Once again, we’ll take a close look at the best youngsters the Twins minor league teams had to offer, and crown one pitcher as the best of the best, while also spotlighting the other performers who deserved attention.
Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Zebby Matthews)
Before we get to the list, let me quickly explain how I like to analyze starters. Innings are king; the ultimate point of pitching is to accrue outs, so I use innings as the center of my statistical solar system, in which everything else revolves around. That means I have a bias towards older players, which I try to account for and adjust. Then, I’ll evaluate how effective a player was at run prevention, which, again, is the ultimate job of pitching. Although they are presented, I’ve lessened my use of peripherals, as they are more descriptive of how a player will perform in the future, not how they did in the past, which is what these awards are about.
Finally, defining a “starting pitcher” in the minors is somewhat nebulous, as bulk hurlers will get time in as a starter, and as a bullpen arm depending on what the team needs. My line is this: a relief outing isn’t completely thrown out, but it weighs less than a start. Let’s get to the honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions
Jason Doktorczyk – A Fort Myers, 2.70 ERA, 20 IP, 3.34 FIP
Jason Doktorczyk perhaps enjoyed the most dominant start so far in the Twins’ minor league system, hurling a 0 ER, 10 K outing on the 18th. Three of his appearances came out of the bullpen, though, which kept him off the list proper.
Dasan Hill, A Fort Myers – 1.69 ERA, 10 2/3 IP, 2.29 FIP
On efficiency alone, I don’t think anyone topped Dasan Hill, whose first foray into pro ball resulted in a 50% K rate across 10 ⅔ innings. That’s 21 whiffs. Disgusting stuff.
Christian MacLeod, A Fort Myers/AA Wichita – 0.00 ERA, 10 IP, 1.83 FIP
Because he spent time rehabbing an injury, Christian MacLeod ended the month with just 10 frames, but also didn’t allow a run, which seemed deserving of a mention.
Dylan Questad, A Fort Myers – 1.38 ERA, 13 IP, 3.27 FIP
Dylan Questad has so far rebounded from a walk-filled showing at rookie ball, dominating A-ball with 18 strikeouts across 13 innings. Only two runs were scored off him.
Jose Olivares, A+ Cedar Rapids – 0.00 ERA, 10 2/3 IP, 2.04 FIP
Again, zero earned runs. You literally can’t beat that. The total innings were low, though, which just narrowly kept Jose Olivares off the list.
5. Charlee Soto, A+ Cedar Rapids – 1.38 ERA, 13 IP, 2.61 FIP, 28.3 K%
2025 has been kind to the former 2023 1st-rounder. While he often battled control issues in 2024—walking 33 batters across 74 innings—Charlee Soto appears to have found an elevated sharpness in his game. The walks are manageable—and he has so far dominated his competition.
There’s a lot to be excited about regarding Soto. 19 year olds pitching at A+ ball don’t grow on trees; and ones with fastball traits like Soto are even more rare. He’s more than four years younger than the average player at the level, and he’s doing so while throwing high-90s velocity with improved movement. Again, you simply don’t see pitchers like this every day.
The only bad news is that Soto is currently on the mend for right triceps soreness. Hopefully, he’s only off the mound for a short time.
4. Trent Baker, AA Wichita – 2.49 ERA, 21 ⅔ IP, 3.69 FIP, 21.5 K%
A newcomer to the organization, Trent Baker joined the Twins as a minor league Rule 5 pick following four seasons with the Cardinals franchise. A ninth-round selection out of Angelo State University, the same college as Fort Myers’ Kade Bragg, Baker was never a top prospect, but pitched well in 2022 and 2023 before suffering command problems in 2024. He was also a Mankato MoonDog in 2019.
Back in 2023, Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs mentioned Baker as an off-the-list guy to look out for, calling his changeup a “usual plus” pitch, while his delivery was “as violent as the end of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and more typical of a reliever.”
He’s nonetheless buoyed the Wichita rotation so far in 2025. The righty made five starts, going at least three innings in all of them, while never allowing more than a trio of earned runs in any one outing. While other hurlers may have beat him in run suppression and efficiency, Baker came out on top in terms of innings; only one other pitcher named in this article threw more innings in April than him.
3. Cole Peschl, A Fort Myers – 0.00 ERA, 14 IP, 2.10 FIP, 33.3 K%
Like his rotation mate, Hill, Cole Peschl’s placement here is an acknowledgement of his ridiculous efficiency. 14 innings without an earned run is impressive no matter how you slice it; yet he did so with 19 strikeouts, a WHIP of 1.00, and an opposing batting average under .200. In his first month of professional baseball. That’s worthy of praise.
The Twins selected Peschl in the 15th round of the 2024 draft out of Campbell University, which claims a few notable current players like Cedric Mullins and Zach Neto (also, does the team have an obsession with the Carolinas? It seems to be a hotbed for players and prospects alike.) The righty held just a 5.48 ERA in college and almost transferred to Oregon, but he decided to join Minnesota, and the early returns look extremely promising.
He made an appearance on May 1st—which doesn’t count for this list—in which he tossed 3 1/3 scoreless while striking out eight, giving him an absurd 27 Ks over 17 1/3 clean frames to start the season. He certainly would have ranked even higher if all his outings were starts, and if that most recent outing didn’t come after April ended. In any case, the team usually has a late-round breakout pitcher, and Peschl looks like a good bet to be that this year.
2. Darren Bowen, AA Wichita – 1.50 ERA, 18 IP, 3.88 FIP, 22.5 K%
You don’t typically see a player eschew a 10 loss, 6.07 ERA season and dominate a higher level, but Darren Bowen’s April proved an exception. He was magnificent for the Wind Surge, never allowing more than one earned run in any of his outings, while tossing at least four frames in each appearance.
You may be forgiven if you forgot about Bowen, who was probably the least-known player arriving from the Mariners in the Jorge Polanco trade. While Anthony DeSclafani and Justin Topa were big leaguers—and Gabriel Gonzalez was a well-regarded prospect—Bowen was a small-school lotto ticket. His alma mater of UNC Pembroke has just one big leaguer—River Ryan.
Still, Bowen’s lankiness and projections made him a fascinating prospect. His 2024 was messy, but his 2025 is off to a tremendous start. He’ll claim the silver for our Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month honors today (there’s no actual award for this.)
1. Zebby Matthews, AAA St. Paul – 1.93 ERA, 23 ⅓ IP, 1.87 FIP, 30.9 K%
For maybe the 30th time as a pro, Zebby Matthews has been named Twins Daily’s Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month.
For as close as the rest of the list was, the winner was strangely straightforward: no other starter in the system married workload with efficiency like Matthews, who tossed the most innings of any Twins minor leaguer in April, while also carrying a sub-2.00 ERA. And he struck out over 30% of batters faced. Yeah, that’ll do.
Zebby’s April 1st start set the tone for the month. He totaled five remarkably clean innings, allowing a lone hit while striking out four. Then came the whiff monster: in back-to-back outings he punched out nine and seven batters, respectively, before ending with two relative clunkers.
(Relative being the key word: he allowed two earned runs across 8 1/3 innings but nonetheless allowed a lot of traffic, and was at least a little fortunate his ERA didn’t inflate more.)
Matthews is everything you would want in a pitcher. A big guy with stuff and command, he’s spent almost his entire professional career laying waste to minor league hitters; with them often spending most of their day against him walking back to the dugout, slumped and confused. Across 228 2/3 minor league innings, he holds a 3.07 ERA.
With Zebby, the only question left is opportunity; he’s clearly demonstrated a dominance of the minors, leaving the majors as his final stepping stone. Due to the nature of pitchers, he’ll invariably earn a chance—an injury here; a double-header there will make sure of that—and that’s when we will see if he can make the jump. Until then, he’ll have to settle for earning our Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month honors for April 2025.
View full article
11
