St. Paul – He was the prospect who took the Minnesota Twins organization by storm last year, but things started slowly for Payton Eeles this season.
Eeles missed the two months of the season recovering from off-season knee surgery. When he returned to the Saints lineup in June, he went 21-for-80 (.263 batting average), with no home runs, just three RBI, four stolen bases, and 17 strikeouts.
It was a slow start to the year by Eeles’s standards. His on-base percentage (.365) and slugging percentage (.275) dropped to career lows for any month in his career. However, that wasn’t surprising, considering how much of the season he had sat out and how he needed to adjust his bat speed against pitchers who had been throwing all year.
“Last month, you could say I was just kind of, it was almost just like I was just chasing the past,” Eeles said of his slow start with St. Paul. “Every time I got out, it was like, ‘Dang it. Last year, I probably would have gotten on there and all this stuff.’ And so you have all these negative thoughts, and then start to get a few good days under you, and this is what I can do.”
July has been an entirely different story for Eeles. It’s a similar one to what put him on the map last year as one of Minor League Baseball’s best, most overlooked prospects. Going into Sunday’s series finale against Worcester, Eeles had a .300/.375/.429 slash line with two home runs, six RBI, and five stolen bases.
He added to those in the finale, going 4-for-5 with two stolen bases, two RBI, and a strikeout. It was the second time this month that Eeles had a four-hit game. Eeles’ efforts at the plate on Sunday were the spark plug for the Saints to mount their comeback against the Woo Sox and get the walkoff win on them 10-9, after a nearly three an a half hour game.
“Probably the best I’ve felt all year, for sure,” said Eeles. “Just took some time to kind of get my feet under me again, I guess, at this level, because of how good the guys are up here. Then, working with Schlech (Shawn Schlechter), our hitting coach, and just trying to get back to where I was last year and do the little things. So yeah, feels good now.”
For his teammates and coaches, there was never any doubt that Eeles would return to form, like he did on Sunday. They saw what Eeles did for them last year when he joined the team in July 2024. They knew it would only be a matter of time before he got his swing back under control and tore apart Triple-A pitching.
“Last year, Payton came in here guns blazing,” said Randy Dobnak, who threw four innings Sunday. “He was a spark plug for us all of last year. Seeing him come into spring with a little bit of injury sucked, but it’s good to see him get back into his groove because when he gets a hit, it’s almost like this guy is going to get put a ball in play.”
“Eeles is a guy you don’t really worry about,” added Austin Martin. “He shows up to the ballpark and is laser-focused every single day. He plays the game really hard, and he’s just a good all-around ball player, so even though he had a slow start coming up. What we’re seeing now is inevitable.”
So, why is now exactly the right time for Eeles to be heating up? After all, the Saints are coming off a series where they dropped four of six, and the Twins will be selling at the deadline. With the Twins locked in as sellers and likely moving players on expiring contracts like Harrison Bader and Willi Castro, their returns are unlikely to have full-time, major-league-ready players ready to take their spots.
That means 40-man roster spots will open up for players in the organization at Triple-A, and Eeles is one of the Saints’ better hitters on the season who has a chance of securing one of those openings. The most likely scenario for the Twins to add Eeles to the 40-man roster is after they trade Castro.
Eeles has played 30 games in the outfield in the minor leagues. The Twins will likely keep him in a utility infielder role whenever he gets called up to the majors, because shortstop and second base are his strongest positions.
Even if the Twins add Eeles to the 40-man roster this week, don’t expect him in the majors immediately. Castro leaves a large role for any player to fill if Minnesota trades him, and the same can be said for Bader. The Twins will want someone who they’re more comfortable playing in the outfield for whichever of the two is traded away first, and Martin supercedes Eeles on the major league depth chart in that case.
Regardless, Eeles has gotten hot at the right time and played himself right into the place he never thought he’d be over a year ago. It’s another exciting meteoric rise in the Twins farm system for a player to go from Indy Ball in May of 2024 to possibly being in the majors 15 to 16 months later.
Even as he recovered from knee surgery that set back his season, he’s played his way into these conversations to bring Twins fans some hope for the final two months of the season and give them something to be excited about.
“You know, coming off the knee surgery when you’re down for that long, there’s going to be some rust, and that you’re going to have to work some things out, and that’s what he’s been doing,” said Saints manager Toby Gardenhire. “Watching him now, he looks like he’s getting back to form, and it’s fun to watch.”
