Editor’s note: Prato was released from the organization on Monday as part of corresponding moves for Tanner Schobel and Walker Jenkins being added to the St. Paul roster.
St. Paul – The baseball world can be small sometimes. Still, it’s rare to see three college teammates playing in the same organization, especially when they end up on the same team twice.
However, that’s the case for St. Paul Saints Kyler Fedko, Anthony Prato, and Patrick Winkel. All three played together at UConn in 2019. Fedko and Winkel had followed their older brothers, Christian Fedko and Chris Winkel, to Storrs. The two younger brothers quickly became best friends, rooming together throughout college, before the Minnesota Twins drafted them in the ninth (Winkel) and 12th (Fedko) rounds of the 2021 draft.
The trio reunited in Cedar Rapids a year later, playing together for a month before Prato got the call-up to Double-A Wichita for the rest of the season. Prato and Winkel have been at Triple-A St. Paul for the last two seasons, and Fedko’s call-up to St. Paul at the start of the month has brought them together again. The most exciting part is that they’re now all just a call away from the majors.
“Yeah, it’s great,” said Winkel. I think it’s more of a testament to the UConn program and their coaches, you know what I mean? We wouldn’t be here without them, and it shows they’re teaching their guys how to play the game the right way because something like that just doesn’t happen by accident.”
“It’s definitely cool, and our coach (Jim Penders, UConn’s head coach since 2004) is always texting us too, keeping up with us,” said Prato. “So, it’s cool to just follow them, see them up here, and play with them again.”
“It’s cool when you’ve got three guys who played together in college that are all playing together at Triple-A,” said Saints manager Toby Gardenhire. “You don’t see that very often. We must have a really good scout that scouts that Connecticut team. I don’t know who it is, but they must be doing a very good job.”
The trio was all scouted and signed by Twins scout John Wilson*, who had his eyes on them when they all attended UConn. They have all been making headway in St. Paul over the last month as Fedko has been red hot since joining the team. He had already accomplished a 20/20 season with the Wind Surge before his call-up, and he’s now just four home runs away from having a 30/30 season, which would make him the 11th minor leaguer since 2004 to do so.
“It’s unbelievable, it feels like the good old days,” said Fedko following Tuesday night’s Saints 11-4 victory. “It feels like we’re back in college. Winkel had a great night today. That was awesome. It’s fun playing well when your friends are playing well, too, makes it way easier.”
Fedko’s red-hot bat has come as a bit of a surprise to the Saints fans, who are just getting acquainted with him. It came as no surprise to his longtime teammates, who’ve seen him light up stat lines since Fedko and Winkel were freshmen in 2019. Fedko’s 13th all-time in program history (minimum 430 at-bats) with a .335 batting average, ninth in slugging percentage, .557, and 24th in home runs in 19.
“I want to say I’m not impressed because that’s what he’s kind of done every time I’ve seen him, you know what I mean?” said Winkel. “That’s just who he is; he’s a natural hitter. So, it’s great to see him doing it, especially up here. It’s been a huge help with the run production. Ever since he got up, we’ve been smacking the ball.”
“Yeah, 100%,” Prato said. “When he got to UConn, he started raking and that’s all he’s done since.”
In just 20 games with the Saints, Fedko has put up a .337/.423/.639 slash line with six home runs, 16 RBI, seven stolen bases, 22 strikeouts, and 12 walks. His bat has given a much-needed jolt to St. Paul’s lineup, which had been hitting .220/.326/.353 as a team over 24 games in July. Fedko’s addition has lifted their slash line to a much-improved .260/.364/.465 slash line in the 20 games they’ve played in August.
“He’s been great,” said Gardenhire. “He went 5-for-5 tonight with a couple of doubles, a homer, and a couple of singles. If he can do that, I don’t think I got that many hits in my entire career. So Feddy is swinging it great, the whole lineup has been swinging it well, that’s the key to keep it rolling. We’ll see how long we can keep it going, because it’s fun to watch our offense play right now.”
The 2025 season has been an incredible turnaround for Fedko compared to 2024, when he was limited to just 77 games with Wichita, hitting .227/.327/.319 with three home runs and 21 RBI. As he put it, the turnaround wasn’t due to any big changes in his swing. Instead, it’s finding more devotion in his faith.
“Honestly, faith in God, man,” Fedko said. “Letting the results do what they can. I was talking to Edgar (Varela, Twins Minor League Coordinator of Instruction), our base running coach for the org, and he just said, ‘Let go, let God today.’ And then that’s exactly what happened.”
Fedko’s at the top of the running for the Twins Minor League Hitter of the Year this season, and is on the periphery of being in Minnesota’s 2026 plans as a backup, right-handed hitting outfielder. But any of Prato, Winkel, and Fedko could make their MLB debut before the season is over, with the Twins clearly out of the playoff picture.
Prato is a minor league free agent after the season, but Winkel and Fedko still have two years of minor league control if the Twins don’t call them up to the majors. But no matter what happens at the end of the year, these three UConn Huskies are making the most of their time together for the rest of 2025 and will play at their best.
“It’s obviously great to have both of them up here, and everyone is playing well,” said Winkel, “but definitely you’ve got to give a lot of credit to the guys down at UConn.”
*An earlier version of this post indicated that John Wilson no longer works for the Twins. We regret the error.
