Twins Minor League Report (7/13): Offensive Clinic Around Twins’ Minor League System

[Andrew Mahlke]

Matt Wallner had four hits. Christian Encarnacion-Strand homered again. Jaylen Nowlin continued to strike out batters. 54 runs were scored throughout the Twins’ minor league system tonight. Read about this and more in Wednesday’s Minor League Report!

 

 

 

Let’s see what happened this Wednesday in the Twins organization.

TRANSACTIONS

• The Twins activated RHP Joe Smith from the 15-day IL
• RHP Josh Winder was optioned to AAA St. Paul
• AAA St. Paul released RHP JC Ramirez

SAINTS (AAA)
GAME 1 (CONTINUATION OF 7/12)
St. Paul 11, Toledo 6
Box Score

The Saints continued the game from Tuesday in which they only played 1+ innings before getting suspended. On Tuesday, Cole Sands started and gave up three runs in two innings. The Saints, however, gave him some support thanks to a homer from Michael Helman, an RBI double from Mark Contreras, and a two-run double from Miguel Sano.

This game was picked up in the bottom of the second, where the Saints' rally (which ended after Sano’s double) was put to a halt to end the second inning. After the continuation, the Saints decided to use a bullpen game for the remaining seven innings. Tyler Viza, Hunter Wood, and Wladimir Pinto each threw two innings. Viza allowed two runs, and the other two didn’t allow any runs. The trio struck out seven batters and allowed four hits over six innings.

The Saints got some offensive fireworks in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, Jake Cave hit a two-run homer for his 12th of the season. One inning later, Caleb Hamilton hit a two-run shot for his 10th of the season, and Helman hit his second of the game, sixth of the season, to give the Saints a 10-5 lead. In the eighth, Contreras added another RBI double to pad the lead.

Toledo scored one run in the top of the ninth, but it wasn’t enough as the Saints cruised to a five-run victory backed by four homers.

Viza picked up the win for the Saints. Tim Beckham and Contreras had 3-hit games. Helman added two hits, and John Andreoli scored three runs. The Saints improved their record to 41-43 with the win.

GAME 2
St. Paul 2, Toledo 8
Box Score

The Saints should’ve saved some runs for game two. Through two innings, it looked like it was going to be a pitchers’ duel. Ronny Henriquez started for the Saints, cruising through two innings as he had struck out three and not allowed a run. On the other side, it was Shea Spitzbarth for Toledo. He, like Henriquez, had skated through two without allowing a run.

Unlike Henriquez, Spitzbarth didn’t blow up in the third. For Toledo, Kody Clemens hit a three-run homer off of Henriquez to give Toledo their first lead of the game. Toledo went to their bullpen in the fourth, which backfired when Caleb Hamilton laced a two-run double into the left-field corner. Hamilton has been on fire in July, slashing .308/.400/.808 (1.208) across 26 at-bats.

Sadly, those would end up being the only runs of the game for the Saints. Tyler Thornburg came in and had a disastrous outing, allowing four runs in a third of an inning. He went into a one-run game in the top of the sixth with a runner on first. He allowed a single, got a guy to ground out, walked a batter, then allowed a bases-clearing double and a two-run homer. He exited, and the Saints had a six-run deficit with six outs to play.

After the sixth, the Saints couldn’t get anything going offensively, and they took the disappointing loss 8-2.

Henriquez picked up the loss for the Saints as his record fell to 1-4. Helman went 2-for-3 to lead the offense, along with Hamilton’s two RBI. The Saints had to resort to a doubleheader split as their record fell to 41-44.

WIND SURGE (AA)
Wichita 16, Arkansas 12
Box Score

The Wichita Wind Surge won in an absolute slugfest on Wednesday afternoon by a score of 16-12.

The game was all Wichita early on. In the first inning, Cole Sturgeon started the scoring with a three-run homer, his seventh of the year. Later that inning, DaShawn Keirsey hit an RBI single to give Wichita an early 4-0 lead.

In the second, Chris Williams scored Matt Wallner with an RBI single. In the third, Keirsey hit another RBI single, Wallner hit a two-run single, and Chris Williams hit a three-run homer to increase the lead to 11. And in the fourth, Daniel Ozoria hit an RBI single, Wallner hit another RBI single, and Edouard Julien hit a sac-fly to increase the lead to 14-0 early on.

But Arkansas said not so fast. After Wichita starter Sawyer Gipson-Long survived the first four innings, only allowing three hits and no runs, he blew up in the fifth. Arkansas scored nine runs in the fifth, seven off of Gipson-Long, and two off of reliever Steven Klimek thanks to five doubles and a homer.

Denny Bentley came in to pitch in the sixth, hoping to settle things down, and he did, throwing three strong innings, allowing one run, and striking out two.

The lead was down to four, but Wichita increased it back to six in the bottom of the eighth thanks to an RBI single from Anthony Prato and a sac-fly from Wallner.

Manuel Acosta allowed a two-run homer in the ninth, but it was not enough for Arkansas as the Wind Surge held on for a 16-12 win.

Bentley picked up the win for Wichita, his second of the year. Wallner and Prato each had four hits to lead the offense. Sturgeon and Keirsey had three hits apiece, while Julien, Williams, and Nash Knight had two to help the offense. Every Wind Surge starter recorded a hit as the offense recorded 20 hits in the win. Wallner and Williams drove in four runs each in a memorable win for Wichita as they improved their record to 42-40.

KERNELS (HIGH-A)
Cedar Rapids 4, Beloit 2
Box Score

The Kernels rode an all-around solid pitching performance and one particular hot bat to a victory Wednesday night that put them nearly 20 games above .500.

The Kernels got off to a hot start in the top of the first when Christian Encarnacion-Strand belted his 20th homer of the season. Encarnacion-Strand has burst onto the scene this year in his first full professional season and has an impressive .969 OPS.

Like the Saints, the Kernels went with a bullpen game. Jon Olsen started on the mound for Cedar Rapids and allowed two runs in the first. These proved to be the game's only runs for Beloit as the rest of the pitching staff was shut down. Matthew Swain gave two scoreless innings of relief, Orlando Rodriguez gave three, Tyler Palm gave two, and Ryan Shreve gave one. The four only allowed three hits in eight innings while striking out seven batters and not walking any.

The Kernels took the lead for good in the top of the fifth when who else, but Encarnacion-Strand hit a two-run double to score Charles Mack and Kyler Fedko. Seth Gray followed with an RBI single to give the lead a little padding.

With the win, the Kernels improve to 51-32 on the year. Rodriguez picked up his third win, and Shreve got the save, his first of the year. Encarnacion-Strand went 3-for-4 with three RBI to lead the offense, and Gray added two hits in the contest.

MIGHTY MUSSELS (LOW-A)
Fort Myers 6, Clearwater 2
Box Score

The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels continued their dominant season on Wednesday with a convincing 6-2 win over Clearwater.

Jaylen Nowlin made a start for Fort Myers in this one. He threw four innings, allowing one unearned run on four hits while striking out seven batters. In 2022, Nowlin has struck out 14.69 batters per nine innings, which ranks second in the Florida State League among pitchers with at least 40 innings.

Fort Myers got the scoring started in the bottom of the first when Misael Urbina hit a leadoff double, and Noah Miller followed with a single, scoring Urbina to give the Mighty Mussels a 1-0 lead early.

Clearwater responded with an unearned run in the top of the second after a Keoni Cavaco throwing error allowed a runner to reach base. The runner came around to score on a two-out RBI single.

Fort Myers broke the game open at the bottom of the fourth inning. The game was tied 1-1 when Mikey Perez roped a two-run single to left, scoring Miller and Kala’i Rosario. One pitch later, Noah Cardenas hit a two-run homer, his fourth of the year, to give Fort Myers a 5-1 lead.

Manager Brian Meyer called on Juan Mendez to relieve Nowlin in the top of the fifth with a four-run lead. Mendez threw two perfect innings of relief to keep the score intact while striking out two batters. After Mendez was done, Anthony Escobar came in and threw two scoreless innings of his own, lowering his season ERA to 0.93.

Alex Rodriguez (no, not that one) plated Luis Baez with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to give Fort Myers another insurance run. Clearwater plated a run in the top of the ninth, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Mighty Mussels held on for the victory.

Mendez picked up the win on the mound for Fort Myers, and multi-hit games led the offense from Rosario and Cardenas. Baez stole two bases, and Miller reached base three times in the win. Fort Myers improved their record to 46-32 with the win.

DOMINICAN DAILIES
GAME ONE
DSL Twins 7, DSL Nationals 2 (Continuation of Suspended Game)
Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Jeferson Lopez (0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K)
Winning Pitcher: Roger Duran (3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K)
Multi-Hit Games: Daniel Pena (2-for-2)
2B: Anderson Nova (1)
HR: Rafael Cruz (1)

GAME TWO
DSL Twins 8, DSL Nationals 0
Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Jose Betancourt (0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K)
Winning Pitcher: Ledwin Taveras (4.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K)
Multi-Hit Games: Junior Marino (3-for-3), Jose Rodriguez (2-for-4), Anderson Nova (2-for-4)
2B: Nova (2), Rodriguez (7)

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Jaylen Nowlin (Fort Myers) - 4 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K)
Hitter of the Day – Matt Wallner (Wichita) - 4-for-4, 3 R, 4 RBI, 2B (15), BB

PROSPECT SUMMARY
We will again keep tabs on the Twins' top prospects. You’ll probably read about them in the team sections, but if they aren’t there, you’ll see how they did here. 

Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed:

#8 - Noah Miller (Fort Myers) - 1-for-2, R, RBI, 2 BB
#12 - Matt Wallner (Wichita) - 4-for-4, 3 R, 4 RBI, 2B (15), BB
#14 - Ronny Henriquez (St. Paul) - 4 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K
#15 - Edouard Julien (Wichita) - 2-for-4, 2 R, RBI, 3B (2), BB
#16 - Christian Encarnacion-Strand (Cedar Rapids) - 3-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B (23), HR (20), SB (7)
#17 - Cole Sands (St. Paul) - 2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K
#20 - Sawyer Gipson-Long (Wichita) - 4 2/3 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 0 BB, 6 K

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Toledo @ St. Paul (7:07 PM CST) - RHP Jordan Balazovic (0-3, 9.55 ERA)
Arkansas @ Wichita (7:05 PM CST) - RHP Cody Laweryson (1-0, 0.87 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (6:35 PM CST) - RHP David Festa (5-0, 1.91 ERA)
Clearwater @ Fort Myers (6:00 PM CST) - RHP Mike Paredes (4-2, 2.19 ERA)

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

Thank you for reading, and Go Twins!

 

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[roger]

Great seeing Escobar with another solid appearance.  Have liked his potential since his great year in the DSL as a 17 year old.  Does it seem like Miller gets a walk or two nearly every game?
 

what a year for Julien, Wallner and E-S, eh?

[RJA]

A great, detailed summary, Andrew.  Three comments.  First, I would think Wallner and CES will be moved up for the soon as they don't have much left to prove where they are.  It will be interesting to see if the swing and miss in Wallner's game hurts him at the next level.  So far this year, he has 21 homers, 62 walks and 107 strikeouts in 342 plate appearances--55% of his plate appearances result in one of the three true outomes.  I would not be surprised if one of these two guys are on the move for some pitching.  Second, Helman is making some noise this year.  It will be interesting to see how he continues to develop.  The Twins are going to have some interesting decisions to make in the next year or two on 40 man roster spots.  Finally, Nowlin will be someone to watch in the coming year or two.  He currently walks 5.4 per nine, and if he can get that number down a bit and lower his WHIP, he should do well.  He doesn't currently give up a lot of homeruns, so that is good.

[Dman]

So I know it is only a month and a half of at bats but Tim Beckham is hitting .402 at AAA with a 1.104 OPS.  What does a guy have to do to get noticed these days, Wow!  Cave is still chugging along and Sano has been money so far in AAA as well.  Lot's of good hitters at AAA right now.

I never thought Wallner could hit .300 at any level given his generally high K rate but here he is knocking on the door with a .299 average and 1.033 OPS.  Man what a season he is having.  He is blowing my negativity away.  Really would like to see him move up to AAA so that he can be an option for the team next year as they are definitely going to add him to the 40 man after a year like this one.

Jullien is still looking good at AA as is the pesky Prato who started the year at High A.  Kiersey has been coming on strong as well so lot's to like at AA right now.

CES is the only real big bat at High A right now.  He is hitting almost .300 again with a .969 OPS. Other than one month he has been a consistently strong bat all season long.  He should move up to AA when they move Wallner and or Jullien or Prato to AAA.  I was a doubter on CES as a 4th round pick but he has been far better than Sabato so likely a steal in the 4th round as he hits like a 1st round pick.

Some really great bats in the system having excellent years so far.  There is going to be a lot of hitting talent at AAA next year.

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

I never thought Wallner could hit .300 at any level given his generally high K rate but here he is knocking on the door with .299 average and 1.033 OPS.  Man what a season he is having.  He is blowing my negativity away.  Really would like to see him move up to AAA so that he can be an option for the team next year as they are definitely going to add him to the 40 man after a year like this one.

Jullien is still looking good at AA as is the pesky Prato who started the year at High A.  Kiersey has been coming on strong as well so lot's to like at AA right now.

CES is only real big bat at High A right now.  He is hitting almost .300 again with a .969 OPS. Other than one month he has been a consistently strong bat all season long.  He should move up to AA when they move Wallner and or Jullien or Prato to AAA.  I was doubter on CES as a 4th round pick but he has been far better than Sabato so likely a steal in the 4th round as he hits like a 1st round pick.

I think it's more than fair to have skepticism about Wallner's ultimate potential, because that K-rate is kinda scary. It's been my worry about him since he arrived: the contact he makes is terrific, but will he make enough of it to be a MLB player? Jury's still out on that one, but he keeps producing so when the average is that good, the OPS is that high, I guess we should not worry too much if he's trading weak grounders to SS for a additional K's? The other night, he went 0-5 with 4 K's, last night he bangs out a 4-4 day with a BB and a Sac Fly.

CES has some similar "oh god, I wish he didn't K so much" fears from me, but my goodness, he's kicked butt since joining the franchise. The K-rate is less than Wallner's at least, and he's hitting a ton. You could write off last year's work as Small Sample Size or him being a college player coming in to low-A, but it's getting harder and harder. If they jump Wallner up, and I could see CES moving in to AA, which would be great to see. If he can keep rolling after a level-up, he might be the steal of the draft (and the Twins had a pretty good 2021 draft already i think: turned Chase Petty into Sonny Gray, Miller looks promising, Hajjar has shown impressive ability to miss bats, and Cade Povich looks intriguing as well)

[Andrew Mahlke]

2 hours ago, roger said:

Great seeing Escobar with another solid appearance.  Have liked his potential since his great year in the DSL as a 17 year old.  Does it seem like Miller gets a walk or two nearly every game?
 

what a year for Julien, Wallner and E-S, eh?

Yes Escobar has been very reliable this year. It does seem like Miller walks a lot, he has a walk rate of 15.8% which is the fourth highest in the Florida State League (league Fort Myers plays in) this year. Emmanuel Rodriguez led the league with a 28.6% walk rate before he got hurt.

[MN_ExPat]

3 hours ago, RJA said:

It will be interesting to see if the swing and miss in Wallner's game hurts him at the next level.  So far this year, he has 21 homers, 62 walks and 107 strikeouts in 342 plate appearances--55% of his plate appearances result in one of the three true outomes.  I would not be surprised if one of these two guys are on the move for some pitching.  

Not that I disagree totally with the thought necessarily, but bear in mind that a LOT of Wallner's K's came earlier in the season (trying to look up his splits right now) when he stumbled a bit out of the gates. 

Since then... well it's been a completely different story. Also don't forget, he missed A LOT of game action last year (his first full season) with the hand injury.  This has been his first unbroken stretch of play time as a pro.  Looking at the big picture of play time (including college where he showed a very good eye at the plate), his numbers don't really pan out as the "three true outcome type".

Not saying things couldn't change as teams adjust to him, but as of now.... this kid can play .

[Cap'n Piranha]

30 minutes ago, MN_ExPat said:

Not that I disagree totally with the thought necessarily, but bear in mind that a LOT of Wallner's K's came earlier in the season (trying to look up his splits right now) when he stumbled a bit out of the gates. 

Since then... well it's been a completely different story. Also don't forget, he missed A LOT of game action last year (his first full season) with the hand injury.  This has been his first unbroken stretch of play time as a pro.  Looking at the big picture of play time (including college where he showed a very good eye at the plate), his numbers don't really pan out as the "three true outcome type".

Not saying things couldn't change as teams adjust to him, but as of now.... this kid can play .

While Wallner definitely has reduced his k rate since April (he was at about 50% in April), he has settled in at right around 33% in May, June, and MTD July.  That's certainly better, but he is definitely still strikeout-prone, and that doesn't seem likely to reduce as he advances levels.

That said, I agree that strikeouts are not terrible (within reason).  As another poster pointed out, in most cases a strikeout is no worse than a weak grounder or pop out, and in many cases, might actually be preferable to putting a ball in play (no groundball double plays, no lead runners getting thrown out, no tagging runners being gunned down at the plate).  I'd prefer he strike out less, but I'll gladly take a 33% strikeout rate if it's accompanied by a .900-1.000 OPS.

[RJA]

2 hours ago, MN_ExPat said:

Not that I disagree totally with the thought necessarily, but bear in mind that a LOT of Wallner's K's came earlier in the season (trying to look up his splits right now) when he stumbled a bit out of the gates. 

Since then... well it's been a completely different story. Also don't forget, he missed A LOT of game action last year (his first full season) with the hand injury.  This has been his first unbroken stretch of play time as a pro.  Looking at the big picture of play time (including college where he showed a very good eye at the plate), his numbers don't really pan out as the "three true outcome type".

Not saying things couldn't change as teams adjust to him, but as of now.... this kid can play .

Great comment!  Yes, when I looked at his splits when I was making my original comment, I noticed that his strikeout percentage was more like 28% as I recall since June 1.  That is great progress.  But, he has been insanely on fire the past month so that percentage might regress a bit as he hits a slower period.  Be assured, I am a Wallner fan and am confident that he will "make it", I just think that is really the only thing that might pose a challenge for him when he hits the bigs.  I just read he was promoted.  Great news.  Thanks for a great post.

[MN_ExPat]

2 minutes ago, RJA said:

Great comment!  Yes, when I looked at his splits when I was making my original comment, I noticed that his strikeout percentage was more like 28% as I recall since June 1.  That is great progress.  But, he has been insanely on fire the past month so that percentage might regress a bit as he hits a slower period.  Be assured, I am a Wallner fan and am confident that he will "make it", I just think that is really the only thing that might pose a challenge for him when he hits the bigs.  I just read he was promoted.  Great news.  Thanks for a great post.

Thanks much , you as well.

That is awesome about the jump.  Go on kid... get you some!  

[Seth Stohs]

Darren Wolfson is reporting that Matt Wallner is joining the Saints. My assumption is that will happen after Saturday's Futures Game, rather than maybe playing one game for St. Paul and then going to LA with Spencer Steer. But, maybe. 

 

[Seth Stohs]

Christian Encarnacion-Strand also promoted, from Cedar Rapids to Wichita... per both Cedar Rapids and Wichita press release. 

[MN_ExPat]

4 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Christian Encarnacion-Strand also promoted, from Cedar Rapids to Wichita... per both Cedar Rapids and Wichita press release. 

Super cool about both of them.  They've definitely earned it .

[Major League Ready]

9 hours ago, Dman said:

So I know it is only a month and a half of at bats but Tim Beckham is hitting .402 at AAA with a 1.104 OPS.  What does a guy have to do to get noticed these days, Wow!  Cave is still chugging along and Sano has been money so far in AAA as well.  Lot's of good hitters at AAA right now.

I never thought Wallner could hit .300 at any level given his generally high K rate but here he is knocking on the door with a .299 average and 1.033 OPS.  Man what a season he is having.  He is blowing my negativity away.  Really would like to see him move up to AAA so that he can be an option for the team next year as they are definitely going to add him to the 40 man after a year like this one.

Jullien is still looking good at AA as is the pesky Prato who started the year at High A.  Kiersey has been coming on strong as well so lot's to like at AA right now.

CES is the only real big bat at High A right now.  He is hitting almost .300 again with a .969 OPS. Other than one month he has been a consistently strong bat all season long.  He should move up to AA when they move Wallner and or Jullien or Prato to AAA.  I was a doubter on CES as a 4th round pick but he has been far better than Sabato so likely a steal in the 4th round as he hits like a 1st round pick.

Some really great bats in the system having excellent years so far.  There is going to be a lot of hitting talent at AAA next year.

He got off to a horrible start but he is hitting .328 the last two months with a 28.6% K rate.  He has become a different hitter.  Will he maintain that at AAA.  I would imagine we will get an idea in the not too distant future.