers will often get time in as a starter, and reliever depending on what the team needs. My line is this: a relief outing isn't completely thrown out, but it weighs less than a start. Let's get to the honorable mentions. Honorable Mentions: Dasan Hill, A Fort Myers - 1.93 ERA, 9 ⅓ IP, 5.14 FIP, 31.6 K% Dasan Hill survived an injury scare early in the month to continue baffling A-ball hitters as a teenager. That innings total is far too low, though, so he will have to settle for an honorable mention. Also, cut down on the walks, please. Andrew Morris, AAA St. Paul - 3.81 ERA, 26 IP, 4.93 FIP, 19.1 K% I don’t know if Andrew Morris deserves to be here given that he allowed a .349 batting average in May, but his run prevention was mostly solid, and he was legitimately nasty on the 18th, so here he sits. Eli Jones, A Fort Myers - 3.74 ERA, 21 ⅔ IP, 3.52 FIP, 23.3 K% An 8th-rounder out of the University of South Carolina in 2024, Eli Jones augured mild April success with a respectable May, totaling a pair of five-frame, one-earned run starts in the month. Chase Chaney, A+ Cedar Rapids - 3.52 ERA, 23 IP, 4.79 FIP, 17.3 K% Chase Chaney was a Cedar Rapids workhorse in May, pitching at least five innings in every start, with a trio of outings going six. There’s a dearth of Twitter videos from him this year, but his former team has a deep supply of cinematic shots of him pitching, so please enjoy. 5. Jeremy Lee, A+ Cedar Rapids - 3.12 ERA, 17 ⅓ IP, 2.26 FIP, 19.2 K% Our first member of the list proper, Jeremy Lee rebounded from a dreadful April—one that saw three games with an ERA over 13—to post a truly impressive May. He tossed five innings of one-run ball on the 4th, stumbled a little on the 10th, and returned for an outing on the 16th shockingly similar to his one to start the month. He concluded May with a pair of solid relief outings. Add it all up and you get one of the best starting pitcher performances in the system. He only walked one batter all month! Lee joined the Twins 13th-round pick out of South Alabama in 2023 (somehow he’s not the only Alabamanian who made the list). You may remember the school as the alma mater of Twins' 70's catching stalwart Glenn Borgmann. Lee crushed his competition at Fort Myers in 2024, yet found Midwest league hitters uninviting. Repeating the level might be the catalyst needed to jumpstart for success for the righty. 4. Trent Baker, AA Wichita - 3.18 ERA, 22 ⅔ IP, 2.32 FIP, 28.9 K% Trent Baker might be the story of the minors so far. A Rule 5 pick from the Cardinals organization—on the minor league side, that is—Baker slid gracefully into the Wind Surge rotation, where he holds a season ERA of 2.84 across 44 ⅓ innings with peripherals that support his performance. The turning point for Baker appears to be refined command. He walked 12% of batters in 2024 with the Cardinals’ AA team. So far, that total has been halved—he sits at 6% as of the beginning of June. And he was tantalizingly close to ending May with an even stronger bid for starter of the month. His first four starts were excellent, but a four-run four-inning appearance on the month’s final day knocked his stats to merely great, not transcending. Still, his play so far has been inspiring. He looks to be a rock in the Wichita rotation. 3. Aaron Rozek, AA Wichita - 2.52 ERA, 25 IP, 2.95 FIP, 21.0 K% Finally, a Minnesotan. The Burnsville lefty has been a regular in the Twins organization since being plucked from indy ball in 2021. Wherever the team needs him, he’s there: Rozek has at least 50 innings at three separate levels, with the bulk of his work coming as a Wichita Wind Surge. Shoot, he might even qualify for a pension with them at this point. Rozek’s calling card has been length. Few in the system can gobble frames like he can. May was no different: he totaled the second-most innings of all pitchers mentioned in this article, accruing at least 13 outs in every outing. He topped out with a six-inning start on the 9th. He’s also one to consistently tweet baseball thoughts if you’re interested in reading what a ballplayer has to say about the game. Rozek was close to taking one of the top two spots. The question asked is this: how valuable is 6 ⅔ innings with about a 5.45 ERA, or 10 ⅔ innings with about a 4.36 ERA? Those are the totals that separate him from the players ahead. It’s an interesting debate, and I fell on the side of efficiency. 2. Christian MacLeod, AA Wichita - 1.47 ERA, 18 ⅓ IP, 3.09 FIP, 24.7 K% It appears that Christian MacLeod decided allowing runs is for suckers, and MacLeod is no sucker. His season ERA is a miniscule 0.95, albeit across just 28 ⅓ innings as he started 2025 injured. Still, his numbers cannot be denied, and May was a deeply impressive month for the lefty. A champion with the Mississippi State Bulldogs, MacLeod joined the Twins as a 5th-round pick in the 2021 draft. His pitching quality is evident; yet, injuries limited him to enter the season with just 164 ⅔ minor league innings. The lack of workload is the main factor that kept him on the outskirts of major prospect conversations. He was a tertiary mention at best. He’s clearly healthy now. MacLeod started the month with a relative stinker before rattling off three straight scoreless starts, allowing just five hits in 11 ⅔ innings. Control was the only bugaboo in his game: the 25-year-old walked 13% of hitters in the month, as it seemed like the best strategy a batter could employ against him was to wait out a possible free pass. It hardly mattered; just three runners scored against him. He was so good that I’m still not entirely sure I made the correct decision in anointing him only the second-best starter of the month. 1. David Festa, AAA St. Paul - 1.26 ERA, 14 ⅓ IP, 1.35 FIP, 36.6 K% Given his status at the beginning of the month, I’m sure David Festa himself wouldn’t have predicted that he’d win this award. The righty dominated 5 ⅔ frames with one earned run on May 6th, then missed his next start due to ominous “arm fatigue.” Fans groaned and prepared for the worst. Yet, the malaise subsided after two weeks, and Festa returned for 3 ⅔ successful innings, again allowing a lone earned run. A phenomenal five-shutout inning start on the 29th concluded what eventually became a tremendous month for the youngster—one that saw a critical adjustment integrate flawlessly into his game. Festa’s four-seam fastball had proven irresistible to major league hitters, who battered the offering with Ted Williams-like vigor. The pitch clearly wasn’t going to cut it, so Festa and the Twins worked to add a sinker into his mix. Evidently, he felt uncomfortable with the pitch early on, as he threw it just 10 times in the bigs, but recently he’s let the new weapon rip; Festa threw 22 of them in his last start—a third of all his pitches that day—as opposed to just 11 four-seamers. We will see what the pitch will do in the majors. Minor leaguers, however, have spoken through Festa’s stats, and they tell us this: they would rather see the New Jerseyian practice his craft in the big leagues. View full article

Image courtesy of © Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images Box Score Zebby Matthews: 7 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K Home Runs: Trevor Larnach (8), Willi Castro 2 (3, 4), Carlos Correa (5) Top 3 WPA: Trevor Larnach (.404), Carlos Correa (.304), Willi Castro (.165) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) Ah, the infamous West Coast trip. The great equalizer. Tales of the Pacific are often apocryphal, but there is indeed a sense that it offers a litmus test for a team’s gumption: exit with a few wins under your belt, and you’re probably fine; lose too many times, and the squad’s acumen is in question. Early reports did not favor the Twins. Zebby Matthews surrendered a leadoff infield hit and a line drive single from old friend Jorge Polanco. By themselves, these two outcomes would be problematic; exacerbated in this instance was the existence of Cal Raleigh, mean and homer-hungry, ready to step into the batter’s box. He needed just one pitch. A cutter. A bad one. So bad that Matthews shunned the offering for two innings. The home run was Raleigh’s 20th of the season 3-0 Mariners. But it got worse before it got better - or even before the inning ended. It was 4-0 Mariners when Randy Arozarena deposited a Matthews' fastball just beyond the left field wall For three innings, it seemed like Minnesota was better off ceding the game. Bryan Woo diced through the lineup with little resistance, as a Trevor Larnach single in the first stood as the only baserunner the team could muster off the righty. The rhythm was contagious. The outs were too easy. Twins hitters must have felt they were gripping sand instead of a bat. Yet, action arose immediately, summoned by Larnach, who evidently finds Woo’s famous fastball rather ordinary: he smacked it into the right field seats on the first pitch of the at-bat. Ryan Jeffers felt inspired. He took a Woo sinker and drilled a double into the left-field corner; Brooks Lee ushered him home two batters later with an RBI groundout. Suddenly, the lead didn’t appear so great. And, suddenly, Matthews was dealing. That disastrous first gave way to a successful second, which begat a clean third. Before long, the middle innings arrived to uneventful fanfare—excellent news for a pitcher. In fact, Matthews dominated the sixth so well that Rocco Baldelli sent his youngster out for one more frame. It worked. Two groundouts and a strikeout constituted the finality of the longest start of his MLB career. While still in line for the loss, Matthews’ deficit was just one as he left, as Willi Castro hit a solo shot about half a foot far enough to elude Leody Tavares’ glove in right field in the top of the seventh. That's when the game ceased to be anything ordinary or easy to digest. **** got crazy. Cal Raleigh hit a two-run homer to give Seattle what must have felt like an indomitable lead: Seattle closer Andrés Muñoz had a 0.00 ERA, after all. Might as well turn the TV off. Well, the Twins were feeling spicy. Ty France singled, yet two strikeouts put Minnesota's WPA at 1.1%. Castro homered again. That bumped odds to... 3.5%. Certainly possible; highly unlikely. Byron Buxton singled and stole second. That raised an eyebrow. And, somehow, Larnach scooped one of Muñoz's famous sliders, and drove the pitch into center, sending Buxton scampering home to tie the game. Jhoan Duran worked a 1-2-3 ninth to send the game into extras. If the previous inning was wild ****, the 10th was the unhinged bananas that usually only exists on Comedy Central in the wee hours of the morning. It started when Carlos Correa stroked a two-run homer on the first pitch in extra innings. Then Brooks Lee singled. Then came two outs. Then. Then. Then. Four more runs. Varied in nature. Potent all the same. Buxton singled home two. Larnach—I mean, just build the statue already—brought in a pair as well. The lead swelled to six as Minnesota left the top of the 10th with an unthinkable 12-6 lead. At one point, they had two outs in the bottom of the ninth with just three runs. Brock Stewart closed out the Mariners in the 10th, not even allowing the ghost runner to score. Twins win. Notes: Matthews' seven innings were an MLB career-high. His previous best was five. The Twins are 20-7 when Jhoan Durán appears in a game in 2025. Willi Castro hit two homers in a game for the first time since May 27th, 2023. Trevor Larnach accrued four hits in a game for the first time since August 21st, 2024. Post-Game Interview: Let's hear from Carlos: What’s Next? The Twins and Mariners match up for an evening Fox showcase, with first pitch set at a merciful 6:15 PM. Bailey Ober will start opposite Bryce Miller. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (Gabriel Gonzalez) TRANSACTIONS RHP Christian Becerra activated from 7-day IL (Fort Myers) RHP Devin Kirby released (Fort Myers) 3B Caleb McNeely assigned to A Fort Myers OF Blaze O’Saben assigned to A Fort Myers Saints Sentinel St. Paul 5, Omaha 2 Box Score Simeon Woods Richardson: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K HR: Matt Wallner (4) Multi-hit games: Jeferson Morales (2-for-3, 2 R, BB), Anthony Prato (3-for-3, R, RBI, BB) The Saints cruised to a win on Wednesday It was a day in which baseball was played, which means Matt Wallner hit a homer. International League pitchers keenly await his return to the bigs. Like the others before it, this one was no cheapie: the ball left Wallner’s bat at 108.8 MPH and landed 406 feet away. He is slugging .952 with the Saints. Simeon Woods Richardson commanded the ball well in yet another impressive outing with St. Paul. The righty followed up a six-inning one-run start on the 22nd with a six-inning two-run start on Wednesday in which he struck out five. He topped out at 94.9 MPH. The rest of St. Paul’s offense came off an Anthony Prato RBI single in the fourth, and a Mickey Gasper run-scoring knock in the sixth. Travis Adams carried the game to its ending with three quality innings, striking out two while allowing just two baserunners. The Storm Chasers are the AAA team for the Kansas City Royals, and employ the 10th-best prospect in baseball, Jac Caglianone. The human firecracker has obliterated minor league baseball in 2025; he’s slashing .326/.387/.599 after Wednesday. He doubled and singled twice in four at-bats on Wednesday. Wind Surge Wisdom Wichita 7, Tulsa 10 (10 Innings) Box Score Ricky Castro: 3 ⅓ IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 4 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Gabriel Gonzalez (4-for-4, 2 2B, R), Kala’i Rosario (2-for-4, R, RBI, BB) Wichita fumbled in extra innings on Wednesday. The opening frame—typically a genteel affair—was anything but. Ricky Castro allowed a double to the leadoff hitter, who later became a run when an infield tapper and subsequent error by Jorel Ortega ushered him home. A sacrifice fly soon brought the deficit to two. A third-inning run portended an ugly three-score fourth that Castro would not escape. Singles, walks, steals, errors. No Driller dominated with damage; rather, they scrapped and bothered with gnat-like intensity. Then, something funny happened. Though they were down six runs, the Wind Surge gathered themselves and composed a seven-run frame. Ricardo Olivar doubled, then Kala’i Rosario doubled, then Jorel Ortega doubled. A Tyler Dearden grounder to push the inning to two outs hardly mattered. Jake Rucker singled and stole second, auguring three consecutive base on balls for Tanner Schobel, Gabriel Gonzalez, and Kyler Fedko. With the bases juiced, Rubel Cespedes unleashed a liner to right that brought all three runners home safely. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Cespedes; he was thrown out at second to end the inning. Still, the Wind Surge somehow held the lead. That lead lasted two batters. The following half-inning, Driller John Rhodes homered on the first pitch he saw. So it goes. Both teams shifted into neutral, watching the frames fade into each other as each scoring threat suffered the same muffled fate; no one scored for the rest of the game’s scheduled run time. Things finally changed in the 10th, with Tulsa furiously plating a trio of runs. Exhausted and demoralized, Wichita fell without even plating their free runner. Wichita swiped six bases on Wednesday, with five different players earning at least one steal. The Drillers are affiliated with the Dodgers. Although they’ve often stood as the zenith in the organization’s powerful prospect factory, the best they could offer Wednesday was the team’s 25th-ranked player, Peter Heubeck. He allowed five runs across 3 ⅔ innings. Kernels Nuggets Cedar Rapids 1, Lake County 0 Box Score Jose Olivares: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K HR: Kaelen Culpepper (1) Multi-hit games: None The Kernels tossed a shutout on Wednesday. Kaelen Culepper hit a lead-off homer. Thus concludes the game’s action. Cedar Rapids would go on to put just five more runners on base, while Lake County totaled the same. Only four runners reached second base; just once did a player greet the third baseman. It was a lonely day to be an infielder. Jose Olivares was the star of the pitching show, tossing five efficient innings with seven strikeouts. 46 of his 69 pitches went for strikes, a notable achievement given that the righty walked four men in two prior May outings, and entered the day with more free passes than innings in the month. Wednesday was a convincing rebuke of his previous command issues—and he put his team in an excellent position to win. Jack Noble graced the mound next, offering a pair of scoreless frames in support of the shutout effort. Spencer Bengard arrived next, and, what, was he going to spoil the fun? Nope. He put up a 1-2-3 eighth to place the pressure on Jacob Wosinski. The Grand Rapids native surrendered a single, but erased that runner and concluded the game with ground ball double play. Kyle DeBarge stole his 26th and 27th bases of the season. He leads the Midwest League. The Lake County Captains are an affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. Their 6th-ranked prospect, 2023 first-rounder and DH Ralphy Velazquez, walked once and struck out twice in four plate appearances. Mussel Matters Fort Myers 5, Bradenton 8 Box Score Dylan Questad: 4 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 6 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Payton Eeles (2-for-3, 2B, R, RBI) A five-run fifth blew up Fort Myers’ chances of winning on Wednesday. Dylan Questad didn’t receive much help, but he also did it to himself. The righty walked four in a five-run/three-earned outing that saw him fail to exit to fourth. The worst of it was in the third when Konnor Griffin stole second and advanced to third off a throwing error by Jefferson Valladares. He eventually scored. Then, wouldn’t you know it, the same exact thing happened the following inning, this time with Eddy Rodriguez as the beneficiary of Valladares’ wildness. That’s in part how Questad could allow five runs without giving up a hit with a runner in scoring position. The totality of Fort Myers’ offense on Wednesday was tepid but focused enough to plate a respectable five runs. They scored their first run off a Daniel Pena RBI double in the fourth and touched home once more with a fielder’s choice. In the fifth, Valladares worked to make up for his mistakes with an RBI double; he later scored when Payton Eeles called him home with a double of his own. Their final run came in the eighth thanks to Angel Del Rosario taking the hero’s journey around the bases with no help needed by his teammates. He singled on a bunt before swiping second and third in the same at-bat. Perhaps irked by the pest, Bradenton catcher Axiel Plaz attempted to pick him off but sent the ball sailing into no-man’s land. Del Rosario scampered home unscathed. Angel Del Rosario’s 20 steals are the 2nd-most in the Florida State League. Rehabbing minor leaguer Payton Eeles played shortstop and went 2-for-3 with an RBI double. The aforementioned Griffin was a 2024 first-round draftee and is currently the 37th-best prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com. He went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Jose Olivares Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Gabriel Gonzalez PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #3 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-3, R, 2 K #6 – Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, HR, R, RBI, BB, K #9 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-2, BB, 2 K #11 – Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, 3 K #14 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 4-4, 2 2B, R #17 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-4, R, BB #19 - Carson McCusker (Minnesota) - 1-1 (first MLB hit) #20 – Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-5, 2B THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM) - RHP David Festa Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05 PM) - RHP Darren Bowen Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM) - RHP Cole Peschl Bradenton @ Fort Myers (5:30 PM) - RHP Eli Jones FCL Twins @ FCL Orioles (11:00 AM) - TBD View full article

Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-Imagn Images The Twins and Zebby Matthews had a problem. The righty flashed legitimate strikeout potential in 2024, but the whiffs came with a Blylevian barrage of homers; batters found the stands 11 times across just 37 ⅔ major-league frames. That’s a 58-home run pace across 200 innings. And the type of pitch didn’t matter. The fastball? Obliterated. The cutter? Crushed. Spencer Horwitz even put one on the board against a curveball. Tough. If this trend continued, the team would have to hand out helmets and oversized gloves to fans every day when Matthews pitched. Unless he wanted to waste his prime years on the Saints, something needed to change. Early tendencies in his pitch mix indicate an evolution is currently underway. Matthews’s curveball and changeup—which accounted for 15% of his offerings in 2024—have been almost fully abandoned this season, in favor of a four-seam/cutter/slider three-piece selection. He’s thrown the hook and the cambio just seven total times in 152 pitches over two starts. That’s probably a good call. The curve yielded a .385 xwOBA last year, and the change sat at a .365. A league-average number is .327. Remember that you read wOBA like OBP, meaning Matthews turned hitters into Bobby Witt Jr., and Brent Rooker, respectively, with those two offerings. For the short term, I think this mix change makes sense. A part of the pitching milieu these days is focused on having hurlers throw as many types of pitches as possible, but if those offerings aren’t cutting it, there’s little point in throwing them. The simplified approach has also sharpened his pitches: while the slider and cutter bled into each other at times in 2024, his 2025 plot reveals two solidly separate offerings. Just as saliently, Matthews’s velocity is noticeably up compared to 2024, with his heater sitting at 96.6 MPH and the slider and cutter up a tick, as well. Here's what he looked like last year. And here's the (you know, hopefully) new and improved version. Now, I was concerned his new, tighter movement distribution and more linear approach might make him susceptible to platoon splits. We know that, inside of each pitcher lives two individuals, and who they reveal is based on batter handedness. Indeed, pitchers like Sonny Gray, Pablo López, and Bailey Ober (not Joe Ryan, really, but that’s just how he rolls) throw different pitches based on which batter’s box the hitters step in. Matthews doesn’t do that. Or, at least, his measures are less extreme. He trades about 10% of his four-seamers for cutters against lefties, but is otherwise shockingly agnostic on the matter. It’s worked for him, though, because his command of the cutter and slider to lefties has been pristine, and the verticality of his slider makes the pitch less susceptible to platoon splits. Just look at how he turned Brice Turang into mincemeat with the pitch: eUxONjNfWGw0TUFRPT1fQXdNQVZsSURWZ0VBVzFjS1hnQUhBQTRDQUZnQUFWSUFBd0VIQVFGV0FBcFRDQVZU.mp4 Ok, and we’ll embarrass Vinnie Pasquantino as well: MTZxRGdfVjBZQUhRPT1fQmxKUkJnRlZVRmNBV3dSUkF3QUhBd0FGQUFNSFVWVUFCbDBCQUZVTkJnRUdCMUZl.mp4 So far, Matthews has faced 14 lefties and struck out six of them. He’s also allowed five singles and a walk, but only two of the hits were struck well. I think his process here is especially intriguing, and we should keep an eye on whether he can keep whiffing lefties at such an extreme rate. Long term, I’m unsure of the viability of a right-handed pitcher having nothing moving arm-side. The guys who successfully eschew having such an offering—rare in nature, but existing nonetheless—do so by dominating in other ways. Dylan Cease’s slider might be the best in baseball. Nick Pivetta works with an extreme vertical approach and a variety of breaking ball shapes. Can Matthews sharpen his slider to reach Cease’s level? It’s unlikely. I think he’ll need a sinker or a re-worked changeup. Hitters are just too good. They won’t be fooled for long by a small movement profile. Though his season ERA sits at 7.71, even higher than his 2024 mark, Matthews is not the same pitcher he was last year. His velocity is up. He largely eliminated two impotent offerings. I don’t think it’ll be enough to launch him into dominance, but it should at least allow him to reach a higher level. He looks primed to take a step forward. We shall see what comes next. View full article

Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-Imagn Images Box Score SP: Pablo López: 5 ⅔ IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K Home Runs: Carlos Correa (3), Ty France (4) Top 3 WPA: Ty France (.294), Pablo López (.204), Cole Sands (.134) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) With thoughts of rain solidly in the past, Minnesota could finally move on. The weather that had so strangely chopped up their series with Cleveland fled for other pastures, leaving Minnesota with a traditionally beautiful late-spring evening, neither quite too cold nor too warm—but chilly enough to remind all that summer’s comfort was still more than a few sleeps away. Would that augur success for the home team? Only the players could determine that. Straits appeared a little dire early. Pablo López smoked Jonathan India with his second offering of the day, and a blooped single from Vinnie Pasquantino pushed the situation into “legitimate run-scoring threat” territory. Indeed, it was: López claimed his second out before relinquishing a run off a hittable fastball. Cavan Biggio served as the beneficiary. The Royals were up 1-0. Squaring up against Minnesota’s ace was one Noah Cameron. Bespectacled and green—Friday’s start was just his third in the big leagues—the lefty nonetheless offered the aesthetics of one referred to as “crafty;” with a below-average heater and extended collection of off-speed pitches capable of putting hitters on their heels. Across 12 2/3 frames, he had just three allowed hits to his name. His first career start saw a no-hit bid creep into the seventh inning. The dominance potential became apparent across the fullness of his start—he walked off the mound after striking out eight Twins over six and two-third innings—yet Carlos Correa punctured a chink into his armor early. The veteran took the second pitch he had seen since coming off the IL and deposited it 429 feet away into the bullpens nestled in left-center. Tie game. The homer ushered in a period of classic baseball emptiness. Surely, the game saw action. One could interrogate the box score to collect the fullness of each minute detail. Entire dramas lived within Kansas City’s two-strike hits, or Minnesota’s clear difficulties handling Cameron’s arm slot. Yet, in a game dominated by runs, only one truth stood out: no one scored. For a while. The third became the fourth, which evolved into the fifth, which, which, which… One could look down for a time, then look up just to conclude the entire game was an exercise in human futility. Maybe it is. That’s baseball. The funny thing about the seemingly endless supply of zeroes is that everything can change in an instant. And any small move can incite. The great running of the bullpens spat out Kansas City's Lucas Erceg in the ninth. He punched out Trevor Larnach before Correa softly grounded a ball to third. One would typically Maikel Garcia to handle it properly, yet he bobbled the ball and allowed Carlos to reach base. Oh well. Certainly, the next batter wouldn't hit a homer on the first pitch he saw. Anyways, Ty France crushed a homer on the first pitch of his at-bat to win the game for the Twins. Don't let anyone tell you this game doesn't have a sense of humor. Notes: The Twins are 16-2 in their last 18 games. Friday was the first walk-off homer of Ty France's big league career. Carlos Correa hit his 190th career homer, the 24th-most for a primary shortstop in MLB history. He's five away from tying Toby Harrah. Pablo López earned his 486th strikeout in a Twins uniform, good for 30th all-time in team history. He's one away from tying Joe Mays. Griffin Jax picked off a runner for the third time in his big league career. Post-Game Interview: What’s Next? The Twins will face the Royals again on Saturday, with first pitch set to arrive at 1:10 PM. Zebby Matthews is scheduled to start opposite Michael Wacha. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

Image courtesy of Kirby Milam, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Aaron Rozek) TRANSACTIONS LHP Connor Prielipp transferred to development list (Wichita) RHP Brent Francisco assigned to FCL Twins OF Matt Wallner sent to AAA St. Paul for rehab assignment Twins recall INF Mickey Gasper as 27th-man RHP Cole Peschl promoted from A Fort Myers to A+ Cedar Rapids Saints Sentinel The Saints were rained out for the 13th time this season. They will play doubleheaders on Thursday and Saturday. Wind Surge Wisdom Wichita 6, San Antonio 4 Box Score Aaron Rozek: 4 ⅔ IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Kala’i Rosario (2-for-4, 2B, 2 R), Aaron Sabato (2-for-5, RBI), Andrew Cossetti (2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) The Wind Surge eked out a win on Wednesday. Wichita’s batters stole the story early, plating a pair of runs in the game’s opening frame before returning for two more in the third. Andrew Cossetti was the catalyst: he doubled in a score in his first at-bat and singled home another runner in his second trip to the plate. He alone netted half of the team’s hits with runners in scoring position before the game was ⅓ over. Aaron Rozek delivered an unusual outing; his 4 ⅔ frames with just one earned run was ideal, but he also surrendered seven hits and a walk, forcing the lefty to labor for his outs and sweat for his runs allowed. Still, it worked. And he lowered his Wichita ERA to 3.67. His three strikeouts were tied for a season-low. Gabriel Gonzalez walked in the sixth to push across a fifth run, and a sixth and final run scored in the eighth off a wild pitch. Gonzalez was a force all night: the recently promoted outfielder walked twice, singled, stole a base, and scored two runs in a critical evening as the team’s cleanup hitter. Mike Paredes earned the win to push his record to a perfect 6-0 out of the bullpen. That’s one hell of a good luck charm. The Missions are an affiliate of the San Diego Padres. While their uber prospect Ethan Salas plays for them, he has been injured since the middle of April, leaving their 17th-ranked player, Romeo Sanabria, as their best prospect on Wednesday. He singled twice and drove in a run. Kernels Nuggets Like their AAA counterparts, Cedar Rapids found the weather too hazardous for baseball; they will make up the match with a doubleheader on Friday. Mussel Matters Fort Myers 3, Lakeland 5 Box Score Michael Carpenter: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Yasser Mercedes (2-for-3, R, RBI), Poncho Ruiz (2-for-4, 2B, RBI), Angel Del Rosario (2-for-2, 2B, R) Fort Myers came up short on Wednesday. Despite his team’s fortunes, starter Michael Carpenter likely walked away from the game relieved. May had been a sore sport; the lefty trudged through back-to-back stinkers that ballooned his numbers and flattened his ego. Yet—after four quality innings without a single earned run—he appears to have put the pain behind him, at least for one day. Unfortunately, Josh Bortka saw a different fate. Evidently drenched in nerves, the recent minor league signee made his Fort Myers debut, and walked four batters while netting just two outs. A run scored on a balk. Another via a sacrifice fly. A third and final run dashed home off an RBI groundout. One is reminded of Yennier Cano’s erratic Fort Myers debut six years ago; if he can recover, so can Bortka. The bats never found chemistry. They cracked nine hits—including a trio of doubles—but almost always at inopportune times; the Mighty Mussels only scratched across three runs, all in single-score intervals. Rehabbing minor league Payton Eeles singled in three trips to the plate. Rehabbing big leaguer Matt Vierling played 3rd base for Lakeland, driving in a run and walking in four plate appearances. MLB.com’s 46th-ranked prospect, Bryce Rainer, played shortstop for the Flying Tigers. He singled and struck out in four at-bats. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Michael Carpenter Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Gabriel Gonzalez PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #14 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 1-3, 2 R, RBI, BB #17 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-4, BB, K #18 – Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 2-3, R, RBI #19 – Carson McCusker (Twins) - 0-1, K THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Norfolk @ St. Paul (5:07 PM) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson Norfolk @ St. Paul Game Two - RHP Marco Raya Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 PM) - RHP Ricky Castro Cedar Rapids @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM) - RHP Jeremy Lee Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM) - RHP Dylan Questad FCL Pirates @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM) - TBD View full article

Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images Box Score Joe Ryan: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K Home Runs: None Top 3 WPA: Joe Ryan (.303), Kody Clemens (.098), Trevor Larnach (.084) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 12 games is the winning streak set by the 2024 squad. Indeed the (in)famous “rally sausage” carried the team from the bowels of terribleness to relevance, at least for a time. The ultimate fate last year was disappointing. We’re in the middle of discovering what 2025 holds for the present collection of players. First, the Twins scored. Twice. Facing Chad Patrick—another in a seemingly endless supply of Milwaukee’s eclectic quality hurlers—Trevor Larnach wore an inside cutter, Ryan Jeffers smashed a single to right, and Ty France copied his teammate to score the game’s opening run. Genteel behavior would have to wait; Minnesota was ready to rumble early. Kody Clemens singled in the frame’s second score. One inning later, Ryan Jeffers grounded himself and Christian Vázquez to plate the uniquely underwhelming baseball outcome: a run-scoring double play. Oh well. The Twins lead stood at three after just two innings. Just as well, the plague of injuries cursing the Twins all season struck once more before this author could even reference the game’s starting pitcher: Willi Castro fouled a pitch off his knee in his first at-bat; he toughed out an inning before exiting the game to give 30-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald his first taste of the big leagues. Joe Ryan was the man tasked with defending this lead. Known for his eccentricities and antics, Ryan’s pitching mound demeanor alone would render his starts critical viewing; in play to start the season, Ryan might just be one of the best hurlers in the AL. He entered Friday with just five walks, 54 strikeouts, and a 2.74 ERA across 46 innings—and he continued his excellence against the Brewers. You’d be forgiven if his first inning churned skepticism regarding another great start; he tossed 30 pitches while allowing a hit and a walk, only finally exiting the inning when his last offering fell harmlessly into Larnach’s glove, about five feet in front of the outfield wall. His fastball command wasn’t where it needed to be. Then, it was. The righty came out for the second with a renewed vigor. The heater found the spots he looked for; Milwaukee wilted as he struck out eight in a row. The frames melted into each other. An occasional lapse in control revealed that Ryan wasn’t in complete control of his arsenal—they’ll call it “effectively wild” when it works—yet he walked off the mound following six shutout innings with nine strikeouts. The sloppy first only proved to be a pitch count burden, perhaps the only thing that limited him from pitching further into the game. Brock Stewart entered as Minnesota’s opening bullpen arm. Two men reached, but the other three went down on strikes. Griffin Jax followed. He struck out two. Then... Cole Sands? The closer? Sure. He struck out a pair with just 11 pitches. The streak extends to 12. Notes: After 684 minor league games, Ryan Fitzgerald made his MLB debut on Friday. Joe Ryan's nine strikeouts give him 588 in his Twins career, passing Rick Aguilera for the 17th-most Ks in team history. He's 22 behind Eddie Guardado. Griffin Jax earned his 13th hold on Friday, tying with him Lucas Erceg for the major league lead. Post-Game Interview: What’s Next? The Twins and Brewers play again on Saturday, with Pablo López set to start against Tobias Myers. First pitch is at 6:15 PM. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Ryan Fitzgerald) TRANSACTIONS RHP Jack Noble activated from 7-day IL (Cedar Rapids) OF Byron Chourio placed on 7-day IL with left oblique strain (Fort Myers) LHP Kody Funderburk recalled from AAA St. Paul (27th man) Saints Sentinel St. Paul 5, Iowa 10 Box Score Cory Lewis: 3 1/3 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 3 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Ryan Fitzgerald (4-for-5, 2 2B, R, RBI, BB), Will Holland (2-for-3, R), Patrick Winkel (2-for-5, R) The Saints stranded a small army to lose on Wednesday. Really, it appeared neither team was interested in playing a clean game of baseball. Both squads walked more than they struck out; there were nine combined steals, with just one baserunner caught, and each squad netted an outfield assist. Perhaps the credit should go to the ones igniting the fury—the hitters who walked, the runners who stole, the outfielders who threw—but the end result was the same: someone often looked foolish on Wednesday. Cory Lewis continued his 2025 struggles. The hurler who looked so polished in 2023 and 2024 bears little resemblance to the one pitching these days, and his start on Wednesday only made matters worse, with nine allowed baserunners, five earned runs, and just three strikeouts. His ERA is over 9.00. His WHIP is over 2.00. He threw as many balls as strikes on Wednesday. Hopefully, he re-finds his groove soon. On the surface, the Saints’ offense was potent: they took 10 walks and knocked 12 hits. Seven of their starting nine players reached base multiple times, and one of the ones who didn’t—Carson McCusker—still accrued two RBIs. But, the team couldn’t make the most of their opportunities, and left a franchise-tying record 15 men on base. This isn’t the juiced way to count runners left on base, either; even the typically conservative counting method couldn’t disguise the clutch impotence. Ryan Fitzgerald reached base five times to push his season slash line to .336/.431/.541. 18th-ranked MLB prospect Matt Shaw played third for the Cubs, singling twice and walking in five plate appearances. Wind Surge Wisdom Wichita 11, Arkansas 9 Box Score Connor Prielipp: 2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K HR: Ricardo Olivar (5), Jorel Ortega (3) Multi-hit games: Ricardo Olivar (3-for-5, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI), Rubel Cespedes (2-for-5), Kala’i Rosario (2-for-4, R), Jorel Ortega (2-for-3, HR, R, 4 RBI) An offensive outburst favored the Wind Surge on Wednesday. Ricardo Olivar delivered the team’s first major knock, following up a Tanner Schobel RBI single in the third with a three-run homer just over the left field wall to give Wichita the lead. The lead was only two, not four, because Connor Prielipp labored to start the game. He allowed four straight batters to reach before coaxing three consecutive outs. A clean second proved he was back on track, but an elevated pitch count of 49 was too high for manager Brian Dinkelman, who yanked his lefty to give him the rare all deuces pitching line. Pierson Ohl, Jarret Whorff, John Stankiewicz, and Cody Laweryson combined to deliver the game’s remaining seven frames, with the four hurlers turning in inconsistent results. Ohl surrendered two over two innings, Whorff was knocked for one across a pair of innings, Stankiewicz was blasted for four in just 1 1/3 innings, and Laweryson saw the best of it, giving up two walks and two hits but nonetheless succeeding in earning five outs without an earned run. A bad day to be a bullpen man. Fortunately, Wichita’s bats never stopped attacking Travelers pitching. That four-run third portended dual empty frames, but the scoring roared into overdrive starting with a two-run knock by Jorel Ortega in the sixth. More shenanigans in the seventh allowed for a Tyler Dearden double to score two, before Ortega struck again, this time for a two-run blast. Kyler Fedko capped the action with a final run-scoring single in the eighth. Former Twins farmhand Yoyner Fajardo pinch-ran for Arkansas and scored a run. The Travelers are an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Despite usually owning a talented farm system, the franchise is thin on excellent Double-A players; their best offering on Wednesday was their 24th-ranked prospect, outfielder Jared Sundstrom. He cracked three hits in five trips to the plate. Kernels Nuggets Cedar Rapids 6, Peoria 7 (11 Innings) Box Score Tanner Hall: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K HR: Gabriel Gonzalez (4), Danny De Andrade (3) Multi-hit games: Gabriel Gonzalez (3-for-5, HR, 2 R, RBI), Khadim Diaw (2-for-4, R), Misael Urbina (2-for-5, 2B, RBI) The Kernels fell in extra innings on Wednesday. The typical introductions for the game—a scoreless first; the almost gentlemanly formality that introduces our competitors—did not arrive for Tanner Hall. Not even close. He only escaped the frame once four Chiefs had crossed home plate, with the scores coming via an elaborate series of dinks and dunks that would make the piranhas of old proud. Someone even stole home (on a double steal, but still!) Hall found his footing and worked four more innings without allowing any extra runs—an impressive outcome given how disastrous his outing started. Cedar Rapids fought back against the fracas. Gabriel Gonzalez launched his fourth homer of the season in the fourth to get his team on the board. An RBI double by Misael Urbina the next frame, and a two-run shot by Danny De Andrade the inning after that pushed the Kernels’ run total to four. That didn’t tie the game, though, because the Chiefs had plated one more run in the sixth, but a clutch Nate Baez single in the eighth knotted the match at five. So it stood until the two teams entered Manfred Ball time. They passed on scoring in the 10th before Peoria struck for two in the 11th, giving them a lead they would not relinquish. Kevin Maitan ushered in a run off a sacrifice fly in vain; the game ended two batters later with an Urbina strikeout. The Chiefs are an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. None of their top 30 prospects played in Wednesday’s game. Mussel Matters Fort Myers 4, Jupiter 3 (10 Innings) Box Score Michael Ross: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K HR: None Multi-hit games: None The Mighty Mussels won in extras on Wednesday. 2024 draftee Michael Ross earned the nod, going three solid innings with one earned run and a pair of strikeouts for his troubles. His career ERA after 13 frames stands at 2.77. He enjoyed early run support, with a pair of first-inning runs coming from RBI singles by Yasser Mercedes and Miguel Briceno. A third Mighty Mussels run scored in the fifth via a Jay Thomason sacrifice fly. Jupiter plated two to tie the game off Madison native Jacob Kisting when a 14-pitch at bat resulted in a double dumped into left field, taking out Thomason when another Mighty Mussel collided with him. Maddux Houghton replaced the injured left fielder. The game settled into a cold war equality, with neither team scoring in the seventh, eighth, or ninth to send the game into extra innings. Fort Myers plated their free run off a wild pitch, and Hunter Hoopes held the Hammerheads at bay in the bottom of the frame to clinch the win for the Mighty Mussels. Second baseman Andrew Salas, brother of Jose, is the Marlins’ sixth-ranked prospect. He singled twice and earned a pair of walks in five plate appearances. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Michael Ross Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Ryan Fitzgerald PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #3 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-3, 2B, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K #5 – Connor Prielipp (Wichita) - 2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K #6 – Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-5 2B, K #9 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, R, BB, K #12 – Cory Lewis (St. Paul) - 3 1/3 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 3 K #14 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 3-5, HR, 2 R, RBI #17 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-5, R, RBI, K #18 – Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-4, 2 R, RBI, BB, 2 K #19 – Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 0-3, 2 RBI, BB, K #20 – Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 3-5, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, K THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Iowa (12:08 PM) - RHP Marco Raya St. Paul @ Iowa Game Two - RHP Darren McCaughan Arkansas @ Wichita (6:35 PM) - LHP Aaron Rozek Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM) - RHP Jose Olivares Fort Myers @ Jupiter (5:30 PM) - LHP Michael Carpenter FCL Twins @ FCL Rays (11:00 AM) - TBD View full article

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images Box Score Chris Paddack: 7 ⅓ IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K Home Runs: None Top 3 WPA: Chris Paddack (.305), Byron Buxton (.143), Carlos Correa (.095) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) After a tepid start to the season, fortune seems to have found the Twins. Yet another uninspiring outing last Friday begat a five-game winning streak. The typical pitfalls—untimely hitting; poor defense; inconsistent relief pitching—turned, with the club appearing before us bearing a different nature than the one lamented and consternated over just a week ago. Would that success continue? We shall see. Minnesota wasted little time starting the game’s action. Byron Buxton locked onto one of Jordan Hicks’ signature sinkers and cracked the offering deep into the right-center gap; he dashed around the bases to showcase one of the game’s most gorgeous plays: a Buxton triple. Trevor Larnach singled him home two pitches later. That early run was likely appreciated by Chris Paddack, who entered May 9th winless, with a 5.57 ERA stretched across 32 ⅓ innings. For whatever reason, the usually competent righty hadn’t found 2025 friendly; hitters had crushed his fastball, and the changeup that seemed to always coax critical outs more often landed safely in green grass. The world seemingly had no more room for sheriffs. Yet, May 9th nearly became a historic day for Paddack. He dodged a 1st-inning homer scare—Willy Adames’ deep fly ball to left appeared a homer so convincing that the umpires allowed him to jog the bases before erasing the score—and fell into a deep groove. The heater had life. Breakers nicked the zone. Every offering looked like the exact one the batter least expected. Paddack was almost impossibly good. Even the best hurlers rarely dice through major league batters with such efficiency; he sat at just 73 pitches after seven innings. And he came awfully close to throwing a perfect game. Closer than most will ever get. That’s the funny thing about such an accomplishment: it doesn’t suddenly appear, rather, a perfect game builds over a few hours, evolving from a “man, he looks good” type of feeling, to a few “this is legitimately possible” thoughts, before concluding with anxious intensity. Paddack didn’t reach that final stage, but he did pitch until the sixth before surrendering his first base runner. And it wasn’t until the seventh that the Giants finally scored a run off him. In the end, he’ll settle for a garden-variety excellent start. I’m sure that’s still a terribly comforting feeling. For their part, Minnesota continued to support their starter throughout the game. Carlos Correa singled home Ty France in the fourth, thanks in large part to a clever decision to dart to 2nd to coax a cutoff that otherwise may have nabbed the lethargic France. Then, Buxton added a third run the following frame by poking an RBI single into left field. At 3-1 heading into the 8th, Paddack remained on the mound. He certainly earned the privilege. Heliot Ramos solidly stroked a single into center and LaMonte Wade Jr. flew out. That was enough. Rocco Baldelli pulled his starter, who exited the game to a heroes’ chorus of cheers and admiration. There remained just one problem: the bullpen. Rather, who of Minnesota's relievers would finish the game, given that Griffin Jax and Jhoan Durán had pitched on back-to-back days. Louis Varland entered first, and cleanly worked out of the eighth. The ninth coaxed... Danny Coulombe? Sure. The lefty hadn't allowed a run since perhaps the Nixon administration. And the decision worked out: Coulombe erased three San Francisco hitters with just nine pitches. Eight for strikes. The final out landed softly in Harrison Bader's glove, and it officially added a sixth win to the Twins' winning streak. Notes: Byron Buxton earned the 27th triple of his career, giving him the 14th-most in Twins history. He's three away from tying Joe Mauer. Danny Coulombe extended his scoreless inning streak to 25 ⅓. Chris Paddack reached the eighth inning for the first time since May 19th, 2024. Byron Buxton is slashing .419/.486/.806 in May. What’s Next? The Twins and Giants face off again on Saturday, with Joe Ryan set to battle against Logan Webb. First pitch is at 6:15 PM. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

I completely agree. I think this is what makes evaluating hitting in the low levels of the minors such a crapshoot. It really can't be understated how underdeveloped these pitchers often are.

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Rubel Cespedes) TRANSACTIONS No moves were made on Wednesday. Saints Sentinel St. Paul 8, Buffalo 7 Box Score Andrew Morris: 5 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K HR: Ryan Fitzgerald (3), Mike Ford (7) Multi-hit games: Ryan Fitzgerald (3-for-5, HR, 2B, 2 R, RBI), Mickey Gasper (2-for-3, 2B, 2 R, 2 BB), Edouard Julien (2-for-5, R, RBI), Jeferson Morales (2-for-4, R) The Saints won on a walk-off on Wednesday. Yet again, Andrew Morris demonstrated his unique ability to deliver pitching lines rarely seen by man. Only he can turn eight hits into zero earned runs—with six strikeouts to boot. At this point, I’m in awe; this is a master of a specific craft and every time he pitches we see something new. (The good news is that, for the most part, these lines are in his favor.) The Saints offense sputtered for a few innings before roaring into gear, turning the middle frames into a bloodbath spilled upon Buffalo pitchers. First, Will Holland crushed a pitch about as far as possible without netting a homer, instead settling for an RBI double. In the next inning, Ryan Fitzgerald homered before Mickey Gasper walked and stole second, leading to Carson McCusker pulverizing a run-scoring double. Finally, with two men on in the sixth, Edouard Julien cracked a single the other way, scoring two as the Bison’s left fielder forgot the process on how a human is supposed to pick up a baseball. For a time, that seemed to be the zenith of the game for St. Paul. Kyle Bischoff and Kody Funderburk endured brutal relief outings, with the latter surrendering a pair of back-breaking lead-relinquishing homers. Yet, St. Paul had one more rally in them. Julien singled to lead off the ninth, and McCusker walked to bring the winning run to the plate. That run—Mike Ford, perfectly capable of sending a ball into orbit—proved true, as the big man cracked a signature sky-scraper out to right field to win the game for the Saints. The Bisons are affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays, and their third-ranked prospect, Orelvis Martinez, played second base in Wednesday’s game. He went 0-for-5. Wind Surge Wisdom Wichita 5, NW Arkansas 6 (10 Innings) Box Score Trent Baker: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K HR: Rubel Cespedes (3) Multi-hit games: Tanner Schobel (4-for-6, 2B, 2 R, RBI), Rubel Cespedes (3-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI, 2 BB), Kala'i Rosario (2-for-6, 2B, K), Ben Ross (2-for-5, RBI, BB) Once again, Trent Baker was magnificent. He entered the game with an already miniscule 2.49 ERA on the year, and found a way to lower the number; his five scoreless frames brought it to 2.03. The minor-league Rule 5 pick from the Cardinals has been electric so far in 2025. Wichita ensured their starter would have early support. Tanner Schobel doubled on the fifth pitch of the game, and Rubel Cespedes homered three offerings later. Not to be outdone, the two again jumped on the Naturals’ starter for RBI knocks in the second; this time, Schobel singled and stole second base, while Cespedes doubled him home. That starter, by the way, was one-time 21-game-winner Kyle Wright, rehabbing to potentially pitch again in the big leagues for the first time since 2023. That second inning proved the height of Wichita’s offensive powers, as they fought rabidly to put runners on in subsequent frames, but couldn’t break through like they did so easily to start the game. As well, what looked to be a breezy victory turned sour thanks to one man: Gavin Cross. What a terror. The Naturals DH launched a two-run shot in the seventh, and repeated his feat in the ninth to tie a game two outs away from its potential conclusion. Instead, we went into Manfred Man territory. The Wind Surge plated their run, but came up short on a second score when Cespedes was called out at third on a sacrifice fly double-play. NW Arkansas made them pay for that mistake: they jumped on Cody Laweryson, walking off the game just three batters into the bottom of the tenth. 18th-ranked MLB prospect, Jac Caglianone, singled and walked in five plate appearances. Kernels Nuggets Cedar Rapids 6, Beloit 5 Box Score Alejandro Hidalgo: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Kyle DeBarge (2-for-5, 2 R), Danny De Andrade (2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) The Kernels eked out a win on Wednesday. Cedar Rapids drew first blood, turning a Kyle DeBarge single and stolen base—typical DeBarge activities these days—into a run with a Danny De Andrade double. That would be the only score in the first, but three runs were ushered in the following frame, with the Kernels doing so without netting a base hit. The sequence went as follows: pop out, hit by pitch, stolen base, walk, hit by pitch, walk, strikeout, hit by pitch, wild pitch, groundout. It was ugly, and painful, but three runs are three runs. The scores aided starter Alejandro Hidalgo, who glided through the first inning before running into trouble in the 2nd and 3rd; Beloit scored twice in each frame, although because of a Brandon Winokur error, one of the runs was unearned. The two squads were knotted at five heading into the eighth. Kaelen Culpepper walked and DeBarge took his place after a groundout. After advancing to second, DeBarge skated home when De Andrade singled into right, giving him the game’s opening and ending RBIs. In total, the Kernels were hit by six pitches, with Jamie Ferrer suffering the worst of it; he was hit three times by three different pitches. He may need some extra ice. The Sky Carp are an affiliate of the Miami Marlins, and sent the 79th overall prospect in baseball, Noble Meyer, to the mound on Wednesday. He allowed five earned runs across 2 1/3 innings. DeBarge is slashing .284/.402/.477 so far this year with 16 stolen bases. Mussel Matters Fort Myers 3, Dunedin 7 Box Score Adrian Bohorquez: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K HR: Yasser Mercedes (2) Multi-hit games: None The Mighty Mussels found a dearth of hitting on Wednesday. Adrian Bohorquez continued his rough start to the year. His 2 2/3 inning, two-run season debut on May 1st portended Wednesday’s tepid outing, which was mostly ruined by a two-homer third inning. Still, the righty struck out five and earned six whiffs off 10 swings at his breaking balls. He topped out at 95.7 MPH. Fort Myers’ batters faced a tough foe, as Dunedin’s starter was the 82nd-ranked prospect in MLB, Trey Yesavage. The 2024 first-round pick diced them up, punching out seven across five frames with just two hits allowed and one earned run. But did those hits ever count. The first was an RBI double by Peyton Carr, while the second was a two-run shot by Yasser Mercedes, plating a pair of unearned runs. (Statcast is somehow blanking on the metrics for that homer, which is a shame; he smoked that one.) Bohorquez’s departure left an opening for Cole Peschl to soak up innings. The righty entered the game with a perfect ERA across 17 1/3 innings in 2025… and he finally revealed mortality. Orel Hershiser can sleep peacefully. Still, he totaled 4 1/3 frames with seven strikeouts and five baserunners allowed, which is far from a disastrous outing. The Mighty Mussels failed to get a hit following Mercedes’ third-inning homer. Fort Myers pitchers struck out 16 batters on Wednesday. The aforementioned Yesavage was Dunedun’s highest-ranked prospect in the game. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Trent Baker Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Rubel Cespedes PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #2 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-3, BB, 3 K #5 – Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K #7 – Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, RBI, 2 BB, 2 K #8 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, RBI, 3 K #13 – Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-5, 2 R #15 – Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, 2 K #18 – Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 2-6, 2B, K THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Buffalo @ St. Paul (6:37 PM) - RHP Cory Lewis Wichita @ NW Arkansas (7:05 PM) - LHP Connor Prielipp Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (6:05 PM) - RHP Tanner Hall Dunedin @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM) - RHP Jakob Hall FCL Twins @ FCL Orioles (11:00 AM) - TBD View full article

Once again, we'll take a close look at the best youngsters the Twins minor league teams had to offer, and crown one pitcher as the best of the best, while also spotlighting the other performers who deserved attention. Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Zebby Matthews) Before we get to the list, let me quickly explain how I like to analyze starters. Innings are king; the ultimate point of pitching is to accrue outs, so I use innings as the center of my statistical solar system, in which everything else revolves around. That means I have a bias towards older players, which I try to account for and adjust. Then, I'll evaluate how effective a player was at run prevention, which, again, is the ultimate job of pitching. Although they are presented, I've lessened my use of peripherals, as they are more descriptive of how a player will perform in the future, not how they did in the past, which is what these awards are about. Finally, defining a "starting pitcher" in the minors is somewhat nebulous, as bulk hurlers will get time in as a starter, and as a bullpen arm depending on what the team needs. My line is this: a relief outing isn't completely thrown out, but it weighs less than a start. Let's get to the honorable mentions. Honorable Mentions Jason Doktorczyk - A Fort Myers, 2.70 ERA, 20 IP, 3.34 FIP Jason Doktorczyk perhaps enjoyed the most dominant start so far in the Twins’ minor league system, hurling a 0 ER, 10 K outing on the 18th. Three of his appearances came out of the bullpen, though, which kept him off the list proper. Dasan Hill, A Fort Myers - 1.69 ERA, 10 2/3 IP, 2.29 FIP On efficiency alone, I don’t think anyone topped Dasan Hill, whose first foray into pro ball resulted in a 50% K rate across 10 ⅔ innings. That’s 21 whiffs. Disgusting stuff. Christian MacLeod, A Fort Myers/AA Wichita - 0.00 ERA, 10 IP, 1.83 FIP Because he spent time rehabbing an injury, Christian MacLeod ended the month with just 10 frames, but also didn’t allow a run, which seemed deserving of a mention. Dylan Questad, A Fort Myers - 1.38 ERA, 13 IP, 3.27 FIP Dylan Questad has so far rebounded from a walk-filled showing at rookie ball, dominating A-ball with 18 strikeouts across 13 innings. Only two runs were scored off him. Jose Olivares, A+ Cedar Rapids - 0.00 ERA, 10 2/3 IP, 2.04 FIP Again, zero earned runs. You literally can’t beat that. The total innings were low, though, which just narrowly kept Jose Olivares off the list. 5. Charlee Soto, A+ Cedar Rapids - 1.38 ERA, 13 IP, 2.61 FIP, 28.3 K% 2025 has been kind to the former 2023 1st-rounder. While he often battled control issues in 2024—walking 33 batters across 74 innings—Charlee Soto appears to have found an elevated sharpness in his game. The walks are manageable—and he has so far dominated his competition. There’s a lot to be excited about regarding Soto. 19 year olds pitching at A+ ball don’t grow on trees; and ones with fastball traits like Soto are even more rare. He’s more than four years younger than the average player at the level, and he’s doing so while throwing high-90s velocity with improved movement. Again, you simply don’t see pitchers like this every day. The only bad news is that Soto is currently on the mend for right triceps soreness. Hopefully, he’s only off the mound for a short time. 4. Trent Baker, AA Wichita - 2.49 ERA, 21 ⅔ IP, 3.69 FIP, 21.5 K% A newcomer to the organization, Trent Baker joined the Twins as a minor league Rule 5 pick following four seasons with the Cardinals franchise. A ninth-round selection out of Angelo State University, the same college as Fort Myers’ Kade Bragg, Baker was never a top prospect, but pitched well in 2022 and 2023 before suffering command problems in 2024. He was also a Mankato MoonDog in 2019. Back in 2023, Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs mentioned Baker as an off-the-list guy to look out for, calling his changeup a “usual plus” pitch, while his delivery was “as violent as the end of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and more typical of a reliever.” He’s nonetheless buoyed the Wichita rotation so far in 2025. The righty made five starts, going at least three innings in all of them, while never allowing more than a trio of earned runs in any one outing. While other hurlers may have beat him in run suppression and efficiency, Baker came out on top in terms of innings; only one other pitcher named in this article threw more innings in April than him. 3. Cole Peschl, A Fort Myers - 0.00 ERA, 14 IP, 2.10 FIP, 33.3 K% Like his rotation mate, Hill, Cole Peschl’s placement here is an acknowledgement of his ridiculous efficiency. 14 innings without an earned run is impressive no matter how you slice it; yet he did so with 19 strikeouts, a WHIP of 1.00, and an opposing batting average under .200. In his first month of professional baseball. That’s worthy of praise. The Twins selected Peschl in the 15th round of the 2024 draft out of Campbell University, which claims a few notable current players like Cedric Mullins and Zach Neto (also, does the team have an obsession with the Carolinas? It seems to be a hotbed for players and prospects alike.) The righty held just a 5.48 ERA in college and almost transferred to Oregon, but he decided to join Minnesota, and the early returns look extremely promising. He made an appearance on May 1st—which doesn’t count for this list—in which he tossed 3 1/3 scoreless while striking out eight, giving him an absurd 27 Ks over 17 1/3 clean frames to start the season. He certainly would have ranked even higher if all his outings were starts, and if that most recent outing didn’t come after April ended. In any case, the team usually has a late-round breakout pitcher, and Peschl looks like a good bet to be that this year. 2. Darren Bowen, AA Wichita - 1.50 ERA, 18 IP, 3.88 FIP, 22.5 K% You don’t typically see a player eschew a 10 loss, 6.07 ERA season and dominate a higher level, but Darren Bowen’s April proved an exception. He was magnificent for the Wind Surge, never allowing more than one earned run in any of his outings, while tossing at least four frames in each appearance. You may be forgiven if you forgot about Bowen, who was probably the least-known player arriving from the Mariners in the Jorge Polanco trade. While Anthony DeSclafani and Justin Topa were big leaguers—and Gabriel Gonzalez was a well-regarded prospect—Bowen was a small-school lotto ticket. His alma mater of UNC Pembroke has just one big leaguer—River Ryan. Still, Bowen’s lankiness and projections made him a fascinating prospect. His 2024 was messy, but his 2025 is off to a tremendous start. He’ll claim the silver for our Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month honors today (there’s no actual award for this.) 1. Zebby Matthews, AAA St. Paul - 1.93 ERA, 23 ⅓ IP, 1.87 FIP, 30.9 K% For maybe the 30th time as a pro, Zebby Matthews has been named Twins Daily’s Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month. For as close as the rest of the list was, the winner was strangely straightforward: no other starter in the system married workload with efficiency like Matthews, who tossed the most innings of any Twins minor leaguer in April, while also carrying a sub-2.00 ERA. And he struck out over 30% of batters faced. Yeah, that’ll do. Zebby’s April 1st start set the tone for the month. He totaled five remarkably clean innings, allowing a lone hit while striking out four. Then came the whiff monster: in back-to-back outings he punched out nine and seven batters, respectively, before ending with two relative clunkers. (Relative being the key word: he allowed two earned runs across 8 1/3 innings but nonetheless allowed a lot of traffic, and was at least a little fortunate his ERA didn’t inflate more.) Matthews is everything you would want in a pitcher. A big guy with stuff and command, he’s spent almost his entire professional career laying waste to minor league hitters; with them often spending most of their day against him walking back to the dugout, slumped and confused. Across 228 2/3 minor league innings, he holds a 3.07 ERA. With Zebby, the only question left is opportunity; he’s clearly demonstrated a dominance of the minors, leaving the majors as his final stepping stone. Due to the nature of pitchers, he’ll invariably earn a chance—an injury here; a double-header there will make sure of that—and that’s when we will see if he can make the jump. Until then, he’ll have to settle for earning our Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month honors for April 2025. View full article