The Mariners are heading to Minnesota for a three-game series on Monday, April 27, with the Twins sending Connor Prielipp to the mound in a matchup that lands as one team is surging and the other is searching for a stop. Seattle arrives after sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis. Minnesota, meanwhile, has lost five straight and nine of its last 10.
Prielipp’s start is the latest step in a rapid climb for the left-hander, whom the Twins promoted last week to make his major league debut against the Mets. He completed four innings in that outing, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out six. That was enough to keep him in the conversation for another turn, and now he gets the Mariners in a series that will test how far Minnesota is willing to lean on a pitcher who entered the season as the club’s top pitching prospect and third overall prospect.
For the Twins, the assignment says as much about the state of the roster as it does about Prielipp’s talent. Minnesota is in rebuild mode, has already brought up and sent down a couple of MLB-ready pitching prospects this season, and stripped down the club after last summer’s trade deadline, especially in the bullpen. The front office added only modest offseason upgrades, while its top offensive prospects, Walker Jenkins and Kaelen Culpepper, remain at Triple-A, with Jenkins working back from a hamstring injury and Culpepper still gaining experience there.
The lineup around Prielipp will still look familiar enough to matter. Byron Buxton is expected to lead off, Trevor Larnach usually hits second, Josh Bell usually bats third and Ryan Jeffers generally fills the cleanup spot, though Victor Caratini can also slide into that role. Royce Lewis is expected somewhere in the order, and Brooks Lee has gotten off to a solid start this year.
The tension is obvious: Minnesota is trying to keep a season from slipping while also managing a rotation that has already been thinned by injuries and change. Joe Ryan survived the sell-off last summer, but Pablo López is sidelined with Tommy John surgery, leaving the Twins to keep leaning on younger arms. Prielipp’s path has been interrupted before, by a serious elbow injury in college in 2021 and another in the minors in 2023. Monday gives him another chance to show that the organization’s patience might finally be paying off.