Tom Froemming

The Minnesota Twins had one of the greatest victories you’ll ever see in the regular season. Friday night in Seattle, they were trailing 6-3 down to their final out and ended up winning 12-6. It’s tough to fully appreciate that game now, as the Twins dropped their next two to the Mariners in frustrating fashion. Tonight’s System Recap includes highlights of Twins prospects Payton Eeles, Tanner Schobel, Gabriel Gonzalez, Kyler Fedko, Kyle DeBarge and Nate Baez. View full video

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Gabriel Gonzalez) CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 31-25 St. Paul Saints: 28-24 Wichita Wind Surge: 25-24 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 28-20 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 21-28 FCL Twins: 12-8 DSL Twins: Season starts June 2. TRANSACTIONS Payton Eeles joined the Cedar Rapids Kernels on rehab assignment. He had played 10 rehab games with Fort Myers. Darren Bowen was transferred to Wichita’s Developmental List. Nick Trabacchi, a right-handed pitcher the Twins recently signed out of the Frontier League, was assigned to Cedar Rapids. The Twins signed OF Justin Connell, a 26-year-old former 11th-round pick of the Nationals in 2017 who was playing for the York Revolution in the Atlantic League. He had a .375/.535/.722 batting line (1.258 OPS) through 23 games with York. He was assigned to Cedar Rapids. Kevin Maitan, who had been with Cedar Rapids, was released. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 9, Omaha 8 Box Score Marco Raya not only got pointed in the right direction his last start, he delivered four perfect innings with seven strikeouts. So how was the encore? A mixed bag. There was a dreadful start followed by a flash of brilliance. Things got off to a rocky start when Edouard Julien committed an error at second base on the first hitter of the game. That runner stole second base and scored on a single by the No. 2 hitter. Next up was Royals prospect Jac Caglianone, who blasted a home run to put Omaha up 3-0 before Raya had even recorded an out. Instead of wilting, Raya responded. He retired the next 11 batters he faced, seven of them on strikeouts. He also did not walk a batter in this outing. Raya topped out at 96.7 mph and got 11 swinging strikes, five of them on his changeup. The Saints lineup was relentless, combining for 15 hits. Armando Alvarez provided the biggest blast, a three-run homer in the fourth inning. He also had some fireworks directed toward an umpire later in the game and was ejected. Alvarez got an RBI hit in the ninth inning, but was thrown out trying to stretch a single to a double. Or at least that was the call, and Alvarez didn’t like it. He gave the ump a piece of his mind — several pieces, in fact — before Toby Gardenhire could make it out to intervene. Though he had to hit the showers a bit early, it was a five-RBI night for Alvarez. Another offensive star for St. Paul was Mickey Gasper, who had three hits and a walk. He’s hitting .365/.465/.729 (1.194 OPS) in 25 games for the Saints. Emmanuel Rodriguez exited this game in the bottom of the sixth inning. There didn’t appear to be any obvious reason why he would have needed to come out of the game, though he did have a minor slip in the grass redirecting himself while playing a ball off the wall in the bottom of the fifth inning. He managed to play the rest of that inning without issue, so perhaps it was something else. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 7, Tulsa 1 Box Score The Wind Surge exploded for five runs in the bottom of the first inning and got a trio of strong pitching performances that allowed them to cruise to victory. Tanner Schobel led things off with his seventh home run of the season, Gabriel Gonzalez followed with a triple, Aaron Sabato later hit a one-out double then Noah Cardenas hit an RBI double, giving Wichita a team cycle within their first six hitters of the game. Christian MacLeod was the beneficiary of all that run support. He held Tulsa to one run over his 3 2/3 innings, but it was a bit of a high-wire act. The left-hander stranded the bases loaded in the first inning and left two men on in both the third and fourth innings. MacLeod gave up six hits and walked three batters but struck out five. He has a 1.31 ERA in 20 2/3 innings for Wichita so far this season. Mike Paredes was the first man out of the Wind Surge bullpen. He stranded both runners he inherited from MacLeod and pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-hit ball to improve to 7-0 on the season. Joel Cesar finished things off with two perfect innings. Kyler Fedko blasted his Texas League leading 11th home run of the season, adding an exclamation point to this victory. It’s been a remarkable run for Fedko so far this season, as he had hit just nine home runs in 136 games the two seasons prior combined. Fedko also stole his eighth base of the season. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Lake County 5 Box Score Payton Eeles’ rehab assignment moved up from Fort Myers to Cedar Rapids and he made his presence known in this one. The pesky Eeles was 3-for-4 with a double at the plate but he was even more of a problem on the bases. Eeles, who missed time due to knee surgery, swiped three bases. Two of those steals were of third base. Also encouraging: Eeles played all nine innings at second base. Kyle Hess hit what was scored as an inside-the-park home run thanks to perhaps the most minor league-y minor league defense I’ve ever seen. The Lake County right fielder charged in way too aggressively on the line drive, resulting in the ball sailing over his head. Their center fielder scampered over to fire the ball in toward the infield wildly, then cutoff man somehow lost possession of the ball while transferring it from his glove to his throwing hand. Hess circled the bases before the Captains could even get the ball back into the infield. It’ll look like a 450-foot blast on Hess’ stat sheet. Things got a little dicey for the Kernels, who led 6-3 at one point, but they held on for the victory. Paulshawn Pasqualotto protected the one-run lead he inherited with two outs in the top of the eighth inning to earn his fifth save of the season. Pasqualotto, the Twins 12th rounder in 2023, has a 1.17 ERA and 1.04 WHIP this season. Ty Langenberg got the start in this one and continued his sluggish start to the season. He now has a 7.98 ERA after surrendering three runs over his 4 1/3 innings. Nate Baez was 2-for-3 with a walk and has a .956 OPS on the season. He was behind the plate tonight and threw out one of three attempting base stealers. MUSSEL MATTERS Tampa 9, Fort Myers 3 Box Score Dylan Questad’s night ended early due in large part to an inefficient second inning. The 20-year-old Wisconsin native faced eight batters and needed 29 pitches to complete the second frame, then opened the third inning with a four-pitch walk followed by a run-scoring triple. Tampa continued adding on, building an 8-1 lead by the end of the fourth inning. The one pitching bright spot for the Mighty Mussels was the marvelously mustachioed Jakob Hall. The Twins eighth-round pick in last year’s draft held Tampa scoreless over the final three innings. A couple of Fort Myers newcomers had multi-hit games. Ricardo Pena, who was playing in his second game since being promoted from the FCL, went 2-for-4 and scored a run. Blaze O’Saben, who was recently signed out of indy ball, went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. He also lived up to his name by stealing a base. Caleb McNeely, another indy ball alum, hit his first home run playing in just his second game with Fort Myers. McNeely was the 2024 Frontier League MVP. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 3, FCL Red Sox 2 Box Score The FCL Twins continued their strong start to the season thanks to another strong pitching performance. Juan Cota, a right-handed 19-year-old product of Mexico, got things started with three shutout innings. After that it was 2024 13th-round pick Xavier Kolhosser, who surrendered an unearned run over two frames. Venezuelan Eider Machuca gave up a run in the sixth inning but earned a hold before Brent Francisco, an undrafted free agent, pitched a perfect seventh inning for the save. That quartet of hurlers combined to walk just one batter today. The FCL Twins staff had an 8.5 BB% coming into today, which is comfortably below the league average of 13.7 BB%. Irvin Nunez opened the scoring for the Twins with a little league home run in the second inning.. He hit a triple to center field and came around to score on an error. The second run came across when Javier Roman drove in Nunez with a double in the fourth inning. Luis Fragoza added a much-needed insurance run with an RBI double of his own which scored Eduardo Beltre. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day: Jakob Hall, Fort Myers: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K Hitter of the Day: Payton Eeles, Cedar Rapids: 3-for-4, 2B, 3 SBs PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 1-for-3, R (removed in the sixth inning) 6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-4, BB, 2 R, K 7. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 3 2/3 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K 9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-4, K 11. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-3, BB, 2 K, SB (28) 14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita): 3-for-5, 3B, R, K 16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 2-for-3, 2B, R, K, SB (8) 17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 2-for-5, HR (7), R, RBI, 2 K TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul at Omaha, 6:05 pm CT: Andrew Morris Wichita vs. Tulsa, 6:05 pm CT: Trent Baker Cedar Rapids vs. Lake County, 6:35 pm CT: Chase Chaney Fort Myers at Tampa, 5:30 pm CT: Dasan Hill FCL Twins at FCL Red Sox, 9 am CT: TBD View full article

Twins prospect Kaelen Culpepper is beginning to draw some more attention, and it’s easy to see why. He hit another home run on Wednesday, his fifth of the month for Cedar Rapids. Kyler Fedko also stayed hot for Wichita, continuing his impressive power breakout by collecting the first multi-homer game of his pro career. Today’s System Recap also includes some pitching highlights of Jose Olivares, Eli Jones and Cole Peschl. View full video

This goes way above me, Doctor. The divine Baseball Gods have jinxed the Twins. They could be playing against the New Ulm Yankees and lose. If there's any kind of Yankees tie in, we're hosed.

Happy Memorial Day! This marks the first day we’re allowed to look at the standings, and the Minnesota Twins are in pretty good shape. After taking a series against the Royals, the Twins are tied for second in the AL Central and sitting in an AL Wild Card spot. Not bad for a squad that had a nightmare start to its season. Minor league highlights in today’s recap feature Kaelen Culpepper, Kyle DeBarge, Mickey Gasper, David Festa, Darren Bowen, Marco Raya and Dasan Hill. View full video

Ow aw ow aw wa wa ouch ow FUNDER!

Image courtesy of Chris Paddack © Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Box Score Starting Pitcher: Chris Paddack: 5 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 90 pitches, 64 strikes (71.1%) Home Runs: Carlos Correa (4) Bottom 3 WPA: Brock Stewart -.204, Ryan Jeffers -.173, Kody Funderburk -.131 Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) You could see this loss coming from a mile away. The Minnesota Twins playing a game at George M. Steinbrenner Field? I mean, c’mon. Even if the Yankees were nowhere in sight, this was a predictable outcome. Tonight’s game was a pitcher’s duel until it very decisively was not. It was a scoreless tie with starters Chris Paddack and former Twin Zack Littell cruising into the bottom of the sixth inning. Paddack ran into some trouble there, surrendering a one-out single followed by a double. Brock Stewart took over for the Twins and served up a middle-middle sweeper to Jonathan Aranda, who hit it out for a three-run homer. Rocco Baldelli’s old buddy Kevin Cash said “hey, we could do that!” After Littell hit Ty France with a pitch, putting him on with one out, Cash decided he’d also had enough of the zeros. He brought Garrett Cleavinger in from the bullpen to … also give up a home run to the first batter he faced. Carlos Correa took him deep for a beautifully violent two-run homer blasted at 108.8 mph that traveled 417 feet. The teams traded zeros once again in the bottom of the seventh inning and top of the eighth before things really went sideways for the Twins. Justin Topa, who pitched a clean seventh inning, retired the only batter he faced in the eighth before Kody Funderburk took over. There wasn’t much fun about his outing this evening. Funderburk surrendered consecutive singles before recording the second out. He then got two strikes on José Caballero but couldn’t finish the deal. In Funderburk’s defense, it looked like Trevor Larnach should have been able to make a play on the ball Caballero hit to left field that ended up being a two-run double. Larnach made a leaping attempt at the warning track and appeared to have gotten some leather on it. Upon review, he probably didn’t need to leave his feet at all. It’s unlikely any spring training games Larnach has played at George M. Steinbrenner Field have been in the evenings with the lights on. There’s also no lights from a third deck in a minor league/spring training stadium like this, which is something Major Leaguers can become accustomed to (hat tip to the astute Seth Stohs on that observation). No matter the reason, Larnach didn’t look comfortable on this catch attempt. Danny Jansen, the next batter, ended a six-pitch at-bat by blasting a two-run homer to completely blow the game open. Larnach had an outside chance to redeem himself and make what would have been a spectacular rob job, but he missed by no more than a foot. Since the Twins only managed to score two runs, everything that unfolded in that ugly eighth inning didn’t actually have any impact on the final outcome. This was the fourth time in the past seven games the Twins failed to score three runs or more. What’s Next? It’s another one at George M. Steinbrenner Field Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 pm CT. Joe Ryan looks to finish off a strong May in which he has pitched to a 1.96 ERA while striking out 28 batters in 23 innings pitched. He’ll be facing his former organization for the third time in his career. The Rays counter with 24-year-old right-hander Taj Bradley, who has pitched much better at home (3.72 ERA) than on the road (6.20 ERA) so far this season. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet THU FRI SAT SUN MON TOT Topa 0 0 34 0 17 51 Durán 0 0 23 18 0 41 Funderburk 0 0 0 0 31 31 Sands 0 14 0 12 0 26 Alcalá 0 0 26 0 0 26 Jax 0 11 12 0 0 23 Varland 0 9 0 12 0 21 Stewart 0 3 7 0 11 21 View full article

Given the history of how they've handled guys on rehab assignment, I'm guessing it was just a scheduled off day for him. Wallner had played both Thursday and Friday. That's somewhat unusual in itself, as they don't typically let guys go back-to-back right away when rehabbing. This has been a weird weather week, though, so maybe the earlier postponements had some impact on their plan with him.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 29-22 St. Paul Saints: 25-22 Wichita Wind Surge: 23-21 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 25-18 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 20-24 FCL Twins: 9-6 DSL Twins: Season starts June 2. TRANSACTIONS Fort Myers activated infielder Peyton Carr from the 7-day IL. SAINTS SENTINEL Game 1: Norfolk 12, St. Paul 1 Box Score This was a statement performance from Marco Raya. The 22-year-old entered today struggling mightily in his first full exposure to Triple-A competition. Maybe all he needed to get into gear is for us here at Twins Daily to start wondering if he should be moved to the bullpen. No matter the reason for tonight’s impressive performance, it was great to see from the young right-hander. Raya immediately showed he was poised to impress, striking out the side in order in the first inning on 12 pitches while tallying five swinging strikes. He kept it rolling in the second inning, striking out the side in order once again. Norfolk finally put the ball in play a couple times in the third frame, though Raya turned in another perfect inning. Pitching into the fourth inning for the first time this season, Raya capped his outing with a 1-2-3 frame. When all was said and done, Raya had delivered four perfect innings with seven strikeouts. He threw 32 of his 49 pitches for strikes, which is 65 percent. Entering tonight’s outing, Raya had only thrown 56 percent of his pitches for strikes on the season. Raya topped out at 97.4 mph and got six of his 13 whiffs on his curveball. Per Baseball Savant, he deployed his six-pitch arsenal remarkably evenly, throwing no individual offering more than 10 times among his 49 total pitches. Could this be a turning point for Raya? Time will tell, but if nothing else it was a great reminder of what he looks like when everything is clicking. As for the rest of this game, uh … I guess it could be summed up by saying Anthony Prato pitched. He’s not a pitcher. The St. Paul bullpen combined to walk nine men in just 2 2/3 innings (not counting the out Prato recorded). Yuck. And it’s not like the lineup was firing on all cylinders, either. The only Saints run came on Mike Ford’s eighth homer of the season. Game 2: St. Paul 6, Norfolk 4 Box Score Speaking of Anthony Prato, he hit a home run in this game. Defensively, he started at third base and ended up playing center field. If they asked him to sell popcorn in the stands, I bet he’d do that too. That guy can do anything! Mickey Gasper continues to turn into Superman whenever he dons a Saints uniform. He blasted a pair of homers, giving him nine home runs in 21 games with St. Paul. Andrew Morris got off to a rough start in this one, surrendering three runs and three extra-base hits in the first couple innings. He gutted through a solid outing from there forward, thanks in part to some nice work from his defense. The Saints had an excellent and unique double play to end the top of the third inning. The Norfolk batter hit one into the tricky right field corner at CHS Field, where things get tight toward the pole as a shorter wall in foul territory angles toward the field of play. Right fielder Jeferson Morales anticipated the carom perfectly, playing the bounce off the wall in foul territory and firing an on-target one hopper to second base. The throw beat the runner by a mile. Shortstop Ryan Fitzgerald ran the batter back toward first base while monitoring the other runner, who had already advanced from first to third on the hit. Fitzgerald eventually tossed to first baseman Jose Miranda, who put the tag on the hitter to get one out. While this was happening, the other base runner broke for home. Miranda quickly fired to catcher Patrick Winkel, who put on the tag. It was a bang-bang play, but the Saints got the out there, as well. That’s some fine team defense. It’s not often you see four different players touch the ball on the same play. Morris surrendered a solo homer in the fourth inning, but turned in scoreless frames in both the fifth and sixth innings. Though he gave up four runs on eight hits and a walk, Morris also delivered some length, completing six innings for the first time this season. He threw over 70 percent of his pitches for strikes, which is incredible. For context, the current MLB average strike rate is 63.7 percent so far this season. Oh, and Morris also topped out at 99.0 mph. WIND SURGE WISDOM San Antonio 5, Wichita 2 Box Score Christian MacLeod turned in another scoreless outing. The left-hander started out this season a bit behind, so he’s still building up his innings and pitch count, but in that process he’s also pitched very well. He kept his momentum going tonight, delivering four shutout innings of one-hit ball for the Wind Surge. He did also walk three batters, but managed to strand them all thanks in part to five strikeouts. MacLeod, a fifth-round pick from the 2021 Draft, has a 0.73 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 24 2/3 innings so far this season. He made a spot start for the Saints his last time out and figures to see more time up in Triple A as the season progresses, especially if he keeps this up. This game was locked in a 0-0 tie through five innings but the Wind Surge finally scratched across a couple of runs in the top of the sixth. Unfortunately, that lead didn’t last long. Shortstop Tanner Schobel committed a pair of errors in the bottom of the sixth, contributing to what ended up being a five-run inning for San Antonio. The first Schobel error was on a grounder hit right at him and the second was on a high infield pop fly that the wind got creative with. Ben Ross also nearly made a pair of fine tumbling catches in center field that inning but both bounced off his glove. That was it for the scoring; all seven runs in this game came in the sixth frame. It wasn’t all bad for Schobel tonight, as he hit his 12th double of the season and scored a run. He’s hitting .301 with an .825 OPS for Wichita. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 12, Fort Wayne 4 Box Score The Kernels tallied 12 runs despite the fact they only had one extra-base hit, a double by Nate Baez. Cedar Rapids drew a dozen walks, two of which were with the bases loaded. They also had a run-scoring hit by pitch. While the run-scoring effort wasn’t highlighted by big blasts, the Kernels did a nice job of keeping the line moving and running the bases well. The lineup was 6-for-18 with runners in scoring position and were successful on all three of their stolen base attempts. One of the steals came from Kyle DeBarge, who is a perfect 24-for-24 on stolen base attempts this season. Cedar Rapids starting pitcher Chase Chaney did a nice job of providing length, covering six innings while throwing 103 pitches, 70 of which were strikes. He struck out seven batters. In addition to having the only Kernels extra-base hit, Baez also had a single and drew a pair of walks. Kaelen Culpepper also reached safely four times, hitting a pair of singles to go with two walks. He also stole his 11th base of the season and has a .941 OPS so far in 2025. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 5, Lakeland 4 (10 innings) Box Score Dasan Hill’s start got off to a nightmarish opening. He gave up a leadoff ground rule double, which was immediately followed by a two-run homer. Then Hill woke up and retired the next seven batters he faced. The 19-year-old lefty struck out five batters in his 2 2/3 innings, topping out at 97.4 mph. Six of his 11 swinging strikes came on his changeup. This game was a back-and-forth affair. Fort Myers took the lead on three different occasions, but Lakeland kept clawing their way back and tying things up. The Mussels scored immediately in extra innings, with Dameury Pena hitting a seeing-eye single on the first pitch of the top of the 10th inning to score the bonus runner. Pena stole second base, but was stranded there. It was up to Hunter Hoopes to protect the lead in the bottom of the 10th, a difficult task given that pesky bonus runner starting at second base in extras. Hoopes, who had pitched a scoreless ninth inning, retired the first batter he faced on a ground out to third base, preventing the bonus runner from advancing. A five-pitch walk set up a potential game-ending double play, but framing things this way is always wishful thinking, right? Well, not this time. On the very next pitch, the Lakeland hitter sent the ball rolling toward second base. While there is no such thing as a routine double play ball in the lower minors, the Mussels looked smooth on this one. Dameury Pena gathered the ball and did a backhand shovel toss over to shortstop Angel Del Rosario, who avoided the sliding runner and fired a strong throw to first base to end the game. The Mighty Mussels improved to 5-0 in extra innings, and are just 15-24 in games that don’t go into extras. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Red Sox 5, FCL Twins 3 Box Score Today’s game mirrored the output the FCL Twins lineup has put together on the season so far. The club is doing a decent job of getting on — posting an above league average on-base percentage — but little else is going well. They entered today with the worst team batting average (.183) and second-worst slugging percentage (.304) in the FCL. The Twins drew five walks in this seven-inning game, two of them by Bryan Acuña, but collected just three hits. Jayson Bass was the only Twin with an extra-base knock, a double. Twins starting pitcher Joel Garcia gave up three runs on five hits and three walks over his three innings of work. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day: Marco Raya, St. Paul: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 49 pitches Hitter of the Day: Mickey Gasper, St. Paul: 4-for-8, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 0-for-0, 3 BB 6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-4, 2 BB, R, 2 RBI, SB (11) 7. Marco Raya (St. Paul): 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 49 pitches 8. Andrew Morris (St. Paul): 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 87 pitches 9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, BB, 2 R, RBI, K 10. Dasan Hill (Fort Myers): 2 2/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 49 pitches 11. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-3, 2 BB, R, 2 RBI, K, SB (24) 14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita): 1-for-4, K 16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 0-for-4, 2 K 17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2B, R, K, 2 E 20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 0-for-4, RBI TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul vs. Norfolk, 5:07 pm CT: Darren McCaughan Wichita at San Antonio, 1:05 pm CT: Trent Baker Cedar Rapids at Fort Wayne, 5:35 pm CT: Alejandro Hidalgo Fort Myers at Lakeland, 11:00 am CT: Michael Ross View full article

Matt Wallner crushed two home runs in the first game of his rehab assignment with the Saints and word is that Carlos Correa will be activated off the IL tomorrow. The Twins have dealt with a lot of injuries of late, but things seem to be coming together. Tonight’s recap includes highlights of Twins prospects Kaelen Culpepper, Connor Prielipp, Gabriel Gonzalez and Emmanuel Rodriguez. View full video

The Minnesota Twins carried a 13-game winning streak and 34-inning scoreless streak into Sunday’s game but both were snapped. It was a magical run for the team, especially the pitching staff, and hopefully a sign of more quality ball to come. Longtime minor leaguers Ryan Fitzgerald and Carson McCusker both made their MLB debuts over the weekend in Milwaukee. On the minor league side, tonight’s System Recap includes highlights of prospects Dasan Hill, Andrew Morris, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Kaelen Culpepper, Kyler Fedko, Rayne Doncon and Kyle DeBarge. View full video

You might be onto something. It’s possible they put KC on the Keaschall track. He was promoted to Double-A on May 28 last year.

Image courtesy of Image courtesy of David Malamut CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 25-20 (12 straight wins!!!) St. Paul Saints: 21-19 Wichita Wind Surge: 20-17 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 22-14 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 17-20 FCL Twins: 5-4 DSL Twins: Season starts June 2. TRANSACTIONS The Twins selected the contract of Ryan Fitzgerald from the Saints. He made his major league debut on Friday night. He’s a 30-year-old utility man and former indy ball guy who has 378 career Triple-A games to his credit. Cody Christie did an excellent writeup on Fitzgerald earlier today, here’s the link. LHP Jaylen Nowlin was promoted up from Wichita to St. Paul and Wichita activated OF Allen Cerda. IF Rayne Doncon started a rehab assignment with Fort Myers and RHP Christian Becerra started a rehab assignment with the FCL Twins. SAINTS SENTINEL Iowa 12, St. Paul 7 Box Score Tyler Beede made his first start for the Saints after coming out of the bullpen his previous four outings. It did not go well. The 31-year-old former big leaguer gave up four runs while recording five outs. Things didn’t get much better for the St. Paul pitching staff from there. Cubs prospect Matt Shaw led the way with a pair of homers, but the I-Cubs had five different players who recorded three hits tonight. Wow. The Saints lineup was able to hang with Iowa through the early innings, as this game entered the fifth inning tied at 7-7. Edouard Julien led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run in what ended up being a four-run inning. Mickey Gasper also homered, his seventh in 15 games with the Saints. Emmanuel Rodriguez homered, as well, though he also struck out four times tonight. Carson McCusker was 1-for-5 and also struck out four times. He also committed his first error of the season. WIND SURGE WISDOM Arkansas 10, Wichita 4 Box Score It wasn’t a great night for the Wind Surge, but the lineup accomplished an odd feat. All nine hitters collected exactly one hit. That’s not particularly noteworthy, I suppose, but it is strange to see. Unfortunately, the result was only four runs on a night their pitching staff struggled. Kyler Fedko hit his sixth home run of the season, already giving him double the amount he hit last year. The 2021 12th-rounder also has a .403 on-base percentage so far this season. The other Wichita extra-base hits were doubles from Ricardo Olivar and Tanner Schobel. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 13, Peoria 2 Box Score This Kernels lineup is popping off. They scored 13 runs tonight, their third double-digit output in their past four games. While they’re certainly peaking at the moment, this club has been impressive at the dish all year so far. Cedar Rapids leads the Midwest League in on-base percentage by 21 points and holds a 41-point lead in slugging percentage. Kaelen Culpepper led off and led the way, going 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs, his first multi-homer game in pro ball. He surpassed the 100-plate appearance mark on the season tonight and is hitting .304/.398/.490 (.888 OPS) while providing strong defense at shortstop. Brandon Winokur and Jaime Ferrer also homered for the Kernels tonight, and it was Ferrer’s first home run of the season. Danny De Andrade had a two-hit night and was hit by a pitch. Gabriel Gonzalez, who is typically an aggressive swinger, drew a pair of walks tonight. This was just his fourth time drawing multiple walks in 113 games since joining the Twins org. Jeremy Lee and Kade Bragg combined to tag team this game on the mound. Lee gave up two runs, one earned, over the first five frames before Bragg delivered four shutout innings of relief while striking out six. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 9, Jupiter 4 Box Score The Mussels trailed 4-1 entering the sixth inning but scored eight unanswered runs to storm back and take the victory. This was the first game of Rayne Doncon’s rehab assignment. He played third base and went 1-for-3 with a walk and scored two runs. Yasser Mercedes had a big game, hitting a home run and stealing his 15th base of the season. He’s yet to be thrown out attempting to steal this season. Maddux Houghton also homered and stole a base for Fort Myers. Dylan Questad has taken great strides in his strike-throwing ability to this point, but he looked more like his 2024 self tonight. The former fifth-rounder had more walks than innings pitched last year, but entered tonight with a 3.4 BB/9 in 21 innings in 2025. He recorded eight outs and walked four batters, hitting another. Questad also had five strikeouts, for what it’s worth. Zander Sechrist delivered 2 1/3 innings of shutout ball out of the Mussels bullpen. The 23-year-old undrafted free agent has a 1.98 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 27 1/2 innings. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Red Sox 5, FCL Twins 2 Box Score The Twins fell behind 4-0 in the first four innings and couldn’t muster a comeback. On the mound, Matt Gabbert and Christian Becerra got some work in on their rehab assignments before St. Louis Park native Mitch Mueller finished things off. Gabbert got knocked around a bit (three runs on six hits over three innings), Becerra only surrendered an unearned run in his two frames and Mueller struck out three while yielding a run in his two innings. At the plate, the only extra-base hits for the Twins came from Yandro Hernandez (a double) and Eduardo Beltre (a triple). Catcher Ricardo Pena had a single and a walk. He has a .667 on-base percentage through his first five games of the season. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day: Jeremy Lee (Cedar Rapids): 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K Hitter of the Day: Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, 2 HR (4), 3 R, 4 RBI PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul): 1-for-5, HR (3), R, 2 RBI, 4 K 6. Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-5, 2 HR (4), 3 R, 4 RBI 9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-5, HR (3), R, 2 RBI, K 11. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-5, 3B, R, RBI, K 14. Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 0-for-3, 2 BB, R 16. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 1-for-3, 3B 17. Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 1-for-4, 2B, BB, R, K 18. Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers): 2-for-5, HR (3), SB (15), 2 R, RBI 19. Carson McCusker (St. Paul): 1-for-5, 4 K 20. Ricardo Olivar (Wichita): 1-for-5, 2B, R, 2 RBI TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul at Iowa, 6:08 pm CT: David Festa Wichita vs. Arkansas, 4:05 pm CT: Darren Bowen Cedar Rapids vs. Peoria, 6:35 pm CT: Ty Langenberg Fort Myers at Jupiter, 3:00 pm CT: Eli Jones FCL Twins at FCL Red Sox, 9:00 am CT: TBD View full article

The Minnesota Twins swept the Orioles, extending their winning streak to 11 games, but they may have lost their two star players in the process. Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton collided in the field and both were evaluated for concussions. On a positive note, Payton Eeles is back! He started a rehab assignment with Fort Myers. There are highlights of his 2025 debut as well as some Adrian Bohorquez and Khadim Diaw highlights in tonight’s System Recap. View full video

The Minnesota Twins walked off the Giants to cap a weekend series sweep. An unlikely hero emerged to deliver the Twins eighth straight win, as DaShawn Keirsey Jr. hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning. Today’s System Recap tackles the entire weekend of games and features some highlights of pitching prospect Eli Jones and St. Paul Saints hitters Emmanuel Rodriguez and Carson McCusker. View full video