The Minnesota Twins minor league players of the week are pitcher Casey Legumina and outfielder Matt Wallner.
Casey Legumina, a 6’2″ right-handed pitcher was drafted by the Blue Jays (25th round) in 2016, again by the Indians (35th round ) in 2018 and finally by the Minnesota Twins in in the 8th round of the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft from Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA). Legumina signed for $250,000, well above the $173K slot value according to Twins Daily. In 2018 Legumina was a closer for Gonzaga with 13 saves and in 2019 pitched in just two games, both starts.
Legumina spent all of 2021 in Low A Fort Myers except for one start in High A Cedar Rapids. This year the 24-year old Legumina started the season in Cedar Rapids and has three starts there. His last start for the Kernels on Wednesday at Beloit was his best this season, pitching five shutout innings (81 pitches) with one hit allowed, one walk and eight strikeouts in a no-decision. A nice piece on Casey Legumina by Phil Miller this past March.
Matt Wallner a Forest Lake, Minnesota native was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 32nd round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft from Forest Lake HS (Forest Lake, MN) and the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (39th) of the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg, MS). At Southern Mississippi Wallner played center field his first two seasons and then focused on the corner outfield in his final year. A power hitter that hits for a good average Wallner’s OPS in college was always above 1.093. Wallner also did some pitching in in his first two years in college out of the bullpen but seems to have given that up.
Wallner who hits left-handed but throws right-handed appears to be on the fast track to the big leagues having spent 2019 in Elizabethton and started 2021 in the FCL league with the Twins and was quickly moved up to High A Cedar Rapids. This past Fall the 6’5″ outfielder played in the AFL and had a slash line of .303/.405/.603 and earned the right to start this season in AA Wichita. His bat is starting to heat up as this past week the 24 year-old Wallner hit .400 (6-for-15) with one double, one home run, five RBI, six walks, a .571 on-base percentage and a 1.238 OPS in five games for the Wind Surge.