Articles Tagged: Minnesota Twins

The parent Minnesota Twins announced Tuesday that Brian Meyer will be the manager of the 2025 Cedar Rapids Kernels. Meyer has been manager at low-Class A Fort Myers, getting into professional baseball after a long stint as a college coach.

To say it’s been a meteoric rise this season through the Minnesota Twins system for pitcher Zebby Matthews is a massive understatement. He was with the Cedar Rapids Kernels for the first month of this season, got moved up to Double-A, then Triple-A and made his major league debut Tuesday night at home against the Kansas City Royals, getting the win.

Urbandale native and former Iowa Hawkeyes pitcher Ty Langenberg’s big goal in his first professional baseball season was to at one point be with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. He already achieved that last week when the parent Minnesota Twins promoted him from low-A Fort Myers.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels announced Friday that the 2024 Minnesota Twins Winter Caravan will make a stop in town January 23. The event will be at The Annex hitting facility adjacent to Veterans Memorial Stadium and will feature appearances by Twins players Willi Castro and Caleb Thielbar, as well as longtime Twins radio broadcaster and former Twins outfielder Dan Gladden.

Paul Molitor is a Baseball Hall of Famer, a former World Series champion and MVP, a guy who collected over 3,300 hits in 21 major league seasons. Despite being let go as manager of the Minnesota Twins five years ago, he still works for the Minnesota Twins and made a recent visit to Veterans Memorial Stadium to observe and teach Cedar Rapids Kernels players.

Cedar Rapids Kernels pitcher Connor Prielipp is considered one of the top prospects in the Minnesota Twins farm system. Coming off Tommy John elbow surgery, he has been shut down since making his pro debut in early April because of arm tightness. After being given a clean bill of health, he’s headed to the Twins minor league complex in Florida to rehab, with the plan being for him to return to Cedar Rapids by late June.

Cedar Rapids Prairie graduate Corbin Day was a part-time teacher at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School two years ago. Now he finds himself as hitting coach for the Cedar Rapids Kernels professional baseball team.

Pitchers Cade Povich and Sawyer Gipson-Long and infielder Christian Encarnacion-Strand played for the 2022 Cedar Rapids Kernels, with Povich still on the active roster. All three were a part of trades that sent them Tuesday to other MLB organizations.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels got a walk-off RBI single from newcomer Frank Nigro to beat Dayton, 4-3, Sunday afternoon. The club has the Midwest League’s best record and clinched the Western Division first-half championship Saturday.

A 9-5 win over Dayton on Saturday clinched the first-half championship for the Cedar Rapids Kernels in the Midwest League’s Western Division

Cedar Rapids Kernels starting pitcher David Festa has seen the velocity on his fastball jump from a maximum of 93 miles per hour in college to as high as 99 this season. As such, he’s beginning to make a name for himself in the Minnesota Twins organization.

Second baseman Yunior Severino went 4-for-4 with two home runs, including a 460-foot blast, to help lift the Cedar Rapids Kernels to a 7-2 win Wednesday afternoon over the Dayton Dragons at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels are carrying a pitching staff of 18. It’s not easy to get everyone the work they need.

Will Holland has been a shortstop virtually his entire baseball life. But the parent Minnesota Twins asked him to play some center field last season, and that’s where he has spent the majority of his time this season for the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Jeferson Morales is the only Cedar Rapids Kernels player who doesn’t live with a local billet family. He lives in a local hotel, though he has his wife and young son with him from Venezuela, which makes everything OK.