Seth Stohs

Image courtesy of Zach Del Bello (photo of Billy Amick) Happy Birthday to Brian Dozier and Justin Morneau! May 15th! No, I'm not one that pays attention to birthdays of ballplayers, but The Young'n happened to be born on May 15th as well. On Thursday night, she graduated (with honors) from a Minnesota trade school. On Friday, she turns 20. Yup, proud dad who continues to realize that he is getting old. So, I apologize for posting this a little late tonight and maybe not being as detailed as I try to be. I definitely welcome questions and comments about Thursday's games and encourage anyone who was at the games to give us reports too. TRANSACTIONS Early on Thursday morning, the Twins optioned OF Matt Wallner and RHP Travis Adams and recalled UT Ryan Kreidler and RHP Zebby Matthews. Zebby pitched really well. OF Kala’i Rosario was placed on the 7-Day Injured List. Fort Myers C Enrique Jimenez began his rehab in the FCL on Thursday. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul, Columbus Box Score The rains came down in St. Paul and Mother Nature won on this night. The two teams will attempt to play a doubleheader on Friday at CHS Field. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 7, San Antonio 0 Box Score Shutouts are always good. They’re rare, especially in the minor leagues. Let’s start there. Sam Armstrong started and tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked one, and had four strikeouts. Ricky Castro came on and threw three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked two, and had four strikeouts. Jaylen Nowlin and William Fleming each threw a scoreless innings. The Wind Surge bats scored their seven runs in the middle inning. They put a “2” on the scoreboard three times. In the third inning, Kyle DeBarge came to the plate with the bases loaded. He drove in two runs with his fourth double of the season. Caleb Roberts led off with his first home run since joining the Surge over the weekend. It was DeBarge again in the fifth inning. He hit another double which drove in Ricardo Olivar with the fourth run. DeBarge later scored on an Andrew Cossetti sacrifice fly to make it 5-0. Finally, in the top of the sixth, Garrett Spain walked with two outs and scored when Billy Amick launched his 11th home run of the year. DeBarge went 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI. Amick was 2-for-5 with his fifth double, 11th homer, and two RBI. He was also hit by a pitch early in the game. Olivar went 2-for-3 with a walk. Check out the Top 20 Padres Prospects according to our sister site, Padres Mission. KERNELS CHRONICLE Cedar Rapids 3, Fort Wayne 11 Box Score Ivran Romero made the start for the Kernels and took one for the team. He gave up 10 runs (9 earned) on nine hits and two walks in 3 1/3 innings. Nolan Santos came in and gave up one run on two hits and three walks over 3 2/3 innings. He struck out three batters. Adam Falinski struck out four batters and had one walk over two scoreless, hitless innings. Miguel Briceno had two of the Kernels’ five hits, his second and third doubles. Jay Thomason went 1-for-2 with two walks, a triple, and two RBI. Check out the Top 20 Padres Prospect according to our sister site, Padres Mission. MIGHTY MATTERS Ft. Myers 0, Bradenton 6 Box Score The Mussels lineup was quiet on Thursday night in Bradenton. They managed just five hits in the game, but they also had five walks. The batters combined for 15 strikeouts. Henry Kusiak had two walks. Harry Genth and Byron Chourio each went 1-for -3 with a walk. Genth stole his 11th base. Ramon Villanueva made the start. The 19-year-old gave up two runs on five hits and a walk in three innings. He had two strikeouts. Jonathan Stevens gave up four runs on four hits and recorded four outs. Kolten Smith worked the final 3 2/3 innings and He gave up just one hit, walked none and struck out four batters. COMPLEX CHRONICLE FCL Twins 5, FCL Rays 2 Box Score Yordi Jose started and gave up two runs (1 earned) on two hits. In 3 2/3 innings, he walked four and had two strikeouts. Rainer Marin kept an inherited runner from scoring. He recorded four outs and gave up no runs, two hits and no walks. Geremy Villoria came on and the youngster gave up three hits and a walk, but no runs, over 1 2/3 innings. Hendry Chivilli recorded the final out of the seventh inning. He tossed two more scoreless innings to record his second save of the year. He walked two and had three strikeouts. The best news of the day is probably that catcher Enrique JImenez made his first appearance of the year, a rehab appearance. He has missed most of spring training and the first six weeks of the season with a fractured finger. You recall he came to the Twins last summer from the Tigers organization in exchange for RHPs Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak. In this game, he went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. The results obviously don’t matter, but it’s great to see him starting to get games. He caught the first five innings before being replaced by Miguel Caraballo. Down 2-0 going to the bottom of the fourth, the Twins cut their deficit in half. Jhomnardo Reyes walked, and Luis Fragoza singled. Teilon Serrano drove in Reyes with the run. The Twins took the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Jose Barrios and Yovanny Duran singled. With two outs, Jhomnardo Reyes reached on a two-base error that drove in both runners. The bottom of the sixth inning began with back-to-back doubles by Fragoza and Serrano. The latter scored on a Ricardo Pena single to make it 5-2. Serrano led the offense with a 4-for-4 day with his first double and first stolen base. Coming into the game, he was just 1-for-23 with a triple and 14 strikeouts this season. Fragoza went 2-for-4 with his third double. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Teilon Serrano (FCL Twins): 4-for-4, 2B(1), R, 2 RBI, SB(1) Pitcher of the Day Sam Armstrong (Wichita): 4 IP, H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 51 pitches, 31 strikes (60.8%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today. #1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (left shoulder) #2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - Rained out #3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (thumb) #4 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch #5 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4 (batted second, played catcher). #6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #7 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4 (batted first, played SS) #8 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #9 - LHP Kendry Rojas (Minnesota) - 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 43 pitches, 23 strikes (53.5%) #10 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - No Game Scheduled. #11 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List #12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch #13 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - Rained Out. #14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-4, 3K (batted sixth, played SS). #15 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Play. #16 - RHP Ryan Gallagher (St. Paul) - No Game #17 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - No Game. #18 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 Day Injured List (right elbow sprain) #19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4 (batted third, played CF) #20 - 2B/SS/CF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 3-for-5, 2-2B(5), R, 3 RBI, K (batted fourth, played SS) UPCOMING PROBABLES Friday, May 15: Columbus @ St. Paul (4:37 pm CT) - LHP Aaron Rozek (0-0, 0.00 ERA, RHP Mike Paredes (2-1, 4.58 ERA) Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 pm CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-3, 4.28 ERA) Fort Wayne @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 pm CT) - RHP Michael Ross (0-3, 4.29 ERA) Ft. Myers @ Bradenton (5:30 pm CT) - TBD FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (11:00 am CT) - TBD CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 20-24 St. Paul Saints: 21-19 Wichita Wind Surge: 17-18 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 20-16 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 20-16 FCL Twins: 5-4 DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

getting Genth a couple of ABs and innings in another blowout.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (photo of Jayson Bass) TRANSACTIONS The Twins placed RHP Taj Bradley on the Injured List with a sore right pectoralis muscle. Taking his place on the roster is RHP Travis Adams. In addition, Dan Hayes reports that LHP Kendry Rojas is with the team, on the taxi squad, and could be activated before Sunday’s game. The Twins have now signed their third player from Lew Ford’s Long Island Ducks. They have signed catcher Caleb Roberts. In 15 games this season for the Ducks, the 26-year-old is hitting .339 with an OPS of .948. He is expected to report to the Wichita Wind Surge. Roberts was the fifth-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021 out of North Carolina. He ended the 2022 season with nine games in Double-A Amarillo. In 2023, he hit .278/.382/.523 (.906) with 23 doubles, eight triples and 17 homers. He played 42 games in left field, caught 30 games and made starts at first base (7) and right field (6). He went to the Arizona Fall League that season. He returned to Amarillo in 2024, and in 113 games, he hit .243/.339/.454 (.793) with 20 doubles, four triples, and 20 homers. In that season, he caught 62 games and played one game each at first base and left field. Then for some reason, he returned to Amarillo in 2025. In 104 games, he hit .237/.327/.388 (.715) with 21 doubles, three triples, and 10 homers. He only caught one game (and just two innings) that season. He started 64 games in left and a dozen in right field. RHP Yael Retituyo was released from the DSL Twins roster. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 13, Las Vegas 8 Box Score It was a bullpen game for the Saints on Saturday, but as they have been most games of late, the Saints offense continues to put up big numbers. In fact, the Saints scored at least two runs in five of the first six innings. In the first inning, Gabriel Gonzalez walked with one out. With two outs, Orlando Arcia remained hot, driving his ninth double of the season off the wall in left field to drive in Gonzalez with the game’s first run. Arcia scored when Kyler Fedko reached on an error. The first two batters in the third inning got out, but Ryan Kreidler and Orlando Arcia followed with singles. An errant pickoff throw allowed both runners to advance. Fedko lined a single to center to drive in both runners and make it 4-1. The top of the fourth inning began with an Aaron Sabato home run. It was his seventh home run of the season and fifth this week in Las Vegas. With one out, Kaelen Culpepper doubled and went to third on a fly out. Ryan Kreidler drilled his fifth home run of the season to give the team a 7-3 lead. Trent Baker started and went the first two innings. He gave up a solo home run to Michael Stefanic in the second inning. Raul Brito pitched the next two innings. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on three hits (including a solo home run by Henry Bolte). The top of the fifth inning began with walks by Kyler Fedko and Hendry Mendez. Alex Jackson drove in Fedko with a single to center. With one out, Ben Ross drove a double off of the wall in the left center field gap to drive in two more runs and make it 10-3. Aaron Sabato came to the plate with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning. He muscled a soft liner into center field to drive in Fedko and Mendez. Marco Raya worked the fifth and sixth innings. He gave up one hit over two scoreless innings. He had three strikeouts. Grant Hartwig gave up four runs on five hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings. Jon Brebbia got the final five outs, though he gave up a run on three hits. He struck out three. The Saints added one run in the eighth inning on Alex Jackson’s sixth home run. Aaron Sabato went 2-for-5 with his seventh home run and three RBI. He has had 12 RBI in these five games in Vegas. He is 10-for-22 this week with two walks, two doubles, five home runs and 12 RBI. When the week began, he was hitting .229/.296/.458 (.754). Following Saturday night’s game, he is now hitting .300/.359/.700 (1.059). Ben Ross went 2-for-3 with two walks and his fifth double. Alex Jackson went 2-for-4 with a walk and his sixth homer. Ryan Kreidler went 2-for-5 with a walk and his fifth home run. Orlando Arcia went 2-for-4 with his ninth double. Hendry Mendez went 2-for-4 with a walk. Kyler Fedko went 1-for-4 with two walks and stole his fifth base. Gabriel Gonzalez also walked twice. Last night, I wrote about A’s prospect Henry Bolte. On Friday night, he went 5-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, and two home runs. On Saturday night, he went 5-for-5 with two doubles, two home runs and five RBI. He had singles in his final two at-bats on Thursday night. He set the franchise record with hits in 12 straight at-bats. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 7, Amarillo 9 (10 innings) Box Score The Wind Surge jumped out to an early lead in this game. A five-run first inning is always helpful, but they also scored a sixth run in the top of the second for an early 6-0 lead. What could go wrong? With one out in the first, Kyle DeBarge walked and stole second base. He advanced to third base on a wild pitch, but there were two outs. Billy Amick came up and grounded to third base, but a fielding error allowed Amick to reach and DeBarge to score the first run. More importantly, the inning continued and the Wind Surge took advantage. Jake Rucker lined a single. Andrew Cossetti singled to center to drive in Amick with the second run. Murphy Stehly reached on a throwing error. Rucker scored on the play. Cossetti scored on a Jorel Ortega single. Then Maddux Houghton singled in Stehly and the Surge had a 5-0 lead. The second inning began with a DeBarge walk. Ricardo Olivar singled. They each advanced on a double steal. DeBarge scored the sixth run on a sacrifice fly by Jake Rucker. The Sod Poodles fought their way back with two runs in their half of the second and single runs in the third and fourth innings. The Wind Surge added a run in the top of the fifth frame. Rucker singled and stole second. Cossetti walked. After a pitching change, the runners advanced on a wild pitch. Rucker scored on a Jorel Ortega sacrifice fly to bump the lead to 7-4. Ricky Castro started and gave up three runs on five hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out four. Jacob Wosinski came on and gave up just one run on two hits over 2 2/3 innings. Alejandro Hidalgo pitched a scoreless sixth inning, but he gave up three runs (2 earned) in the seventh inning. He gave up five hits and walked two over his two innings. Jaylen Nowlin struck out two batters over two perfect innings. Tied at seven, the game went to the 10th inning. The Wind Surge were unable to even move the Manfred Man to third base. In the bottom of the 10th, Kyle Bischoff came on and gave up a leadoff, two-run homer to end the game. The Wind Surge had nine hits in the game. Ricardo Olivar, Jake Rucker, Andrew Cossetti, and Maddux Houghton each had two hits. DeBarge walked twice and stole his 10th and 11th bases. KERNELS CHRONICLE Cedar Rapids 6, Quad Cities 3 Box Score There was a lot of good pitching in this game. Of the 18 half-innings, 14 of them resulted in zero runs. The River Bandits started the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Kernels got on the board with four runs in the top of the third inning. Brandon Winokur was in the leadoff spot for the Kernels for the first time. He led off the first inning with a single and then led off the third inning with a single. Eduardo Tait singled, and Khadim Diaw walked to load the bases. Jaime Ferrer grounded out but Winokur scored the first run. Danny De Andrade followed with the game’s biggest hit. He launched his third home run of the season to the berm beyond the fence in left field. Quad Cities cut the lead to 4-3 with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Young Ramon Ramirez hit his fifth home run. The 20-year-old backstop was 2-for-3 with a walk, a triple, and a home run. He is the #7 prospect at Royals Keep. In the top of the eighth, Khadim Diaw led off with a walk. Jaime Ferrer stayed hot, hitting his eighth home run of the season. Eli Jones tossed the first five innings. He gave up two runs on four hits. He walked one and had six strikeouts. Nolan Santos went three innings and gave up just one run on one hit, a solo home run. He walked one and struck out three batters. Eston Stull came on and had one walk and one strikeout to earn his second save. Winokur led the way by going 4-for-5. De Andrade had a single to go with his huge home run. Tait went 2-for-4 with a walk. Khadim Diaw went 1-for-3 with two walks. MIGHTY MATTERS Ft. Myers 11, Tampa 9 Box Score For the second time this week, the Mussels used a big inning late to claim a lead and secure a win. Tampa scored a run in the top of the first inning, but the Mussels responded with three runs in the bottom of the first. Dameury Pena led off with a single and went to second on a passed ball. Ramiro Dominguez walked. After a successful double steal, Yasser Mercedes walked to load the bases. After a strikeout, Ryan Sprock walked to tie the game at 1-1. Quentin Young followed with a single to left field to drive in two runs and make it 3-1. Justin Mitrovich started and gave up just an unearned run on one hit and one walk. He had four strikeouts. Brian Zeldin came on and gave up four runs on four hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings. Jake Murray came on and got five outs. He gave up one run on one hit and one walk. He had three strikeouts. Michael Hilker was next. He gave up two runs on four hits and a walk. He had three strikeouts. The Mussels scored a run in the seventh inning on a balk. Going to the bottom of the eighth inning, the team was down 8-5. The bottom of the eighth inning started with singles by Dameury Pena and Ramiro Dominguez. Yasser Mercedes drove in both runners with his second triple. Henry Kusiak walked. Then Ryan Sprock singled to left to drive in Mercedes with the game-tying run. With two outs and after a pitching change, Jayson Bass came to the plate and untied the game with a two-run triple. Byron Chourio singled to drive in Bass and give the Mussels an 11-8 lead. Mitch Mueller came in for the ninth. He gave up one run on one hit and a walk. He struck out two and earned his second save. Quentin Young went 2-for-5 with three RBI. Jayson Bass went 3-for-5 with his fifth double, first triple, and two RBI. Ryan Sprock went 2-for-4 with a walk. Dameury Pena went 2-for-6. Yasser Mercedes went 1-for-3 with two walks, a triple, and two RBI. The team also has seven stolen bases. Chourio and Dominguez each had two steals. COMPLEX CHRONICLE FCL Twins 2, FCL Red Sox 9 Box Score The Twins fell behind early on Saturday. Miguelangel Boadas made the rehab start. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on six hits over two innings. He had three strikeouts. Rainer Marin came on and gave up three runs on five hits over 1 1/3 innings. He left the game with two runners on, and Nick McAuliffe allowed both to score. He allowed two more unearned runs to score on two hits before getting out of that fourth inning. Yoel Roque came in and had three strikeouts over two scoreless innings. The Twins avoided being shutout with two runs in the seventh inning. With one out, Ricardo Pena reached on an error. Daiber De Los Santos walked, and Pena advanced to third on a wild pitch. Pena scored on another wild pitch. With two outs, De Los Santos went to third on a wild pitch. Miguel Caraballo walked. After a pitching change, De Los Santos scored on a balk for the second run. But that was it. The Twins had just two hits, and five walks is a pretty solid number. They struck out 13 times in seven innings. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Jayson Bass (Fort Myers): 3-for-5, 2B(5), 3B(1), R, 2 RBI, K Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, R Pitcher of the Day Marco Raya (St. Paul): 2 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 21 pitches, 15 strikes (71.4%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today. #1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (left shoulder) #2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-6, 2B(7), R, 4 K (batted first, played 2B) #3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (thumb) #4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, BB (batted second, played catcher). #5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch #6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, 2 BB, R (batted second, played DH) #8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - On Twins taxi squad. Could be activated Sunday. #9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Play. Missed fourth straight game. #10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List #11 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K, 11 pitches, 7 strikes (63.6%) - Will also start for the Twins on Sunday. #13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 4-for-5, R, (batted first, played CF) #14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 2-for-5, 3 RBI, K (batted sixth, played SS). #15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 21 pitches, 15 strikes (71.4%) #16 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, BB, 2 R, K (batted sixth, played LF) #17 - 2B/SS/CF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-4, BB, 2 R, 2 K, 2 SB(11), (batted second, played SS) #18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch. #19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 R (batted third, played DH) #20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 Day Injured List (right elbow sprain) UPCOMING PROBABLES Sunday, May 10: St. Paul @ Las Vegas (2:05 pm CT) - RHP Ryan Gallagher (0-0, 6.14 ERA) Wichita @ Amarillo (1:05 pm CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-2, 4.08 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (1:00 pm CT) - LHP Dasan Hill (0-3, 8.44 ERA) Tampa @ Ft. Myers (11:05 am CT) - RHP Matthew Dalquist (0-1, 5.40 ERA) FCL Twins - No Game Scheduled. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 17-23 St. Paul Saints: 19-18 Wichita Wind Surge: 16-16 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 17-15 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 18-14 FCL Twins: 3-3 DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

Not yet, dude's hitting like .180. However, I'd play him at 1B 3-4 days per week for the next month and see where he's at. I've watched him a bit there this year. He's been fine on pop ups. He's been fine one good throws. I've only seen him field a couple of grounders, and that's been fine. I haven't seen him have to scoop baseballs. So yeah, I'd update his usage at 1B and maybe see if Mauer and/or Morneau can work with him in St. Paul a few times.

Image courtesy of Elisa Chavez (photo of Aaron Rozek) TRANSACTIONS Fort Myers placed RHP Eric Hammond on the 7-Day Injured List with a right eye contusion. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 7, Las Vegas 4 Box Score Zebby Matthews was strong and efficient on Friday night. Orlando Arcia led the offense. Overall, this was a very nice win for the Saints. For the Aviators, lefty Gage Jump (a Top 60 overall prospect in baseball) started. He went 4 2/3 innings and gave up six runs (5 earned) on six hits and five walks. He had eight strikeouts. The Saints got ahead in the top of the first inning. With one out, Gabriel Gonzalez and Kyler Fedko walked. Arcia singled to right to drive in Gonzalez and give the team the 1-0 lead. The third inning began with Tanner Schobel reaching on a two-base error. Kaelen Culpepper singled to left with Schobel advancing to third base. Gonzalez drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly. Kyler Fedko just missed a home run and had to settle for an RBI triple. Arcia followed with his seventh homer of the season to give the Saints a 5-0 lead. Let’s jump to the top of the fifth inning. Arcia led off the inning by crushing a ball well beyond the fencing in left field. It was his second homer of the game and eighth of the season. It also gave the Saints a 6-2 lead. With two outs in the eighth inning, Fedko singled and went to second on a wild pitch. Arcia followed with an RBI single to left giving him four RBI in the game. Zebby Matthews was really good, and he was very efficient. Overall, he tossed eight innings. He was charged with three runs on 10 hits and two walks. He had five strikeouts including getting two strikeouts to end a threat in the bottom of the eighth inning, both on 96+ mph fastballs. Through six innings, he had thrown just 65 pitches. Through seven innings, he had thrown 74 pitches. Through eight innings, he threw 95 pitches, and 69.5% of them were strikes. Drew Smith gave up one run on two hits in the ninth inning. Not a Twins guy, but I have to write about the game that A’s top ten prospect Henry Bolte had. Leading off for the Aviators, he went 5-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, and two home runs. He played in 34 games for Las Vegas last season and hit .300/.404/.433 (.837) with six doubles, two triples and two homers. He was also 13-for-13 in stolen base attempts. Friday night was Bolte’s 35th game with the Aviators in 2026. He is hitting .329/.401/.604 (1.005) with five doubles, three triples, and 10 homers. He is also 16-for-17 in stolen base attempts. He was the A’s second round pick in 2022 out of Palo Alto High School in northern California. Bolte and Blue Jays prospect Josh Kasevich (currently with Triple-A Buffalo) are racing to become the high school’s fifth major-league player. Brothers Mike Brewer (Royals) and Tony Brewer (Dodgers) and Stu Pederson (Dodgers) combined to play in 44 MLB games between 1984 and 1986. The fourth player from the high school to play in the big leagues is Joc Pederson who is playing in his 13th MLB season in 2026. He is the son of the aforementioned Stu Pederson. Based on his Triple-A numbers, it looks like the Bolte family might be the third Palo Alto High School family to have big-league service time. The Kasevich’s may just need to accept being fourth. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 5, Amarillo 4 Box Score The night before, the offense set several franchise records for runs scored, hits, homers, and more. On Friday night, they showed they can slowly and methodically come back from a deficit to win a close game. As was generally the theme of the night, there was some really solid pitching throughout the system on Friday. Lefty Aaron Rozek started and tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked one, hit one, and struck out five batters. He’s been terrific since rejoining the Twins organization. His ERA with the Surge is down to 2.45. Wichita got on the board in the top of the fourth inning. With one out, Kyle DeBarge singled. He stole second and then third base. And then Billy Amick drove him in with his fourth double of the year. In the top of the sixth, the Wind Surge added on. Garrett Spain led off with a walk. With two outs, he had moved to second base. Amick came to the plate and hit his ninth home run of the season to give his team a 3-0 lead. Jarret Whorff came in and pitched a scoreless fifth inning. However, he was charged with four runs on three hits and two walks, and he recorded just one out in the bottom of the sixth. He left the game with the bases loaded and a 3-2 lead. William Fleming came on and allowed two of the three inherited runners to score and give the Sod Poodles a 4-3 lead. The tying run scored when he hit a batter. The second scored on a soft groundout. Fleming’s pitching line doesn’t look bad. He tossed 1 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings. With two outs in the top of the eighth, Ricardo Olivar notched his seventh double of the season. Guess who followed with an RBI single to tie the game at 4-4? Of course, it was Billy Amick. With one out in the top of the ninth inning, Andrew Cossetti homered to center, his first homer of the season. It couldn’t have come at a better time! Sam Ryan struck out three batters over the final two innings. He faced the minimum. Amick went 3-for-4 with his fourth double and ninth homer and the team’s first four RBI of the game. He has seven homers in his past 13 games. KERNELS CHRONICLE Cedar Rapids 4, Quad Cities 2 Box Score The Kernels were shut out in Quad Cities on Thursday night, and they didn’t exactly start Friday night on fire. However, some late runs were not only good for their psyches but also led them to a win. The Kernels got on the scoreboard first in this game. With two outs in the top of the third inning, Jacob McCombs singled. He went to second on a balk and scored when Brandon Winokur reached on an errant throw. The Kernels have pitched well and did so again on Friday. Ivran Romero got the start and worked three scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, but he didn’t hurt himself with any walks. He had four strikeouts. Yehizon Sanchez came in and had three strikeouts over two scoreless, one-hit innings. Cole Peschl threw the sixth inning. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk. The game was tied 1-1 through seven innings. Jump to the top of the eighth inning, and the first two Kernels batters struck out. McCombs was hit by a pitch, and he scored from first on Winokur’s seventh double of the season. Nick Trabacchi put zeroes on the board in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings. He walked one, but he gave up no hits and struck out four batters. The top of the ninth started out well. Khadim Diaw led off with his fourth double. Jaime Ferrer followed with his seventh home run of the season. That gave the Kernels a little cushion, a 4-1 lead heading to the bottom of the ninth. Paulshawn Pasqualotto gave up one run on one hit in the ninth to record a relatively stress-free fourth save of the year thanks to the insurance runs. Winokur went 2-for-4 with a double. Cedar Rapids had just five hits in the game and no walks. They were helped by three hit batters. MIGHTY MATTERS Ft. Myers 2, Tampa 6 Box Score This was a really well-pitched game for both teams, especially through five innings. Tampa took the lead in the sixth. They put together a big inning and held on to win game four of this series. Again, we will start with the pitching. Ramiro Villanueva is back and healthy and pitching like he wants to move into the Twins Top 40 rankings! After missing the 2025 season due to Tommy John surgery, he has impressed in his first few Mighty Mussels starts. That held true on Friday night. The right-hander tossed three scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked three, and had four strikeouts. Of course, it’s no surprise what his one issue has been in his return so far. It’s common for control to come back a little slower for some. In 10 innings so far, though, he’s given up one earned run on six hits. He has walked nine and struck out 12 batters. Not bad for a 19-year-old with three professional innings pitched (in the DSL in 2024) under his belt. Kolten Smith came in and worked the middle three innings. He started with two scoreless innings (two hits, four strikeouts), but he was charged with the four runs in the sixth inning (four runs, four hits, two walks, two strikeouts). It likely won’t surprise you to see how the Mussels scored their two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Bruin Agbayani led off with a double. He came around to score on Yasser Mercedes' sixth home run of the season. It cut the deficit in half, but Fort Myers was unable to complete a comeback. Xavier Kolhosser pitched the final three innings. He gave up two unearned runs on two hits and no walks. He struck out four batters. Five Mussels hitters had one hit. Agbayani’s double and Mercedes’ home run were the only extra-base hits. Ramiro Dominguez had both a single and a walk, and he stole his second base of the season. COMPLEX CHRONICLE FCL Twins 3, FCL Red Sox 0 Box Score The FCL Twins jumped ahead with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. They added one more run in the fourth. Three pitching prospects combined for the seven-inning shutout. Let’s start with the pitching, as I really think all three pitchers are legitimate prospects. (Each ranks in my current Top 65 Twins prospects.) Melvin Rodriguez started and gave up two hits and a walk over two scoreless innings. He had one strikeout. Geromy Villoria came on and gave up two hits and a walk over two scoreless innings. He struck out two batters. Hendry Chivilli finished the game with three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked one, and had two strikeouts to earn the save. Yovanny Duran led off the bottom of the first inning with a triple. After two strikeouts, Joyner Perez singled to center to drive him in. After a wild pitch, Daiber De Los Santos singled to right to make it 2-0. Perez and De Los Santos each finished their day 1-for-2 with a walk. With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Ricardo Paez knocked his first home run of the season to make it 3-0. It marked his first home run in the States. Last year, in 39 games in the FCL, he hit .242 and got on nearly 40% of the time, but he had no home runs. In 2024, he had two home runs in 36 games for the DSL Twins. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Orlando Arcia (St. Paul): 4-for-5, 2 HR(8), 2 R, 5 RBI. Billy Amick (Wichita): 3-for-4, 2B(4), HR(9), R, 4 RBI. Pitcher of the Day Aaron Rozek (Wichita): 4 IP, H, 0 R, BB, 5 K, 63 pitches, 38 strikes (60.3%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today. #1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (left shoulder) #2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-5, R, 2 K (batted first, played 2B) #3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (thumb) #4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4 (batted third, DH). #5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - 5 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, HBP, 6 K. 93 pitches, 61 strikes (65.6%) #6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch. Scheduled to start Sunday. #7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, R, SF RBI, K (batted second, played 1B) #8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch. #9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Play. Missed third straight game. #10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List #11 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch #13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, 2B(7), RBI, CS(2) (batted second, played SS) #14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-4, 3 K, E(13) (batted sixth, played 3B). #15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch. #16 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, BB, 3 K (batted fifth, played LF) #17 - 2B/SS/CF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 1-for-4, R, K, 2 SB(9) (batted second, played SS) #18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch. #19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-3, 2B(4), R, HBP (batted first, played Catcher) #20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 Day Injured List (right elbow sprain) UPCOMING PROBABLES Saturday, May 9: St. Paul @ Las Vegas (9:05 pm ET) - RHP Trent Baker (2-2, 9.42 ERA) Wichita @ Amarillo (7:05 pm CT) - RHP Ricky Castro (1-0, 4.63 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (5:30 pm CT) - RHP Eli Jones (1-1, 4.70 ERA) Tampa @ Ft. Myers (5:05 pm CT) - RHP Justin Mitrovich (0-0, 0.00 ERA) FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (9:00 am CT) - TBD CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 16-23 St. Paul Saints: 18-18 Wichita Wind Surge: 16-15 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 16-15 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 17-14 FCL Twins: 3-2 DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

Walker JenkinsRiley QuickKaelen CulpepperEduardo TaitEmmanuel RodriguezConnor PrielippGabriel GonzalezKendry RojasDasan HillMarek HoustonCharlee SotoHendry MendezAndrew MorrisJames EllwangerKhadim DiawSantiago CastellanosQuentin YoungBrandon WinokurCJ CulpepperRyan Gallagher

Image courtesy of Elisa Chavez (photo of Garrett Spain) TRANSACTIONS Right-hander Miguel Martinez was assigned to the DSL Twins. Earlier this week, we learned that the Twins acquired RHP Yoendrys Gomez from the Rays in exchange for #OldFriend Cash Considerations. Following Thursday afternoon’s game in Washington DC, the Twins optioned John Klein to make room on the roster. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 6, Las Vegas 7 Box Score Thursday night in Vegas, the Saints fell behind quickly. Through two innings, they were down 5-0. Andrew Bash made the start. He gave up five runs (3 earned) on six hits and two walks in three innings. C.J. Culpepper came on and tossed two scoreless innings. It wasn’t pretty, but he got through it without giving up a run. He gave up one hit and walked a batter. He also fielded a ground ball and threw it into center field. But overall, he looked solid. He looked comfortable. It will be interesting, in my opinion, if he is used as a two or three inning guy with the Saints. A top 20 prospect, he could put himself into consideration for a bullpen gig by the season’s second half. The Saints offense was quiet through six innings. They were still behind 5-0 when they came to bat in the top of the seventh. Hendry Mendez led off the inning with a walk and stole second. He moved to third on a single by Aaron Sabato. Tanner Schobel drove in Mendez with a single to left. With two outs, Kaelen Culpepper came to the plate. On the first pitch, he saw an 85-mph slider just below the zone, near the outside corner. The second pitch was an 84-mph slider, but it sat right in the middle of the plate. Culpepper launched the pitch at 101 mph at 27 degrees, and it traveled 376 feet for his eighth homer of the season. The club was back in the game, down just 5-4. Matt Bowman struck out three batters over two innings. He gave up a run on a hit to make it 6-4. His ERA is at 1.86 now, and I would assume he would have an opt-out in his deal. In the top of the eighth inning, the Saints got that run back off of former Twins prospect Nick Anderson. Gabriel Gonzalez led off with a single. He went to third on an Orlando Arcia single to right. Gonzalez scored, but it came on a double play which ended the threat. Dan Altavilla threw a scoreless eighth inning. With one out in the top of the ninth, Tanner Schobel lined a 100.8 mph fastball to the gap in right-center field for a double. With two outs, Culpepper came back to the plate. He fell behind 0-2 on a couple of sharp, upper 80s sliders. Then he fouled off fastballs at 100 mph and 102.2 mph. On the fifth pitch, he got a slider at 90.3 mph over the middle of the plate, and he bounded a 90-mph ground ball through the infield, avoiding both diving middle infielders. Schobel scored the tying run. But in the bottom of the ninth, he issued a walk and a single before Tommy White doubled in the winning run. Culpepper went 2-for-5 with his eighth home run and four big RBI. Gonzalez was 2-for-4. Schobel and Sabato were each 2-for-4 with a double. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 19, Arkansas 7 Box Score The Surge scored three in the top of the first inning. They added crooked numbers in the fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth. Maybe the Surge are trying to keep up with big brother. The Saints came into the day with more home runs than any other professional team. The Surge came into the game with 47 homers, and they ended the game with 57 homers. The Wind Surge set their franchise record with 19 runs scored and with 10 home runs in a single game. Their 17 hits were a season high. In this case, I think we’ll just post notes to summarize the game. Garrett Spain (25): Leading off, he went 3-for-6 with his seventh, eighth, and ninth home runs, and six RBI. He now is hitting .290/.365/.688 (1.053) with six doubles, two triples and nine home runs. The last Wind Surge batter to hit three homers in a game was Carson McCusker back in 2023. (McCusker has hit two home runs in 20 games for Rakuten (Japan).) Billy Amick (23): Amick went 3-for-5 in this game. He homered in his first two at-bats and then added a single in his third at-bat. He has eight home runs on the season. Maddux Houghton (27): Houghton went 2-for-5 with his first homer of the season and stole his seventh base. Jake Rucker (26): Many thought that Rucker hit his third home run of the season in the fifth inning. He drilled a ball to dead center that one of the umps called a homer. Rucker kept running and got to third. It was discussed by the umps, and he was credited with a triple. When he came to the plate in the seventh inning, he went to the opposite field, no question about it being over the fence. He went 2-for-4 with a walk, his first triple, and his third homer. Kyle DeBarge (22): He went 2-for-5 with a walk and his fourth home run. He scored three runs in the game. Ricardo Olivar (25): The backstop went 2-for-5 with a walk and his 10th home run of the season. All 10 of the homers have come in his past 13 games. Overall, he is now hitting .281/.369/.685 (1.054) with six doubles and 28 RBI. He has a seven game on-base streak. Kala’i Rosario (24): Rosario went 2-for-5 with his seventh home run. It marked his 40th home run with the Wind Surge. Andrew Cossetti (25): The DH went 1-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored. In case you were wondering. Jose Olivares started and gave up two runs on two hits over 2 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out two batters. Spencer Bengard walked two and struck out two batters but got four outs with no runs. Darren Bowen gave up one run on two hits and a walk over two innings. He struck out three batters. Kyle Bischoff gave up four runs on four hits (including two homers) in the seventh inning. Luis Quinones tossed two scoreless innings He struck out five batters. KERNELS CHRONICLE Cedar Rapids 0, Quad Cities 2 Box Score On a day when four of the Twins affiliates combined for 45 runs, you had to know that one affiliate would be shutout, and that was the Kernels on Thursday. Jason Doktorczyk started and gave up two runs (1 earned) on four hits and a walk. He struck out five. Sam Rochard struck out two in a scoreless sixth inning. Adam Falinski struck out four batters in his first High-A debut. The Kernels certainly had chances. While they had just three hits, Kernels batters walked eight times. Four times the Kernels had a runner on third base, but only once did that come with less than two outs. They went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base. Miguel Briceno had a single and a walk. Brandon Winokur and Jay Thomason each walked twice. MIGHTY MATTERS Ft. Myers 10, Tampa 6 Box Score Big innings always play such a big part in deciding a team that wins. That was definitely the case in this late-inning comeback win. When the Mussels came to the plate in the bottom of the third inning, they were losing 5-0. With two outs in that inning, Yasser Mercedes was on first base and scored ahead of Ramiro Dominguez who drilled his third home run since joining the Mussels two weeks ago. Mercedes doubled in the fifth inning and scored the team’s third run on a ground out. When the Mussels came to the plate to start the bottom of the eighth inning, they were down 6-3. Henry Kusiak singled to start the inning. Then things got a little wild. Irvin Nunez and Jayson Bass walked to load the bases. After a strikeout, Dameury Pena was hit by a pitch to drive in a run the hard way. Bruin Agbayani walked in a run. Down one, Mercedes was called out on strikes. He immediately challenged and the ABS told him that the ball was 0.8” low. In that instant, the strikeout became a walk, and the game was tied 6-6. Then came a strikeout for the second out. But, Ryan Sprock walked to give the Mussels a 7-6 lead. After a pitching change, Henry Kusiak came up for the second time in the inning. He cleared the bases with a line drive double to left field. 10-6 Mussels. Reed Moring started for the Mussels. He gave up two unearned runs on one hit in 1 1/3 innings. He had two strikeouts but also four walks. Merit Jones came in and gave up four runs (3 earned) on six hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had two strikeouts. Jonathan Stevens came on and struck out two batters over two scoreless innings. Mike McKenna had a walk and a strikeout in the scoreless ninth inning. Henry Kusiak signed with the Twins organization from the Long Island Ducks. He had an “O-fer” in his first game. In this game, he was 3-for-5 with the biggest hit of the game, his first double. The Mussels scored their 10 runs on seven hits and 10 walks. Agbayani went 1-for-3 with two walks. Mercedes was 1-for-3 with two walks and his fourth double. COMPLEX CHRONICLE FCL Twins 10, FCL Orioles 5 Box Score Cory Lewis made his second rehab start for the FCL Twins. He struck out three batters over two perfect innings. 19-year-old Yordi Jose came in for the third inning. The lefty gave up four runs (3 earned) on two hits. He walked four batters and had three strikeouts. Next up was 26-year-old minor-league veteran Jesse Bergin. He allowed both inherited runners to score, and then gave up one run on two hits over 1 2/3 innings. Carter Holjes had one walk in a scoreless inning. The Twins took the lead in the bottom of the first inning on RBI singles by Yovanny Duran and Merphy Hernandez. They added an unearned run in the bottom of the second inning on two walks and two fielding errors. The Twins broke it open in the third inning with six runs. Darwin Almanzar singled to drive in Daniel Pena. Ricardo Paez scored on a wild pitch. With the bases loaded, Miguel Caraballo doubled to drive in two runs. Teilon Serrano tripled to drive in two more runs and give the team a 9-2 Almanzar singled to drive in one more run in the fourth inning and give the team 10 runs. The Twins scored their 10 runs on nine hits and eight walks. Ricardo Paez went 2-for-4. Almanzar went 2-for-3 with a walk. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day (Wichita Wind Surge): 17-for-42, 19 R, 5 BB, 19 RBI, 10 K, 3B, 10-HR. Pitcher of the Day Jason Doktorczyk (Cedar Rapids): 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, BB, 5 K, 75 pitches, 53 strikes (65.0%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today. #1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (left shoulder) #2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 2-for-5, HR(8), SB(7), R, 4 RBI (batted first, played DH) #3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 7 Day Injured List (thumb) #4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2 K (batted second, DH). #5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - Starts Friday in Cleveland. #6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, R (batted third, played RF) #8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch. #9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Play. #10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List #11 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch #13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 K (batted third, played SS) #14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Play #15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch. #16 - OF Hendry Mendez (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB, R, K,SB(1), (batted fifth, played LF) #17 - 2B/SS/CF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 2-for-5, BB, HR(4), 3 R, RBI (batted second, played SS) #18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 B, 2 K, 30 pitches, 19 strikes (63.3%) #19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-5, 2 K (batted first, played CF) #20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 Day Injured List (right elbow sprain) UPCOMING PROBABLES Friday: St. Paul @ Las Vegas (9:05 pm ET) - RHP Zebby Matthews (2-2, 5.13 ERA) Wichita @ Amarillo (7:05 pm CT) - LHP Aaron Rozek (2-1,3.38 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (6:30 pm CT) - RHP Ivran Romero (2-0, 5.79 ERA) Tampa @ Ft. Myers (6:05 pm CT) - RHP Ramiro Villanueva (0-0, 1.29 ERA) FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (11:00 am CT) - TBD CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 16-22 St. Paul Saints: 17-18 Wichita Wind Surge: 15-15 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 15-15 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 17-13 FCL Twins: 2-2 DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

check the transactions later today...

Image courtesy of Malamut Photography It was a solid month for pitching in the Twins minor leagues, in general. As you'll see below, there are some pitchers who have pitched well in Triple-A and have been able to make their major-league debuts. You will also find several pitchers making their professional debuts in Fort Myers, mostly 2025 draft picks. One other thing you'll notice is that our minor-league writing core made the decision to only have a Pitcher of the Month. In the past, we have always had separate awards for Relief Pitcher and Starting Pitcher of the month. However, at this stage of baseball, what is the difference between a starting pitcher and a reliever? That is especially true with the Twins who have gone to having starters and relievers being able to work three or four innings at a time with more frequency. This isn't the "olden days" of two-to-three years ago where starters would hope to work five or six innings and top relievers would get an inning at a time. We will attempt to make sure that we recognize the variety of roles pitchers can have in the minor leagues in our Pitcher of the Month articles. HONORABLE MENTIONS LHP Kendry Rojas - St. Paul Saints - 10 1/3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, .229 BAA, 30.0 K%, 10.0 BB%, 4.18 xFIP. LHP Connor Prielipp - St. Paul Saints - 13 IP, 2.30 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, .200 BAA, 34.9 K%, 7.7 BB%, 2.96 xFIP. RHP Michael Hilker - Fort Myers Might Mussels - 12 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, .100 BAA, 30.2 K%, 22.6 BB%, 5.39 xFIP. LHP Aaron Rozek - Wichita Wind Surge/St. Paul Saints - 13 IP, 1.38 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, .264 BAA, 15.5 K%, 5.2 BB%, 4.65 xFIP. RHP Matt Bowman - St. Paul Saints - 16 1/3 IP, 1.65 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, .246 BAA, 24.6 K%, 8.7 BB%, 4.15 xFIP. RHP Merit Jones - Fort Myers Mighty Mussels - 18 2/3 IP, 1.93 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, .188 BAA, 23.4 K%, 11.7 BB%, 5.05 xFIP. RHP Jacob Wosinski - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 12 1/3 IP, 2.19 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, .178 BAA, 34.0 K%, 4.3 BB%, 3.14 xFIP. RHP C.J. Culpepper - Wichita Wind Surge - 19 2/3 IP, 2.75 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, .213 BAA, 28.2 K%, 10.5 BB%, 4.20 xFIP. RHP Eli Jones - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 4.70 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, .246 BAA, 24.2 K%, 3.1 BB%, 3.92 xFIP RHP Darren Bowen - Wichita Wind Surge - 11 1/3 IP, 3.18 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, .122 BAA, 26.7 K%, 8.9 BB%, 4.62 xFIP RHP Kolten Smith - Fort Myers Mighty Mussels - 11 IP, 3.27 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, .171 BAA, 43.2 K%, 6.8 BB%, 1.89 xFIP. THE TOP FOUR PITCHERS Number 4 RHP Reed Moring (21) - Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 3 G, 2 GS, 13 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, .229 BAA, 34.5 K%, 7.7 BB%, 2.96 xFIP. Moring was the Twins 15th round draft pick in 2025 out of UC-Santa Barbara. Like other 2025 drafted pitchers (other than Jonathan Stevens), Moring didn’t pitch at all in 2025. He began the 2026 season with Fort Myers. In his pro debut, he came out of the bullpen and worked four scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked none and had seven strikeouts. Six days later, he made his first start and again threw four scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, walked three, and had five strikeouts. Five days later, he made another start. He gave up six hits and one walk over five shutout innings. He struck out six batters. That was his final start of April. He returned to the mound about 2 1/2 weeks later with two perfect relief innings. Moring uses a four-seam fastball that averages 93 mph and tops out around 95 mph. He also has a slow curveball between 79 and 82 mph. He also throws a slider, a cutter and a changeup in the 83-87 mph range. Number 3 RHP James Ellwanger (22) - Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 3 G, 3 GS, 11 2/3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, .077 BAA, 34.1 K%, 11.4 BB%, 2.96 xFIP. The Twins have done a job in the past decade of drafting college pitchers and working with them to add velocity. In 2025, they drafted a couple of college pitchers with Top 100 picks, guys that already threw hard, so it’ll be interesting to see how they develop. The Twins drafted James Ellwanger in their third round pick out of Dallas Baptist. He signed and this spring made his official professional debut with the Mighty Mussels. As you might expect, he dominated in his three starts. In his first game, he gave up two hits and a walk while striking out four batters in three innings. His second game was in Jupiter. He tossed four shutout innings and gave up one hit and one walk. He struck out five. His third start was in Fort Myers. He walked three and struck out six batters in 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Ellwanger has really good stuff. In his first game, he topped out at 98.7 mph and averaged 96.2 mph. He also throws cutters in the upper 80s and low 90s. He has a slow curveball that sits in the low 80s, which is nice for giving him a pitch that alters a batter’s timing. He throws a low-90s changeup which he’ll want to work on to slow down a few ticks. Unfortunately, he came out of the game and soon after it was announced that he was placed on the 60-Day Injured List with a right elbow sprain. We can certainly hold out hope that he can be back on the mound this season. Number 2 RHP Cole Peschl (23) - Cedar Rapids Kernels 7 G, 0 GS, 10 2/3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.09 WHIP, .030 BAA, 27.3 K%, 0.00 BB%, 3.61 xFIP. If you want to tell me that Cole Peschl should be the pitcher of the month for April, you’re not going to get much of an argument from me. The 23-year-old was the Twins 15th round pick in 2024 out of Campbell University. He began the 2025 season with six games in Fort Myers, but he moved up to Cedar Rapids fairly quickly. With the Kernels, he made nine starts. He went 4-1 with a 3.40 ERA. However, his season came to an end before August. He is back in Iowa this season and working out of the bullpen. Just look at those numbers. He faced 33 batters during the month and gave up just one hit. No walks. No hit batters. I’ve never seen a WHIP of 0.09. Could a promotion to Double-A Wichita be in the near future? And the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April 2026 is: RHP Riley Quick - Fort Myers Mighty Mussels/Cedar Rapids Kernels 5 G, 5 GS. 12 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.42 WHIP, .054 BAA, 45.0 K%, 7.5 BB%, 2.33 xFIP Riley Quick grew up in Trussville, Alabama. He attended Hewitt-Trussville High School, the same school that fellow 2025 first round draft pick Steele Hall (Reds, ninth overall pick). When Quick was in high school, he was the top-ranked right-handed pitcher and the number six overall prospect in Alabama according to Perfect Game. He ranked #2 according to Prep Baseball Report. He was also a four-star recruit, one of the top offensive line prospects in the country. His brother Pierce played football at Georgia Tech and Alabama. Quick signed pretty quickly following the draft last July. He spent the summer and much of the offseason in Fort Myers continuing to work, getting himself in better shape and working on pitching. When the 2026 season began, he was assigned to Low-A Fort Myers. As expected, his time there was very short. He made three starts and worked a total of eight innings for the Mussels. He gave up zero runs, one hit, walked three and had 13 strikeouts. The 6-6 righty was promoted to Cedar Rapids where he made one more start in April. He tossed four shutout innings. He gave up just one hit, walked none, and had five strikeouts. Using an upper-90s (four-seamer and sinker), Quick can be dominant. His highest velocity in a game this season is 98.7 mph. However, when you add in a cutter in the low 90s, a slider in the low-to-mid 80s slider, he’s got four or five above average pitches that can get swings and misses. Literally and figuratively, Quick is one of the biggest pitching prospects that the Twins have selected in a long time. We want to congratulate Riley Quick, Twins Daily’s choice for Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April of 2026. Feel free to share your thoughts and ask questions. How would you rank the top pitchers in the Twins organization in April? View full article

That makes sense. He was flying and his left arm/shoulder made the catch and hit the wall without any ability to brace himself. My initial thought was that it was a disclocation... =

You could make an argument for replacing Matt Wallner with E-Rod now, but not a week or so ago. e is deserving. That said, Roden was probably more deserving before that. Jenkins has been solid, but not so much so to add him to the 40 at this point. And Culpepper is doing fine as well, but same 40-man roster issues, and he's only hitting .245.

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey (photo of Ben Ross) One month of the minor-league season is now complete. Despite cool temperatures, especially early, there have been quite a few really strong offensive performances already. Today we take a look at the top hitting performances of the season's first month. Before we jump to the Top 5 hitters, there are several Honorable Mentions. HONORABLE MENTIONS OF Kyler Fedko - St. Paul Saints - 25 G, 18-for-78, .231/.291/.551 (.842) with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs, 12 R, 21 RBI, 5 BB, 24 K. UT Dameury Pena - Fort Myers Might Mussels - 20 G, 25-for-73, .342/.417/.397 (.939) with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 0 home runs, 9 R, 8 RBI, 9 BB, 8 K. SS Marek Houston - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 23 G, 29-for-93, .312/.375/.473 (.948) with 2 doubles, 2 triples, 4 home runs, 16 R, 7 RBI, 10 BB, 25 K. OF Alan Roden - St. Paul Saints - 19 G, 189-for-69, .275/.425/.464 (.889) with 4 doubles, 3 home runs, 9 R, 15 RBI, 17 BB, 14 K. OF Jacob McCombs - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 13 G, 13-for-46, .283/.377/.587 (.964) with 5 doubles, 3 triples, 1 home run, 5 R, 12 RBI, 1 BB, 14 K. OF Yasser Mercedes - Fort Myers Mighty Mussels - 13 G, 14-for-49, .286/.417/.592 (1.009) with 1 double, 1 triple, 4 home runs, 13 R, 16 RBI, 11 BB, 15 K C Ricardo Olivar - Wichita Wind Surge - 18 G, 16-for-65, .246/.342/.554 (.896) with 5 doubles, 5 home runs, 12 R, 18 RBI, 10 BB, 10 K. THE TOP FIVE HITTERS Number 5 - Wichita Wind Surge - OF Hendry Mendez (22) - 22 G, 23-for-81, .284/.372/.519 (.891), 5 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs, 17 R, 19 RBI, 9 BB, 20 K. The Twins acquired Mendez and 17-year-old RHP Geremy Villoria from the Phillies at the 2025 trade deadline. Following the season, he was added to the team’s 40-man roster. With the Twins left-handed hitting outfield depth, both in the big leagues and at St. Paul, he returned to Double-A Wichita to start the season. There was also talk about him getting some time at first base, but to this point, he hasn’t played two full games at the position. What he can do is hit, and he generally knows the strike zone. He appears to be pushing for more power with 10 extra base hits in the month. Can he turn a great eye and contact skills into more power? That’ll be the question we’ll check on at the end of the season. Number 4 - St. Paul Saints - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (23) - 24 G, 20-for-80, .250/.419/.513 (.932), 3 doubles, 6 home runs, 15 R, 17 RBI, 22 BB, 31 K. It seems as though we have been talking about Rodriguez for years and years. His power potential. His speed and defense. Stolen bases. Lots of walks and lots of strikeouts. We know the scouting report as it has been similar for years. But he only turned 23 two months ago. Part of it is that he finished the 2024 season with seven games in St. Paul. And, he had an inside-the-park grand slam. We see his heart, his enthusiasm and his passion for the game and want to see it at Target Field. But injuries have kept him sidelined much of his career. In 2022, he played just 47 games. In 2024, he played in just 47 games including rehab games. In 2025, he played in just 65 games, including 13 rehab games. He got off to a fast start with the Saints in April. While he may never hit for a real high average (because of all the strikeouts), he gets on base (because of all the walks). He’s got tremendous power, not only hitting home runs, but in just hitting the ball really, really hard. It isn’t rare for him to have exit velocities over 110 mph, and he hit two over 117 mph during the month. He is playing mostly right field, some center field, and has made two starts in left field. Number 3 - Cedar Rapids Kernels - OF/1B Jaime Ferrer (23) - 23 G, 19-for-64, .297/.444/.484 (.929), 3 doubles, 3 home runs, 16 R, 7 RBI, 14 BB, 18 K. Ferrer was born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, the same hometown as former Twins pitcher Jose Berrios. He went to high school in Orlando and then spent three seasons at Florida State. In 2024, he was the Twins fourth-round draft pick. There was an effort to move him behind the plate the last couple of seasons, but to this point this season, he has played both corner outfield spots and first base. Last year in Cedar Rapids, he hit .216/.296/.339 (.634) with 20 doubles, two triples, and five home runs. Note that his April stats above do not include the three home runs he hit over two games on May 1st and 2nd. While he’s been batting ninth for the Kernels, it gives them a very professional hitter at the bottom of the order. His quality of plate appearance has been much improved and he’s putting up the kind of numbers that captured scouts’ attention at Florida State. Number 2 - Wichita Wind Surge - OF Garrett Spain (25) - 19 G, .271/.354/.629 (.983), 5 doubles, 1 triple, 6 home runs, 16 R, 7 RBI, 9 BB, 21 K. Spain came to the Twins in December’s minor-league portion of the Rule 5 draft. He had spent the 2024 season with the Brewers organization. He played in 120 games for Double-A Biloxi and hit .207/.282/.377 (.659) with 17 doubles, four triples and 16 home runs. He also played 11 games at Triple-A Nashville. Spain grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee, and then he stayed home and attended Austin Peay. He was the Blue Jays 15th round pick in 2021. After two seasons at High-A Vancouver, and hitting .167 over 103 games at Double-A in 2024, the Blue Jays let him go,and the Brewers signed him before the 2025 season. Spain is a max effort type of player, but the hard work has kept him in affiliated ball. He generally takes quality at-bats. He has shown improved power. He’s a smart player. He was 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts in April. And the Twins Minor League Hitter of the Month is: Wichita Wind Surge/St. Paul Saints - IF Ben Ross - 20 G, 27-for-74, .365/.460/.676 (1.084), 8 doubles, 5 home runs, 16 R, 16 RBI, 12 BB, 13 K. Ben Ross grew up in Springfield, Ohio. In high school, he starred on the soccer pitch and the baseball diamond. Upon graduation, Ross made the 200 mile drive north and east to South Euclid, Ohio, a city of almost 22,000 people, a suburb east of Cleveland, adjacent to Cleveland Heights. It is the home of Notre Dame College, a Division II school in the Mountain East Conference. As a freshman in 2020, he hit .389 with three doubles in 11 games before the season came to an abrupt end. In 2021, he hit .426/.494/.844 (1.338) with 20 doubles, three triples, and 11 home runs. In 52 games as a junior, he hit .392/.452/.747 (1.200) with 20 doubles, two triples, and 14 home runs. He also had 15 stolen bases. That summer, he played for Wisconsin Rapids in the Northwoods League. In 42 games, he hit .421/.502/.649 (!.152) with seven doubles and 10 homers. He also stole 17 bases. In July of 2022, the Twins were thrilled to be able to make Ross their fifth round draft pick. He played in 22 games for the Mighty Mussels that summer. He made the jump to Cedar Rapids to start the 2023 season and hit .240/.322/.455 (.777) with 25 doubles, two triples, and 19 homers in 103 games. He ended the season with 10 games in Wichita. Between 2024 and 2025, he played in 244 games for the Wind Surge. With a full infield to start the season at St. Paul, Ross was sent back to Kansas to start this season. He could have been down, could have moped. Instead, he does what he’s always done. First and foremost, Ross has always played great defense. He can legitimately play shortstop, but he’s had opportunities all around the infield and in center field as well. He began the 2026 season with 16 games in Wichita. In that time, he hit .424/.528/.797 (1.324) with seven doubles, five homers, and 16 RBI. He had 12 walks to 10 strikeouts. He was 8-for-9 in stolen base attempts. He began the season with a 13-game hitting streak. He reached base in all 16 games. He had nine multi-hit games including two, three-hit games. A little over a week ago, Ross told Twins Daily, “I think a huge piece of hitting is the mentality going up to the plate. It’s super tough day in and day out to feel confident for every at-bat which is why it’s important to have a plan tailored to the situation.” He put in the time and put in the work and earned his first promotion to St. Paul. He played in four games for the Saints in April, and went just 2-for-15 which hurt his overall month stats, but what he did in Wichita is undeniable. Also, on May 1, he went 0-for-4 to start 2-for-19 with the Saints. But in two weekend games, Ross went a combined 3-for-5 with four walks, two doubles, a home run, five runs scored and four RBI. We want to congratulate Ben Ross, Twins Daily’s choice for Minor League Hitter of the Month for April of 2026. Feel free to share your thoughts and ask questions. How would you rank the top five hitters in the Twins organization in April? View full article

And Kaelen Culpepper also...

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Kala'i Rosario) Congratulations to RHP John Klein, the Minnesota native called up to the big leagues on Saturday morning. He made his MLB debut with a 12-pitch, 1-2-3 ninth inning against the Blue Jays. TRANSACTIONS On Saturday morning, we learned that the Twins were placing RHP Cole Sands on the Injured List with a forearm strain. Taking his place on the roster is RHP John Klein, the Minnesota native who was added to the Twins 40-man roster in November. The Saints activated C David Banuelos from the Development List. Saints RHP Cory Lewis began his rehab assignment with the FCL Twins on Saturday. The FCL Twins began their 2026 season on Saturday. Three players on their roster were officially placed on the long-term Injured Lists. RHP Rey Pacheco was placed on the 60-Day IL. RHP Anderson Ramos and infielder Santiago Leon were placed on the full-season IL. For more on these players and the other three dozen FCL Twins on their Opening Day roster, check out the 2026 FCL Twins Roster Preview. RHP Yosangel Braffit was signed by the Twins in late February and assigned to the DSL Twins on Saturday. The Twins signed infielder Murphy Stehly to a minor-league contract and assigned him to Wichita. He was signed from the HIgh Point Rockers of the Atlantic League. The 27-year-old was the Nationals 10th round pick in 2022 from the University of Texas. Reached Double-A. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 16, Iowa 2 Box Score The Saints and Cubs have been exchanging wins and losses with some very different game types. On Saturday, the Saints pounded out a record 11 extra base hits and seven home runs on their way to a 16-2 win. But let’s start with this. For the second straight start, Zebby Matthews was really good. He gave up one run on three hits, and in five innings, he walked three and struck out seven batters. Marco Raya came on and gave up a solo homer to Kevin Alcantara who hit his International League-leading 11th home run of the season. But that was it. One run on one hit over two innings. He also walked one batter. Raul Brito gave up two hits and a walk over two scoreless innings. The Saints scored runs in seven of the innings they batted. Five of those innings were multi-run innings. Of the nine starters, only the slumping Gabriel Gonzalez went hitless, 0-for-5. Over his past four games, he is 0-for-17 with seven strikeouts. Seven of the hitters had at least two hits. Kyler Fedko went 3-for-5 with his eighth home run. Kaelen Culpepper had just one hit, but he also had a walk and was hit by a pitch. In the first inning, Walker Jenkins and Kaelen Culpepper walked to start the game. With one out, Ryan Kreidler hit his third homer, a three-run blast (108.8 mph at 30 degrees = 433 feet.) In the second frame, Ben Ross led off with a walk. He scored on a Tanner Schobel double (106.2 mph). Jenkins drove in Schobel with a single to make it 5-1 Saints. In the third inning, Fedko scored on a Kreidler single and an error. With two outs, Ben Ross doubled (104.3 mph) to drive in another run Alex Jackson hit his fourth homer of the season to give the Saints a 9-1 lead. (108.4 mph at 25-degree angle = 412 feet.) Kaelen Culpepper led off the bottom of the fourth inning with his sixth home run (100.3 mph at 29 degrees = 365 feet.). Fedko followed immediately with his eighth home run. (101.3 mph at 29 degrees = 401 feet.) 11-1 Saints. Ben Ross (103.1 mph) led off the fifth frame with his second double of the game. He scored on a single by Jackson (103.3 mph) to give the Saints a 12-1 lead. Just three Saints batted in the bottom of the sixth. But Orlando Arcia led off the seventh inning with his fourth homer of the season. (105.9 mph at 18 degrees = 377 feet.) With two outs, Schobel knocked his second double of the game. He came around to score on Walker Jenkins' second home run of the season. (91.7 mph at 32 degrees = 328 feet.) 15-2, Saints. Following the Jenkins homer, Culpepper was hit by a pitch in the right shoulder. A fastball ran in on him, but he had already dove a bit and opened up his hips and shoulders. Hopefully he is just suffering from bruising, and it didn’t break any bones. From what it looked like, he is going to be incredibly sore tomorrow and probably for a few days. He stayed in the game to run, but after the half-inning, he was removed from the game for the final half-inning. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Arcia knocked his second homer of the game and fifth of the season. (104.6 mph at 27 degrees = 388 feet.) Former Gopher and Minnesota native Brett Bateman led off and played center field for the I-Cubs. He went 1-for-2 with two walks. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 6, Arkansas 16 Box Score It was a rough one for the Wind Surge on Saturday night, right from the start. Jose Olivares was able to complete just one inning. He gave up two runs on three hits and a walk. He had one strikeout. He needed 34 pitches to get through the inning. With this just being his second start after rehab, there was no need to push it. Sam Ryan came on in relief. He was charged with six runs on nine hits (including a home run). William Fleming came in and gave up three runs on four hits (including a home run). Spencer Bengard struck out two batters over two scoreless innings. Alejandro Hidalgo gave up five runs on three hits (2 of them were homers). He walked three and struck out one batter. Hidalgo started the ninth and left the game with two runners on base and nobody out. Jorel Ortega came in and allowed one of the two inherited runners to score, but no more in before getting the final three outs. After two runs scored in the top of the first inning, Wichita put a four spot. With one out, Garrett Spain singled. Hendry Mendez singled, and then Billy Amick was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With two outs, Ricardo Olivar hit his sixth double which drove in two runs. Jose Salas followed with a two-run single to make it 4-2. After that, the Wind Surge offense was Jake Rucker. The infielder drilled two home runs, his first two of the season. He hit his first in the second inning. In the ninth inning, he hit his second. He went 3-for-4 in the game and also notched his fourth double. KERNELS CHRONICLE Cedar Rapids 11, West Michigan 6 Box Score The final score of this game is not really indicative of the game. Nine-run innings in the late innings often have the kind of an effect on a game. The Kernels grabbed the first lead with a second inning run. Danny De Andrade hit his first triple and scored on a Caden Kendle single to make it 1-0. Jason Doktorczyk started the game with three scoreless innings. He gave up one run in the top of the fourth. Then the Whitecaps scored five runs in the top of the fifth inning in large part due to a couple of errors. In all, he was charged with six runs (2 earned) on four hits and a walk. He had four strikeouts. Nick Trabacchi came into the inning with the bases loaded and allowed two of the three inherited runners to score. He worked a scoreless sixth inning. A Marek Houston single drove in Jay Thomason with the Kernels second run to make it 2-6 through five innings. Things were looking bleak, but remember that nine-run inning I mentioned? Well, that came in the bottom of the seventh. Andy Lugo led off with a single. Jaime Ferrer followed with his fifth home run of the season to cut the deficit in half. Marek Houston and Eduardo Tait followed with singles. Then with one out, Khadim Diaw singled to load the bases. Danny De Andrade walked to make the score 6-5. Caden Kendle lined a single up the middle to drive in Tait and tie the game. The Kernels took a 7-6 lead on a passed ball. Jay Thomason walked, which would have reloaded the bases, but on the fourth ball, a wild pitch gave the team an 8-6 lead. Jaime Ferrer came up with two on and two outs and launched his second home run of the inning to give the Kernels nine runs in the inning and an 11-6 lead. It was Ferrer’s second home run of the night. It was his third home run in two May games, and he’s hit four home runs over his past five games. The Kernels #9 hitter is currently hitting .319 with a 1.060 OPS. Yehizon Sanchez struck out four batters over two scoreless, one-hit innings to take the Win. Paulshawn Pasqualotto got the final three outs, two on strikeouts. MIGHTY MATTERS Ft. Myers 6, Daytona Beach 7 Box Score Ramiro Villanueva made his second Mussels start. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on four hits and three walks in three innings. He struck out three batters. Reed Moring struck out two batters over two perfect innings. Harry Genth led off the top of the third inning with his fourth double. He scored on a Dameury Pena single. After a Ramiro Dominguez single, Pena scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Yasser Mercedes. That tied the game at 2-2. In the top of the fifth inning, Pena and Dominguez hit back-to-back singles. Pena scored on a Mercedes single to grab the 3-2 lead. The Mussels added another run in the top of the seventh. Mercedes knocked a one-out double, went to third on a fly ball to center field and scored on a wild pitch. Adam Falinski came in next and worked 1-2-3 innings in both the sixth and seventh innings. In the top of the eighth inning, Irvin Nunez walked and scored on Harry Genth’s first home run of the season. It gave the Mussels a 6-2 lead. Falinski went back out for the eighth inning and struck out the first batter. That was the only one he recorded. He gave up two hits and a walk. When he left the game, there were two runners on. Mitch Mueller allowed both inherited runners to score. The three runs that inning (2 earned) were charged to Falinski. Mueller did get out of that eighth inning with the Mussels hanging on to a one-run, 6-5 lead. The Mussels went 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth. Mueller came back out for the ninth inning. He gave up a single and a walk to start the inning. A passed ball moved runners to second and third with no one out. A wild pitch allowed the tying run to score, making it 6-6. However, Mueller got a ground out to first base for the first out. He hit a b after. Then he got another ground out for the second out. Could he work out of the damage? No, he threw a wild pitch, and the Tortugas topped the Mussels 7-6. All nine Mussels in the starting lineup reached base at least once by hit or walk. Yasser Mercedes led the way. He went 3-for-5 with his second double. He stole his sixth base. Genth was 2-for-3 with a walk, his first home run, and his eighth stolen base. Pena and Dominguez were both 2-for-5. Ryan Sprock, Quentin Young, and Jayson Bass each had one hit and one walk. COMPLEX CHRONICLE FCL Twins 8, FCL Red Sox 6 Box Score There weren’t a lot of highlights in this game for FCL Twins fans until their final at-bat at Bill Smith Field. Learn more about the FCL Twins roster in our FCL Twins Season Preview. RHP Cory Lewis was on the mound to start the FCL Twins season. He restarted his rehab for a second time. He had pitched on April 17th for the Mussels and went just 1/3 of an inning and gave up two hits and two walks. Saturday, he started for the FCL Twins and went 1 2/3 innings. He gave up one run on one hit and three walks. The hit was a home run. He struck out two. Omar Montano got the third out of the second inning. Last Sunday, lefty Matthew Becker tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings in the Mussels’ combined no-hitter. He was sent back to the FCL a day later. On Saturday, he made his FCL debut. He gave up four runs on three hits. In 2 2/3 innings, he walked four and had three strikeouts. Carter Holjes got four outs and gave up just one hit and walked one. Nick McAuliffe came on for the top of the seventh. He gave up one run on two hits. Jose Barrios drove in the Twins first run in the bottom of the second when he reached on an error. In the bottom of the fourth, a Barrios single drove in Merphy Hernandez with the team’s second run. Down 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Barrios came to the plate again and drove in Hernandez for the third time to make it 5-3. That brings us to the bottom of the seventh inning, Twins down 6-3. Teilon Serrano led off with a walk. Yovanny Duran followed with his first home run of the season which cut the deficit to 6-5. Luis Fragoza walked, stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch. Joyner Perez walked. That brought Merphy Hernandez, and he ended the game with a long, three-run homer that made it 8-6. Hernandez walked his first three plate appearances, so he was just 1-for-1 with the three-run walkoff homer. He stole a base. Barrios went 2-for-3 with three RBI and a stolen base. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Jaime Ferrer (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-4, 2-HR(6), 2 R, 5 RBI Pitcher of the Day Zebby Matthews (St. Paul): 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 7 K, 80 pitches, 52 strikes (65.0%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today. #1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, BB, HR(2), 2 R, 3 RBI, K, SB(5). (batted first, played RF, then CF) #2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB, HBP, HR(6), 2 R, RBI(batted second, played SS) #3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - Did Not Play. #4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) -1-for-5, R (batted second, played Catcher) #5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch #6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 0-for-5, 2 K (batted fifth, played 1B, then RF) #8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch. #9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, R, RBI (batted first, played 2B) #10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List #11 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - Did Not Pitch #13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2 K (batted third, played SS) #14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 1-for-4, BB, 3 K (batted sixth, played SS). #15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 24 pitches, 15 strikes (62.5%) #16 - OF Hendry Mendez (Wichita) - 1-for-5, R (batted third, played LF) #17 - 2B/OF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-4, 2 K (batted fifth, played SS) #18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - Did Not Pitch. #19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-5, R, K (batted fourth, played CF) #20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - 60 IL (right elbow sprain) UPCOMING PROBABLES Sunday: Iowa @ St. Paul (2:07 pm CT) - RHP Andrew Bash (1-2, 6.00 ERA) Arkansas @ Wichita (1:05 pm CT) - RHP C.J. Culpepper (0-1, 2.75 ERA) West Michigan @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 pm CT) - RHP Ivran Romero (1-0, 8.00 ERA) Ft. Myers @ Daytona (12:05 pm CT) - RHP Justin Mitrovich (professional debut) CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 14-20 St. Paul Saints: 14-17 Wichita Wind Surge: 13-13 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 13-13 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 16-10 FCL Twins: 1-0 DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article

I didn't see it anywhere today. Last season, the Twins began streaming DSL Twins games on YouTube. No announcers or sound, just the raw footage of the game. In fact, there was a DSL Twins preseason game on YouTube earlier this week. Hopefully they'll do the same thing with the FCL Twins.

Image courtesy of Seth Stohs, Twins Daily As you are reading this (on Saturday morning), the Florida Complex League (FCL) Twins players are anxiously preparing for their first official game of the season, going through their pre-game routine for their first game, playing their first game of the season, or basking in the knowledge that their 2026 season has begun. Think about it. Several of these players got to Fort Myers in January, or at least in late February when minor-league camp officially began. Players left Fort Myers for St. Paul, Wichita and Cedar Rapids a little over a month ago. These players continued their spring training work through the past month. Some of them filled in briefly for the Mussels at night. On Saturday morning, the Red Sox FCL team will travel a few miles west on Daniels Parkway. They’ll take a left on Plantation, go past the high school, and take a left into the Twins training facilities. The teams will play on Bill Smith Field. Tristan Toorie is taking over the managerial job of the FCL Twins after being a coach the last couple of seasons. He will be joined by pitching coaches Mathew Hartshorn, Ryan Meisinger, and Dan Urbina. Carter Kessinger is the rehab pitching coach, working with pitchers throughout the organization who are rehabbing in Fort Myers. The hitting coaches are Steven Cardona and Emilio Guerrero. Jairo Rodriguez is the team’s Development Coach. The long-time Twins minor league catcher has spent the past decade coaching all over in the Twins organization. The Pitchers There are 15 active pitchers on the FCL Twins roster. It is a strange, but fairly typical, group of pitchers. Five of the pitchers are 23 and older. They are recent late-round draft picks or recent minor-league signings staying ready for when they may be needed. The roster is composed of six pitchers from the Dominican Republic, five from the US, and four from Venezuela. . There are five pitchers who are under the age of 20 including two very high-end 17-year-olds. LHP: Matthew Becker (23), Yordi Jose (19). RHP: Jesse Bergin (26), Santiago Castellanos (17), Hendry Chivilli (20), Cristian Hernandez (21), Carter Holjes (24), Rainer Marin (20), Nick McAuliffe (25), Omar Montano (20), Melvin Rodriguez (20), Santiago Rojas (19), Yoel Roque (19), Brad Rudis (23), Geremy Villoria (17). Matthew Becker (23): He was the Twins 19th round pick in the 2025 draft out of the University of South Carolina. The 6-3, 215-pound lefty was signed by Ty Dawson. Last Sunday, he was promoted to the Mighty Mussels and threw 3 2/3 innings of their combined no hitter only to be sent back to the FCL the next day. Jesse Bergin(26): After three seasons at UCLA, Bergin was the 11th round pick of the Marlins. He was injured and didn’t pitch at all in 2022 or 2023. In 2024, he pitched in 25 games, most of them at Low-A Jupiter where he posted a 1.64 ERA. In 2025, he played five games at High-A and then 35 games at Double-A Pensacola. He went 2-4 with five saves and a 2.51 ERA. In 43 innings, he had 41 strikeouts and 17 walks. The Marlins released him in early March, and the Twins signed him a week to 10 days ago. Santiago Castellanos (17): Signed by Edgar Guerra on January 15, 2025, from Venezuela. In the DSL last year, he tossed 29 innings. He went 1-2 with a 2.79 ERA. He walked nine and struck out 36 batters. (He ranked #20 in my personal preseason Top 20 prospect rankings.) He was clocked Hendry Chivilli (20): Signed as a shortstop by Daniel Sanchez on January 15, 2023 from the DR. After posting sub-.600 OPS in the DSL in 2023 and the FCL in 2024, he was moved to the mound that offseason. Last year in the FCL, he went 2-0 with a 2.51 ERA. In 14 1/3 innings, he gave up eight hits, walked 10 and had 15 strikeouts. Big arm, just like his brother who pitches for the Yankees after a trade from the Rockies. Cristian Hernandez (21): Signed in January of 2023 by Manuel Luciano from the DR. He pitched in the DSL in 2023 and 2024. His 2024 season came to an end in early August with an elbow issue. He missed the entire 2025 season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Carter Holjes (24): After the 6-6 right-hander pitched at UNC Wilmington for four seasons, he pitched at Florida Atlantic in 2025. He pitched for State College in the MLB Draft League last summer. He went 3-2 with a 2.17 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. In 49 2/3 innings, he walked 16 batters and struck out 72 batters. Yordi Jose (19): The 6-2 lefty signed with the Twins on July 3, 2025, out of the Dominican Republic. He tossed 8 2/3 innings over seven appearances. He gave up seven hits, five walks and struck out 11 batters. Rainer Marin (20): He signed in January of 2025 out of Venezuela by Oswaldo Troncosis. He pitched in 11 games (6 starts) for the DSL Twins last season. In 29 innings, he gave up 29 hits, walked 27 and had 27 strikeouts. Nick McAuliffe (25): What a winding road to pro ball. A native of New Jersey, he pitched at Kutztown (Pennsylvania), Mercer CC in New Jersey, the University of New Orleans, and East Stroudburg University in Pennsylvania where he pitched in 2023 and 2024. He played for summer college leagues in Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina and Vermont. In 2025, he pitched in two games for Sioux City in the American Association and 39 games for Evansville of the Frontier League. He signed with the Twins 10 days ago and was quickly assigned to Cedar Rapids. He pitched in one game there before returning to the FCL. Omar Montano (20): Signed out of the DR in August of 2024, he pitched one inning in just one game in the DSL Last year, he made 12 starts and threw 31 2/3 innings. He went 0-6 with a 10.80 ERA. He gave up 48 hits, walked 19 batters, hit eight batters, and threw 11 wild pitches. He had 32 strikeouts. Melvin Rodriguez (20): Signed by Manuel Luciano in January of 2024 out of the DR, Rodriguez has primarily been a starter. In 2024 in the DSL, he made eight starts and three relief appearances. He went 3-3 with a 2.72 ERA. In 46 1/3 innings, he had 48 strikeouts and just 12 walks. Last year in the FCL, he made nine starts and two relief appearances. He was 4-2 with a 3.53 ERA. In 43 1/3 innings, he had 32 strikeouts and 22 walks. Seeing his walk rate jump and his strikeout rate fall likely explains why he is returning to the FCL. Santiago Rojas (19): Alvaro Gomez signed Rojas in January of 2024 out of Venezuela. 10 of his 11 appearances in the DSL in 2024 were starts. In 40 1/3 innings, he had 41 strikeouts but 27 walks. He posted a 4.02 ERA and opponents hit .238 against him. Pitched just two innings over two games in the FCL last year before joining on the 60-Day IL with a lumbar spine fracture. Yoel Roque (19): The 6-2 Dominican right-hander was signed by Manuel Luciano in January of 2024. In 10 games (3 starts) and 24 2/3 innings in the DSL in 2024, Roque went 0-2 with a 6.93 ERA. He had 33 strikeouts, but he also walked 29 batters. He made 10 starts last year for the FCL Twins and went a total of 11 2/3 innings. He was 0-3 with a 16.97 ERA. He gave up 16 hits, walked 17, hit three, and struck out 13 batters. Brad Rudis (23): The Twins signed Rudis in early November. He had spent four years working out of the Texas A&M bullpen. He went 15-1 with three saves. Went undrafted but pitched well for Williamsport in the MLB Draft League. He made 10 starts and seven relief appearances. Geremy Villoria (17): He was signed in January 2025 out of Venezuela, the 6-2, 175 pound right-hander was the youngest pitcher in the DSL last year. He made five starts for the Phillies Red team of the DSL. In 14 innings, he had walked four and struck out 19 batters. He was traded to the Twins with Hendry Mendez in exchange for Harrison Bader. He pitched in three games and eight innings after joining the Twins. He posted a 2.25 ERA. The Hitters There are 18 hitters on the active roster. Ten from Venezuela and eight are from the Dominican Republic. The 2025 DSL Twins had a very talented group of young hitters. The Catchers All five FCL Twins catchers are from Venezuela, including three from Barquisimeto. A random fact is that there is a 17-year-old, an 18-year-old, a 19-year-old, a 20-year-old, and a 21-year-old. Daniel Pena (21), Ricardo Pena (20), Victor Leal (19), Pablo Castillo (18), and Miguel Caraballo (17). Miguel Caraballo (17): Signed by the Giants in January of 2025. Spent last season with the DSL Giants Orange squad. In 41 games, he hit .264/.432/.442 (.874) with four doubles, two triples, and five home runs. Came to the Twins in a December trade for Twins Rule 5 pick (Daniel Susac). Won’t turn 18 until the end of August. Pablo Castillo (18): Signed by Alant Moncion on January 15, 2025, from Venezuela. In 28 DSL Twins games last year, he hit .315/.474/.411(.885) with four doubles and a homer. He had 14 walks and was hit by eight pitches. Victor Leal(19): Oswaldo Troconis signed Leal out of Venezuela in January of 2024. In 2024, he played 43 games in the DSL and hit .230/.364/.333 (.697) with four doubles and three homers. Had 21 walks to 15 strikeouts. In 30 games in the FCL last year, he hit .161/.345/.161 (.507). He had 17 walks to 12 strikeouts. Daniel Pena (21): Signed in January 2022 out of Venezuela, Pena hit .304 in the DSL in 2022. He hit .278/.376/.474 (.850) with four doubles and five home runs. In 2024, he started the season injured and played in nine rehab games in the FCL (and hit .308 with a .938 OPS). He hit .195 in 36 games for Fort Myers that year as well. He spent the full 2025 season in Fort Myers. He played in 55 games and hit .199/.302/.265 (.567) with six doubles and two homers. He played quite a bit of first base the first couple of seasons as a pro, but now he has only caught since 2024. Ricardo Pena (20): Like Daniel Pena, the Twins signed Ricardo Pena on January 19, 2022 from Venezuela. He played two seasons in the DSL. In 33 games in the FCL in 2024, he hit .361/.481/.489 (.970) with eight doubles and a homer. His 2025 season began with 10 games in the FCL before a late-May promotion to the Mussels. He played in 12 games (and hit .150) before going on the Injured List with a back impingement. The Infielders Yilber Herrera (21), Daiber De Los Santos (19), Haritzon Castillo (18), Jose Barrios (18), Darwin Almanzar (18). Darwin Almanzar (18): Signed by Manuel Luciano on January 15, 2025 from the DR. In 44 games last year in the DSL, he hit .252/347/.496 (.843) with 17 doubles, a triple, and six home runs. His 17 doubles led the DSL. He led the DSL in doubles, homers and RBI (41). Jose Barrios (18): Signed by Oswaldo Troconis on January 15, 2025, from Venezuela. In the DSL last year, he hit .254/.352/.361 (.713). In 37 games, he had three doubles, two triples, and two home runs. Haritzon Castillo (18): Signed in January 2025 by Marlon Nava from Venezuela. In 39 DSL games last year, he hit .283/.395/.428 (.823) with eight doubles, three triples and two homers. He was 12-for-15 in stolen base attempts. He also had 24 walks to 22 strikeouts. Lone Twins representative in the DSL Mid-Season All Star game. Daiber De Los Santos (19): Signed in January 2024 by Luis Lajara from the DR. Ended 2024 in the DSL strong, hitting .301/.384/.460 (.844) with 11 doubles, a triple, five homers and even 17 stolen bases. In 48 FCL games last year, he hit .167/.296/.333 (.629) with 10 doubles, two triples, and four homers. Stole 15 bases. Struck out so much (89 in 180 PA).Season ended early due to a torn left labrum tear. Yilber Herrera(21): The infielder signed by Fred Guerrero in January of 2022 from the DR. He spent two seasons in the DSL. He played the last two seasons in the FCL. After hitting .226 (.737) with three doubles, a triple and two homers in 2024, he hit just .128 (.611) with two doubles and two homers in 39 games. That rough season is surprising as he had 30 walks to 28 strikeouts. He played 10 games for Fort Myers in 2025. He has hit .179 with a .395 on-base percentage over 13 games with the Mussels this season. The Outfielders There are eight players listed as outfielders on the roster. None of them will be 20 until just before Halloween. OF: Ricardo Paez (19), Merphy Hernandez (19), Luis Fragoza (19), Yovanny Duran (18), Jhomnardo Reyes (18), Joyner Perez (17), Teilon Serrano (17), Carlos Taveras (17). Yovanny Duran (18): Signed on January 15, 2025, by Edgar Guerra out of Venezuela. In 46 DSL games last year, he hit .296/.452/.382 (.834) with seven doubles and three triples. Had 39 walks (to 30 strikeouts) and stole 31 bases, both of which led the DSL Twins. Luis Fragoza (19): Signed in January 2024 out of Venezuela by Edgar Guerra. That summer, he hit .259/.439/.345 (.784) with five doubles, a triple and a homer in 41 DSL games. Last year, he played in 49 games for the FCL Twins and hit .217/.349/.297(.646) with eight doubles and one home run. He has been hit by 28 pitches as a pro. 14-for-17 in steal attempts in 2025. Merphy Hernandez (19): Luis Lajara signed the lefty outfielder in January of 2024 from the DR. In 48 games in the DSL in 2024, he hit .276/.389/.417 (.806) with four doubles, six triples, and two homers. He was also 36-for-38 in steal attempts. Last year, he was limited to just 16 games in the FCL. He hit .163 with two doubles and a triple. He stole eight bases. Ricardo Paez (19): Signed by Marlon Nava out of Venezuela in January of 2024, Paez debuted in the DSL in 2024. In 36 games, he hit .263/.388/.424 (.812) with four doubles, three triples and two homers. Last year in the FCL, he played in 39 games. He hit .242/.398/.295 (.693) with three doubles and a triple. Joyner Perez (17): Daniel Sanchez signed the burly slugger out of the DR in January of 2025. In 25 games in the DSL, he hit .313/.457/494 (.951) with six doubles and three homers. He had more walks (18) than strikeouts (17). Led the DSL Twins in OPS. His batting average and on-base percentage were second on the team. Jhomnardo Reyes (18): Signed by Manuel Luciano on January 15, 2025, from the DR. In 50 games in the DSL last year, he hit .291/.386/.469 (.855) with 10 doubles, nine triples, and a home run. Reyes stands 6-3 and is about 185 pounds. He runs well. Lots of swing-and-miss. Teilon Serrano (17): Serrano was expected to sign with the Dodgers, but LA backed out of the deal and the Twins jumped in. Roman Barinas signed Serrano out of the Dominican on January 15, 2025. He played in 41 games for the DSL Twins last year. He hit .258/.386/.426 (.812) with seven doubles, two triples, and five homers. He had 21 stolen bases in 26 attempts. Carlos Taveras (17): Signed by Daniel Sanchez in February of 2025 out of the Dominican Republic. In 18 games last year in the DSL, he hit .246/.389/.438 (.827) with three doubles, a triple, and two homers. Unfortunately, in early July he had surgery to repair a left knee medial meniscus injury. INJURED IF Santiago Leon (17): Leon was signed by Edgar Guerra out of Venezuela on January 15th, 2026. Last year in the DSL, he hit .223/.391/.313 (.704) with eight doubles, two triples and a home run. He stole 11 bases in 18 attempts. He had 39 walks and 39 strikeouts. He is the son of long-time Twins scout Jose Leon. The younger Leon will spend the 2026 season on the Full Seaason Injured List. RHP Anderson Ramos (20): Signed in March of 2024 from the Dominican Republic. That year in the DSL, he pitched 30 2/3 innings over 12 games. He went 5-3 with a 5.58 ERA. He had 33 strikeouts and 16 walks. Last year, he worked 28 1/3 innings over 17 games. He was 3-3 with six saves and a 3.81 ERA. Opponents hit just .153 off of him, and he had 38 strikeouts (with 17 walks. He is also on the Full Season Injured List. RHP Rey Pacheco (19), The Twins signed the 5-9 right-hander from Mexico in late May of 2025. Despite the late signing, he worked 33 innings over 16 games. He was 5-2 with a save. He had just seven walks to 31 strikeouts. However, he begins the season on the 60-Day Injured List. View full article