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Edouard Julien destroyed Jack Leiter. There were two extra-inning thrillers. Jordan Balazovic took the hill again. And there was a four-hour rain delay. Read about all of this and more in Wednesday’s minor league report! Let’s see what happened this Wednesday in the Twins organization. TRANSACTIONS The Twins sent OF Kyle Garlick on a rehab assignment to AAA St. Paul SAINTS (AAA) St. Paul 2, Iowa 4 Box Score The Saints did not start the day well for the Twins minor league affiliates as they fell 4-2 to the Iowa Cubs in an afternoon game. Jordan Balazovic took the ball for St. Paul in this one. Balazovic has had a rough year as he was 0-5 with a 9.26 ERA and a 7.41 FIP coming into today’s game. Balazovic’s first two innings were scoreless on Wednesday, and he was looking like he had maybe written the ship and turned it around. This all changed in the bottom of the third when Iowa put up two runs on four hits, including three straight two-out singles to produce the runs. Balazovic allowed John Hicks to hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth, increasing Iowa’s lead to three runs. Balazovic now has allowed 16 home runs in 49 ⅔ innings for St. Paul this year, which equates to 2.9 HR per 9 innings. To put that number into perspective, Twins fan favorite, Emilio Pagan, has allowed 2.1 HR/9 this year. Despite the lead-off homer, Balazovic bounced back and struck out two batters to end the fourth and his outing. Balazovic went four innings, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks while striking out three. The Saints got the deficit within one in the top of the seventh thanks to solo homers from Braden Bishop and Michael Helman. Iowa gave themselves some breathing room in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer off of Jharel Cotton to increase the lead to two. Jermaine Palacios led off the ninth with a single to get the tying run to the plate, but nothing sufficed, and the Saints dropped the game 4-2. Kyle Garlick played in the first game of his rehab stint and went 1-for-4 with a single and two strikeouts. Helman, Bishop, Matt Wallner, and Mark Contreras all had two-hit games to lead the offense. Drew Strotman and Jovani Moran combined to throw three scoreless innings of relief to keep the Saints in the game. The Saints fall to 57-60 on the year with the loss. WIND SURGE (AA) Wichita 4, Frisco 0 Box Score The Wichita Wind Surge continued their incredible season and defeated Jack Leiter in a very well-played game on Wednesday night. Edouard Julien continued his incredible season by hitting his 16th homer of the year in the top of the first. Julien is now hitting .294 with a .944 OPS at Double-A this year. This gave Wichita starter Cody Laweryson a lead before he ever stepped on the mound. Laweryson never relinquished this early lead and was fantastic, throwing 4 ⅔ scoreless innings while striking out six, dropping his Double-A ERA to 0.92. The Wind Surge tacked on insurance runs in the sixth, seventh, and ninth innings. In the sixth, Jair Camargo walked, scoring Julien. In the seventh, Austin Martin doubled to score DaShawn Keirsey Jr. In the ninth, Will Holland hit his third Double-A homer to increase the lead to four. Francis Peguero, Ryan Horstman, Alex Phillips, and Steven Cruz combined to throw 4 ⅓ scoreless innings of relief to finish the game, striking out five. Peguero was credited with the win as Wichita moved to 66-49. Julien, Keirsey, and Alex Isola all had two hits to lead the offensive charge. On Thursday, Wichita will turn to Daniel Gossett who is fresh off a no-hitter. KERNELS (HIGH-A) Cedar Rapids 9, Lake County 10 Box Score Cedar Rapids dropped an extra-inning thriller to Lake County on Wednesday by a score of 10-9. The Kernels jumped out to an early lead, putting up five runs in the first inning. Mikey Perez led off with a single, advanced on an error, and was singled home by Brooks Lee. After Seth Gray walked, Jake Rucker smoked a double to score Lee and Gray. The next batter was Wander Javier, who hit his 11th homer of the year to give the Kernels a five run lead before they had recorded an out. The beneficiary of all this run support was Sean Mooney, who was making his first start since being activated from the injured list. Mooney just threw one inning and only faced three batters, getting two strikeouts and a flyout. After Mooney’s scoreless inning, Orlando Rodriguez came in as the bulk reliever for the Kernels. Rodriguez threw 4 ⅔ solid innings, allowing two runs while striking out four. After Orlando was done, the Kernels brought in Miguel Rodriguez who allowed three runs while just getting two outs as Lake County tied the game up at five in the bottom of the seventh. After not scoring from innings two through seven, the Kernels saw the game was tied and had to get it going. After Willie Joe Garry Jr. was hit by a pitch, Charles Mack smashed a two-run homer, his third of the year to give Cedar Rapids the lead. In the ninth, they added another insurance run thanks to a Mikey Perez homer. Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Kernels had a three-run lead and the game was close to done. Well, three batters into the ninth Lake County had tied it up thanks to a three-run homer from Korey Holland. Garry Jr. tied it up in the top of the tenth with an RBI single but Lake County answered in the bottom half to send it to 11 innings. In the 11th, Cedar Rapids did not capitalize and Lake County did, walking off Cedar Rapids in 11 innings. Rucker led the offense with three hits, and Perez, Lee, and Dylan Neuse also chipped in with two hits a piece. Ryan Shreve was credited with the loss for Cedar Rapids as their record falls to 68-48. MIGHTY MUSSELS (LOW-A) Fort Myers 7, Lakeland 6 Box Score After a four hour weather delay, Fort Myers delivered a walk-off victory in eight innings over the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Mike Paredes started on the hill for the Mighty Mussels. He went four innings, allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out one batter. Fort Myers got on the board in the first inning when Tanner Schobel singled, scoring Noah Miller. In the bottom of the fourth, Rubel Cespedes scored Ben Ross with a single to cut the Fort Myers deficit to one run. Then the rain came. Four hours later, the two teams resumed. Four hours after he hit a single, Cespedes came in to score on a wild pitch. One batter later, Misael Urbina drove in Carlos Aguiar with a single to give the Mighty Mussels a lead. The Flying Tigers tied it up in the top of the fifth and the game remained 4-4 until the first extra inning they played (the 8th inning). Juan Mendez came in to pitch for Fort Myers and allowed two runs in the top half of the eighth. With three outs to play with, Fort Myers needed a rally. Kala’i Rosario led off, reaching on an error by the second baseman to score Cespedes, who started the inning on second base. After an Aguiar walk, Luis Baez hit a single to score Rosario and tie it up. On the play, Aguiar was thrown out at home and Baez advanced to third. Three pitches later, Baez scored on a wild pitch to walk it off for Fort Myers. Schobel and Ross each had two hits to lead the offense, and Mendez picked up the win to improve his record to 3-2. Fort Myers improves to 62-50 on the year with the win. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Cody Laweryson (Wichita) - 4 ⅔ IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K Hitter of the Day – Edouard Julien (Wichita) - 2-for-5, 2B (15), HR (16), 2 R, RBI, K 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: #2 - Brooks Lee (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-6, RBI #4 - Austin Martin (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B (10), RBI, BB, 2 K #7 - Noah Miller (Fort Myers) - 1-for-3, 2B (12), R, BB #9 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, K #11 - Jordan Balazovic (St. Paul) - 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K #14 - Edouard Julien (Wichita) - 2-for-5, 2B (15), HR (16), 2 R, RBI, K #18 - Tanner Schobel (Fort Myers) - 2-for-3, RBI, BB, SB (2) #20 - Kala’i Rosario (Fort Myers) - 0-for-3, R, BB, 2 K THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Iowa (6:38 CST) - RHP Louie Varland (1-0, 1.64 ERA) Wichita @ Frisco (7:05 CST) - RHP Daniel Gossett (2-1, 2.74 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (5:35 PM CST) - RHP Luis Rijo (0-2, 8.03 ERA) Lakeland @ Fort Myers (Doubleheader - first game starts at 3:30 PM CST) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games! Thank you for reading, and Go Twins! View full article

Following our full-season minor league awards, today we will announce the Twins Daily short-season awards. We are talking about the prospects who played in the Florida Complex League. This piece has not been written since 2019 with a year off, and so much has changed in the minor league landscape. What has remained consistent is the emerging talent on the farm. This season Major League Baseball removed a large contingent of the minor leagues, and for Minnesota that meant losing Elizabethton. Now with just the Florida Complex League to draw from, there are still plenty of strong performances to highlight in a year where we got action back on the farm. Before we get into the bats that made noise this season, here are the previous winners: 2016: Lewin Diaz 2017: Akil Badoo 2018: Chris Williams 2019: Matt Wallner Here are the guys that rounded out the Short Season Hitter of the Year ballots: Others Receiving Votes: Alexander Pena 27-84 .321/.380/.393, 6 2B, 10 RBI Wander Valdez 30-122 .246/.359/.385, 8 2B, 3 HR, 11 RBI Carlos Aguiar 21-97 .216/.280/.495, 2B, 3B, 8 HR, 20 RBI Luis Gomez 17-70 .243/.424/.314, 5 2B, 3 RBI Short Season Hitter of the Year: Here are the top four players for the Twins Daily Hitter of the Year 4. Wilfri Castro 15-58 .259/.377/.517, 2 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 18 RBI Minnesota signed Castro as a teenager out of the Dominican Republic prior to the 2018 season. 2021 was his first year stateside and he competed in the Complex League as a 20-year-old. His two triples and three home runs were also career firsts. The .894 OPS was a very strong showing, and his career has started with a great eye and level of discipline at the plate. 3. Luis Baez 25-84 .298/.385/.405, 3 2B, 3 3B, 4 RBI Baez was signed as an international free agent prior to the 2018 season. He made his stateside debut in 2019 as an 18-year-old. Playing 28 games during the Complex League this year, Baez continued to post a very strong on-base percentage. He is now just past the average age for the league and should see a larger challenge next season. 2. Emmanuel Rodriguez 27-126 .214/.346/.524, 5 2B, 2 3B, 10 HR, 23 RBI Signed as part of the 2019 international free agent class, Emmanuel Rodriguez netted himself a $2.5 million bonus. He participated in instructs each of the past two seasons, but this was his first year in pro ball. Popping off for 10 home runs in just 37 games was a nice power display, and both the on-base and slugging aspects of his game were impressive this year. 1. Kala’i Rosario 52-188 .277/.341/.452 10 2B, 4 3B, 5 HR, 40 RBI Selected in the 5th round of last years draft, it was often suggested that Kala'i Rosario was a very strong value selection by Minnesota. It was expected that the Hawaii native’s bat would play, and it absolutely looked that way in his pro debut. Just recently having turned 19, Rosario should be playing for Low-A Fort Myers in 2022. This was a different season at the short season level with just one team playing games. Rosario played in 51 games during the Complex League, however, and was able to kick off a very strong sample size to get his feet wet. Minnesota had Rosario playing on the corners in the outfield with right field being the role twice as often. He did also get 12 starts as the designated hitter. The Ballots Here are the votes from our Twins Daily minor league writers: Seth Stohs - 1) Emmanuel Rodriguez 2) Luis Baez 3) Kala’i Rosario Nash Walker - 1) Kala’i Rosario 2) Emmanuel Rodriguez 3) Luis Baez Lucas Seehafer - 1) Emmanuel Rodriguez 2) Kala’i Rosario 3) Carlos Aguiar Cody Christie - 1) Emmanuel Rodriguez 2) Kala’i Rosario 3) Wilfri Castro Tom Froemming - 1) Emmanuel Rodriguez 2) Kala’i Rosario 3) Wander Valdez Ted Schwerzler - 1) Emmanuel Rodriguez 2) Kala’i Rosario 3) Wilfri Castro Steve Lien - 1) Kala’i Rosario 2) Emmanuel Rodriguez 3) Alexander Pena David Youngs - 1) Kala’i Rosario 2) Alexander Pena 3) Wander Valdez Allen Post - 1) Kala’i Rosario 2) Wilfri Castro 3) Luis Baez Matt Braun - 1) Emmanuel Rodriguez 2) Kala’i Rosario 3) Luis Gomez Other 2021 Twins Daily Awards Minor League Hitter of the Year: Jose Miranda Minor League Starting PItcher of the Year: Louie Varland Minor League Relief PItcher of the Year: Jovani Moran Feel free to discuss. What do you think of our rankings? How would you rank them? How would your ballot look? View full article