All Things 2025 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Fun From The Farm Part I -

Our Judge???

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- He’s not even a ranked prospect, but Carson McCusker is undeniably turning heads in the early going at Triple-A St. Paul.

For one thing, you can’t miss him. McCusker, 26, is listed at 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, and he looks every bit that tall.

For another, he’s got a fascinating back story. McCusker was a 26th-round pick of the Brewers out of a California junior college in the 2017 MLB Draft, didn’t sign, then played four years at Oklahoma State and was undrafted after the ‘21 season. McCusker played three seasons in the independent Frontier League before signing with the Twins as a free agent in ‘23.

Since then, all he’s done is hit. McCusker has 39 home runs in 189 games in the Twins’ system, and he’s turned it up this year. His six homers are tied for the third-highest total in the International League, he’s hitting .306 and he’s got five doubles to boot.

All while the big league team has scuffled at times to score runs.

As a result, there’s more attention on McCusker than ever before. He’s not a ranked prospect largely because of his age, but it’s not like there’s never been a 26-year-old rookie before. The bigger issue may be that he’s not on the 40-man roster. For a brief moment, it appeared the Twins might have room for him after outrighting Diego Cartaya, but the acquisition of Kody Clemens on Saturday means Minnesota is once again at capacity on the 40-man.

So it’s far from a guarantee McCusker will be on the big club any time soon, or even at all. But as long as he keeps hitting, he’ll keep drawing attention.
 


Just Gopher It!! said:
Fun From The Farm Part I -

Our Judge???

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- He’s not even a ranked prospect, but Carson McCusker is undeniably turning heads in the early going at Triple-A St. Paul.

For one thing, you can’t miss him. McCusker, 26, is listed at 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, and he looks every bit that tall.

For another, he’s got a fascinating back story. McCusker was a 26th-round pick of the Brewers out of a California junior college in the 2017 MLB Draft, didn’t sign, then played four years at Oklahoma State and was undrafted after the ‘21 season. McCusker played three seasons in the independent Frontier League before signing with the Twins as a free agent in ‘23.

Since then, all he’s done is hit. McCusker has 39 home runs in 189 games in the Twins’ system, and he’s turned it up this year. His six homers are tied for the third-highest total in the International League, he’s hitting .306 and he’s got five doubles to boot.

All while the big league team has scuffled at times to score runs.

As a result, there’s more attention on McCusker than ever before. He’s not a ranked prospect largely because of his age, but it’s not like there’s never been a 26-year-old rookie before. The bigger issue may be that he’s not on the 40-man roster. For a brief moment, it appeared the Twins might have room for him after outrighting Diego Cartaya, but the acquisition of Kody Clemens on Saturday means Minnesota is once again at capacity on the 40-man.

So it’s far from a guarantee McCusker will be on the big club any time soon, or even at all. But as long as he keeps hitting, he’ll keep drawing attention.
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I'd much rather have seen them add a guy like McCusker to the 40-man than Kody Clemens. I don't really get why they traded for him. He doesn't offer much that they don't already have on the roster. He's essentially a less versatile Mickey Gasper.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I'd much rather have seen them add a guy like McCusker to the 40-man than Kody Clemens. I don't really get why they traded for him. He doesn't offer much that they don't already have on the roster. He's essentially a less versatile Mickey Gasper.
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Agreed, it’s a redundant

McCusker’s 26, so let them ride as the DH for a spell. Twins seem to make scared player moves. There’s no way in the world Miranda should get called up before him.

Screw position flexibility being the main concern - get someone who cam mash the baseball and DH for the next ten games straight.

They finally released Matt Canterino, so maybe there’s hope.
 


Fun on Farm Part II -

a home grown starting lefty, not named Frank??? -

Double-A Wichita: Connor Prielipp, the Twins’ No. 1 pitching prospect (No. 5 in the system overall), continues to build slowly as a starter at Double-A, as scheduled. His April 26 outing was his most effective of the year to date, with no hits, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts in three innings. Prielipp, a second-rounder in 2022, has 17 K’s against two walks in 10 2/3 innings over four starts. He’s one of the most exciting arms in the system, but his checkered health history means the club is going to proceed extremely carefully with him.
 



Just Gopher It!! said:
Agreed, it’s a redundant

McCusker’s 26, so let them ride as the DH for a spell. Twins seem to make scared player moves. There’s no way in the world Miranda should get called up before him.

Screw position flexibility being the main concern - get someone who cam mash the baseball and DH for the next ten games straight.

They finally released Matt Canterino, so maybe there’s hope.
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Add in the fact that Clemens didn't play at all this weekend, and he's not in the lineup tonight. What exactly was the point in acquiring him? Worried about having a 2B available if Bride, Gasper, Julien and Lee all got hurt?
 
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Breakin' The Plane said:
Add in the fact that Clemens didn't play at all this weekend, and he's not in the lineup tonight. What exactly was the point in acquiring him? Worried about having a 2B available if Bride, Gasper, Julien and Lee all got hurt?
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Apparently Rocco wakes up in a cold sweat dreading this when Willi Castro is not available.

Austin Martin picked the wrong time to get hurt too. They likely don't make either of these trades if he's available.
 







The Twins stop running Swingin Christian Vazqeuz out there 50% of the time and the offense is suddenly better. Who would have thunk it?

 

Harmon Killebrew's first-inning triple driving in Danny Thompson and Rod Carew was all the Twins needed as Jim Kaat and Dave LaRoche combined to shut out New York for a 2-0 win at Yankee Stadium on this date in 1972.
IMG_4810.jpeg
 


Bad Gopher said:
So far, the Twins have had one of the easiest schedules in MLB.
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And they've been horrible until about a week ago. Starting pitching has been very good for most part (at least recently), and Jax seems to have figured it out. Duran scares me a bit, though.
Hopefully, the current Correa plays this way rest of year. We'll see when Lewis, Wallner, Keachal and Castro get back.
Will be interesting what they do as Bride has played well and you could make a case for Bader being team MVP so far. At least Rocco stopped platooning Vasquez.
If pitching staff stays healthy, could be a pretty good last 5 months.
 
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TNGophfan said:
And they've been horrible until about a week ago. Starting pitching has been very good for most part (at least recently), and Jax seems to have figured it out. Duran scares me a bit, though.
Hopefully, the current Correa plays this way rest of year. We'll see when Lewis, Wallner, Keachal and Castro get back.
Will be interesting what they do as Bride has played well and you could make a case for Bader being team MVP so far. At least Rocco stopped platooning Vasquez.
If pitching staff stays healthy, could be a pretty could last 5 months.
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If they don't get back in it by the trade deadline, the top two trad chips should be Pablo Lopez and Duran. Lopez isn't better than Ryan or Ober and is much more expensive. And Duran is a Tommy John surgery waiting to happen.
 

I understand not wanting to start the game and have a delay shortly after it starts but the line of storms may not get to the stadium until at least 1.5 hours after the game was supposed to start. It’s still about an hour away.
 


Fun on The Farm Part A -

High-A Cedar Rapids: Kaelen Culpepper, the Twins’ No. 1 Draft pick in 2024, has returned to action for the Kernels. Culpepper suffered a hamstring injury in Spring Training, then missed 10 days in April on the injured list, reportedly due to a right wrist injury. Culpepper didn’t look any worse for wear upon his return, rapping out three hits in his first two games back. Culpepper, a shortstop, is ranked as Minnesota’s No. 4 prospect, per MLB Pipeline.

Single-A Fort Myers: Outfielder Byron Chourio leads the Florida State League in walks. Entering Sunday, he had 20 free passes against 16 strikeouts in 17 games, and his walk total outpaced any other player in the FSL by five.
 

Why, oh why, is Vasquez playing. It's not a day game after a night. You play him tomorrow or Thursday if you want to give Jeffers a game off.
 

21-year-old Devil Ray's rookie phenom Rocco Baldelli hit his first major league home run off the Twins' Brad Radke on this date in 2003.

It was his 40th hit in the month of April, breaking the rookie record set by Ichiro two years earlier.

Rocco finished third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.

Devil Rays starter Seth McClung only lasted 1.1 innings, giving up six runs—including on a @ToriiHunter48 homer—while only retiring four batters. Twins won 8-5.
 

TRF Guy said:
21-year-old Devil Ray's rookie phenom Rocco Baldelli hit his first major league home run off the Twins' Brad Radke on this date in 2003.

It was his 40th hit in the month of April, breaking the rookie record set by Ichiro two years earlier.

Rocco finished third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.

Devil Rays starter Seth McClung only lasted 1.1 innings, giving up six runs—including on a @ToriiHunter48 homer—while only retiring four batters. Twins won 8-5.
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I think you earned a two week vacation!!
 

Chase Petty making his debut today for Cincinnati. He’s the extra guy for their DH.

Polanco has been on fire lately for Seattle. Happy for him.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Chase Petty making his debut today for Cincinnati. He’s the extra guy for their DH.

Polanco has been on fire lately for Seattle. Happy for him.
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Glad to hear Jorge is blazing again. I think he’ll be playing winter ball until he’s 40!!

Batting .389 and leading them in hits. 28, and RBIs, 25, while apparently playing third base.
 
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TNGophfan said:
Why, oh why, is Vasquez playing. It's not a day game after a night. You play him tomorrow or Thursday if you want to give Jeffers a game off.
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Their best scoring chance and guess who comes up. Swingin' Vazquez. And now he will have to catch Thursday as well. I guess Rocco just can't quit the 50/50 BS.
 


Just Gopher It!! said:
Glad to hear Jorge is blazing again. I think he’ll be playing winter ball until he’s 40!!

Batting .389 and leading them in hits. 28, and RBIs, 25, while apparently playing third base.
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He's banged up so isn't hitting right handed at all and hasn't for awhile. Maybe the solution is for him to just hit left handed only going forward.
 

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