Seth Stohs

Image courtesy of David Malamut (photo of Gabriel Gonzalez) The Twins streak now stands at 11 consecutive wins, and they have had contributions from more than just the current 26-man roster. St. Paul played two games in Des Moines. You'll want to see how #McCrusher did. You may not want to see how Marco Raya did? Wichita got some solid pitching, but very little offense. Speaking of offense, you will definitely want to see how things went in Cedar Rapids on Thursday night. An "electric" prospect began his rehab assignment with a couple of hits for the Mighty Mussels. And, a rough streak came to an end in the FCL. It was a busy day in the Twins organization on Thursday. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 24-20 St. Paul Saints: 21-18 Wichita Wind Surge: 20-16 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 21-14 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 16-20 FCL Twins: 5-3 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS On Thursday morning, the Twins optioned RHP Simeon Woods Richardson to St. Paul. LHP Kody Funderburk, who was the Twins 27th man for Wednesday’s double header, will remain with the team on the 26-man roster. Infielder Armando Alvarez was activated by the Saints before their Thursday afternoon doubleheader. Infielder Payton Eeles begins his rehab assignment following offseason knee surgery with the Mighty Mussels. Unfortunately, Fort Myers put their top hitter, Jay Thomason, on the 7-Day Injured List with a right ankle sprain. SAINTS SENTINEL Game 1: St. Paul 3, Iowa 8 Box Score Marco Raya needed 35 pitches to get through the first inning in his previous outing. Was Thursday’s start any better? Matt Shaw singled to lead off but was erased on a fielder’s choice. He walked Jonathan Long, but Carlos Perez struck out. A walk to Christian Franklin filled the bases. James Triantos came to the plate. With a 2-2 count, on Raya’s 28th pitch, Triantos doubled to empty the bases. One pitch later, Raya was out of the inning. In the bottom of the second inning, Raya got a groundout to start things. A walk to Shaw was followed by a strikeout and a pop out. Raya started the third inning. He gave up a leadoff double but then got the next two batters to ground out. He walked a batter, and that was it for his day. Travis Adams came on and got the final out without any further damage. Raya was charged with three runs on three hits and five walks in 2 2/3 innings. He had two strikeouts. He reached 67 pitches, but just 32 of them were strikes. Adams had a rough fourth inning in which he gave up four runs, but with the doubleheader, he had to work through it and, to some degree, had to eat some for the team. He went the final 3 1/3 innings and gave up five runs on five hits and a walk. Down 7-0 going into the fifth inning, the Saints tried to mount a comeback. Emmanuel Rodriguez led off with his fifth double. Jair Camargo followed with his second home run of the season to cut the deficit to 7-2. Those two hits accounted for two of the Saints six hits in the game. Carson McCusker went 3-for-3 in the game. Game 2: St. Paul 7, Iowa 8 Box Score The Saints got out to an early lead in the second game, but the late-inning bullpen struggled to close the door in the bottom of the seventh and then again in the bottom of the eighth. Let’s start with the positive, at least from the pitching standpoint. Darren McCaughan started and gave up one run on six hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out five batters. The lone run he gave up was on a Matt Shaw home run in the bottom of the first inning. The Saints took the lead in the second frame. With two outs, Will Holland doubled to drive in Jeferson Morales. Holland scored on a wild pitch. St. Paul added two more in the third inning. Carson McCusker led off with a double. He scored on a Mike Ford single. It was a bit station-to-station with Ford leading the way. Armando Alvarez singled Ford to second. Jair Camargo singled Ford to third. Next, Morales hit a sacrifice fly to left field, deep enough to score Ford from third. Fast-forward to the top of the seventh inning. The Saints were ahead 4-1 and added one more for insurance. Mike Ford doubled and scored on an Emmanuel Rodriguez triple to make it 5-1. A good lead with just three outs to go. Jacob Bosiokovic came in to replace Ryan Jensen who pitched a scoreless sixth inning despite giving up two hits and two walks. The I-Cubs came out attacking the zone. Just eight pitches into the bottom of the seventh, it was a one-run game at 5-4. Owen Caissie doubled. Jonathan Long switched places with him. Reese McGuire hit a two-run homer. But Bosiokovic settled a bit. He got a fly out and a ground out. The Cubs called upon Carlos Perez to pinch hit, and he hit the third pitch he saw 413 feet to tie the game at 5-5. To extra innings, we go, err, they went! In the top of the eighth, Jair Camargo was the Manfred Man on second base. Morales was hit by a pitch. Two outs later, there were still runners on first and third. However, Mickey Gasper came up big again for the Saints and drilled a two-run double. With a two-run lead, the Saints turned to lefty Brady Feigl. With a runner on second base, Royce Lewis’s high school teammate Chase Strumpf hit Feigl’s seventh pitch out of the park for his seventh home run of the season. Game tied. One pitch later, Matt Shaw must have been guessing first-pitch changeup because that’s what he got and he stayed back and drilled it over the wall in right-center field for the walkoff I-Cubs win. The Iowa Cubs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. This roster is filled with top prospects despite recent promotions of RHP Cade Horton and C/1B Moises Ballesteros to the big leagues. For more on the Cubs, check out our sister site, North Side Baseball. Here are their Top 20 Cubs prospects. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 3, Arkansas 5 Box Score The Wind Surge have been a bit streaky early this season. In this game, they got some solid pitching but just couldn’t push enough runs across the plate. Lefty Aaron Rozek started and was charged with two runs on six hits and two walks over five innings. He had six strikeouts. John Klein came on and gave up an unearned run on one hit and one walk over his three innings. He had four strikeouts. Michael Martinez came in for the ninth inning and gave up two runs on two hits. The big blow was a two-run homer off the bat of Hunter Fitz-Gerald. The battery did help itself a few times. Ricardo Olivar picked a runner off of third base. Rozek and Klein each picked a runner off of second base. In fact, in the top of the fifth, the second out came on Olivar’s pick off and was immediately followed by Rozek picking off a runner at second. That could be a momentum changer. Down 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Ben Ross led off with a walk and stole second base. He scored on a Noah Cardenas double. Aaron Sabato lined a single to left, pushing Cardenas to third base. Tyler Dearden flew out, but it was deep enough to score Cardenas and tie the game at 2-2. In the top of the sixth, Klein entered. With one out, an infield single with a throwing error put a runner on second base. The next batter grounded back to the mound, but a throwing error pushed the unearned run across the plate. Klein might have been Minnesota Upset, because he got the last two batters that inning to strike out. In the bottom of the sixth, Kala’i Rosario doubled with one out and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Kyler Fedko drove him in with a sacrifice fly that tied things at 3-3. Offensively, the Kernels managed just six hits and a walk. Rosario’s double was his fifth, and Cardenas’s was his fourth. Ross was the only Surge hitter to reach twice, on a single and a walk. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 15, Peoria 7 Box Score This Cedar Rapids lineup is capable of this kind of offensive outburst on any given day or night. They have immense, and very young, talent and enjoy hitting. On Thursday night in Iowa, one of their key instigators returned to the lineup after missing a week, and things clicked throughout the lineup. A week ago, Kyle DeBarge was hit by a pitch and hasn’t played since. He returned to the lineup and immediately had an impression. In addition, on Wednesday night, Kaelen Culpepper took off from third base on The Contact Play ® and slid arms-first into the catcher. It appeared that he may have had a stinger, but it could have been much worse. It was good to see him atop the lineup again on Thursday. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, DeBarge walked. Brandon Winkour followed with a double, but a perfect relay got DeBarge at the plate. Fortunately, Gabriel Gonzalez crushed a home run to center field to give the Kernels a 2-0 lead. High-ceiling Jose Olivares started for the Kernels. He put two zeroes on the board before giving up four runs in the top of the third inning. So down 4-2 going to the bottom of the third, but Kernels batters went back to work. Jaime Ferrer led off with a single. Kaelen Culpepper was hit by a pitch. Kyle DeBarge singled to load the bases. Brandon Winokur drove in two runs with his 10th double of the season. Gabriel Gonzalez drove in two more when he switched spots with Winokur after hitting his 10th double. With one out, Khadim Diaw hit a long, two-run homer, his second of the season, to give the Kernels a six-run inning, and an 8-4 lead. Culpepper led off the fourth with a single, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. He was still standing there with two outs, but Gonzalez came through again, driving in the Twins 2024 top pick with his 11th double. The fifth inning began with Khadim Diaw’s second home run of the game and third of the season, but they didn’t stop there, at 10 runs. Nate Baez singled. Caden Kendle singled. Baez scored on Jaime Ferrer’s double. It marked his fourth straight multi-hit game. Culpepper was hit by a pitch for the second time which loaded the bases again. DeBarge lined a double down the left field line and all three runners scored to stretch the lead to 14-4. With one out, Gonzalez lined his fourth hit of the game. This time it was a single to drive in DeBarge for the Kernels 15th run. All four of Gonzalez’s hits produced at least one run. Samuel Perez tossed two scoreless innings to improve to 2-0. Paulshawn Pasqualotto gave up a solo homer but got three strikeouts in his inning. Gabriel Yanez gave up two runs on five hits over two innings. Juan Mercedes gave up a hit and a walk but no runs in the ninth. Kaelen Culpepper - single, twice hit by pitch, stole base, three runs Kyle DeBarge - single, double, two walks, two runs, 3 RBI Brandon Winokur - two doubles, two runs, two RBI Gabriel Gonzalez - single, two doubles, home run, two runs, six RBI Danny De Andrade - single Khadim Diaw - two home runs, two runs, three RBI Nate Baez - two singles, two walks. Caden Kendle - single Jaime Ferrer - single, double, walk, two runs, one RBI. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 6, Jupiter 12 Box Score Payton Eeles was in a lineup for the first time in 2025. He returned after having offseason knee surgery. In his first rehab game, he batted second and played second base. He went 2-for-3 and scored a run. Following the game, Eeles told Twins Daily, “(It) felt really good tonight, excited to be out there again. Was out for way too long.” Based on my DMs and messages, I think that Twins Daily readers are thrilled that Eeles is working his way back and we get to see his name in box scores again. Maddux Houghton went 2-for-3 with two walks. He hit his first triple and scored three runs. He also stole two bases. Miguel Briceno went 2-for-4 with a walk. Peyton Carr walked three times. Overall, the Mussels were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base. Michael Carpenter gave up four runs on six hits over a career-high three innings. He had three strikeouts with no walks. Jakob Hall came on. He gave up seven runs on nine hits and a walk. He had five strikeouts. Ivran Romero gave up a run on two hits in his inning. He struck out two batters. Devin Kirby had a strikeout in a perfect inning. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 1, FCL Rays 2 Box Score In the FCL Twins first game of the season, Eduardo Beltre hit a grand slam in his second at-bat. Since then, in these Twins Daily minor-league reports, his name hasn’t been mentioned with another hit. However, on Thursday, Beltre led off the game with a solid single, ending an 0-for-19 streak. With one out, he stole second base, and one batter later scored on a single by Bryan Acuna to give the Twins a 1-0 lead after a half-inning. Unfortunately, that was it for runs for the Twins. In fact, the only other hit was a double by Acuna. Melvin Rodriguez got the start for the Twins. He gave up two runs on two hits and two walks. He had one strikeout. Ruddy Gomez got the next two innings. He gave up three hits, but no runs and no walks. He struck out three batters. Santiago Rojas pitched a perfect sixth inning. Not a lot of highlights in this one Beltre’s streak ended, and Bryan Acuna had a single and his second double. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-6, 2-2B(11), HR(5), 2 R, 6 RBI, 2 K. Carson McCusker (St. Paul): 5-for-7, BB, 2-2B(11), R, K. Pitcher of the Day Darren McCaughan (St. Paul): 5 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 5 K. 85 pitches, 55 strikes (64.7%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - Game 1: 1-for-3, 2B(5), R; Game 2: 2-for-4, 2B(6), 3B(1), RBI, K #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2 HBP, 3 R, 2 K, SB(7). #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, 2-2B(10), 2 R, 2 RBI, K. #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, 2 BB, 2B(6), 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 K. #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 4-for-6, 2-2B(11), HR(5), 2 R, 6 RBI, 2 K #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 1-for-2, BB, R, K, SB(4) #18 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-for-5, 2 K. OF Assist. #19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - Game 1: 3-for-3, Game 2: 2-for-4, BB, 2-2B(11), R, K #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 0-for-4. FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Minnesota @ Milwaukee (7:10 PM CDT) - Joe Ryan (3-2, 2.74 ERA) St. Paul @ Iowa (7:08 PM CDT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (2-1, 1.93 ERA)? Arkansas @ Wichita (6:35 PM CDT) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 1.38 ERA) Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CDT) - Jeremy Lee (2-2, 8.20 ERA) Fort Myers @ Jupiter (5:30 PM CDT) - RHP Dylan Questad (1-1, 3.86 ERA) FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CDT) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (photos of Eli Jones and Jay Thomason) CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 21-20 St. Paul Saints: 20-15 Wichita Wind Surge: 19-14 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 20-12 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 15-18 FCL Twins: 5-1 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS There were no transactions announced on Sunday. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 3, Buffalo 2 Box Score This has been a series of wild games. Two games ended in walkoff homers. This weekend, the Saints won two games by one run. Travis Adams has primarily been working as the back-end of piggyback situations this season. On Sunday, he made a start. He went four innings and gave up two runs on three hits and three walks. He had one strikeout. When the backend of the piggyback guy started, it was all hands on deck for the Saints bullpen, and five relievers combined to get the job done. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Mickey Gasper homered again! He had four homers this week against Buffalo, and six home runs in 10 Triple-A games played. With two outs in the bottom of the first, Carson McCusker hit his 10th home run of the season to make it 2-0 Saints. After his 12-game hitting streak came to an end on Saturday, he quickly started a new streak. #McCrusher hit this ball 115.0 mph. Adams gave up two runs in the top of the fourth inning on a two-run single by Damiano Palmegiani. Jeferson Morales singled to lead off the bottom of the fourth and advanced to second on a fielding error. Jair Camargo singled to center to drive in Morales and give the Saints a 3-2 lead. And that was it for the scoring for both teams. Brady Feigl struck out two in a scoreless fifth inning. Kyle Bischoff, Richard Lovelady, Ryan Jensen, and Anthony Misiewicz each struck out one batter in a scoreless inning. It marked the fourth save for Misiewicz. The Buffalo Bisons are the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out our sister site, Jays Centre, and their Top 20 Blue Jays prospect rankings. Outfielder Alan Roden, 25, made the Jays opening day roster. He was optioned to Buffalo early this week and joined the Bisons in St. Paul on Thursday. He went 1-for-5 in that first game. Then over the next two games, he went 7-for-9 with a double, triple, homer and five RBI. He went 2-for-5 on Sunday. Going 10-for-19 (.526) with a (1.392) OPS over your first four games after a demotion is a good way to show management you want to get back! WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 6, NW Arkansas 4 Box Score The Wind Surge fell behind early, came back and took the lead in the fourth only to see the game tied up in the bottom of the eighth. That’s when the Surge bats’ responded in support of the team’s bullpen that had a solid day. Down 2-0, Ben Ross led off the top of the second with his third home run of the season. In the third, they loaded the bases, but didn’t score. In the fourth inning, Kyler Fedko led off with a walk. Noah Cardenas doubled to drive in him. After a Tyler Dearden walk and a Jake Rucker single loaded the bases again, Tanner Schobel flew out to center to drive in Cardenas. Darren Bowen made the start for the Wind Surge. He gave up two runs on one hit and one walk over three innings. John Klein worked the middle three innings without allowing a run. He gave up two hits and a walk and struck out two. Cody Laweryson got the next four outs and was charged with an unearned run. Jaylen Nowlin got the final five outs, three on strikeouts, to end the game. He allowed the tying run in the eighth inning. Noah Cardenas led off the top of the ninth inning with his second home run of the season. With one out Jake Rucker singled off of the pitcher. Tanner Schobel singled. Next up, Ricardo Olivar drove in Rucker with a double. Rubel Cespedes flew out, deep enough to allow Schobel to score the third run of the inning. Nowlin gave up a run on a wild pitch but held on for the Win. Noah Cardenas hit his third double and second home run of the season. Schobel was 2-for-3 with a walk. Rucker was 2-for-4. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Beloit 5 Box Score After a rare loss on Saturday night, the Kernels found a terrific (nearly-grand) way to start things on Sunday afternoon. The game started with walks to Kaelen Culpepper and Caden Kendle before Brandon Winokur was hit by a pitch. Gabriel Gonzalez flew out to deep-enough left field to drive in Culpepper with the game’s first run. After a strikeout, Khadim Diaw came up and crushed a three-run homer to give the Kernels a 4-0 lead. But you knew it wasn’t going to be just that easy all day. Beloit scored one in the bottom of the first. Gabriel Gonzalez hit his third homer of the season in the third inning to make it 5-1. However, Beloit responded with two in the bottom of the third and one in the bottom of the fourth and it was again a one-run game at 5-4. The Kernels got some help in the top of the fifth. Brandon Winokur reached on a single with one out. The pitcher attempted to pick him off but threw wildly. Then the first baseman got to the ball, he made an errant throw too and Winokur scored all the way from first. The Sky Carp scored one in the bottom of the sixth, but both bullpens locked it down from there and the Kernels won their 20th game of the season. Ty Langenberg worked the first three innings. He was charged with three runs on six hits and two walks and a hit batter. He had four strikeouts. Gabriel Yanez worked an inning and gave up an unearned run on two walks. Paulshawn Pasqualotto worked the next three innings. He gave up one run on two hits and struck out three. Samuel Perez started the eighth inning and got two outs. Jacob Wosinski came on and got the final out of the eighth without allowing the tying run to score. He also tossed a quiet ninth to earn his fifth save. Jaime Ferrer went 2-for-3 with a walk and his third double. Nate Baez went 2-for-4. Winokur went 2-for-4 and was hit by a pitch. Kendle walked three times, and Culpepper had a single and a walk. Gonzalez’s homer was his third of the season, and Diaw’s was his first. Kyle DeBarge missed his second straight game after leaving Friday’s game after being hit by a pitch. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 4, Dunedin 7 Box Score The Mussels got a strong start from an intriguing 2024 draft pick The offense scored in four different innings, but the bullpen had one rough inning and that was the difference in this ballgame. Eli Jones was the Twins seventh round pick in 2024 out of South Carolina. In this game, he gave up one run on three hits. He walked one and had three strikeouts. The run came on a Jean Joseph solo home run in the fifth inning. Things got interesting in the bottom of the first inning. Leadoff man Byron Chourio had to leave his first at-bat with injury. Maddux Houghton came in for him and worked a single. He moved to second on a passed ball and scored the first run of the day on Jay Thomason’s eighth double. The Mussels added a run with two outs in the second inning. Angel Del Rosario’s second double of the season drove in Jefferson Valladares from second base. In the fourth inning, it was Houghton who drove in Yohander Martinez to make it 3-0. So through five innings, the Mussels held a 3-1 lead. The game was turned over to the bullpen, starting with Devin Kirby. The oft-used knuckleballer had a rough outing. He recorded just one out and was charged with four runs on two hits, a walk and a fielder’s choice. Ivran Romero came on with two runners on and gave up a single that scored both of them. Romero stayed on and worked 2 1/3 innings without being charged with a run of his own. He had three strikeouts. Tyler Stasiowski got the final four outs, three of them on strikeouts, but he gave up two runs (1 earned) on two hits. The Mussels added a run in the seventh when Thomason scored on a wild pitch, but that was as close as they were able to make it. Thomason continues to be the one hitter in the Mussels regular lineup that hits consistently. In this game, he was 3-for-3 with a walk and his eighth double. The other player to hit relatively consistently is Houghton. He went 2-for-5 in this game and is hitting .277. With the younger prospects needing to play, Houghton usually comes off the bench and provides value. After his fast start, Byron Chourio is now hitting just .196 (though his on-base percentage remains at .381). Jose Rodriguez is hitting just .123 in his second season with the Mussels. He hit a double on Sunday. And Yasser Mercedes has really struggled in adapting to the full-season affiliate. He is hitting just .132 after going 0-for-5 with four strikeouts on Sunday. Those three are usually in the top four batters in the Mussels lineup, and they need to be from a Player Development standpoint. Chourio and Rodriguez are still 19 while Mercedes is 20. Meanwhile, Thomason turned 23 last month and was the Twins 17th round pick last summer after four years in the United States Air Force Academy. He hit 58 home runs over the last three seasons in college. And frankly, he is right where he should be as a late round pick last year. He’s showing Twins decision makers that he probably needs to move up in the near future. But it’s why we always need to take a little deeper look. This week, this team faced Blue Jays top pitching prospects Trey Yesavage and Khal Stephens, both with three years of Division I ball under their belts. Mercedes hit a long homer off of Yesavage. The Dunedin Blue Jays are the Low-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out our sister site, Jays Centre, and their Top 20 Blue Jays prospect rankings. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Jay Thomason (Fort Myers): 3-for-3, BB, 2B(8), R, RBI, SB(14) Pitcher of the Day Eli Jones (Fort Myers): 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. 69 pitches, 40 strikes (58.0%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Sunday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-3, BB, 2 K #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, BB, R, 2 K, 2 SB(6). #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, HBP, 2 R, K #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, HR(3), R, SF, 2 RBI. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) -2-for-3, BB, R, RBI. #18 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 0-for-5, 4 K. #19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 1-for-4, HR(10), R, RBI, K #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB, RBI. NEXT GAME SCHEDULE Monday FCL Orioles @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CST) - TBD Tuesday Minnesota @ Baltimore (5:35 PM CDT) - Simeon Woods Richardson (2-2, 4.01 ERA) St. Paul @ Iowa (6:38 PM CDT) - TBD Arkansas @ Wichita (6:05 PM CDT) - TBD. Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CDT) - TBD. Fort Myers @ Jupiter (5:30 PM CDT) - TBD. FCL Rays @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CDT) - TBD. Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Sunday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Emmanuel Rodriguez) This series in St. Paul between the Saints and the Bisons has been filled with close games, high-scoring and low-scoring. Are you going to CHS Field on Sunday for Mothers Day? Wichita had a really nice comeback. The Kernels have been really good, but lost on Sunday. Fort Myers had two batters that accounted for a large percentage of their offense. The FCL Twins found themselves in double figures again on Saturday. Check out all that happened throughout the Minnesota Twins organization. Speaking of the Twins, it's so much more fun seeing them on a seven-game winning streak, and on a 13-5 stretch. Saturday's 2-1 win was really impressive. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 20-20 St. Paul Saints: 19-15 Wichita Wind Surge: 18-14 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 19-12 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 15-17 FCL Twins: 5-1 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS RHP Ruddy Gomez has been transferred to the Mighty Mussels from the FCL Twins. The Twins signed Gomez from the independent Windy City Thunder Bolts on April 15th. That day, the Twins had 28 pitchers on their various Injured Lists. The 25-year-old will make his professional, affiliated debut when he gets into a game. The right-hander started his college ball at Division II St. Leo University and then transferred to Central Florida. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 2, Buffalo 1 Box Score There have been some crazy games in this season, but this was just a good, well played, well-pitched game. The Saints got some late-inning heroics from a top prospect to help them win a close, competitive game. Down 1-0 during the playing of the National Anthem, the Saints had a bit of a rally in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Jeferson Morales walked. Emmanuel Rodriguez followed by hitting an opposite-field, two-run homer to give the Saints the 2-1 lead. It was his second home run of the season, in consecutive games, and both were opposite field shots. In the top of the eighth, Buffalo’s Alan Roden led off with a single. With one out, Will Robertson lined a single to center. Roden attempted to go from first to third, but Rodriguez threw a one-hopper to Will Holland who put on the tag for the inning’s second out. Tyler Beede came on for the ninth inning and earned the Save. Zebby Matthews made the start. He gave up only an unearned run on five hits over 5 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts to go with no walks. Kody Funderburk got the final two outs of the sixth inning, both on strikeouts. Alex Speas worked out of some tough situations but threw two zeroes on the board. He gave up three hits and issued a walk. The Rodriguez home run almost appeared out of nowhere. The Saints were not hitting, getting on base with much consistency. They had just three hits and four walks. Mickey Gasper had a single and two walks. He played first base in this game after catching a couple of games since his demotion. The other hit was a double by Patrick Winkel, his third of the season. Jefferson Morales walked twice and was hit by a pitch. Carson McCusker’s 12-game hitting streak came to an end. The Buffalo Bisons are the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out our sister site, Jays Centre, and their Top 20 Blue Jays prospect rankings. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 3, NW Arkansas 1 Box Score So not only did he stay in the game after getting hit by a line drive on the side of his head and work two more innings, but Christian MacLeod made his next scheduled start. The southpaw tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up three singles, walked none and had three strikeouts. Pierson Ohl came on in relief and threw two innings. He gave up one run on three hits. He had one strikeout but issued no walks. Unfortunately, the Wind Surge were unable to get on the scoreboard. Jarret Whorff came in and threw a scoreless seventh inning. In the top of the eighth, Tanner Schobel led off with a single to left. He stole second, and with one out, Kala’i Rosario drilled a triple to tie the game at 1-1. Kyler Fedko grounded to shortstop for the second out, but it was enough to drive in Rosario with the go-ahead run. (Is this an example of The Contact Play working?) Whorff came back out for the eighth inning and had a quick, 10-pitch, scoreless inning. He had three strikeouts over two perfect innings. With one out in the top of the ninth, Noah Cardenas singled off of the pitcher. Jake Rucker reached on an error, and Jorel Ortega singled to load the bases. Schobel followed with a fly ball to left field, easily deep enough to drive in Cardenas and give his team an insurance run. John Stankiewicz came in for the ninth. He gave up a single. He erased it by getting a double play. Another ground out and the Wind Surge had a very nice win. Wichita had 10 hits in the game. All nine starters had at least one hit. Cardenas had two hits. Along with Rosario’s triple, Andrew Cossetti added his third double. Check out the defense of Tanner Schobel and Noah Cardenas. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Beloit 8 Box Score When a team comes to bat, scoring a run is great, but putting up a crooked number is even better. In this game, both teams scored runs in four innings. The difference was that the Kernels had just one crooked number on the board, a “2” in the top of the eighth. The Sky Carp had two crooked numbers. They posted a “3” in the bottom of the fifth and the bottom of the seventh, and that was the difference in this game. Jeremy Lee was on the mound to start for the Kernels on Saturday. He put a “0” on the board in three of his first four innings. However, he came out for the fifth and got one out. He gave up one run, but he left the game with two runners on base. Lefty Wilker Reyes came on and allowed both runners to score before getting out of the inning. Reyes went 2 ⅓ innings and gave up three runs on seven hits. Cole Percival gave up one run on one hit and three walks. The Kernels got on the scoreboard first in the top of the second inning. Danny De Andrade doubled. He moved to third on a balk and scored on a Nate Baez sacrifice fly. The top of the third started with singles from Jaime Ferrer and Jose Salas singled. Ferrer scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Kaelen Culpepper. In the fifth inning, Jaime Ferrer led off with his second double of the season. After a sacrifice bunt and a hit batter, Brandon Winokur drive in Ferrer with a sacrifice fly. At the time, the Kernels had a 3-1 lead. Fast-forward to the top of the eighth, and the Kernels were down 7-3. Brandon Winokur led off with a single. Gabriel Gonzalez followed by ripping a triple over the center fielder’s head. Gonzalez scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 7-5. But that’s as close as it got. The Kernels had just seven hits and three walks. Ferrer was the lone Kernel with more than one hit. He was 2-for-4 with a double. De Andrade knocked his 12th double. Gonzalez’s triple was his first of the year. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 0, Dunedin 3 Box Score Dylan Questad was on the mound to start the game for the Mussels. The 2023 draft pick from Wisconsin gave up three runs on seven hits. He walked two and had two strikeouts. Hunter Hoopes tossed two scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and had three strikeouts. Ruddy Gomez came out of the bullpen and pitched a one-hit, scoreless inning in his Fort Myers debut. His second inning was more dominant. Two easy ground balls to second and an infield pop up. Unfortunately, the Mussels offense was really unable to get anything going against the Dunedin pitchers. They managed just six hits and had three walks in the game. Jay Thomason hit his seventh double and accounted for all three of the team’s walks. He also stole his 12th and 13th bases of the season. Daniel Pena went 2-for-3. The Dunedin Blue Jays are the Low-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out our sister site, Jays Centre, and their Top 20 Blue Jays prospect rankings. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 12, FCL Red Sox 5 Box Score On Saturday morning, the Twins won for the fourth straight time to improve to 5-1. For the second time in their last three games, they reached double-digits in runs scored. They got a solo homer in the first inning and then scored 10 runs in the second and third innings (combined). With two outs in the bottom of the first innings, Bryan Acuna hit his first home run of the season to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. Down 2-1 going to the bottom of the second, the Twins responded with a six-spot in the second. The inning started out in strong FCL fashion. Irvin Nunez was hit by a pitch. After an out, Yilber Herrera and Ricardo Paez walked to load the bases. After the second out, Eduardo Beltre had an RBI hit-by-pitch, and Acuna had an RBI walk. After a pitching change, Luis Fragoza doubled in two runs to make it 5-2. Yandro Hernandez switched places with Fragoza and drove in two more runs to make it 7-2. The Twins added four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out, Herrera walked. He stole second and went to third on a throwing error. He then scored on a wild pitch. Merphy Hernandez walked, went to second on a wild pitch and then stole third base. He scored when Eduardo Beltre reachen on an error. Beltre went to second on a wild pitch, and he scored on an Acuna single. Fragoza walked. Yandro Hernandez reached on an error to load the bases again. Nunez walked again to score Acuna and make it 11-2. In the bottom of the fifth, Eduardo Beltre reached on an error, stole second, and scored on another error. Joel Garcia made the start. He tossed the first three innings and gave up two runs on three hits. He walked one and had seven strikeouts. Anderson Ramos worked the next two innings. He gave up three runs on three hits and a walk. He had four strikeouts. Finally, Will Armbruester, who the Twins signed from independent Windy City about 10 days after they signed Ruddy Gomez, gave up three hits over two scoreless innings. The Twins had 12 runs scored with six hits and seven walks. They were helped by five Red Sox errors. There were two hit batters and four wild pitches. Bryan Acuna was 2-for-3 with a walk, the first-inning homer, three runs and three RBI. Luis Fragoza went 2-for-3 with a walk, a double and two RBI. Since his Opening Day grand slam in his second at-bat of the season, Eduardo Beltre is 0-for-14. He’s been playing solid defense, taking his walks, stealing bases, and most importantly, hustling enough to get on base via a lot of errors. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 1-for-3, HR(2), R, 2 RBI, OF Assist Bryan Acuna (FCL Twins): 2-for-3, BB, HR(1), 3 R, 3 RBI, K. Pitcher of the Day Zebby Matthews (St. Paul): 5.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. 73 pitches, 48 strikes (65.8%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Saturday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, HR(2), R, 2 RBI, 2 K #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, BB, RBI, K (DH) #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, R, SF RBI, 2 K (SS) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, BB, 3B(1) R, RBI, K #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-3, 3 R, RBI, K, SB(3). #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) -1-for-4, R, SF RBI, SB(2), K. #18 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-for-4, K. #19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, K SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Buffalo @ St. Paul (2:07 PM CST) - RHP David Festa (2-1, 3.60 ERA) Wichita @ NW Arkansas (2:05 PM CST) - RHP Darren Bowen (2-0, 1.50 ERA). Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-1, 5.93 ERA). Dunedin @ Fort Myers (11:05 AM CST) - RHP Eli Jones (1-3, 4.91 ERA). FCL Twins - No Game Scheduled. Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Saturday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

It certainly makes a lot of sense for him to get some time at first base in St. Paul. Send Morneau over there to work with him a couple of times per week (depending on his TV schedule). My assumption is that Ty France won't be willing to come back for $1 million next year, so 1B could be open. McCusker makes a lot of sense as an option for the spot.

I think they actually really like Gasper, but not sure how comfortable they are with him playing places other than 1B or 2B and C. I don't know if they'd have trust in him as a long-term #2, though when Christian Vazquez is the current #2, it could probably work. But he's not going to be good behind the plate. My assumption is they're just finding opportunities that make him considered for a call up. There's nothing wrong with him as a #3 catcher. As for Prielipp, definitely an incredible outing last night. I asked myself the same question (about too many strikes). I think the answer is "Yes, you can throw too many strikes" if those strikes are just meh pitches right down the middle. But if Prielipp is on the corners and getting the movement he gets with the velo he has, it's hard to think about it being a bad thing. And the best part of it, if you establish just throwing a ton of strikes, hitters will learn that and may - over time- start expanding the zone and then Prielipp gets quick, easy outs on pitches two inches off the plate. As for working more pitches and more innings, I honestly don't care a whole lot if they increase it much. I'm sure it may go from 50 pitch to 60 pitches, and that might give him a chance to have up-downs. There's no need for him to be pushed beyond that this year. If he were to get called up, either to start or in the bullpen, and if he provides 60 pitches, that'd be great. My pre-season hope for him was to to this pattern. A few starts at 40 pitches, a few starts at 50 pitches, a handful of starts at 60-65 pitches. Then I'd move him up to Triple-A and have him work one or two inning stints, but out of the bullpen, but also only twice per week... And if that's going well, and the Twins are in a spot where they need an arm in a playoff race, call him up in mid-August, big maintaining intelligent usage.

My assumption is they're going to use the full 30 days rehab allowed. If they have a need, he'll get called up. If they don't, they'll DFA him, knowing his contract was high enough that a team isn't going to claim him (especially coupled with mediocre AAA numbers).

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Mickey Gasper), Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Connor Prielipp) On Thursday afternoon, the Minnesota Twins completed their sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. It was their fifth straight win. Since starting the season 5-11, the Twins have gone 13-9. They have also won nine of their last 13 games. Long seasons are filled with good stretches and bad stretches for teams, but also for players. That’s, in many cases, even more the case in the minor leagues when development is the #1 key. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 18-20 St. Paul Saints: 18-14 Wichita Wind Surge: 16-14 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 19-10 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 15-15 FCL Twins: 3-1 TRANSACTIONS No surprise, but unfortunately, Austin Martin has been placed on the injured list with a hamstring strain. LHP Kade Bragg has been promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids from Fort Myers. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 13, Buffalo 10 Box Score If you’re a fan of baseball games with big offense, you’ll like this game. The two teams combined for 23 runs and 26 hits. If you’re a fan of consistent scoring throughout the game, rather than one big inning and nothing else, you’ll like this game. Neither team scored more than three runs in an inning. Of the 18 half-innings played in the nine-inning game, just five times were no runs scored. All nine Saints hitters had at least one hit. They combined for four homers. The team also walked seven times. Oh, and hey, if you enjoy watching a baseball game in which one of your favorite team’s recently-optioned players with a great mustache ends the game with a walk-off home run. Then this is your game. Cory Lewis started and went the first four innings. He gave up one run in three of them yet really limited the damage. He gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks. Richard Lovelady threw the fifth inning. He gave up three unearned runs on one hit and one walk. The hit just happened to be a three-run homer by Ali Sanchez. That came in the fifth inning. Michael Tonkin was next, continuing his rehab stint. He was charged with two runs on three hits and two walks and a hit batter. He struck out two batters. Brady Feigl came on and calmed things down. He got five straight batters out, three of them on strikeouts. He got the Saints through the eighth inning. Down 2-0 in the bottom of the third, the Saints tied the game. With one out, Will Holland walked and stole second base, but he was able to jog home when Ryan Fitzgerald hit his fourth home run of the season. Let’s jump ahead. When the Saints came to the plate for the bottom of the fifth inning, they were behind 6-2. Jair Camargo led off with a double. After one out, Holland hit his second homer since his return from the IL to make it 6-4. With two outs, Mickey Gasper and Edouard Julien had back-to-back walks. Carson McCusker singled to left to drive in Gasper with the third run of the inning. In the top of the sixth, the Bisons scored two more runs and held an 8-5 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, a Jeferson Morales walk, a Camargo single, and Anthony Prato was hit by a pitch to load the bases. After a pitching change, Will Holland hit a sacrifice fly to make it 8-6. Unfortunately, that was all they were able to muster. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Carson McCusker hit his eighth double. With two outs, Morales singles to drive him in and make it 8-7. Because of the Feigl outing, Buffalo went scoreless in the seventh and eighth innings. Still down a run going to the bottom of the eighth, the Bisons brought in Eric Pardinho. Prato led off with a single. With one out, Fitzgerald singled. However, with two outs, Julien singled off of the pitcher to load the bases. A wild pitch scored Prato to tie the game for the first time since the third inning. McCusker walked. Then Mike Ford singled to drive in Fitzgerald and Julien and the Saints went to the ninth inning with a 10-8 lead. Lefty Anthony Misiewicz came on. With one out, he issued a walk and then gave up a home run to Riley Tirotta which again tied the game, this time at 10-10. He got the final two batters out. So, we jump to the bottom of the ninth with the score tied. Camargo led off with a single. After a ground out, Holland walked. A new pitcher was brought in, and he got a strikeout for the second out. Flashback - One night earlier, Josh Walker was brought in in the ninth inning. Mike Ford hit a three-run homer off of him. Flash to Current - That brought to the plate Mickey Gasper, recently optioned, fantastically-mustached, and to this point in the game, hitless. He took a hack at the first pitch, an 83 mph curveball that hung right over the middle of the plate and hit it 104.5 mph at a 21 degree angle, and it landed 402 feet from home plate, over the outfield fencing, to give the Saints a 13-10, walk off win. Carson McCusker went 3-for-3 with his eighth double, two walks and a stolen base. He extended his career-high, 11-game hitting streak. Through 30 games, he is hitting .352/.424/.686 (1.110) with eight doubles, nine homers and 29 RBI. Jair Camargo went 3-for-5 with a double. Fitzgerald was 2-for-6 with his fourth homer. Holland went 1-for-2, walked twice, and hit his second homer. What a fun game. If you were there, what did you see? Granted, I am not a fan of 3 1/2 hour games, but this one had game-action throughout. Was it as exciting, maybe even more exciting being there? The Buffalo Bisons are the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out our sister site, Jays Centre, and their Top 20 Blue Jays prospect rankings. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 5, NW Arkansas 3 Box Score The Wind Surge started fast and held on through the end for a nice, 5-3 win. It ended their five-game losing streak, which was their longest of the season. A good way to start a game on the road is to score in the top of the first inning. With one out, Ricardo Olivar hit his fourth home run of the season to give the team a 1-0 lead. Rubel Cespedes singled to right which was followed by a Kala’i Rosario walk. The runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. Ben Ross flew out to center, deep enough to score Cespedes. Kyler Fedko walked before Aaron Sabato crushed a double to score two runs and make it 4-0. It also caused a pitching change. That’s where the score remained until the top of the fifth. With two outs, Fedko walked again and stole second base. Sabato hit an infield single down the third base line. Andrew Cossetti drove in Fedko with a double. Connor Prielipp made the start and was really good. In his 46 pitches, he was able to complete four scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, walked none and struck out a career-high six batters. Of his 46 pitches, 37 of them were strikes. That’s an impressive 80.4% It is rare to see a pitcher throw 80% strikes. I’m sure we haven’t seen it yet this season… (Note - you’ll want to see how many strikes one of the Mighty Mussels pitchers threw on Thursday.) Angel Macuare pitched a perfect fifth inning. Mike Paredes gave up two runs on one hit. In 2 1/3 innings, he walked three, hit one and had three strikeouts. He gets the Win to improve to 4-0. Michael Martinez came on with the bases loaded and got out of the jam in the eighth inning. He started the ninth and gave up one run. He got one out, but Joel Cesar came on with the bases loaded. He allowed one of the runs to score but got the final two outs for his third save of the season. Sabato led the way, going 3-for-4 with his fifth double and two RBI. Cespedes went 2-for-4 with a walk and stole his first base of the year. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Beloit 14 Box Score If you just see the final score, it sure tells a different story than what most of the game was. At the 7th inning stretch, Beloit led 2-1. Tanner Hall started and gave up two unearned runs on three hits and two walks over 4 2/3 innings. He had two strikeouts. The Kernels actually scored first. In the top of the fifth inning, Nate Baez singles and Jose Salas was hit by a pitch. Caden Kendle knocked his sixth double to drive in Baez with the game’s first run. However, despite having runners on second and third and nobody out, the Kernels were unable to add another run. In the bottom of the fifth, the Sky Carp took the lead with two runs. Spencer Bengard came on with a runner on third base and two outs in the fifth and got the final out of the inning on a strikeout. In the sixth inning, he fielded a ground ball, got another soft groundout, and had a strikeout. Then came the National Anthem. When Bengard returned to the mound to start the bottom of the seventh, he uncharacteristically issued two walks before Eric Rataczak singled to load the bases. Bengard responded with a strikeout for the first out. Another walk tied the game at 2-2. But Bengard got another strikeout. However, Ryan Ignoffo hit a 2-0 pitch for a long, grand slam that turned a 3-1 game into a 7-1 game. Gabriel Yanez came in and gave up a double, followed by a triple and the score was 8-1 after seven innings. Impressively, the Kernels didn’t just give up. In the top of the eighth, Kyle DeBarge led off with a walk. Brandon Winokur and Gabriel Gonzalez singled to load the bases. Danny De Andrade knocked his 11th double to drive in two runs. Gonzalez scored on a sacrifice fly. De Andrade scored on a single that made it 8-5, a game again. But, the Sky Carp gave up six more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to put the game away. The Kernels had seven hits and three walks. Kyle DeBarge was 0-for-1 but walked three times and was hit by a pitch. He also stole his 17th base without yet being caught this season. Gonzalez went 2-for-5. Baez was 2-for-4. While I rarely write about players on the opponent’s team (unless there is a connection to the Twins), Beloit catcher Ryan Ignoffo hitting two grand slams in the game seems noteworthy. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 4, Dunedin 5 Box Score On Tuesday, the Mussels mounted a comeback and walked it off in extra innings. On Thursday, the teams battled to another close game. Were the Mussels able to complete the comeback again? Jakob Hall made the start. He gave up three runs in the first inning and one in the second inning. In four innings, he was charged with four runs on four hits. He walked two, hit two, and struck out three batters. Hall finished with two scoreless innings. Lefty Zander Secrist kept that streak going. He put four zeroes on the board which gave the Mussels the opportunity to play some catch up. He coaxed three groundouts in the fifth inning. In the sixth, a Peyton Powell single was surrounded by two groundouts and a strikeout. The seventh inning was another 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout, a groundout and a line out. In the eighth inning, he got an infield pop up and two outs. In other words, he was completely dominant for four innings. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Poncho Ruiz led off with a single. He advanced to second when Fort Myers’ own, Peyton Carr, was hit by a pitch. Maddux Houghton doubles to drive in the team’s first run of the game. Yohander Martinez followed with a two-run single to left field to cut the deficit to 4-3. With one out in the fifth frame, Jay Thomason singled to the opposite field. He stole second and reached base on a throwing error. That tied the score at four, and that's where it remained until the ninth inning. Secrist, who won a College World Series title at Tennessee less than a year ago, returned to the mound to start the top of the ninth inning. Unfortunately, Jean Joseph attacked the southpaw’s first pitch, a 70-mph slider, presumably meant to get a quick strike. Joseph hit it, 98.4 mph, and he flew 362 feet, landing in the left field berm at Hammond Stadium. Likely disappointed, he responded with two strikeouts and a ground out to first base to end the half-inning. Did the Mussels have another comeback in them? No. A flyout and two strikeouts and the Mussels dropped this game 5-4. Remember above my comments about how often we see a pitcher throw 80% strikes in a game? Connor Prielipp threw 37 strikes among his 46 pitches (80.4%). Secrist threw one more pitch than Prielipp (47) and one more strike (38). That’s 80.9%). I’m going to guess we won’t see 80% hit by a pitcher again this year. If I bet on stuff, I’d bet that there won’t be another day with two at 80+%! Ruiz had two of the team’s seven hits. Houghton’s double was the lone extra base hit. The Dunedin Blue Jays are the Low-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out our sister site, Jays Centre, and their Top 20 Blue Jays prospect rankings. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 10, FCL Orioles 1 Box Score The Twins swept the Orioles at Target Field, and down in Ft. Myers, the FCL Twins squad topped the FCL Orioles handily. The Twins got ahead early. They scored one run in each of the first two innings. In the first inning, he was Merphy Hernandez who led off with a walk. He stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. He scored on a ground out. In the second frame, Ricardo Pena led off with a walk. After a fly out, Isaac Pena walked. A force-out advanced Ricardo Pena to third base with two outs. After scoring the first run, Merphy Hernandez drove in the second, with Pena scoring on a line drive to center. The score remained 2-0 Twins through four innings. Melvin Rodriguez gave up two hits and a walk over four scoreless innings on the mound. He had two strikeouts. In the top of the fifth inning, the Twins bats exploded with an eight-run inning. Ramior Dominguez led off with a walk, and Merphy was hit by a pitch. A ground out by Eduardo Beltre grounded out but both runners advanced and scored on a triple off the bat of Ariel Castro. Bryan Acuna singled him with the inning’s third run. Luis Fragoza ws hit by a pitch. After a second out, Yandro Hernandez loaded the bases thanks to a fielding error. Acuna scored on a passed ball. Isaac Pena walked to reload the bases. After a pitching change, a wild pitch scored Fragoza. Ramiro Domingez walks to again load the bases. Merphy Hernandez walked. Eduardo Beltre walked, and finally Ariel Castro walked before the inning ended. RBI walks are not all that uncommon in the Complex Leagues. Neither are wild pitches, passed balls and errors. Again, these are part of the reason that we have to be really careful about how much the stats matter this far down the organizational ladder. Santiago Rojas and Liam Rocha each threw a scoreless inning. Aiberson Ventura gave up one run on two hits in the bottom of the seventh. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Carson McCusker (St. Paul): 3-for-3, 2 BB, 2B(8), R, RBI Aaron Sabato (Wichita): 3-for-4, 2B(5), 2 RBI Pitcher of the Day Zander Secrist (Fort Myers): 5 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. 47 pitches, 38 strikes (80.9%) Connor Prielipp (Wichita): 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 46 pitches, 37 strikes (80.4%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #5 - Connor Prielipp (Wichita) - 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 46 pitches, 37 strikes (80.4%). #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-5, K. (SS) #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, HBP, R, K (CF) #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-1, 3 BB, HBP, R, K, SB(17). (DH) #12 - Cory Lewis (St. Paul) - 4 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K. 79 pitches, 44 strikes (55.7%) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, R, K #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-4, BB, RBI, 2 K #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-for-5, 2 K #18 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 0-for-4, BB, K. #19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 3-for-3, 2 BB, 2B(8), R, RBI, SB(2), CS(2). #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB, HR(4), R, RBI, K. FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Buffalo @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CST) - RHP Marco Raya (0-1, 9.00 ERA) Wichita @ NW Arkansas (4:05 PM CST) - LHP Aaron Rozek (1-1, 3.86 ERA). Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (6:05 PM CST) - RHP Jose Olivares (0-0, 0.66 ERA). Dunedin @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CST) - LHP Michael Carpenter (0-0, 3.00 ERA). FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (11:00 AM CST) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

Yes.... Castro and Lewis activated... Gasper and Julien optioned... I don't think it's tooo suprising. They weren't going to lose Clemens and Bride now.

The Saints are breaking all kinds of records so far this season... Most of them have to do with rain, and rain outs. We get another team to keep up with starting today. The FCL Twins played their first game of the season. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 14-20 St. Paul Saints: 14-14 Wichita Wind Surge: 15-11 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 16-9 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 14-12 FCL Twins: 1-0 TRANSACTIONS Jose Salas’s rehab assignment in Fort Myers is now complete. He has been activated from the Kernels injured list. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul, Columbus Box Score The winner in this series has been clear. Mother Nature has wreaked havoc on this series. The teams were supposed to play a doubleheader on Saturday, but both games were canceled. Not just postponed at this point. They have been canceled. Saturday marked the 10th and 11th games already this season that the Saints have been rained out. The Saints will play a 148 game schedule. They hope to play the final scheduled game of this series on Sunday afternoon. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 2, Frisco 5 Box Score The Wind Surge sent Ricky Castro to the mound for the start. He went 3 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on six hits (1 homer) and a walk. He had three strikeouts. Wichita worked to come back, but were unable to come up with an answer. In the fourth inning, Ben Ross hit his second home run of the season to make it 4-1. Relievers Michael Martinez and Jarret Whorff combined to provide 3 1/3 scoreless innings and had five strikeouts. Joel Cesar gave up one run on two hits and a walk in the eighth inning. Jorel Ortega's second home run of the season came in the ninth inning, but the Surge fell short. Coming into the game, the Wind Surge ranked second in the Texas League in home runs and added two more. Seven different Wichita hitters had one hit. Kala'i Rosario added his third double. Outfielder Kyler Fedko went 0-for-2, but he walked and was hit by a pitch. He has reached base in 21 consecutive games, the current longest streak in Double-A. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 8, South Bend 3 Box Score This is one of those games where a team should go home feeling pretty good about it. The pitching was generally solid, and they had some really strong hitting performances. Jose Olivares started and went three innings. He gave up one run on two hits. He walked four and had six strikeouts. The reports on Olivares early this season have been very encouraging, even beyond the 98 mph he's hitting with his fastball. Lefty Gabriel Yanez gave up two runs on two hits and two walks over 2 1/3 innings. He had one strikeout. Logan Whitaker inherited two runners and allowed one to score. He had one strikeout over 1 2/3 innings. Paulshawn Pasqualotto walked two and struck out two batters in the final two scoreless, hitless innings. The Kernels had 13 hits and were walked nine times. Kaelen Culpepper went 4-for-5 and stole his third base. Gabriel Gonzalez went 3-for-4 with four RBI. Danny DeAndrade hit his ninth double and second triple of the season. Kyle DeBarge went 1-for-2 with three walks. He added this 13th stolen base. Brandon Winokur hit a single and walked twice. Nate Baez walked three times. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 5, Jupiter 12 Box Score In looking at the final score, it might be hard to believe that when Jupiter came to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning, they were behind 2-1. Lefty Dasan Hill started for the Mussels. He hit a batter and walked a batter in the top of the first but didn’t allow a run. He came out to start the second inning, but before he threw a pitch, there was an injury timeout. Presumably trainers came out to see Hill. He ended up getting the next batter to fly out, but he then came out of the game, replaced by Jacob Kisting. We don’t know much. StatCast wasn’t available and Tampa didn’t have the game televised, so little information is publicly available right now. What we know. In the first inning, Hill’s fastball was between 93 and 95.1 mph. In the second inning, he threw two fastballs, 93.7 and 94.2 mph, certainly nothing of concern there. And the final pitch he threw was an 81.1 mph slider. In the first inning, his slider was at 81.2 mph. Just 12 of his 27 total pitches were for strikes (44.4%) Jacob Kisting came on. He gave up a run in the third inning and was charged with three more in the fifth inning. He gave up four runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings. When he was replaced in the fifth inning, he had two runners on base. Devin Kirby came on and allowed both of them to score plus another run. Kirby got seven outs, but he gave up six runs on five hits (2 homers). He started the eighth inning but the first two batters reached base. At that point, manager Seth Feldman turned things over to utilityman Miguel Briceno. Both inherited runners scored and Briceno was charged with two more of his own. But, he got the final three outs. So while the Mussels scored in three of their final four innings (3 runs), the Tarpons scored in each of their final four innings (11 runs). The Mussels had six hits and walked eight times. Maddux Houghton was 2-for-5. Poncho Ruiz and Yohander Martinez each walked twice. Yasser Mercedes, Jay Thomason and Peyton Carr had a single and a walk. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 4, FCL Red Sox 3 Box Score The players have been in Fort Myers for months, getting ready for this day. For some, it’s a professional debut. For others, it’s their first game in the States. Saturday morning was Opening Day in the Florida Complex League. The Twins squad made the six-mile trek down Daniels Parkway to play the FCL Red Sox at Jet Blue Park Complex. It was quite the pitchers duel through five innings. 20-year-old Joel Garcia made the start and gave up one hit and one walk over two scoreless innings. He pitched 18 innings in the FCL in 2024. 23-year-old Mitch Mueller came on and worked the next four innings. He was charged with one run on five hits and a walk over four innings to record his first win. He had four strikeouts. Born in the Twin Cities, he went to high school in Brookfield, Wisconsin. He spent a year at Parkland College and another at Winona State. He pitched at Utah Valley for two years. Upon completion of college, he pitched last summer in the independent leagues. In 30 1/3 innings, he had 51 strikeouts to just four walks. Let’s talk about some offense quickly. The Twins went into the top of the sixth inning with three walks, but no hits. Carlos Silva led off with a walk. Yilber Herrera pinch-ran for Silva. With one out, Merphy Hernandez walked. Herrera and Hernandez were successful on a double steal, but Daiber De Los Santos walked to load the bases. That brought Twins Daily’s 2024 Short-Season Minor-League Hitter of the Year Eduardo Beltre to the plate. He ended the Red Sox no-hit bid in about the best way possible, if you’re a Twins fan. He slammed a ball well beyond the mini-monster in left field. A 1-0 deficit turned into a 4-1 lead in a hurry. Mueller put a zero on the board in the sixth, and the Twins went scoreless in the seventh. Holding that 4-1 lead, the Twins turned the ball over to 6-5, 176 pound Venezuelan Aiberson Ventura to get the final three outs. Last year in the DSL, he went 3-1 with a 1.10 ERA in 10 appearances and 16 1/3 innings. The inning started with a double. After a fly out, a wild pitch advanced the runner to third base. The next batter hit a triple to cut the lead to 4-2. Ventura got a groundout for the second out of the inning. The third run scored, but the bases were empty with two outs. Time to relax, right? No! Another triple, and the Red Sox are just 90 feet from tying the game. Fortunately, Ventura got another ground ball to third baseman Luis Fragoza who made the throw to first and ended the game. Beltre went 1-for-2 with a walk and the big, grand slam. Jayson Bass added a single in the seventh inning. Ricardo Pena walked twice. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins): 1-for-2, BB, HR(1), R, 4 RBI Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, 2 R, SB(3) Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 3-for-4, R, 4 RBI Pitcher of the Day Mitch Mueller (FCL Twins): 4 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Saturday. #7 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 K. (played CF) #8 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 4-for-5, 2 R, SB(3). (played SS) #10 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 3-for-4, R, 4 RBI. (played LF) #11 - Dasan Hill (Fort Myers) - 1 ⅓ IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 27 pitches, 12 strikes. #13 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-5 (DHd) #14 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-2, 3 BB, 3 R, RBI, K, SB(13). (played 2B) #16 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-for-4, BB, R, #19 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B(3), K. SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Columbus (12:05 PM CST) - RHP Zebby Matthews (2-1, 1.93 ERA) Wichita @ Frisco (4:05 PM CST) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-0, 0.00 ERA). South Bend @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Jeremy Lee (1-1, 11.57 ERA). Fort Myers @ Tampa (11:00 AM CST) - RHP Dylan Questad (1-0, 1.38 ERA). Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Saturday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

100% Severino is nowhere near my top 30 at this point. Beltre, Olivar and Doncon dropped out of the top 20. All of them have significantly higher ceilings, as does Daiber De Los Santos. And Pena, Diaw, Questad and Bohorquez were all a consideration at #20 for me. Something to remember for the next vote... if someone isn't available in the listing and is in your top 20, get them added.

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Tanner Schobel) In February, the Twins Daily minor league writers updated the Top 20 Twins Prospect rankings. Over the past 7-10 days, you have been able to vote, and many of you did. Thank you! CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 13-19 St. Paul Saints: 13-14 Wichita Wind Surge: 15-9 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 15-8 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 13-11 FCL Twins: Season starts on Saturday!! TRANSACTIONS Believe it or not, but the Twins made no official transactions before games played on Sunday. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 2, Columbus 5 Box Score The Saints were supposed to play two games on Thursday in Ohio, but you guessed it, Game 2 was postponed due to rain again. The teams will attempt to play two games on Friday afternoon. Fortunately, any rain held off until the conclusion of the first game. The Saints started out well. Ryan Fitzgerald led off with a single. With one out, Jeferson Morales singled. Carson McCusker put the Saints on the scoreboard with another single, and Mike Ford’s single drove in Morales to give the Saints the 2-0 lead. Cory Lewis was on the mound for the Saints, and as a knuckleballer, he can be prone to some tough innings due to bouts with control and command. In the bottom of the first, he began with a walk and then recorded a strikeout. Then a single and a walk loaded the bases. He hit a batter to allow the first run. After another strikeout, he gave up a two-run single to Kody Huff. The Saints were down 3-2 after one inning. The bottom of the second inning started better. He got a strikeout and an infield pop out. Unfortunately, a hit batter was followed by three straight singles and the team was down 4-2. Lewis was able to throw two zeroes on the board. In all, he gave up four runs on seven hits and three walks over four innings. Ryan Jensen worked the final two innings and gave up one run on one hit and a walk. The Saints had seven hits in the game. Anthony Prato was 2-for-3. Simply put, the Saints have almost no depth, and that amount dropped again during this game. In the top of the third, Armando Alvarez singled. On a pick off throw to first, Alvarez lunged toward the bag. He appeared to roll his ankle and immediately was off the bag. When the trainer got to him, they checked his ankle and his knee, and kind of everywhere in between. However, he was able to stand up and (very slowly) walk off the field under his own power, but he was definitely limping. The next half inning, Alvarez was replaced in the lineup by Emmanuel Rodriguez (in center field), and Dalton Shuffield moved from center to third base. Royce Lewis is with the team, but he had a scheduled off day in his rehab. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 5, Frisco 2 Box Score The Wind Surge jumped out to an early lead, and the pitching staff was very good in a 5-1, Thursday night down in Texas. Leading off the game, Tanner Schobel drilled a 1-2 pitch well beyond the wall in left field to give the team a 1-0 lead. With one out in the top of the second inning, Tyler Dearden hit his second homer of the season to make it 2-0. Jorel Ortega followed with a single. He stole second base which proved to be unnecessary when Schobel drilled a 3-2 fastball for a long home run to make it 4-0. Ricardo Olivar came up next and on a 1-0 pitch lined his third home run of the season to make it 5-0. I’m sure Pierson Ohl appreciated the run support. He tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, walked none and had five strikeouts. John Klein came on and was charged with two unearned runs over the next three innings. He had two hits, walked one, and struck out six batters. Jaylen Nowlin had two strikeouts in a scoreless eighth inning. John Stankiewicz got the final three outs to record his first Save of the season. Maybe Schobel got some advanced warning about returning to the Twins Daily Top 20 prospect ranking today. He put on a show. He homered in his first two at-bats and hit a double in his third plate appearance. He went 3-for-5 in the game and now has four doubles and four home runs. He is now hitting .293 with an .851 OPS. Ricardo Olivar went 2-for-5 with his third home run. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 8, Wisconsin 7 Box Score It was a back-and-forth game between the Kernels and the Cubs. At no point was the game comfortable, at least until the game’s final out was recorded. Alejandro Hidalgo made the start. He was charged with six runs on six hits and two walks. He had four strikeouts. He gave up single runs in the first and second innings. Then there was a big four-run fifth inning which included homers from a couple of the Cubs top young prospects, Ivan Brethowr and Cristian Hernandez. The Kernels were working to keep the game close. In the bottom of the first inning, Kaelen Culpepper singled and Kyle DeBarge walked before successfully completing a double steal. Culpepper scored on a Brandon Winokur ground out that tied the game at one. Down 2-1 in the fourth inning, Winokur singled and stole second. He went to third on a throwing error. He scored on a groundout by Gabriel Gonzalez to tie the game at 2-2. Then the Cubs put up their four-spot in the top of the fifth frame, but the Kernels tried to match it. The bottom of the fifth started with a Kevin Maitan triple. With one out, Kyle Hess and Culpepper walked to load the bases. DeBarge walked to drive in Maitin. Two more runs scored when Winokur reached on a throwing error. Through five innings, the Kernels were down 6-5. Wilker Reyes pitched a scoreless top of the sixth. With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Nate Baez homered to tie the game at 6-6. Maitan followed with a double. Jaime Ferrer came up and was hit by a pitch in the helmet. He went to the ground, but in time, he remained in the game. Kyle Hess followed with a double to left center field. Maitan scored the team’s seventh run. Ferrer advanced to third base. A few pitches later, Ferrer scored on a wild pitch. Reyes gave up a single run in the top of the seventh inning which cut the Kernels’ lead to 8-7. Jacob Wosinski struck out three batters over two perfect innings to give the Kernels the one-run win. Maitan’s double was his fourth of the season. The triple was his first. Culpepper went 1-for-2 with two walks. DeBarge walked twice, and he stole his 12th base. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 1, Jupiter 5 Box Score Game 3 of the Salas Brothers Series goes to… Andrew. The speedy 17-year-old centerfielder signed by the Marlins in January went 3-for-5 in this game with an RBI. He also stole three bases. The youngest of the three Salas ballplayers has played in 15 games. He is hitting .360/.508/.420 (.928) with a double and a triple. He is 9-for-11 on stolen base attempts. A sign of maturity is that despite his youth, he had 15 walks and just 13 strikeouts. Despite his 0-for-2 on Thursday, the elder Salas (Jose) has hit .400 with a 1.145 OPS in his rehab time with the Mussels. Speaking of rehab assignments, the Hammerheads started young Eury Perez in his second rehab appearance since he had Tommy John surgery nearly two years ago. He got the first outs. On the mound for the Mussels was Adrian Bohorquez for his first start of the season. While the results are uninspiring (2.2 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 2 K), reports noted his increased velocity from where he was at at the end of the 2024 season. Bohorquez threw 48 pitches and 23 of them were four-seam fastballs. They averaged 95.8 mph, and he hit a high of 97.8 mph. Couple that with 16 sliders which averaged 88. Mph and maxed out at 90.6 mph. Just as important, he is able to slow things down with a slow curveball that averaged 78.6 mph. However, part of the development for a young pitcher is finding a consistent release point and tunneling. I think it’s fair to say that it would be noticeable for hitters to see when he is about to throw a curveball. Cole Peschl came on and got the final out of the third inning and worked through the sixth innings. In his 3 1/3 innings, he gave up no runs on five hits and two walks, but he also had eight strikeouts. Devin Kirby came on for the seventh inning. He was charged with three runs on two hits and a walk… and a hit batter… and two wild pitches in one inning. Kirby allowed a runner in the eighth and then was replaced by lefty Kade Bragg. He got the next four outs, all on strikeouts. He did give up one walk and hit one batter. Hunter Hoopes got the final two outs of the game. In the sixth inning, Jose Rodriguez singled to drive in Jay Thomason with the Mussels first and only run of the game. Poncho Ruiz went 2-for-3 with a walk and his fifth double. Quietly, Ruiz is hitting .339 with a .915 OPS this season. The team was 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 3-for-5, 2B(4), 2-HR(4), 2 R, 3 RBI Pitcher of the Day Pierson Ohl (Wichita): 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 49 pitches, 35 strikes (71.4%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-1 #7 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, R, 2 RBI, SB(6), (played 3B) #8 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-2, 2 BB, 2 R, SB(1), (played SS) #10 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, RBI, 2 K #12 - Cory Lewis (St. Paul) - 4.0 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, HBP, 5 K, 79 pitches, 49 strikes (62.0%) #13 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 3-for-5, 2B(4), 2-HR(4), 2 R, 3 RBI #14 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, RBI, K, SB(12), (played CF) #18 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, RBI FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Columbus (DH @ 4:05 PM CST) - RHP Marco Raya (0-1, 8.00 ERA), RHP Darren McCaughan (1-0, 0.00 ERA) Wichita @ Frisco (7:05 PM CST) - LHP Connor Prielipp (0-1, 4.22 ERA). South Bend @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) - RHP Tanner Hall (1-0, 4.50 ERA). Fort Myers @ Tampa (11:00 AM CST) - RHP Jakob Hall (1-0, 6.10 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

Walker JenkinsLuke KeaschallEmmanuel RodriguezAndrew MorrisCharlee SotoMarco RayaBrandon WinokurDasan HillKaelen CulpepperConnor PrielippKyle DeBargeEduardo BeltreCory LewisBilly AmickYasser MercedesRayne DonconDaiber De Los SantosGabriel GonzalezRicardo OlivarTanner Schobel

Walker JenkinsLuke KeaschallEmmanuel RodriguezAndrew MorrisCharlee SotoMarco RayaBrandon WinokurDasan HillKaelen CulpepperConnor PrielippKyle DeBargeEduardo BeltreCory LewisBilly AmickYasser MercedesRayne DonconDaiber De Los SantosGabriel GonzalezRicardo OlivarTanner Schobel

We have a bunch of multi-hit games, some multi-stolen base games, and some big RBI games. Fort Myers and Cedar Rapids each got one a huge homer on their ways to win. St. Paul had to fight to get their win. Image courtesy of David Malamut (photo of Kaelen Culpepper following his 3-run home run on April 27 in Cedar Rapids) The Twins and all four of their affiliates played on Saturday Lots of good content for you below. But I also want to encourage you all to vote for your Top 20 Twins prospects. Your vote is important! It will help determine the updated Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 12-16 St. Paul Saints: 11-13 Wichita Wind Surge: 12-9 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 12-8 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 12-9 TRANSACTIONS Believe it or not, but the Twins made no official transactions before games played on Sunday. AWARDS Twins Minor League Players of the Week RHP Cole Peschl was named the Pitcher of the Week. He was the Twins 15th round pick last summer out of Campbell University. On Friday night, the 22-year-old started and tossed five scoreless innings and struck out nine batters. Wind Surge catcher Ricardo Olivar, 23, was named the Hitter of the Week. He played four games for Wichita and went 8-for-17 (.471) with two doubles, a homer and four RBI. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 5, Indianapolis 3 Box Score The Saints got ahead early and tried to give away the lead, but they added some late runs and held on for the win. The win was manager Toby Gardenhire's 300th win as manager of the Saints. Congratulations Toby! Zebby Matthews got the start and wasn’t quite himself but still gave his team a chance to win. In 4 2/3 innings, he gave up two runs on two hits. He had five strikeouts and a career-high four walks. Just 48 of his 84 pitches (57%) were strikes. Alex Speas came on with two runners on and allowed both to score before getting the final out of the fifth inning. Kyle Bischoff and Jacob Bosiokovic each pitched a scoreless inning. Anthony Misiewicz gave up a solo homer in the eighth inning. Kody Funderburk recorded his first Saints save of the year with a scoreless ninth. The Saints got the scoring going right away in the first inning. Ryan Fitzgerald walked, and then Royce Lewis singled him to second. Jeferson Morales had an infield single to load the bases. Carson McCusker followed with a two-run double. However, left with runners on second and third and nobody out, the Saints were unable to add on. In the second inning, Anthony Prato led off with a single. Diego Cartaya walked, and Fitzgerald singled to load the bases. Royce Lewis came up and just missed a grand slam. He flew out to the warning track for a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 Saints. Again, the Saints left two more runners on base. Jump ahead to the seventh inning. Indianapolis had cut the Saints lead to 3-2. With one out, Lewis singled and advanced to second on a Morales single. However, McCusker struck out. Fortunately, Mike Ford came up big with a line-drive single to right to drive in Lewis and give the Saints a 4-2 lead. The extra run was great because Nick Solak led off the top of the eighth inning with a pinch-hit homer to cut the lead to 4-3. In the bottom of the eighth, Anthony Prato walked and stole second base. Ryan Fitzgerald doubled off the wall in center to drive in Prato with the fifth run. Lewis went 2-for-3 with two runs scored. He played third base for seven innings as well. Fitzgerald was 2-for-4 with a walk and his fifth double. McCusker was 2-for-4 with his sixth double. Prato was 2-for-3 with a walk. He stole two bases to double his season total. Morales was 2-for-5. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 4, Springfield 12 Box Score Wichita fell behind early, but then surged back to tie it. Then they fell behind again and nearly caught up, but it was all Cardinals in the second half of this game. Ricky Castro started and gave up three runs over his three innings. He gave up three hits, walked three, and had three strikeouts. Down 3-0 going into the bottom of the third inning, the Surge had a runner on first base and two outs. Then Kala’i Rosario singled, and Kyler Fedko walked to load the bases. Ben Ross remained patient and drove in a run with a walk. Rubel Cespedes followed with a two-run single that tied the game. John Klein came in and gave up four runs (3 earned) on four hits and two walks. He struck out three batters. John Stankiewicz gave up four runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings. Jaylen Nowlin gave up one run on two hits over the final two innings. Andrew Cossetti led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a long, towering blast that landed beyond the berm in left field. At the time, it cut the deficit to 5-4, but that was it for the Wind Surge offense. Tanner Schobel went 3-for-5. Kala’i Rosario went 2-for-4 with a walk. Ben Ross was 1-for-2 with two walks. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 8, Wisconsin 1 Box Score Kaelen Culpepper was eased into the 2025 season due to hamstring issues he fought during spring training. He was playing shortstop for about six or seven innings and then came out of the game. Then he had a wrist injury and went on the 7-Day IL. But he returned from that pretty quickly. Since he came back from the IL, he has been a full-time player, and he is showing his skills at the plate and in the field. He played a big part in Sunday’s win. But let’s start with the pitching because the Kernels allowed just one run in the game. Jose Olivares started and struck out three batters in three scoreless, one-hit, no-walk innings. Jeremy Lee came on and worked the next three innings. He gave up one run on three hits and a walk. Wilker Reyes had two strikes over his two scoreless, hitless innings. Samuel Perez struck out two batters in a perfect ninth inning to shut the door. The Kernels took the first lead of the game in the bottom of the second when Danny De Andrade hit his first home run of the season. The Timber Rattlers tied it up in the top of the fifth inning on a Daniel Guilarte sacrifice fly. Note: This is where the Kaelen Culpepper Show starts getting going. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Kevin Maitan singled and Kyle Hess worked a walk. On a 1-1 pitch, Culpepper destroyed a pitch well beyond the wall in left center field. The three-run homer turned a tie-game into a three-run lead for the Kernels. If you like Win Probability, Culpepper’s blast increased the Kernels probability of winning by nearly 32%. In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Kernels added a little insurance. Maitan and Hess each singled again. This time, Culpepper walked to load the bases. Kyle DeBarge grounded out to the pitcher, but it was enough for Maitan to score and make it a 5-1 lead. By the way, if you missed it, but sure to read Jeff Johnson’s fantastic article on Kyle DeBarge. In high school, he was a catcher, and that’s what brought him to Lafayette, but he was just catching bullpens, the coaches had another idea, and it paid off. The Kernels added three more runs in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-1. Gabriel Gonzalez singled to right. De Andrade walked. They successfully completed a double-steal. Khadim Diaw hit a sacrifice fly deep enough to drive in Gonzalez. Misael Urbina singled to advance De Andrade to third base. Maitan walked to load the bases. After a strikeout, Culpepper came to the plate. He lined a single to right field that drove in two more runs. (Of course, that only added 0.3% to the team’s win probability because it was pretty likely already.) The Kernels had nine hits and seven walks in the game. Culpepper led the way. He was 2-for-5 with a walk, his first homer, and five RBI. Kevin Maitan was 2-for-3 with a walk. Khadim Diaw went 1-for-1 with two walks. De Andrade had a walk and a stolen base to go with his homer as well. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 10, Clearwater 1 Box Score Early offense is something every team dreams of, and the Mussels provided just that and then they added on. Byron Chourio led off the game with his first triple. Jose Salas singled him in. That brought Jay Thomason to the plate. The Air Force alum launched the first pitch he saw at a 32 degree angle at 108.3 mph, and it landed approximately 405 from home plate, beyond the established fencing in the outfield. It was his fifth home run of the month and gave the Mussels a 3-0 lead. It’s always helpful to follow a big inning with a quick half-inning on the defensive side. Lefty Michael Carpenter helped with that. He tossed 10 pitches in the bottom of the first inning and none of them left the infield. In the top of the second, the Mussels scored two more runs. The first scored on a wild pitch, and the second scored on a Jose Salas sacrifice fly to make it 5-0. Carpenter needed 20 pitches to get through the second inning. That is largely due to striking out two batters, but he also gave up a solo home run to Raider Tello. But as cliches tell us, solo homers don’t hurt, especially when you have a big lead. In the bottom of the third inning, Maddux Houghton hit an opposite-field single that drove in Miguel Briceno with the team’s sixth run. After an out, Byron Chourio walked to load the bases. On an 0-2 pitch, Jose Salas launched a ball at 103.9 mph and 32 degrees. It landed well beyond the fence in right-center field for a grand slam. The Mussels led 10-1. Honestly, that’s about it for the game. The Mussels added a couple of doubles, but had more 1-2-3 innings. Michael Carpenter completed three innings. He gave up one run on two hits. He had four strikeouts and did not issue a walk. 33 of his 52 pitches were strikes. Fellow lefty Zander Sechrist came on and threw three scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and struck out two batters. Knuckleballer Devin Kirby tossed three scoreless innings to earn his first save of the season. He gave up one hit, walked two, and recorded three strikeouts. Salas led the way. He went 2-for-3 with two runs and six RBI. The grand slam was his first home run of his rehab assignment. Poncho Ruiz went 2-for-5 with his second double. All nine starters had at least one hit. Byron Chourio hit his first triple and walked two more times. Thomason walked twice to go with his home run. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Jose Salas (Fort Myers): 2-for-3, HR(1), 2 R, 6 RBI, K Royce Lewis (St. Paul): 2-for-3, 2 R, RBI Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-4, BB, HR(1), 5 RBI, K. Pitcher of the Day Jose Olivares (Cedar Rapids): 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 42 pitches, 25 strikes (59.5%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Sunday. #7 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, BB, HR(1), R, 5 RBI, K (played SS) #8 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, K (played CF) #13 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, BB, RBI, SB(11) (played 2B) Great Defensive Play #1 and Play #2 #18 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 2-for-4, BB, R, 2 K #19 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, R, K, SB(1) #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB, R, K UPCOMING PROBABLE STARTERS MONDAY: Minnesota @ Cleveland (5:10 PM CST) - RHP Bailey Ober (2-1, 5.04 ERA) TUESDAY: St. Paul @ Columbus (DH @ 4:05 PM CST) - RHP David Festa, RHP Andrew Morris. Wichita @ Frisco (12:05 PM CST) - TBD. South Bend @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) - TBD. Jupiter @ Fort Myers (5:05 PM CST) - TBD. Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Sunday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

why should he play first base. Twins don't need a first baseman. They could use a right-handed bat though.

Like the Twins, Cedar Rapids and St. Paul played matinees. Unlike the Twins, the Kernels and Saints lost close games. See how they did. In the evening games, top left-handed pitching prospects Connor Prielipp (Wind Surge) and Dasan Hill (Mighty Mussels) took the mound for their team and were really impressive. Image courtesy of Rob Thompson (Patrick Winkel, with Jair Camargo happy for him) I want to encourage you all to vote for your Top 20 Twins prospects. Your vote is important! It will help determine the updated Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 11-16 St. Paul Saints: 10-13 Wichita Wind Surge: 12-8 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 11-8 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 11-9 TRANSACTIONS On Saturday morning, the Twins made official the transitions that we heard about on Friday night. First, Luke Keaschall is headed to the 10-Day Injured List with a non-displaced fracture in his wrist. He was hit by a running Kyle Hendricks’ pitch in Friday night’s win against the Angels. Needing a body on the roster, the Twins were able to complete a trade with the Phillies for recently-DFAd utility player Kody Clemens. The Twins will send a bit of cash to the Phillies. The Saints placed Yunior Severino on their 7-Day IL with a strained hamstring. Dalton Shuffield came off of the Injured List. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 5, Indianapolis 6 Box Score When talking about Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, analysts will often use the phrase, “you better get him in his first inning, or you aren’t going to get him.” Likely several of you, Twins fans, remember hearing the same thing about Brad Radke. In St. Paul today, the Saints were hurt twice by this logic. Lefty Aaron Rozek was on the mound to start. In total, he gave up three runs on six hits over the first four innings. However, all three runs scored in the first inning. Next, Travis Adams came in as the piggyback. In all, he was charged with three runs on two hits over his three innings. All three of his allowed runs came in his first inning, the fifth inning. Fortunately, relievers Brady Feigl and Richard Lovelady both threw scoreless, one-inning stints to close the game. In the bottom of the second inning, the Saints responded to their 0-3 deficit by scoring three runs of their own. With two outs, Jair Camargo started things with a single. Patrick Winkel hit his second home run of the season. Anthony Prato followed with his first home run of the season. Back-to-Back Husky Homers! In the fourth inning, the Saints took a short lead when a little roller by Camargo was hit in just the right spot to allow Carson McCusker to score from third base. Down 6-4 going to the bottom of the fifth, the Saints scored their fifth run on a infield single by Jeferson Morales that drove in Dalton Shuffield. St. Paul continued to have opportunities to tie the game again including the bottom of the ninth when Prato led off with a double, but they came up short. On the day, they were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left six on base. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 7, Springfield 0 Box Score Connor Prielipp was fantastic on Saturday night. The Twins have a pretty strict plan on how he is used. It appears to be three innings or 50 pitches, whichever is first. On this night, Prielipp tossed three no-hit, scoreless innings. He had one walk and four strikeouts. He had his three ups-and-downs and only needed 34 pitches to complete them. Mike Paredes came on and matched Prielipp's three scoreless innings, though he gave up two hits and a walk. Michael Martinez tossed two scoreless innings with two strikeouts. He gave up one hit and walked two batters. The final three outs were recorded by Angel Macuare with a perfect ninth frame. It was a very nice performance for the Wind Surge pitchers. It was also a strong showing for the Wind Surge offense as they scored a touchdown and added the extra point. Wichita got things going right away in the bottom of the first inning. Tanner Schobel led off with a triple. With one out, Rubel Cespedes singled to center to score was would become the the game-winning RBI eight innings later. Following a Ben Ross walk, Kala'i Rosario doubled to drive in Cespedes and make it 2-0. Ricardo Olivar led off the bottom of the third frame with his second home run of the season. Ross and Rosario walked and advanced to second and third base. Noah Cardenas followed with his first home run of the season, a three-run blast to make it 6-0. The extra point came in the seventh inning. With two outs, Cardenas singled and moved to second on a passed ball. He scored on a Jake Rucker single to left. Cardenas led the offense going 2-for-4 with the big three-run homer. Cespedes went 2-for-4. Tyler Dearden had a single and walked twice. Ross walked twice and stole a base. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 2, Wisconsin 4 Box Score The Kernels got a really nice start from 2023 fourth-round pick Tanner Hall. The right-hander tossed five innings and was charged with only an unearned run. He gave up five hits, walked two and struck out three batters. In fact, the only run he gave up was on an errant pickoff throw in the top of the second inning. His offense got his back right away in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Kyle Hess singled to advance Nate Baez to third base. Kaelen Culpepper drove in Baez with a single up the middle. Kyle DeBarge followed with a line-drive single to right field to score Hess and give the Kernels the lead. The score remained the same through five innings. Manager Brian Meyer turned to his bullpen ace Spencer Bengard. Unfortunately he allowed a run in the sixth inning to tie it up. He was still on the mound through the eighth inning when he gave up a long, solo home run to Hedbert Perez that gave the Timber Rattlers the 3-2 lead. Logan Whitaker pitched the ninth inning and gave up an unearned run as well. The Kernels had some opportunities. In the seventh inning, Wisconsin reliever Patricio Aquino hit three batters (Billy Amick, Khadim Diaw, Kevin Maitan) but were unable to score. They were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners on base. In addition, the defense committed four errors. Kyle Hess led the offense for the Kernels. The outfielder went 4-for-4 with his second and third doubles of the season. Brandon Winokur was 2-for-4 with a walk. He hit his fifth and sixth doubles. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 5 , Clearwater 3 Box Score Dasan Hill just continues to dominate in his pro debut. Saturday night was no different. The lanky southpaw worked 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, two walks and eight (8!) strikeouts. Jakob Hall came on and worked the next 3 2/3 innings. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on six hits and a walk. He had one strikeout. Kade Bragg worked a perfect eighth inning, and Ivran Romero recorded his second save with a perfect ninth including a strikeout. The Mussels, specifically Yohander Martinez, got on the board in the top of the third inning when he hit his first home run of the year. In the fourth inning, the first two Mussels' batters got out. Angel Del Rosario walked and then stole second and third base. Maddux Houghton walked and stole second base. Peyton Carr struck out, but both runners scored when the catcher threw errantly to first base. The Threshers scored one in the fifth inning. But the Mussels batters went back to work immediately in the sixth inning. With two outs, Del Rosario tripled and scored on a Houghton single. Carr then doubled to drive in Houghton with the fifth run. The Mussels had five hits and four walks. Yasser Mercedes, Angel Del Rosario, and Maddux Houghton all went 1-for-3 with a walk. Mercedes stole his 10th base. Del Rosario stole his eighth and ninth bases of the year. Dasan Hill threw 58 pitches and 35 were strikeouts. 31 of the pitches were sinkers. They averaged 96 mph with a max of 98.4 mph. He threw 14 sliders at an average of 82.4 mph. His seven changeups averaged 83.7 mph. He threw six slow curves that averaged 79.1 mph. He got nine Whiffs among his 58 pitches. However, three of the whiffs came on his seven changeups. Jakob Hall threw 50 pitches, and they fell into six different pitch types. His max velocity was a 93.8 mph. Kade Bragg only needed nine pitches to complete the eighth. His max velocity was 92.6 mph. Ivran Romero maxed out at 93.5 mph. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day (??) Kyle Hess (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-4, R, 2-2B(3) Noah Cardenas (Wichita): 2-for-4, HR(1), 2 R, 3 RBI, Pitcher of the Day (??) Tanner Hall (Cedar Rapids): 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 83 pitches, 53 strikes (63.9%) Dasan Hill (Fort Myers): 3 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 58 pitches, 35 strikes (60.3%) Connor Prielipp (Wichita): 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, 4 K, 34 pitches, 23 strikes (67.6%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Saturday. #7 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, BB, RBI, K (played SS) #8 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, BB, 2-2B(6), K, 2 E (played 3B) #10 - Connor Prielipp (Wichita) - 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, 4 K, 34 pitches, 23 strikes (67.6%) #11 - Dasan Hill (Fort Myers) - 3 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, 58 pitches, 35 strikes (60.3%) #13 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, RBI, 2 K, SB(10) (played 2B) #15 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-for-3, BB, 2 K, SB(10). #17 - Billy Amick (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, BB, 2 K (played 1B) #18 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-3, BB, 2B(2), R, RBI #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-5, HR(2), R, RBI, 2 K SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Angels @ Minnesota (12:40 PM CST) - RHP Joe Ryan (1-2, 4.00 ERA) Indianapolis @ St. Paul (2:07 PM CST) - RHP Zebby Matthews (2-1, 1.80). Springfield @ Wichita (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Ricky Castro (0-1, 5.56 ERA) Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Jose Olivares (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Fort Myers @ Clearwater (11:00 AM CST) - LHP Michael Carpenter (0-0, 3.00 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Saturday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

Alcala has two options remaining, so they would have to DFA him to send him down.

I don't think he was, and obviously no one would say that. DeSclafani was about the money. Topa was about a present-day return. Gonzalez was the highest upside prospect. Bowen was a strong arm with potential to start.