Seth Stohs

On Sept. 1, when MLB rosters could be expanded from 26 to 28, the Minnesota Twins called up RHP Diego Castillo and Utilityman Michael Helman. Castillo pitched once and was optioned to make room for Louie Varland. We were all excited for Michael Helman to finally get this opportunity after overcoming several injuries. At the same time, I noted my disappointment for outfielder DaShawn Keirsey. But here we are, just days later, and Keirsey has received The Call. He will be joining the Twins this morning in Tampa and then head with the team to Kansas City. Tools and Skills Normally a Prospect Retrospective would start with a player’s background and what brought him to the big leagues. However, I want to start with what skills DaShawn Keirsey possesses and how they can help the Twins. Keirsey’s best tools are his speed and his defense. No one in the organization, with the possible exception of a healthy Will Holland, is faster than Keirsey. Obviously that speed helps him on defense. Keirsey has spent a lot of time at all three outfield positions over the past couple of years, but he is at his best manning center field. He throws left-handed, and I’d place his arm at average or slightly above average. However, he generally has a very accurate arm. Offensively, when he has been healthy, he has performed. In the minor leagues, he has been a top of the order hitter, though in some lineups with the Saints he has hit third or fourth. A quick look at his 2024 numbers shows that he does a very nice job filling out the stat line. In 103 games with the Saints, he has hit .292/.362/.477 (839) with 20 doubles, seven triples, and 14 home runs. He drove in 75 runs and scored 69 runs. On the bases, he was 36-for-43 in stolen base attempts. Keirsey bats left-handed. This season, he has walked in 9.7% of his plate appearances and struck out 23.0% of the time. That has been pretty consistent the past three seasons which have been spent in Double-A and Triple-A. Over the past three seasons, he has been really good at using the entire field. He pulls the ball about 36% of the time, hits the ball to center about 26% of the time, and he hits the ball the other way about 38% of the time. As for power, the 27-year-old Keirsey is listed at 6-1, 195 pounds. He is fast and looks fairly thin. However, he is strong and does have the ability to drive the ball, mostly to the gaps, but he does have more power than you think. That said, a full season might yield 12-15 home runs in the big leagues. So how can he help the Twins down the stretch? It’s easy to say that he can be a speed and defense guy, a pinch-runner and defensive replacement. And he certainly can do that. However, with his defense in center and with the offense that he has posted, he can fit a center field platoon with Austin Martin or someone else in center field. Really all the things that you would say that Michael Helman can do, DaShawn Keirsey can do, just left-handed. So why haven’t we seen him in the big leagues to this point? It’s all about opportunity. And I know that sounds a little cliche, but it’s also true. He wasn’t added to the 40-man roster last November, and he went unpicked in the Rule 5 draft. He bats left handed. So do Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, and Matt Wallner, and All Star Willi Castro is a switch hitter. The club has paid Byron Buxton, and they acquired Manuel Margot before the season started to provide right-handed bats. When Buxton got hurt, the team turned to Austin Martin. When Manuel Margot got hurt last week, they turned to Michael Helman. What can DaShawn Keirsey be long-term for the Twins (or other teams)? I feel like saying that he would fit the “fourth outfielder” definition is almost limiting. In the right situation with the right organization, he could get an extended look and be a 130 game guy. In the Twins organization, as it is right now, he really fills out the skill set needed to succeed in that role. And, with Rocco Baldelli at the helm, he does a nice job of keeping his bench players fresh. Max Kepler is a free agent after the season. Alex Kirilloff’s prospects in the Twins organization are uncertain. We’d like to think that Larnach and Wallner can be the team’s corner outfield for the next decade, and Buxton has another five years on his contract extension. So with the Twins, Keirsey (and Martin and Helman, etc.) can fill platoon roles and part time gigs. And with his background and story and injury history, and probably his fair share of doubters, any role in the big leagues probably sounds really good to Keirsey, and his family. The Background I’m going to keep this fairly short. Keirsey has been on a couple of podcasts with me that I will include in this article. In the Twins Spotlight episode, we talked for a good 45 minutes about his background and goals and such. In mid-2023, when he was still in Wichita, I wrote an article calling him the Twins most underrated prospect. With the article, we had a quick 20 minute interview at that time to talk about his improvements and such. You’ll certainly want to watch those. The Twins 2018 draft has been a solid one to this point. Trevor Larnach was the team’s top pick out of Oregon State. In the second round, they selected catcher Ryan Jeffers from UNCW. They selected Cole Sands out of Florida State in the fifth round, and Josh Winder out of Virginia Military Institute in the seventh round. Lefty Kody Funderburk was their 15th round pick out of Dallas Baptist. Michael Helman was the team’s 11th round pick out of Texas A&M. Others still in the organization yet to debut are C/1B Chris Williams who is the Home Run King in St. Paul. He was the team’s 8th round pick that year from Clemson. Finally, RHP Regi Grace was the team’s 10th round pick out of high school in Mississippi. The Twins didn’t have a third-round pick that year after signing veteran Josh Donaldson to a nine-digit contract that offseason. In the fourth round, they selected DaShawn Keirsey, Jr., out of the University of Utah. Born and raised in San Diego, California, Keirsey attended Helix Charter School. You might have heard of some of their alumni. Football: Reggie Bush, Alex Smith and literally a dozen more. . Basketball: Bill Walton graduated in 1970. Actor: Dennis Hopper graduated in 1954. Twins fans may remember that long-time prospect Jake Reed (5th round, 2014) went to Helix before heading to play baseball at the University of Oregon. At Helix, Keirsey was an all-league and all-county wide receiver in football. However, it was on the baseball diamond that his future would be. After high school, he went to the University of Utah where he was first-team All-Pac 12 and a Freshman All American. He played in 54 games and hit .293/.349/.358 (.707( with nine doubles and 11 steals. As a sophomore, he played in 50 games and hit .327/.388/.461 (.848) with 10 doubles, five triples, and three home runs. However, in a late-May home game, Keirsey was in center field when a ball was hit over his head. The next spring, Keirsey told the Salt Lake Tribune, “At Smith’s Ballpark, center field is 420 [feet]. You don’t really, especially in games, see people hit the ball over the center field wall at this level. I just remember thinking, with the trajectory of the ball, I thought it was going to have a chance. In the back of my mind, I knew I was going to collide with the wall some way, but I thought it was going to be like a jump into the wall. I didn’t think it would be, obviously, the way it happened.” He hit the wall. The wall did not move. Keirsey was on the ground for 30 minutes before being taken off in an ambulance. The diagnosis? Keirsey had a dislocated hip and a fractured hip. Instead of playing in a top college wood bat league, or even just doing things on the southern California beaches he had his whole life. Instead, he was working on things like being able to walk again and swinging a bat without it hurting. When you see how bad the injury was, it’s incredible to find out that he was ready on Opening Day of 2018. And not only was he simply able to play, he contributed huge offensive numbers. In 50 games, he hit .386/.440/.609 (1.049) with 23 doubles, five triples and four home runs. The Twins drafted him in the fourth round and were very excited about his athleticism and upside. He went to Elizabethton and hit .301 in 26 games there. In 2019, he went to Cedar Rapids, but missed so much time with leg injuries. He played in just 36 games. Especially with the completely lost season of 2020, it had to be frustrating. He went back to the Kernels in 2021 and was limited to just 45 games with more leg injuries. He hit just .199, but he did have four doubles, four triples and seven home runs. He also stole 10 bases. Since 2022, Keirsey has been relatively healthy. That season, he played 121 games in Wichita. He hit .271/.329/.395 (.724) with 26 doubles, three triples and seven homers. He also stole 42 bases in 49 attempts. He returned to the Wind Surge in 2023. In 91 games, he hit .305/.363/.488 (.850) with 17 doubles, five triples, and 13 homers. He finished the season in St. Paul where he hit .264/.375/.364 (.739) with a double, three triples, and two homers. Combined, he had 39 steals in 44 attempts. There was some concern that Keirsey might be lost in the Rule 5 draft last year, but he went unselected. This offseason, Keirsey would have become a free agent had he not been added to the Twins 40-man roster. He could have stayed in the organization, but I certainly wouldn’t have blamed him had he gone elsewhere. How He Got His Shot As previously noted, Keirsey wasn't the team's first choice when rosters expanded. He wasn't even the second. Finally, though, with Kepler hitting the injured list, the door is open for him. Presumably, since Byron Buxton is also being reevaluated after feeling discomfort during his latest rehab appearance, Keirsey is especially welcome as a solid defensive center fielder, but his immediate value is in replacing Kepler on the roster. That might mean only sparing starts, but he does round out the outfield defense nicely, especially in center and against right-handed pitchers. For much, much more Twins Daily content on DaShawn Keirsey, click here to see articles in which he has been tagged. There are a full four pages of articles linked.

CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 75-64 St. Paul Saints: 64-69 Wichita Wind Surge: 54-74 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 65-61 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-57 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS LHP Brent Headrick was activated from the Saints 60-Day Injured List on Thursday. RHP Louie Varland was recalled from St. Paul while RHP Diego Castillo was optioned to the Saints. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 2, Iowa 1 Box Score Yes, the big story of this game will be about Byron Buxton. However, this was really a terrific game for the Saints, in particular a terrific game for the Saints pitching staff. Brent Headrick made a start for the Saints on April 6th. On Wednesday night, he returned to the mound in St. Paul and did a very nice job. The southpaw threw three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out four batters. At that point, Randy Dobnak came on, and he worked the final six innings. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk. He struck out six batters. The lone blemish in his outing was a solo home run by Iowa’s Chase Strumpf (yes, Royce Lewis’s high school teammate). Dobnak improved to 11-6 on the seasons and his ERA dropped to 3.87. The Saints got on the scoreboard first. With one out in the bottom of the third, Payton Eeles walked. Two batters later, he scored from first base on DaShawn Keirsey’s 20th double. Strumpf’s homer led off the top of the fifth inning with the home run. The game remained tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Jair Camargo walked. He advanced to second base on a passed ball. Carson McCusker singled to score Camargo and give the Saints the 2-1 lead. The Saints had just four hits in the game. Keirsey went 2-for-4 with the double and RBI. He also stole his 36th base of the season. McCusker was 2-for-3 with the go-ahead RBI. Eeles reached on a walk and was hit by a pitch. For the Cubs fans out there, 2023 top pick Matt Shaw went 2-for-4. Iowa had just four hits. Brandon Birdsell went the first six innings for Iowa and gave up just one run. He was the Cubs fifth round pick in 2022 out of Texas Tech. In 2021, he was the Twins 11th round pick. The Twins offered him the remaining money that they could within their draft bonus limit, but he was determined to pitch one more year at Texas Tech. In 2022, he was a teammate and roommate of Twins 2022 fourth round pick from Texas Tech, Andrew Morris. Buxton went 0-for-2 before the ejection with two strikeouts. It would seem to make sense that he would be called back to the big leagues before the Twins big series in Kansas City starting on Friday. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 1, Frisco 2 Box Score Wichita got on the board first when they scored in the top of the first inning. With two outs, Andrew Cossetti drove in Tanner Schobel with a single. Unfortunately, that was it for the Wind Surge on this night. The team had just five hits. The lone extra base hit was a first-inning double by Kala’i Rosario, his 17th of the season. Jaylen Nowlin started and gave up two runs on five hits over five innings. He had two walks and six strikeouts. Mason Fox faced six batters over two perfect innings. He had three strikeouts. Kyle Bischoff gave up a hit and a walk in a scoreless eighth inning. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 4, Wisconsin 3 (10 innings) Box Score The Alpha and the Omega. El principio y el fin. The beginning and the end. In this game, that’s all we really need to know about. Things were pretty quiet in between. The Kernels took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs and a runner on first, Rubel Cespedes walked. Rayne Doncon followed with a double to score both Gabriel Gonzalez and Cespedes. Doncon then scored on a single by Agustin Ruiz. That is how the score remained through eight innings. Burnsville native John Klein made the start and tossed a season-high seven scoreless innings. He gave up six hits, walked none, and struck out six batters. Klein also became the first Cedar Rapids pitcher to reach 100 innings since 2019 when Josh Winder (125 ⅔ IP) and Luis Rijo (107 IP) reached that milestone. Juan Mendez pitched a scoreless eighth inning. He allowed a hit and hit a batter. He hit Luke Adams. The Kernels maintained the 3-0 lead going to the ninth inning. Xander Hamilton came in and gave up three runs (2 earned) on three hits and a walk. He recorded just one out (on a strikeout). Jordan Carr came in and stranded two runners to keep it at 3-3. The Kernels went scoreless in the bottom of the ninth. Carr tossed a scoreless top of the 10th inning. That brought us to the bottom of the 10th. Kyle Hess was the Manfred Man. He was still standing on second base with two outs. However, Gabriel Gonzalez doubled to drive in Hess with the winning run. When Gonzalez put the ball in play, he did good things. He went 2-for-5 with three strikeouts. The walkoff double was his 19th of the season. Ruiz was 2-for-3 with a walk. Doncon’s double was his 11th with the Kernels. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 0, Lakeland 4 Box Score If you look at his overall numbers, it probably doesn’t jump out as exciting. Following a loss to Lakeland on Thursday, Soto’s season record is 1-7 with a 5.23 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. In 74 innings, he had 33 walks and 87 strikeouts. Soto completed a full season as an 18-year-old. In fact, this was literally the only start he made this season as a 19-year-old. Just 10 of plate appearances against him were with batters who were younger than him. With that, in his game, he gave up four runs on four hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. He had five strikeouts. He made his starts throughout the season and remained healthy. In fact, his four-seam fastball averaged 95.6 mph on Wednesday night and he touched 97.0 mph. Now hopefully he won’t pick up a baseball for the next three months! Jack Noble came on and allowed two inherited runners to score. He gave up two hits and a walk and got three outs. Cleiber Maldonado struck out three batters over 1 2/3 perfect innings. Juan Mercedes gave up two hits in a scoreless inning. He had two strikeouts. The Mussels went scoreless in the game and had just four hits and no walks. Kyle DeBarge went 2-for-4. Jaime Ferrer and Nick Lucky each had one hit. Ferrer stole his sixth base. Lucky’s hit was his fifth double. With the loss, Fort Myers falls into second place in the FSL West behind Lakeland. The two teams play four more games this week and the Mussels must win three of them to make the playoffs. Lakeland has won the first two games of this series. The Mussels have now lost five games in a row. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day - DaShawn Keirsey (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, 2B(20), RBI, SB(36). Pitcher of the Day - John Klein (Cedar Rapids) - 7 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 HBP, 6 K, 87 pitches, 65 strikes (74.7%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-4, BB, K. #2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 1-for-4, BB, 2B(3), HR(3), R, RBI #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-3, BB, 2 K #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-5, 2B(19), R, RBI, 3 K. #8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 4 1/3 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 71 pitches, 45 strikes (63.4%) #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 2 K. #12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 0-for-4, 2 K. #15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B(17), 3 K. #16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 2-for-4, K, 2 CS(3). #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 1-for-4, R, 2 K. THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Iowa @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CST) – RHP Caleb Boushley (9-5, 4.97 ERA) Wichita @ Frisco (7:05 PM CST) – LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 2.12 ERA) Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) – Spencer Bengard (1-0, 1.42 ERA) Ft. Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CST) – RHP Anthony Narvaez (0-0, 9.00 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

Twins All Star outfielder Byron Buxton played in his second rehab game with the Saints after missing time with a hip injury. The hope was for him to play seven innings in center field as he did on Monday. Unfortunately, he only played three innings in center field because after striking out to end the bottom of the third frame, Buxton was ejected by a Triple-A umpire trying to make a name for himself. Sure, we'll mention the umpire's name. Willie Traynor was the home plate umpire in this game and felt the need to ejected Buxton in the third inning. So, what happened? Following a 1-1 pitch, Buxton used his one time out. Inexplicably, the umpire didn't have the time clock reset and when it dropped to zero, he called a pitch clock violation on Buxton which made the count 1-2. Obviously when a hitter uses his one opportunity to step out, the clock is to be stopped and reset. The batter gets a little bit of time, and then the umpire gets the clock going again. from the video below, it's clear that something wasn't reset, and the umpire decided not to use common sense. From a purely baseball perspective, the difference between a 1-1 pitch and a 1-2 pitch is huge. Buxton went on to foul off a pitch before he struck out on a fastball just above the zone. As he set his bat and batting gloves down, Buxton continued the conversation with Traynor. Saints manager Toby Gardenhire ran down from the third base coach's box to get in between. As Buxton walked away, Traynor ejected him. What does this mean? Ultimately nothing. He'll probably have to pay a couple hundred dollars to the International League. He possibly missed out on two more plate appearances and four or five innings in the outfield. Not a big deal. Presumably he'll play in one more game with the Saints before rejoining the Twins, assuming everything checks out on Thursday morning. And to answer the question from above. No, Byron Buxton has never been ejected in the big leagues. He is ultra-competitive and yet keeps his cool very well, including in this example.

In a rarity, there were two full-season affiliates that played on Monday. Find out how St. Paul and Wichita performed. Of note, because of the Labor Day weekend, having a regular minor-league report each day, and our August Awards articles, we won't have the Minor League Week in Review this week. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 75-62 St. Paul Saints: 63-69 Wichita Wind Surge: 54-73 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 64-60 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-55 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS Byron Buxton was sent to St. Paul to start a rehab assignment with the Saints. Trevor Richards cleared waivers and was outrighted to St. Paul. In some very surprising but fantastic news, OF Emmanuel Rodriguez ended his rehab in Fort Myers and will continue his season with the Saints. RHP Jarret Whorff was promoted from Wichita to Fort Myers. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 8, Iowa 11 Box Score To celebrate Labor Day, the Saints played a very rare Monday game. To celebrate, the Saints gave free tickets to expecting women for the game. Unfortunately, Iowa had a big seven-run third inning. The Saints tried to come back, but it was too little too late. Caleb Baragar started and gave up one run in the top of the first inning. After a scoreless third inning, he started the top of the third frame by giving up a single, a walk, and a three-run homer to Kevin Alcantara. That ended his game. He gave up four runs on four hits and a walk over two-plus innings. Nick Wittgren came on to replace Baragar. He was welcomed by a Moises Ballesteros home run. After a strikeout, he gave up two singles and threw a wild pitch. Then he got the second out on a strikeout. However, Caleb Knight drilled a three-run homer which gave the Cubs an 8-1 lead. But Wittgren did get a third strikeout to end the inning. Wittgren stayed in and tossed two scoreless innings. Over his three innings, he gave up four runs on five hits. He had four strikeouts. Ryan Jensen was next and he gave up two runs on two hits and a walk in his inning. Zack Weiss tossed a scoreless inning. Scott Okert came in for the seventh inning. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk and recorded two outs. Jarret Whorff came in with the bases loaded and stranded all three runners. He had three strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. Down 10-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Saints tried to comeback. Byron Buxton led off with a single to center. Emmanuel Rodriguez walked. With one out, Diego A. Castillo singled to drive in Buxton. Payton Eeles followed with a single to drive in Rodriguez. Down 11-3 going to the bottom of the eighth inning, Yunior Severino led off with a double. Two batters later, Eeles singled to center to score Severino. With two outs, Patrick Winkel singled and then Rylan Bannon singled on a ground ball to shortstop to drive in Eeles. Down 11-5 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Saints tried one more time to come back. led off with a single. With one out, Severino hit his 20th home run. Castillo walked and then scored on a Carson McCusker triple that made it 11-8, but that was as close as it got. The Saints scored their eight runs on 13 hits and five walks. Winkel went 3-for-5. Severino was 2-for-4 with his 18th double and 20th home run. Eeles was 2-for-5. Byron Buxton made his first rehab appearance. He batted second and played in center field for the first seven innings. He was 1-for-3 with a walk. Emmanuel Rodriguez made his Triple-A debut. He went 0-for-3 with two walks and an RBI groundout. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 2, Frisco 3 (11 innings) Box Score Both teams scored two runs in the third inning, and then the game went seven-and-a-half innings without another run scoring. The Wind Surge got on the board first in the top of the third inning. Dalton Shuffield reached on an error. He advanced to second on a Jorel Ortega single. Ben Ross lined a single to left to load the bases. Kala’i Rosario kept the carousel rolling when he drove in Shuffield with a single. The second run scored on a double play grounder. C.J. Culpepper started and gave up two, third-inning runs on three hits in 3 2/3 innings. Cody Laweryson got six outs. Mike Paredes gave up a walk and had two strikeouts. Taylor Floyd gave up three hits and a walk over three scoreless innings. He had two strikeouts. The Surge had just seven hits and two walks combined. Ben Ross went 2-for-4. Kyler Fedko was 2-for-5. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – RHP Cody Laweryson (Wichita): 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Hitter of the Day – 1B Yunior Severino (St. Paul): 2-for-4, BB, 2B(18), HR(20), 2 RBI, 2 R, BB PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Saturday. #2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 2-for-4, BB, 2B(3), HR(3), R, RBI #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-3, 2 BB, R, RBI 2 K #15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-5, RBI, 2 K. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-2, K. #19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - DNP TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) – TBD Ft. Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CST) – LHP Cesar Lares (3-3, 4.31 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Monday’s games!

CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 73-62 St. Paul Saints: 62-68 Wichita Wind Surge: 54-71 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 64-59 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-55 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS There were no transactions in the Twins organization on Saturday. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 1, Omaha 9 Box Score It wasn’t as bad as the big-league game, but the Saints had a rough one on Saturday night too. The Saints managed just five hits in the game. Patrick Winkel’s sixth home run provided the team with its only run. Diego A. Castillo had a single to go with the team’s lone walk in the game. Aaron Rozek made the start and actually pitched well for the Saints. The southpaw gave up four runs on nine hits over six innings. He had seven strikeouts without issuing a walk. Zack Weiss pitched an inning. He gave up two runs on four hits. Steven Okert made his first Saints appearance. He recorded just one out. He was charged with three runs on four hits and two walks. He left the game with the bases loaded and nobody out, but Nick Wittgren got two outs without another run scoring. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 6, Springfield 1 Box Score In this game, The Wind Surge got on the board first and then had a big fifth inning. In the first inning, Kala’i Rosario singled to lead off. With one out, Tanner Schobel singled Rosario to third. Ricardo Olivar singled in the game’s first run. Fast-forward to the bottom of the fifth inning. Ben Ross led off with a single and stole his 18th base. Rosario reached second on a throwing error with Ross going to third. Jake Rucker singled in two runs. With two outs, Alex Isola singled to advance Rucker to second base. Dalton Shuffield followed with his fourth Surge homer, a three-run shot that made it 6-0 at that time. Cory Lewis was very good on this night. He gave up one hit over 5 1/3 scoreless innings. He had three walks and struck out six batters. Following the game, Twins Daily asked what he's had working of late. Lewis said, "Definitely the knuckleball, from the beginning of the game, it was doing what it’s supposed to do. Felt really comfortable with it, and it was in the zone more than prior which helps a lot. " After missing the first two months of the season, Lewis was brought back slowly. However, it is clear that he has returned to his 2023 form. He feels he's there too. "I definitely feel like I’ve finally back to where I was last year. Ever since coming back from the all star break, I feel like everything is back to normal. It took a few starts in Double-A for everything to finally sync up again and I’ve been feeling more comfortable. The stuff piece of it has been pretty consistent. It’s just been trusting my pitches and just building up confidence in everything. More so in locations and just trusting that my stuff is what it was last year." Ricardo Velez gave up one hit over 1 2/3 scoreless innings. He had two strikeouts. Mason Fox gave up an unearned run on one hit and one walk. Wichita had 12 hits. All nine Surge hitters had at least one hit. Isola and Ross were 2-for-4. Ortega went 2-for-3 and had the team’s lone walk. Eight of nine Surge hitters had at least one strikeout. Overall, the team had 15 strikeouts. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 3, Lake County 4 Box Score The value of being able to put crooked numbers on the scoreboard was evident in this game. The Kernels got on the board first in the top of the third inning. Misael Urbina led off with his 16th double. With one out, Walker Jenkins signed to right to drive in the first run. Connor Prielipp was on the mound and on his game in this one. He tossed three scoreless, hitless innings. He walked one batter and had five strikeouts. Darren Bowen came in and over 3 2/3 innings, he gave up three runs on five hits. He walked two batters and had three strikeouts. Down 3-1 going into the sixth inning, Kaelen Culpepper knocked his first Kernels home run to cut the deficit to 3-2. In the ninth inning, Nate Baez led off with a walk. Kyle Hess pinch ran for him. He moved to second on a wild pitch. With one out, Rubel Cespedes pinch hit and lined his 20th double to right field to drive in Hess with the game-tying run. Gabriel Yanez came in and got the final out of the bottom of the seventh inning. He tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning. With the game tied 3-3 going to the bottom of the ninth inning, Yanez remained in the game. He gave up a leadoff single to Alex Mooney who then stole his 42nd base. Then there was an intentional walk, and then an unintentional walk loaded the bases. After getting an infield pop up, Yanez gave up a walkoff single to Kevin Rivas. The Kernels had just six hits in the game, but they also walked five times. Culpepper had a walk to go with his first home run. Jenkins had a walk and a single. MUSSEL MATTERS Game 1: Fort Myers 1, Clearwater 5 Box Score It was a sunny day in southwest Florida which was great for the Mussels schedule. This game actually started on Friday night. Anthony Narvaez started and was able to complete two innings. He gave up no runs and no hits. He walked one and had one strikeout. When play resumed on Saturday, Jose Olivares came on to pitch. He had a couple of walks, but through the fifth inning, he had yet to allow a hit. The sixth inning began with a walk and two batters later there was an error. Olivares gave up back-to-back doubles. In total, he was charged with three runs (2 earned) on two hits in four innings. He walked three and struck out three batters. Tomas Cleto pitched the seventh inning. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on one hit and one walk. Down 5-1 going to the bottom of the seventh inning (final inning), 2024 picks Derek Bender and Caden Kendle started the inning with a pair of singles. Emmanuel Rodriguez lined out to right, but then a wild pitch advanced the runners. A Brandon Winokur ground out drove in the Mussels second run. The previous runs scored on a wild pitch. Fort Myers managed just five hits in the game, and they coaxed four walks. Jay Thomason went 2-for-3. Kendle was 1-for-2 with a walk. Jaime Ferrer hit his seventh double. Game 2: Fort Myers 3, Clearwater 7 Box Score There was a 90-minute delay after the first inning. After some early runs, the Mussels’ bats quieted while the Threshers continued to add. Adrian Bohorquez started for the Mussels and really struggled finding the strike zone. After getting a fly out, he walked Dante Nori (yes, the Wolves coach’s son). He then walked two more batters to load the bases. He got a fly out for the second out but it did score the game’s first run. After hitting a batter, he recorded the final out of the inning. Then came the lightning. When play returned, Christian Becerra came in to replace Bohorquez and make his professional debut. Bohorquez had thrown 31 pitches in the first inning (just 10 strikes), so his day may have been done regardless. Becerra gave up an unearned run on one hit and three walks over 1 2/3 innings. Cleiber Maldonado gave up two runs on one hit and two walks in one inning. Paulshawn Pasqualotto gave up two runs (1 earned) on one hit and two walks and recorded just two outs. Tyler Stasiowski came in for his pro debut. The non-drafted free agent walked one and had one strikeout over 1 2/3 innings. Juan Mercedes came in and gave up one run on one hit and two walks in an inning. The three outs came on strikeouts. So again, to summarize the Mussels pitching in Game 2; in seven innings, they gave up just four hits and walked an impressive 13 batters. The Mussels got on the board in the second inning. Daniel Pena singled. After one out, there was a wild pitch. With two outs, Byron Chourio singled to drive in Pena. With one out in the third inning, Kyle DeBarge reached on an error and then stole second base. Brandon Winokur singled which moved DeBarge to third. Winokur stole second. After a ground ball was fielded and thrown home for the second out, Jaime Ferrer doubled to drive in Winokur and Khadim Diaw. Ferrer went 2-for-3 with his eighth double. Winokur was 2-for-4 with his 18th double. He also stole his 23rd base. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – RHP Cory Lewis (Wichita): 5 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, 89 pitches, 60 strikes (66.4%) Hitter of the Day – Dalton Shuffield (Wichita): 1-for-4, HR(4), 3 RBI, R, 2 K 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. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-3, BB, RBI. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) - Rehab in FM: Game 1: 0-for-3, BB, K. #5 – Zebby Matthews (Minnesota) – 2 IP, 10 H, 9 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. 69 pitches, 45 strikes (65.2%) #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-4, 2B(18), RBI. #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-3, BB, HR(1), R, RBI, K. #12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – Game 1: 0-for-4, RBI, K. Game 2: 2-for-4, 2B(18), R, 2 K, SB(23) #13 – Cory Lewis (Wichita) – 5 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, 89 pitches, 60 strikes (66.4%) #15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-5, 2 R, 3 K. #16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - Game 1: 0-for-3, 3 K, Game 2: 0-for-4. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 1-for-4, 2 K. #20 – Connor Prielipp (Cedar Rapids) – 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K. 38 pitches, 23 strikes (60.5%) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Omaha (2:05 PM CST) – RHP Travis Adams (1st Triple-A start) Springfield @ Wichita (1:05 PM CST) – RHP Pierson Ohl (4-6, 5.48 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (12:00 PM CST) – RHP Ricky Castro (1-3, 4.30 ERA) Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (11:00 AM CST) – LHP Ross Dunn (1-4, 6.03 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Saturday’s games!

CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 73-61 St. Paul Saints: 62-67 Wichita Wind Surge: 53-71 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 64-58 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-53 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS After missing more than two months with a fractured elbow and a couple of rehab games in Fort Myers, Kala’i Rosario is with the Wichita Wind Surge. OF Tyler Dearden has been assigned to Cedar Rapids. RHP Travis Adams, who has been fantastic for the past couple of months in Wichita, has been promoted to the Saints. SAINTS SENTINEL Game 1: St. Paul 5, Omaha 6 Box Score Walks will haunt! I mean, yeah, they’re annoying, but they don’t always haunt. But sometimes they do, and in Game 1 on Friday night in Omaha, the Saints were haunted by walks. Randy Dobnak made the start. He completed four innings and gave up four runs on four hits. He had six strikeouts, but he also issued five free passes. Giovanny Gallegos came in to start the fifth inning and faced six batters. He walked four of them. Ryan Jensen came in and got the third out of the fifth inning without further damage. Diego Castillo pitched a perfect sixth inning. But when you walk nine batters in less than five innings, you don’t really give yourself a chance. That said, the Saints bats sure tried to stay in it. They just fell short. Down 2-0, the Saints scored two runs in the top of the third. Anthony Prato singled, and Michael Helman doubled him to third to start the inning. Brooks Lee grounded out which scored Prato. DaShawn Keirsey followed with an RBI double to tie the score at 2-2. Omaha responded with two in the bottom of the third. In the top of the fourth, Jeferson Morales doubled and advanced to third on a passed ball. He scored on a Chris Williams groundout. With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Yunior Severino doubled. After a pitching change, he advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Jair Camargo single to tie it 4-4. But the Gallegos four-walk fifth inning allowed two more runs to score for Omaha. So, down by two runs going to the seventh inning, the Saints got a two-out single from Severino, and then another from Camargo. Payton Eeles singled to drive in Severino with the team’s fifth run, but that was it. The Saints fell one run short. Severino went 3-for-4 with his 16th double. Camargo went 2-for-4. Prato went 2-for-2 with a walk. Halman hit his 15th double. Keirsey’s double was his 19th of the season. Morales hit his third double since joining the Saints last Saturday. Lee, who is on a rehab assignment, went 0-4 with one strikeout and an RBI. Game 2: St. Paul 8, Omaha 3 Box Score In Game 2, the Saints sent Andrew Morris to the mound. He pitched well, and the offense gave him plenty of early run support. Let’s start with Morris. The 22-year-old tossed five shutout innings. He gave up four hits, walked two and had four strikeouts to earn his first Triple-A win. In the top of the second, the Saints got on the scoreboard with four runs. Severino led off with a walk. With one out, Rylan Bannon walked. Morales singled to right but Severino was thrown out at home. So no runs scored and two outs. Patrick Winkel followed with a single to score Bannon. Prato walked to lead the bases. Payton Eeles came up with the big hit of the game. His bases-clearing triple gave the Saints a 4-0 lead. The top of the third inning began with a Keirsey single. Severino walked, and a double steal put runners on second and third. Ultimately, did it matter? Well, Carson McCusker followed with a three-run homer to make it 7-0 Saints. Then, with one out, Morales singled and stole second. He advanced to third on a ground out and then scored on a single by Prato. Josh Winder came in for the sixth inning and gave up two runs on four hits. He had one strikeout. Caleb Baragar gave up an unearned run on one hit in the sixth inning. He had two strikeouts. McCusker went 2-for-4 with his second Saints homer. Morales was 2-for-3 and stole his first base for St. Paul. Eeles had a walk to go with his three-run three-bagger. And it was his third Saints triple. Yunior Severino walked twice. Keirsey’s stolen base was his 34th. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 6, Springfield 1 Box Score Wichita had an offensive burst in the three middle innings, and they received a great start and long relief appearance to really earn a nice win. Marco Raya started and gave up one run in the first five innings. He gave up three hits, walked three and had five strikeouts. He threw 74 pitches. Christian MacLeod earned a four-inning save. He gave up no runs and no hits. He walked two and had six strikeouts. Following the game, MacLeod told Twins Daily, “All four pitches were working well tonight. I thought I did a good job of mixing all four of them and attacking the zone. I would just say mixing all of my pitches and not being predictable has led to success over the past few months.” The Surge got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning. Tanner Schobel singled, and Alex Isola walked. They each moved up a base on a balk. Aaron Sabato singled to drive in Schobel and tie the game at 1-1. With one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Jorel Ortega singled. After a second out, Kala’i Rosario singled. Next, Jake Rucker doubled to drive in both runners and give the Surge a 3-1 lead. The bottom of the sixth inning began with two strikeouts. Kyler Fedko walked and moved to second on a wild pitch. Dalton Shuffield walked. Fedko then scored on a double off the bat of Ortega. Noah Cardenas followed with a two-run double that made it 6-1 Surge. In his first game since injuring his elbow in early June, Rosario was back in the Wichita lineup. Maybe attempting to get him as many ABs as possible, he was in the leadoff position. He went 2-for-4 with his 16th double. Ortega went 2-for-3 with his 13th double. Rucker drove in two runs with his 21st double. Cardenas drove in two runs with his 10th double. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 4, Lake County 7 Box Score A six-run third inning made all the difference in this game. The Kernels attempted a late-inning comeback, but it fell plenty short. In the top of the third inning, the Kernels tied the score at 1-1 when Walker Jenkins doubled to score Jose Salas. Jeremy Lee started the game giving up just one run over two innings. However, things just fell apart in the bottom of the third. The inning went single, single, double, single, walk, three-run homer, and walk. Lefty Samuel Perez came in and kept the Lake County hitters off balance. Lee’s final line was seven runs on eight hits and two walks in 2+ innings. Perez struck out three batters over two scoreless innings. Nolan Santos then struck out three batters in two scoreless, hitless innings. Xander Hamilton struck out one batter over two perfect innings. Down 7-1 going to the eighth, Rixon Wingrove led off that inning with his fourth home run since joining the Kernels. Jose Salas was hit by a pitch. He scored on a Kyle Hess double. With two outs, Gabriel Gonzalez doubled to drive in Hess with the third run of the inning, but that was it, and that’s how it ended. Jenkins was 2-for-4 with his 10th double. The Australian Wingrove went 2-for-4 with his fourth homer. Hess hit his ninth double, and Gonzalez’s double was his 18th of the season. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers, Clearwater (Game Suspended, 2nd inning) Box Score The Threshers and Mussels were supposed to play two games on Friday night after they were rained out on Thursday. Unfortunately, after just an inning-and-a-half yesterday, the rains came and the game was suspended and will resume as part of a doubleheader on Saturday. Game 2 is scheduled to be played as part of a doubleheader on Sunday. At least, they hope to. We’ll write more about this game tomorrow. The only real note at this point was that young Anthony Narvaez started for the Mussels. He issued one walk and had a strikeout in two scoreless, hitless innings. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Who gets your vote? Marco Raya (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 74 pitches, 46 strikes (62.2%) Christian MacLeod (Wichita) - 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 55 pitches, 34 strikes (61.8%) Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 75 pitches, 50 strikes (66.7%). Hitter of the Day – Who gets your vote? Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 3-for-6, 2 BB, 2B(16), 3 R Payton Eeles (St. Paul) - 2-for-7, 3B(3), BB, 4 RBI, 2K. Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, HR(2), R, 3 RBI. Anthony Prato (St. Paul) - 3-for-3, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI. PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Friday. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-4, 2B(10), RBI. #2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Rehab St. Paul: Game 1: 0-for-4, RBI, K. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) - Rehab in FM: 0-for-1 (in Suspended Game) #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-4, 2B(18), RBI. #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 2 K. #10 - Marco Raya (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K. 74 pitches, 46 strikes (62.6%) #11 - Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - Game 2: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K. 75 pitches, 50 strikes (66.7%) #12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 0-for-1 (in Suspended Game). #15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 2-for-4, 2B(16), R, #16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 0-for-1, K. (in Suspended Game). #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 1-for-4, R 2 K. SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Omaha (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Aaron Rozek (0-4, 6.55 ERA) Springfield @ Wichita (6:05 PM CST) – RHP Cory Lewis (1-4, 2.96 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (6:00 PM CST) – LHP Connor Prielipp (0-1, 4.73 ERA) Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (2:35 PM CST) – completion of Game 1 (TBD), RHP Adrian Bohorquez (0-0, 2.19 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Friday’s games!

CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 72-61 St. Paul Saints: 61-66 Wichita Wind Surge: 52-70 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 63-57 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-53 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS With Michael Tonkin officially re-joining the team, Caleb Boushley was optioned to the Saints. LHP Brent Headrick started a rehab assignment with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 3, Omaha 2 Box Score Jeff Brigham got a surprise start for St. Paul on Wednesday night. He went two innings and gave up one run on two hits. Then the Twins brought in the scheduled starter, Louie Varland, and he was fantastic. The St. Paul native tossed five shutout innings. He gave up just one hit. He walked two and struck out nine batters. Hobie Harris gave up a run on a hit and two walks in the eighth inning. Diego Castillo recorded his eighth save with two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth. The Saints got on the board with two runs in the top of the first inning. Payton Eeles and Brooks Lee took walks to start the game. Eeles stole third before DaShawn Keirsey drove him in with a sacrifice fly. After the second out, Michael Helman With a 2-1 lead in the third inning, Keirsey led off with a single. He stole second, his 32nd steal of the year. Yunior Severino singled him to third. With one out, Jair Camargo fly out to center, just deep enough for Keirsey to score. However, Severino was thrown out at second base to end the inning. That was all the run support the pitching staff got in this game. The Saints had just five hits, and Keirsey had two of them. Keirsey also had two steals to give him 33 on the year. They also walked six times. Eeles walked twice. Carson McCusker was the only Saints player with a hit and a walk. He hit his first Saints double. The team was just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 1, Springfield 2 Box Score With C.J. Culpepper understandably being brought back slowly from his forearm injury earlier in the season, his starts essentially become a bullpen game. Culpepper went the first 2 2/3 innings. He gave up two runs on five hits and two walks. He had one strikeout. John Stankiewicz came in and got four outs. Cody Laweryson and Michael Paredes each provided two scoreless innings of relief. Kyle Bischoff then struck out two batters in a scoreless top of the ninth. Down 2-0 going to the bottom of the fourth inning, Aaron Sabato’s 10th home run put the Surge on the board. Unfortunately, that was all they were able to score and lost a tight 2-1 decision. Things did get interesting in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Dalton Shuffield and Kyler Fedko each hit singles to put runners at the corners, but Ben Ross lined out to the right fielder to end the threat, and end the game. The Wind Surge had just six hits. Sabato had two hits including the home run and his 13th double. Andrew Cossetti and Dalton Shuffield each had a single and a walk. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 7, Lake County 5 Box Score The Kernels grabbed the early lead. Then they had a five-run sixth inning that made it 7-0. It gave them just enough to hang on at the end. The Kernels scored first when the scored one in the top of the second inning. Rubel Cespedes led off with a double and scored on a Misael Urbina single. In the top of the third inning, Walker Jenkins led off with a triple. He scored on a Gabriel Gonzalez single to make it 2-0. That’s where the score was when former Twins draft pick Steve Hajjar came in for Lake County. The lefty walked Cespedes, Urbina, and Salas to load the bases. Kyle Hess singled in one run. Matthew Clayton came through with a grand slam to give the Kernels the 7-0 lead. Ty Langenberg was the recipient of the run support, but he was fantastic on his own. Langenberg tossed six scoreless innings. He gave up just two hits, walked three, and had three strikeouts. He improved to 5-2 with a 4.25 ERA since he joined the Kernels. Jacob Wosinski came on and gave up two runs on two hits and a walk over two innings. Through eight innings, the Kernels held a 7-2 lead. Juan Mendez came in. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on two hits and a walk without getting an out. Rafael Marcano came on and gave up one hit but got three outs and held on to a 7-5 lead. Walker Jenkins went 3-for-5 with his second triple. He also stole his fifth base. Gabriel Gonzalez was 2-for-3. Misael Urbina was 2-for-4. Obviously the big hit of the game was the Matthew Clayton grand slam. It marked his first Kernels home run. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 1, Clearwater 8 Box Score This wasn’t a great game for the Mussels at Hammond Stadium. They had won on a walkoff from Brandon Winokur the night before. However, in this game, they were able to manage just three hits in the game. Winokur had two of them. Khadim Diaw had the other, his third double of the season. A key development in this game was the announcement shortly before first pitch that lefty Brent Headrick was going to start a rehab program. The 26-year-old had not pitched since he tossed five, two-hit innings for the Saints on April 6th. It’s been a long road, so starting rehab is a big step. He went 1 1/3 innings. He gave up two hits, hit a batter and issued a walk, but no runs. He threw 35 pitches. 21 were strikes. So, he wasn’t really sharp, but it was a nice milestone to be able to check off the list. Cleiber Maldonado came in and got the final two outs, leaving two inherited runners on base. Charlee Soto came in for the third inning. He’s been pitching well, but on this night, he just couldn’t find it. Soto went three full innings. He gave up three runs on three hits. He had five strikeouts, but uncharacteristically, he also issued five strikeouts. I don’t know about you, but at this point, I would be fine with shutting him down, rather than get him two more starts. Call his first professional season a success, end the season healthy, and have plenty to learn from this offseason. Jack Noble worked the next two innings. He gave up one run on two walks. He had three strikeouts. Ben Ethridge got five outs, but he gave up four runs (2 earned) on six hits and a walk. Maddux Houghton came in and issued a walk before getting the final out. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Louie Varland (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, 74 pitches, 48 strikes (64.9%). Hitter of the Day – Aaron Sabato (Wichita) - 2-for-4, 2B(13), HR(10), R, RBI. PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 3-for-5, 3B(2), R, SB(5), K. #2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Rehab St. Paul: 0-for-3, BB, R. #6 - David Festa (Minnesota) - 6 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 88 pitches, 58 strikes (65.9%) #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-3, HBP, RBI, K. CS. #8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 6 BB, 1 HB, 5 K, 71 pitches, 31 strikes (46.5%) #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, BB, K. #12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 2-for-4, K. #15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - Rehab with Fort Myers: 0-for-3, BB #16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 0-for-4, K. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-4, 2 K. #19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - 2.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 61 pitches, 38 strikes (62.3%) THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM CST) – RHP Randy Dobnak (10-6, 3.81 ERA) Springfield @ Wichita (7:05 PM CST) – LHP Jaylen Nowlin (5-5, 4.96 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (6:00 PM CST) – RHP John Klein (8-3, 4.94 ERA) Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (6:05 PM CST) – RHP Anthony Narvaez (0-0, 18.00 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

TRANSACTIONS: LHP Samuel Perez has been promoted to Cedar Rapids from Fort Myers. RHP Mike Paredes is heading back to Wichita from Cedar Rapids. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE CONTENT Minor League Report (8/25): Y'all Got Any Runs? Why Aren't the Minnesota Twins Giving DaShawn Keirsey Jr. a Chance? Twins Minor League Report (8/24): Andrew Morris, Christian MacLeod Toss Quality Starts Again Twins Minor League Report (8/23): Walker Jenkins Hits First High-A Homer Who Has the Best Tools Among the Twins' Top Position Player Prospects? The Twins Have Two Red-Hot, High-Ceiling Prospects Turning the Corner at Fort Myers Twins Minor League Report (8/22): DaShawn Keirsey Continues to Make his Case, Jeferson Morales Does It All for Wichita Is it Time for Twins to Move Louie Varland to the Bullpen? Twins Minor League Report (8/21): Jake Rucker, Carson McCusker Provide Power Surge Twins Minor League Report (8/20): Cory Lewis Dominates, DSL Season Comes to an End Could Emmanuel Rodriguez Become the Top Prospect in Baseball? WEEK IN REVIEW Triple-A: St. Paul Saints Overall: 59-66, Tied for 7th place in the IL West. 2nd Half: 21-30, Ninth place in IL West. Last Week: 3-3 hosting Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Hobie Harris and Ryan Jensen each pitched twice and threw three scoreless relief innings. Andrew Morris provided a Quality Start (6 IP, 3 ER). After a rough start on Tuesday, lefty Aaron Rozek faced the same team on Sunday. In that game, he gave up one run on just two hits over six innings. DaShawn Keirsey played in five games last week. He went 9-for-18 and hit .500/.545/1.056 (1.601) with two triples, two homers and eight RBI. He also walked twice, and he was 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts. For his efforts, he was named the International League Player of the Week. Diego A. Castillo played in all six games. He went 9-for-25, hitting .360/.429/.560 (.989) with two doubles, a home run, and eight RBI. Payton Eeles played in all six games. He hit .348/.400/.565 (.965) with three doubles and a triple. What’s Next: The Saints will head to Omaha to take on the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate this week. They will return to CHS Field for a rare Monday game. They will play the Iowa Cubs on Labor Day. Double-A: Wichita Wind Surge Overall: 51-69. Fifth place in the Texas League North 2nd Half: 20-31. Fifth place in Texas League North. Last Week: 2-4, at Midland. Three of the games were one-run games. Travis Adams had one of the best starts of the season, maybe even of his professional career to this point. He gave up just one hit and one walk over six scoreless innings. He also had 10 strikeouts. Christian MacLeod was strong again this week. He gave up only an unearned run on two hits in six innings. He walked three, but he also struck out eight batters. Cory Lewis made two starts, and while neither was a quality start, he gave up just three runs on nine hits in 9 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out 13 batters. Kyle Bischoff (3 2/3 IP) and Taylor Floyd (3 1/3 IP) each pitched twice without allowing a run. They each gave up just one hit. Carson McCusker and Jeferson Morales each had strong performances in their four Surge games last week. Morales hit .438/.500/.688 (1.188) with a double and a home run. McCusker hit .278/.316/.944 (1.260) with four home runs and seven RBI. On Saturday morning, we learned that the two outfielders were promoted to Triple-A St. Paul. The both played on Saturday and Sunday. Morales had three hits in eight at-bats. McCusker was 2-for-7 with a walk. Jake Rucker has quietly filled up the stat lines all season. In four games last week, he hit .294 (1.000) with a double, two homers and six RBI. And that was a really great game! Jorel Ortega played in five games. He hit .400/.526/.467 (.993) with a double. He also had four walks. What’s Next: The Wind Surge return home to take on Springfield, the Double-A affiliate of the Cardinals. High-A: Cedar Rapids Kernels Overall: 62-56 Second place in the Midwest League West 2nd Half: 25-29: Tied for Fourth place in the MWL West Division (6.5 GB) Last Week: Went 1-5 in Dayton, the High-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. Rafael Marcano, a left-hander acquired in the minor-league Rule 5 draft in December, made two appearances last week. Over four scoreless innings, he gave up two hits, walked one and had six strikeouts. Connor Prielipp continues to ease his way back into more action and more work, but wisely the organization is going to be cautious with him this season. In his start this week, he gave up one hit and hit one batter over three scoreless innings. He had four strikeouts. Tanner Hall went 5 1/3 innings in his start. He gave up two runs on two hits. He walked three and had four strikeouts. Walker Jenkins led the Kernels last week with a .953 OPS. In six games, he went 8-for-25, hitting .320/.393/.560 (.953) with three doubles and a home run. He also drove in six runs. Rubel Cespedes went 9-for-25 and hit .360/.407/.520 (.927) with a double and a home run. Nate Baez played in five games. He hit .333 with a double and a big extra-innings home run. Gabriel Gonzalez hit .280 with three doubles, a homer and five RBI. What’s Next: The Kernels will stay out east and play a series at Lake County. They will return home on September 3rd (the day after Labor Day) for their final series of the season. They’ll be taking on Cooper Pratt and the Wisconsin TimberRattlers. Low-A: Fort Myers Mighty Mussels Overall: 63-52. Second place in Florida State League West 2nd half: 32-18, First place in FSL West (4 game lead over Lakeland) Last Week: The Mussels split their six-game series in Tampa against the Yankees, er, Tarpons. It was a week of close games (three, one-run games, two, two-run games) and some crazy comebacks. Sam Perez has been in the organization, and specifically with the Mussels, for a few years now. He tops out at 86, 87 mph. He just often gets the job done. In Perez’s 5 2/3 scoreless innings, he gave up no hits, no walks, and he struck out nine batters. The only blemish was one hit batter. He is heading up to Cedar Rapids this week. Jay Thomason was the Twins 17th round pick out of the Air Force. In six games, he hit .286/.412/.714 (1.126) with two home runs and three walks. Khadim Diaw played in four games. The Twins third-round pick from Loyola Marymount went 8-for-17 and hit .471/.500/.529 (1.029) with a double. He had two stolen bases and has played first base, center field, right field along with catching a few games. Jaime Ferrer, the Twins fourth-round pick from Florida State, played in all six games. He went 7-for-19, hitting .368/.500/.421 (.921) with a double. He was 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts. Second-round pick, Billy Amick from Tennessee, went just 3-for-18. He hit .167, but thanks to six walks, he posted a .385 OBP, and his two homers helped him to a .500 Slugging Percentage. Derek Bender, the sixth-round pick from Coastal Carolina, hit a single, two doubles and a home run. What’s Next: The Mussels will head home to take on the Clearwater Thrashers. Dominican Summer League: DSL Twins Overall: 30-25: Fourth place in Dominican Summer League South Anderson Ramos struck out six batters over four scoreless innings in a relief appearance. He gave up three hits and walked none. Melvin Rodriguez made a start and tossed four scoreless innings. It may be more impressive because he gave up base runners. He gave up three hits, walked two and hit two batters. He had four strikeouts. Rodriguez, 18, signed in January. He really ended the year strong. In his final four starts, he gave up just two earned runs in 18 2/3 innings. Aiberson Ventura struck out four batters over two scoreless relief innings. He gave up one hit and walked none. It was only two games, but Daiber De Los Santos went 8-for-10 with a double. He went 5-for-5 in the season’s final game on Tuesday. Eduardo Beltre had an Eduardo Beltre final week in his two games. He went 3-for-9 with an OPS of 1.178, a double, a homer and four RBI. PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects. And, be sure to note the new, updated Top 20 rankings. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 6 G, 8-for-25, .320/.393/.560 (.953), 3-2B, 1-HR, 5 R, 6 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K. #2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 2 rehab games in St. Paul, 4-for-8, .500/.500/1.125 (1.625), 2-2B, 1-HR, 1 R, 3 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K #5 – Zebby Matthews (Minnesota) – 2 GS, 0-1, 2.70 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, .205 BAA, 10.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. #6 - David Festa (Minnesota) - 1 GS, 0-1, 7.36 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, .214 BAA, 3.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 6 G, 7-for-25, .280/.333/.520 (.853), 3-2B, 1-HR, 3 R, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 5 K. #8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 1 GS, 0-1, 6.75 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, .389 BAA, 4.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 6 K. #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 6 G, 5-for-21, .238/.304/.286 (.590), 1-2B, 4 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K. #10 - Marco Raya (Wichita) - 1 GS, 0-1, 6.75 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, .294 BAA, 4.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K. #11 - Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 1 GS, 0-0, 4.50 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, .261 BAA, 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 4 K. #12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 6 G, 7-for-26, .269/.296/.462 (.758), 3-2B, 1-3B, 6 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 11 K, 2 SB. #13 – Cory Lewis (Wichita) – 2 GS, 0-2, 2.89 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, .265 BAA, 9.1 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 13 K. #16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 6 G, 5-for-23, .217/.333/.304 (.637), 1-3B, 4 R, 5 RBI, 3 BB, 8 K, 4 SB #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 6 G, 0-for-24, .000/.172/.000 (.172), 0-2B, 2 R, 0 RBI, 5 BB, 8 K. #19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - 1 GS, 0-0, 13.50 ERA, 2.25 WHIP, .200 BAA, 2.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 2 K. #20 – Connor Prielipp (Cedar Rapids) – 1 GS, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP, .111 BAA, 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K. Players of the Week Hitter of the Week - DaShawn Keirsey (Saints) 5 games, 9-for-18, .500/.545/1.056 (1.601), 2-3B, 2-HR, 6 R, 8 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K, 4-for-4 SB Pitcher of the Week - RHP Travis Adams (Wind Surge) 1 GS, 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K

Check out the tweets included within each team's section showing who the youngest players were at each level. It's always a fun look at which players are well younger than the average age. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 72-57 St. Paul Saints: 59-65 Wichita Wind Surge: 51-68 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 62-55 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 62-52 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS The Twins DFAd lefty Steven Okert on Saturday morning and purchased the contract of Scott Blewett. St. Paul announced that outfielders Carson McCusker and Jeferson Morales were promoted from Wichita to the Saints. C/1B Alex Isola was assigned to the Wind Surge. In addition, outfielder Wynton Bernard was released by the Saints. Brooks Lee joined Alex Kirilloff on rehab assignment with the Saints. Although it was later announced that Kirilloff was removed from the rehab assignment. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 3, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6 Box Score The Saints got on the board in the bottom of the first. Diego A. Castillo doubled, and Brooks Lee followed with a home run to make it 2-0. Andrew Morris is the youngest player on the Saints roster, but he put together another Quality Start. The 22-year-old gave up three runs on six hits and a walk over six innings. He had four strikeouts. He gave up a single run in the third inning, but in the fifth inning, he gave up a two-run homer to Oscar Gonzalez that put the team down 3-2. Josh Winder came on and threw two scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit and struck out two batters. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Jeferson Morales doubled for his first Triple-A hit. Payton Eeles later switched spots with him to tie the game at 3-3. Jeff Brigham was brought in for the ninth inning. He gave up three runs on two hits and a walk. The big hit was a three-run homer off the bat of Caleb Durbin. Eeles went 2-for-4 with his seventh and eighth doubles. Morales had two hits in four at-bats. Carson McCusker went 1-for-3 in his first Triple-A game. Diego A. Castillo went 2-for-5 with his 20th double. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 1, Midland 1 (10 innings) Box Score For the third time in the series' first five games, it took extra innings to decide the winner. Christian MacLeod was fantastic yet again for the Wind Surge. He gave up an unearned run on two hits. In six innings, he walked three and struck out eight innings. And, he got some help from his catcher Andrew Cossetti. Kyle Bischoff struck out three batters over two perfect innings. Taylor Floyd then gave up one hit over two scoreless innings including the 10th inning. Impressive because there was a 30-minute delay in the bottom of the ninth inning. In the top of the eighth inning, Wichita got on the scoreboard. Noah Cardenas hit his fifth home run to tie the score at 1-1. In the top of the 10th inning, Kyler Fedko started at second base. Ben Ross bunted him over to third base. Jorel Ortega followed with an RBI double. Ortega went 2-for-3 with a walk and his 11th double. He had two of the team’s four hits. He also stole his 10th base. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 7, Dayton 4 (10 innings) Box Score There were several interesting things that came out of this game. The starting pitcher for the Kernels was lefty Connor Prielipp, and he looked really impressive. In three scoreless innings, he gave up just one hit. He walked none, hit one, and had four strikeouts. The Kernels got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth. Gabriel Gonzalez led off with a walk. Rubel Cespedes followed with a single. A Nate Baez single loaded the bases. Rixon Wingrove drove in two runs with a single. Poncho Ruiz doubled to score Baez and make it 3-0. After a walk loaded the bases, with two outs, Kaelen Culpepper dropped a single into left field to score the fourth run of the inning. Jeremy Lee took over on the mound for the Kernels in the fourth inning. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on six hits (2 homers) over 3 1/3 innings. He walked none and had two strikeouts. Gabriel Yanez came into the game with a runner on, and that runner scored. He got five outs, two on strikeouts.He gave up one hit, was charged with no runs and walked two batters. Mike Paredes came on and tossed a scoreless bottom of the ninth inning. Culpepper started the top of the 10th inning on second base. Walker Jenkins led off with his eighth double. After two outs, Nate Baez drilled his 11th home run to make it 7-4. Paredes came out and threw a scoreless bottom of the 10th as well. The Kernels had 10 hits and four walks. Baez went 2-for-5. Wingrove went 2-for-5. Jenkins hit a double and walked once. MUSSEL MATTERS Game 1: Fort Myers 7, Tampa 8 Box Score After a rare scheduled Friday night off, the Mussels played two games at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The Mussels bat didn’t miss a beat in Game 1. They scored at least once in each of the first five innings. Let’s summarize: Top of 1st: Kyle DeBarge walked and stole second. He scored on a Brandon Winokur double. Billy Amick walked and Jaime Ferrer was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Jose Rodriguez flew out to left to drive in Winokur with the second run. 2-0. Top of the 2nd: With one out, Byron Chourio walked and DeBarge was hit by a pitch. With two outs, the two runners advanced on a balk. Amick walked to load the bases, and then Chourio scored another balk. 3-0. Top of the 3rd: Jaime Ferrer singled and stole second. After a pitching change, Rodriguez walked. Both runners advanced 90 feet on a wild pitch. Derek Bender reached on catcher’s interference to load the bases. With two outs, DeBarge singled to drive in two more runs. 5-0. Top of the 4th: With one out, Khadim Diaw struck out, but went to first base on a wild pitch. He stole second and scored on a Ferrer single. 6-0. Top of the 5th: Derek Bender hit his second career home run. 7-0. Jose Olivares started the game with four shutout innings. He gave up a single and a double to give up the first run. Paulshawn Pasqualotto came on and gave up a hit and two walks which allowed an inherited runner to score. In total, Olivares gave up two runs on five hits and a walk in 4.0+ innings. He had two strikeouts. Unfortunately, Pasqualotto was only able to get one out in the sixth inning. He gave up a walk, an RBI single, and a two-run homer before he came out. Pasqualotto gave up three runs on three hits and three walks in 1 1/3 innings. Wilker Reyes came in and after getting the second out, he gave up a single, a single, and a two-run double which tied the game at 7-7. The Mussels went scoreless in both the top of the sixth and top of the seventh innings. In the seventh, the Mussels had runners on second and third with one out but were unable to reclaim the lead. Reyes returned for the bottom of the seventh inning. He struck out the first two batters, but then gave up a line-drive single. The runner stole second base. Roderick Arias followed with a double to score the winning run. Fort Myers had seven hits and seven walks. They were twice hit by a pitch. Once on base, they aggressively stole six bases. Jaime Ferrer led the way. He went 3-for-3 and was hit by a pitch. He stole his fourth base. Kyle DeBarge went 1-for-3 with a walk. He was also hit by a pitch and stole his 12th base. Along with his second home run, Derek Bender also walked. Among the stolen bases, Byron Chourio reached 20. So did Angel Del Rosario who pinch ran in the seventh inning and stole two bases. Game 2: Fort Myers 7, Tampa 6 (8 innings) Box Score Adrian Bohorquez was on the mound to start this game. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk over 1 1/3 innings. He had three strikeouts. Unfortunately, with a lengthy rain delay, his day was complete. Sam Perez came on in relief. He went 2 2/3 perfect innings and had six strikeouts. The Mussels got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning. Brandon Winokur led off with his 16th double. Billy Amick walked. Next, Jaime Ferrer singled to load the bases. Daniel Pena, quietly one of the youngest players on the roster, came through with a big, grand slam to give the Mussels a 4-1 lead. Tampa scored two unearned runs in the fifth inning off of Cleiber Maldonado. The teams exchanged runs in the sixth inning. The Mussels got their run on Jay Thomason’s second home run. Jack Noble came on and worked two innings. He gave up two runs on three hits and three walks, and yes, he had three strikeouts. Tampa tied it at 5-5 with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Mussels reclaimed the lead in the top of the eighth inning. Winokur started the inning on second base. Amick walked again. Ferrer flew out to center, deep enough for Winokur to advance to third base. With one out, Tampa’s catcher tried to pick off Winokur at third but threw the ball away. Winokur scored from third base and Amick, who was off with the pitch, raced all the way around to score a second run. Tomas Cleto came on for the bottom of the eighth inning. He gave up an unearned run but easily recorded his first save of the season. Pena went 2-for-4 with his third home run and four RBI. Thomason went 2-for-4 with his second pro home run. Billy Amick walked three times. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Christian MacLeod (Wichita) - 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 85 pitches, 48 strikes (56.5%). Hitter of the Day – Jaime Ferrer (Fort Myers) - Game 1: 3-for-3, HBP, R, RBI. Game 2: 1-for-4, K. 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. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-4, BB, 2B(8), R, RBI. #2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Rehab St. Paul: 1-for-4, HR(8), R, 2 RBI (DH, bat 2nd) #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-4, BB, R, K. #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, R, RBI, K. 2 E. #11 - Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 86 pitches, 61 strikes (70.9%) #12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – Game 1: 1-for-5, 2B(15), R, RBI, 2 K. Game 2: 1-for-4, 2B(16), 2 R, 2 K. #16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - Game 1: 1-for-3, BB, R, 2 RBI, 2 K, SB(12). Game 2: 0-for-4, K #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-5, 2 K. #20 – Connor Prielipp (Cedar Rapids) – 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 4 K. 30 pitches, 24 strikes (80%) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Scranton/Wilkes Barre @ St. Paul (2:07 PM CST) – LHP Aaron Rozek (9-6, 7.67 ERA) Wichita @ Midland (1:00 PM CST) – RHP Cory Lewis (1-2, 2.98 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Dayton (12:05 PM CST) – RHP Darren Bowen (2-8, 5.81 ERA) Ft. Myers @ Tampa (11:00 AM CST) – LHP Ross Dunn (1-4, 5.50 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Saturday’s games!

Just three games, but a ton of action in the Twins minor leagues on Wednesday night. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 71-56 St. Paul Saints: 58-64 Wichita Wind Surge: 50-67 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 61-54 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 61-51 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS RHP Jacob King was removed from the IL and assigned to the FCL Twins from the Mighty Mussels. Wichita placed RHP Miguel Rodriguez on the 7-Day Injured List and activated RHP Cody Laweryson from the Development List. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 8, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 7 Box Score Last night, the Saints ended their 10-game losing streak. On Thursday night, they won their second straight one-run game. It didn’t look great early when Scranton put up four runs in the top of the first inning. But the Saints came back with two in the bottom half of the inning. Caleb Boushley made the start for the Saints. He gave up five runs in the first two innings. Overall, he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up six runs on eight hits and four walks. He struck out three batters. Zack Weiss came on and allowed an inherited runner to score. He gave up three hits in 1 1/3 innings. He had two strikeouts. Giovanny Gallegos gave up a hit and issued a walk in a scoreless eighth inning. Scott Blewett gave up a ninth-inning run on two hits but earned his first Save of the season. After the rough top of the first inning, it was nice for the Saints to grab two runs in the bottom of the first. With one out, Diego A. Castillo walked. DaShawn Keirsey followed with his 14th home run of the season. (Keirsey also stole his 30th base of the season.) In the bottom of the fourth inning, Jair Camargo led off with his 10th homer of the season. Castillo walked to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. Keirsey followed with a single. Yunior Severino then launched his 19th homer of the season to turn a two-run deficit into a one-run lead, 6-5. The RailRiders tied the game in the top of the sixth inning. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Payton Eeles singled and stole second base. Castillo drove him in with a single to center to put the Saints back ahead, 7-6. The bottom of the seventh inning started with a Keirsey triple, his sixth. With one out, Michael Helman drove him in with a sacrifice fly to make it 8-6. Scranton had runners on second and third with one out in the eighth and didn’t score. They scored one in the ninth on a pair of doubles, and a hit batter put two runners on, but Blewett got a strikeout to end the game. DaShawn Keirsey went 4-for-4 with two singles, his sixth triple, his 14th home run, and his 30th stolen bases. The speedy center fielder just continues to fill out a box score and a stat line fully. Diego A. Castillo went 1-for-2 with two walks. Anthony Prato had a single and a walk. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 4, Midland 3 (11 innings) Box Score A night after being walked off in the 11th inning, the Wind Surge played another 11 innings. This time, they left the field with a one-run win. If you’re going to play a game in 103 degree-weather, you might as well get a win! The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth when the Surge got on the board first. Jeferson Morales hit his ninth home run of the season. Morales led off the top of the sixth inning with a single. Carson McCusker drove him in with his 14th home run of the season to give the Surge a 3-0 lead. Travis Adams was absolutely brilliant in this game. The starter worked the first six innings. He gave up no runs on one hit. He had just one walk, hit two batters, and struck out 10 batters. It is the second time in his pro career that he has reached double digit strikeouts. On August 23, 2022, he tossed five innings for the Kernels and had 11 strikeouts with just one walk. Mason Fox came in for the seventh inning and gave up two runs on three hits. John Stankiewicz gave up the tying run on three hits in his two innings. The game was tied 3-3 going to extra innings. Both teams went scoreless in the 10th inning. The 11th inning began with Morales on second base. Two outs later, he was still standing in the same spot. A wild pitch moved him to third base, and Andrew Cossetti came through with the big two-out RBI single to make it 4-3. Ricardo Velez worked both extra frames. In the 10th inning, he threw two wild pitches and somehow got three outs without giving up a run. In the 11th, a fielding error put runners on first and third with nobody out. However, a line drive to left was caught by Morales, the former catcher, who came up with a strong, accurate throw home to get the second out and maintain the lead. It was a huge play because it was followed by a single. But Velez got a strikeout to end the game and earn his first Double-A win. Morales played hero in the field and went 3-for-5 with his ninth home run and three runs scored. McCusker went 2-for-4 with a walk and his 14th homer. Dalton Shuffield went 2-for-5 and stole his fifth base. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 4, Dayton 5 Box Score Ty Langenberg pitched a scoreless first inning for the Kernels on Thursday night. He then had to do a bit of work. He gave up one run in each of the next four innings. But overall, he gave up four runs on seven hits (2 solo homers) in five innings. He had five strikeouts without issuing a walk. The Kernels on the other hand were kept scoreless through five innings, but they got on the board in the top of the sixth inning. Misael Urbina led off with a walk. Agustin Ruiz singled to right. He and Urbina each moved up an extra base on an error. Two outs later, they were still standing in scoring position. Walker Jenkins came up and drilled a hard single to right, off the first baseman’s glove, that drove in both runs. Rafael Marcano came in and struck out three batters over two scoreless, one-hit innings. In the top of the eighth inning, Kaelen Culpepper reached on a one-out single. Jenkins followed with a single. After a pitching change, Gabriel Gonzalez’s 17th double drove in the Twins two most-recent top draft picks and tied the game at 4-4. Nolan Santos came in for the eighth inning and gave up two hits but no runs. The Kernels went scoreless in the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Santos issued a walk. A sacrifice bunt advanced the runner to second, and a wild pitch moved him to third. Hector Rodriguez followed with a single, and the Kernels lost another one-run game. Cedar Rapids had just six hits, and Walker Jenkins had two of them. Gonzalez had the lone extra base hits. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers, Tampa (Rained Out) Box Score Fort Myers game in Tampa was canceled due to bad weather. It will not be made up. They had an already-scheduled day off on Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Travis Adams (Wichita) - 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 HBP, 10 K, 91 pitches, 62 strikes (68.1%). Hitter of the Day – DaShawn Keirsey (St. Paul) - 4-for-4, 3B(6), HR(14), 3 R, 2 RBI, SB(30). PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-4, R, 2 RBI, K. #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-4, 2B(17), 2 RBI, 2 K. #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, R. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-5, K. FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Scranton/Wilkes Barre @ St. Paul (7:07 PM CST) – RHP Randy Dobnak (9-6, 3.56 ERA) Wichita @ Midland (7:00 PM CST) – RHP Marco Raya (1-3, 4.76 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Dayton (6:05 PM CST) – RHP John Klein (8-2, 4.41 ERA) Ft. Myers @ Tampa – No Game Friday, Doubleheader on Saturday. Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Thursday’s games!

Two extra-inning games. Two 2024 draft picks hit their first pro home run during the Mussels doubleheader. Another 2024 draft pick recorded his first double in High-A. The Wind Surge were powered by two hitters who each hit two home runs. Pitching wasn't real strong on Wednesday, but there was certainly some hitting. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 71-56 St. Paul Saints: 57-64 Wichita Wind Surge: 49-67 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 61-53 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 61-51 FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete) DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) TRANSACTIONS In a rarity, there were no transactions in the Twins minor league system on Wednesday. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 7, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6 (10 innings) Box Score The Saints got on the scoreboard first, but over the first six innings, they fell behind 6-1. However, the Saints got a big blast in the seventh and another run in the eighth frame to tie the score at 6-6. See how it ended below. Were the Saints able to end their 10-game losing streak? The Saints took the lead in the top of the first inning. Payton Eeles led off with his sixth double. Saints manager Toby Gardenhire was ejected from the game. Originally, Eeles shot was called a home run, but after the umpires met, they changed it to a ground-rule double. Diego A. Castillo singled him to third base. Castillo stole second. Eeles scored on a sacrifice fly by DaShawn Keirsey. However, Castillo was thrown out trying to advance to third base. Louie Varland started for the Saints and went five innings. He gave up four runs on six hits and two walks. He had three strikeouts. Josh Winder gave up two runs on three hits and a walk in the sixth inning. At that point, the Saints were down 6-1. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Patrick Winkel led off with a double. Anthony Prato reached on an error. A pitching change was made. #OldFriend Nick Burdi came out and Oddanier Mosqueda came into the game. Eeles walked to load the bases. Castillo made it a game again by launching a grand slam to cut the deficit to 6-5. In the bottom of the eighth, Rylan Bannon pinch hit and led off with a single off the pitcher. Bannon went to second base on a bunt by Prato and a ground out by Eeles. Castillo came up, but he struck out. However, he reached first base, and Bannon scored, when strike three resulted in a passed ball. The game was tied 6-6. Hobie Harris worked two scoreless innings. Caleb Baragar pitched a scoreless ninth inning and a scoreless 10th inning. The Saints started the bottom of the 10th inning with Jair Camargo at second base. Chris Williams successfully advanced him to third base with a bunt. Bannon was intentionally walked before Prato came up and laced a single to right to drive in the winning run. Diego A. Castillo went 2-for-4 with a walk and his seventh home run of the season. He also stole his 11th base. Prato went 2-for-4. Winkel went 2-for-3 with his 15th and 16th doubles. Eeles went 2-for-4 with a walk. (if you missed our interview with him from Monday, click here.) WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 10, Midland 11 (11 innings) Box Score This game was very back-and-forth. Wichita had three, three-run innings. Midland had two, three-run innings, but also a two-run inning, and three, one-run innings including in the bottom of the 11th inning as they got the walk-off win over the Surge. Midland took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. In the top of the third inning, the Surge tied it up. With one out, Dalton Shuffield walked and stole his fourth base. He moved up to third base on a Jorel Ortega single. Tanner Schobel walked to load the bases. Jake Rucker unloaded them with a bases-clearing double. Then Midland scored two in the bottom of the third inning and another in the fourth. Down by three runs again, Wichita responded in the top of the fifth inning. With one out, Schobel walked. Jake Rucker emptied the bases again with a two-run homer. With two outs, Carson McCusker’s 12th home run of the season tied the score at 6-6. Then it was time for Wichita to surge into the lead. In the top of the seventh inning, the Surge took a three-run lead. With one out, and no one on base, Jake Rucker just went ahead and drove in himself with his second home run of the night. Andrew Cossetti followed with a single, and McCusker knocked his second home run of the night. That gave the Wind Surge a 9-6 lead. C.J. Culpepper made his second Double-A start. He gave up four runs on two hits and four walks over 2 2/3 innings. He struck out two batters. Regi Grace got the next four outs. He was charged with two runs on three hits. Pierson Ohl came on and tossed three scoreless innings. However, in the eighth inning, he was charged with three runs (2 earned) which made it a 9-9 game after eight innings Taylor Floyd got the final out of the eighth inning and pitched a scoreless ninth frame to send it to extra innings. In the top of the 10th, Ben Ross was the Manfred Man on second base. Jeferson Morales walked, and then Aaron Sabato walked to load the bases. With one out, Shuffield flew out to center, deep enough for Ross to coach. Ortega walked to re-load the bases. Jarret Whorff came in for the 10th inning and immediately threw a wild pitch to advance a runner to third. A double scored him, and an infield single put runners on first and third with nobody out. Somehow, Whorff got out of it with a ground out, a strikeout and a fly out. The Surge went 1-2-3 in the top of the 11th inning. Brennan Milone doubled to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning to score Jack Winkler and end the game. Rucker led the offense going 3-for-6 with his 20th double, his eighth and ninth home runs, and six RBI. McCusker hit his 12th and 13th home runs. Cossetti went 2-for-4. Morales was 2-for-4 with a walk. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 3, Dayton 4 Box Score Rubel Cespedes gave the Kernels an early lead, but the team was unable to hold small leads early and then late. Leading off the top of the second inning, Cespedes connected for his 12th home run of the season. Two innings later, Cespedes put the Kernels up 2-0 with a single to drive in Walker Jenkins. Dayton’s Leo Balcazar homered in the bottom of the fourth to make it 2-1. Then two innings later, he tied the score at 2-2 with an RBI single. The score remained 2-2 until the eighth inning. In the top of the frame, Kaelen Culpepper led off with his first Kernels hit, a double to left. Jenkins walked. A wild pitch advanced both runners a base. Culpepper scored on a ground out by Gabriel Gonzalez, but the team now held a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, the Reds High-A affiliate scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and held the Kernels scoreless in the ninth inning. Tanner Hall made his second Kernels start. He gave up two runs on two hits over 5 1/3 innings. He had three walks and four strikeouts. Mike Paredes was charged with two runs on four hits over 1 2/3 innings. Paredes started the bottom of the eighth but wasn’t able to get an out. Gabriel Yanez came in and gave up one hit to allow an inherited runner to score. Cespedes went 3-for-4 with his 12th homer and two RBI. Walker Jenkins hit his seventh double, and Misael Urbina hit his 15th double. Unfortunately, the Kernels went just 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base. MUSSEL MATTERS Game 1: Fort Myers 1, Tampa 4 Box Score Charlee Soto started for the Mussels. He gave up three runs in four innings, all scoring in the second inning. He allowed seven hits, walked one and had six strikeouts. Ben Ethridge worked the final two innings. He gave up one run on two hits. The Mussels got on the board in the fourth inning when second-round pick Billy Amick hit his first professional home run. Kyle DeBarge reached base twice, once on a single and once via a walk. Ceden Kendle hit his sixth double since joining the Mussels. Unfortunately, base runners were at a premium for the Mussels in Game 1. They were just 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position. Game 2: Fort Myers 1, Tampa 4 Box Score The Mussels’ offense was much better in Game 2. In fact, they had five runs in the first three innings of the game. Unfortunately, a 5-0 lead could not be held as the Yankees affiliate scored seven straight runs to grab the win. Fort Myers manufactured a first-inning run. Kyle DeBarge singles and stole his 11th bag. He advanced to third when Brandon Winokur grounded out to second base on a 1-2 pitch. Billy Amick grounded to the shortstop who threw home but not in time to get the speedy DeBarge. In the second inning, Jay Thomason hit the first home run of his professional career. Maddux Houghton followed with a walk and his 18th stolen base. With two outs, Winokur drove him in with a single to center that made it 3-0 Fort Myers. Khadim Diaw, the catcher/center fielder drafted in the third round this year from Loyola Marymount, led off the inning with a single. He stole second base and advanced to third on a Jaime Ferrer double. After an infield pop out, Diaw scored on a wild pitch. Thomason then drove in Ferrer with a single that made it 5-0. Unfortunately the Mussels managed just one more hit over the final four innings. Cesar Lares started the game with three scoreless innings. However, he gave up five runs (3 earned) on seven hits, a walk, and two hit batters in 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts. Juan Mercedes came in with two runners on, and he stranded them. He went a total of 2 1/3 innings. He gave up two runs on one hit, one walk, and one hit batter. He had three strikeouts. Jaime Ferrer went 3-for-3 with his sixth double. Jay Thomason went 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBI. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Tanner Hall (Cedar Rapids) - 5 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 75 pitches, 46 strikes (61.3%). Hitter of the Day – Jake Rucker (Wichita) - 3-for-6, 2B(15), HR(8), 3 R, 2 RBI. PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. #1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 1-for-3, BB, 2B(7), R, K #7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-4, RBI. #8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – Game 1: 4 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 72 pitches, 43 strikes (59.7%) #9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2B(1), R, K. #12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – Game 1: 0-for-3, 2K, Game 2: 1-for-4, RBI. #16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - Game 1: 1-for-2, BB, CS(1), Game 2: 1-for-4, R, SB(11), 3 K. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-4, 2 BB, 2 R, K. #19 - C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - 2 ⅔ IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 62 pitches, 37 strikes (59.7%) THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Scranton/Wilkes Barre @ St. Paul (7:07 PM CST) – RHP Caleb Boushley (9-5, 4.73 ERA) Wichita @ Midland (7:00 PM CST) – RHP Travis Adams (4-7, 4.08 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Dayton (6:05 PM CST) – RHP Ty Langenberg (4-2, 4.50 ERA) Ft. Myers @ Tampa (5:30 PM CST) – RHP Jose Olivares (2-1, 2.57 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

How many of the Twins relievers do you believe in to get the job done 80-85% of the time? A study done by Retrosheet several years ago showed that when a team holds a one-run lead going into the ninth inning, they win about 86% of the time. If they lead by two runs, the team wins about 94% of the time. With a three-run lead, that number jumps to about 97% Mariano Rivera, who is the only player unanimously voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, was successful in just over 89% of his career save opportunities. Joe Nathan’s save percentage was percentage points higher than Rivera’s. My point isn’t to ask how Joe Nathan didn’t even get enough votes to remain on the Hall of Fame ballot for more than one election cycle. Instead, it’s simply to point out that even the best relievers of all-time didn’t get their job done almost 10% of the time. So again I ask, how would you rank the relief pitchers in the Twins bullpen right now? This is a question that could be asked from month-to-month (maybe even week-to-week) and the results might look a little bit different. Frankly, the Twins need someone, a couple of relievers to have a strong stretch run. It's more important since Brock Stewart will be out of the season, and Justin Topa has had yet another setback. Check out my personal Twins bullpen confidence rankings, and then discuss them in the Comments below. But be sure to post your rankings too. RHP Griffin Jax (29) 3-4, 8 Saves, 1.79 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, .176 BAA 57 G, 55 ⅓ IP, 35 H, 3 HR, 12 BB, 1 HB, 71 K I don’t think there is much question at the top of this list. In fact, earlier this week, Nick wrote that Jax has a strong case to be the Twins MVP to this point in the season. He just continues to get better and better. He has been a workhorse. He has been nearly unhittable. He throws a ton of strikes. Considering how max-effort each of his pitches are, he generally has very good control. His fastball is now consistently 96-97. His slider can be absolutely devastating and he gets a ton of swing-and-miss on it. And this year, it sure seems that his changeup has greatly improved. When it’s on, it darts down and in on a right-hander. For me, I want Jax to pitch a little bit less to try to keep his arm strong. That said, I want him pitching in the most important late-inning situation whether that happens in the seventh, eighth, or ninth inning. RHP Jhoan Duran (26) 6-6, 18 Saves, 3.32 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, .207 BAA 44 G, 40 ⅔ IP, 30 H, 4 HR, 12 BB, 3 HB, 44 K We definitely aren’t seeing the same Jhoan Duran in 2024 that we did in 2023. While he still sits 100-103 with the four-seam fastball, and his sprinkler typically hits 97-98 mph. However, watching him, it’s not quite as electrifying as we have seen. And, maybe that’s because his season started late and he really didn’t have a spring training. That matters. His ERA is a little higher, though his WHIP is actually better. He’s giving up the same number of hits per nine innings (6.6) and home runs per nine innings (0.9). His walk rate is actually down to 2.7 BB/9 from 3.6 BB/9. Maybe what’s most notable is that his strikeout rate has dropped from 12.1 K/9 to 9.7 K/9. He’s still striking out more than a batter per inning, but 2 ½ less strikeouts per nine innings is noteworthy. Again, looking at the numbers, it’s entirely possible that we have just been spoiled by what we have seen from Duran in his first two big-league seasons. He’s still quite reliable. RHP Cole Sands (27) 6-1, 4 Saves, 3.23 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, .223 BAA 47 G, 55 ⅔ IP, 47 H, 5 HR, 8 BB, 5 HB, 63 K I can’t imagine that anyone who made predictions about the 2024 Twins roster would have had Sands being as valuable and productive as he has been. He has been up with the team all season. He’s pitched in a variety of roles. Primarily he’s been in middle relief, but he’s had set-up opportunities too. He’s come in in the third or fourth innings, and he’s been given save opportunities when Jax and Duran are unavailable, and been quite successful. Some of that is simply being a full-time bullpen arm and that arm being healthy. He is throwing harder, touching 97 and even 98 at times. He’s always had the ability to spin the ball and get swings and misses on his slider. He also changes speeds. In 21 2/3 MLB innings in 2023, he had 3 walks. In 55 2/3 innings this year, he has just eight walks. He’s giving up less hits. His home run rate has been cut in half. He’s over 10 K/9. It sure seems that he is getting a lot more high-leverage opportunities and thankfully for the Twins, he’s been quite successful. RHP Jorge Alcala (29) 3-3, 0 Saves, 3.09 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, .186 BAA 43 G, 46 ⅔ IP, 31 H, 5 HR, 16 BB,3 HB, 43 K Alcala made his MLB debut at age 24 at the end of the 2019 season. Unfortunately, he has missed a lot of time with various arm/shoulder injuries. He pitched in 59 games for the Twins in 2021. He struck out just over a batter per inning. He had just 2.0 BB/9. His WHIP was at 0.97. But then he pitched in just two games in 2022 and just 11 games in 2023. Earlier this season, he was the guy who would get sent to the Saints when the Twins needed an arm. Simply, he had options. But, he has become much more valuable and consistent with each of his pitches. Sure, he had a bad game over the weekend, but overall, he has been quite good. He’s giving up less hits, less homers, and has his walk rate down to a more average number. Especially noteworthy is his pure stuff. He is now hitting triple digits rather consistently and his slider is often sharp, late breaking. RHP Ronny Henriquez (24) 1-0, 0 Saves, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, .217 BAA 5 G, 6 IP, 5 H, 0 HR, 1 BB, 0 HB, 5 K I would think that this is where the lists might find variance. Henriquez has been up a few times to eat innings, but it seems that he is much more sharp and throws better in the big leagues than he has with the Saints. He’s not a big guy, but he throws hard, and he’s got a really sharp slider. He hasn’t been consistent, and he’s still often being asked to work three-plus innings, but he has the kind of stuff that can dominate once through the lineup. Henriquez came up in 2022 and pitched in three games. He was hurt most of the first half of the 2023 season and then pitched in 37 games for the Saints. He came off of the Twins 40-man roster after the season but quickly re-signed with the Twins. He’s pitched pretty well with the Saints this year, cutting his walk total significantly. RHP Louie Varland (26) 0-5, 0 Saves, 6.14 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, .312 BAA 8 G, 7 GS, 36 ⅔ IP, 49 H,9 HR, 11 BB, 4 HB, 32 K I’m not sure the Twins can or should do it now. When Joe Ryan got hurt, it increased the team’s need for Varland to be available as a starter. However, if the Twins were to bring up Varland and put him into the bullpen, I think he’d be a pretty reliable option. He is throwing 98 as a starter, we’d again see triple-digit numbers from him out of the bullpen. He can air it out a bit more. He did well in the role last year. LHP Caleb Thielbar (37) 2-3, 3 Saves, 5.91 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, .268 BAA 43 G, 35 IP, 38 H, 5 HR, 16 BB, 0 HB, 41 K Thielbar came back to the Twins for the 2020 season. That season, he posted a 2.25 ERA. From 2021-2023, his ERAs were 3.23, 3.49, 3.23. In those three seasons, he has struck out about 11 per nine innings while walking about 2 ½ per nine innings. He missed some time in 2023 and came back very strong. He missed a lot of time early in 2024, and he really struggled. On June 11 and 12, he pitched in back-to-back games against the Rockies. He faced four batters in each game and gave up four hits, three walks and one batter got on via error. He has now pitched in 20 games since then, and in 19 ⅓ innings, he has given up run(s) in five of them. Not great. His ERA is about 4.50 since then, but he’s a veteran. He’s been through it. So, unless he’s just completely done, he should be solid the rest of the season. From my eye test, he is now throwing 92-95 again and his slow, slow curveball is pretty solid again. RHP Josh Winder (27) 0-0, 0 Saves, 3.00 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, .212 BAA 4 G, 9 IP, 7 H, 0 HR, 1 BB, 2 HB, 10 K Once a top 100 prospect, Winder has found himself on the Injured List pretty much since his call-up in 2022. His days as a starter are likely done. However, when healthy, he does have some really good stuff. He has plenty of fastball. He’s got a good slider, at times. We just haven’t seen it a lot since he’s been with the Saints most of the season. That is, after missing the first month of the season and not throwing through all of spring training. LHP Kody Funderburk (27) 1-0, 1 Save, 5.61 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, .279 BAA 26 G, 33 ⅔ IP, 36 H, 4 HR, 15 BB, 5 HB, 31 K Funderburk was a decent, lefty starting pitcher prospect. However, once he moved to the bullpen, he really took off. He was called up to the Twins in late August and posted a 0.75 ERA with a 0.92 WHIP over 12 innings in which he had 19 strikeouts. This year, he has given up at least one run in 13 of his 26 appearances. The last time he pitched was July 12th. He went on the Injured List with an oblique strain on July 21st. He could be back soon, and if healthy, hopefully he returns to those 2023 levels of success. RHP Scott Blewett (28) 0-0, 0 Saves, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, .000 BAA 1 G, 1 IP, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 BB, 0 HB, 1 K A week ago, Blewett threw 15 pitches in a perfect inning for the Twins to close out an 8-3 win against the Royals. It was his first MLB appearance since 2021. It felt like a great story. And by the next day, we learned that he had been DFAd. A couple of days later, we learned he cleared waivers and was outrighted to St. Paul. However, he elected to become a free agent. A day later, he re-signed with the Twins and is back with the Saints. He has pitched well throughout the season in St. Paul. He’s got a good fastball, a really good slider, and an impressive split-finger pitch. Could he get back to the Twins this season? RHP Trevor Richards (31) 0-1, 1 Save, 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, .100 BAA 8 G, 9 IP, 3 H, 0 HR, 7 BB, 2 HB, 10 K The Twins lone trade deadline acquisition sent infielder Jay Harry to the Blue Jays organization in exchange for veteran Trevor Richards. He started with two, scoreless, one-inning outings. However, the first time he was put into a close game, he gave up three runs on one hit and an impressive five walks. The next night, Baldelli put him right back out there the next night, and he earned the save with a perfect inning. Ultimately, that is the only one of his eight appearances in which he gave up a run. He had another game in which he gave up a hit and two walks but got out of it unscathed. In his six other outings, he’s actually been just fine, but the lack of control can be hard to watch. LHP Steven Okert (33) 3-2, 1 Save, 5.40 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, .273 BAA 42 G, 33 ⅓ IP, 36 H, 6 HR, 15 BB, 3 HB, 31 K The veteran lefty spent parts of 2016-2018 with the San Francisco Giants. He didn’t pitch in the big leagues in 2019 or 2020. However, he worked in 158 games for the Marlins between 2021 and 2023. While his FIP was over 4.30, his ERA was actually below 3.00 the first two years. Before the 2024 season, the Twins acquired Okert from the Marlins in exchange for utility man Nick Gordon. With Okert, it all comes down to Command and Control. As you see, he simply has too many walks, and that’s made worse with three hit batters. You can usually tell how an Okert outing will go pretty quick, with fastballs flying up and out of the strike zone and sliders Summary So there you have it. My rankings of the current Twins with a couple of Triple-A guys thrown in for good measure. Griffin Jax Jhoan Duran Cole Sands Jorge Alcala Ronny Henriquez Louie Varland Caleb Thielbar Josh Winder Kody Funderburk (IL) Scott Blewett Trevor Richards Steven Okert Your turn. Let me know what you think of my rankings, and share yours as well.