This weeks Minnesota Twins players of the week are Low-A Fort Myers right-handed pitcher David Festa and AA Wichita infielder Spencer Steer.
David Festa a New Jersey native was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 13th round of the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft from Seton Hall University (South Orange, NJ). Festa signed with the Twins for a $125,000 signing bonus.
Festa, 22, pitched very briefly in 2021 appearing in two games with the FCL Twins and two games with the Low-A Fort Myers Might Mussels throwing a total of 8.1 innings. The big 6’6″ right-hander has again started this season with the Mighty Mussels. This past week Festa started the Mighty Mussels no-hitter versus the Palm Beach Cardinals, pitching 6 innings with two walks allowed and a career-high 11 strikeouts. Sitting consistently at 96 mph and topping out at 98, Festa needed 82 pitches to complete six innings for the first time in 14 professional starts. The performance was a continuation of what has been a sizzling start to the 2022 campaign for the right-hander. Through five starts, Festa has surrendered just four earned runs while running a 33-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 24 innings. The Verona, N.J., native is holding opponents to a .148 average and one extra-base hit.
Spencer Steer a California native was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Oregon (Eugene, OR). Baseball America had him signing with Minnesota for $575,000. MLB Pipeline currently has Steer rated as the tenth best Twins prospect. Steer is our first repeat winner of this award this season having also been selected for the award in week two.
Steer is a 24-year old right-handed hitting infielder who has been playing second base, third base and shortstop this season at AA Wichita but has spent most of his time at third base. Last season Steer split his time with High A Cedar Rapids and AA Wichita and hit 24 home runs and had 66 RBI and had a slash line of .254/.348/.454.
Steer played in seven games for the Wind Surge this past week, going 6-for-27 with one double,
three home runs, seven RBI, three walks, a .313 on-base percentage and a .905 OPS. On the season, Steer has a slash line of .300/.384/.558.