Reusse: Marco Raya, the last chance for the Twins’ draft of 2020, is emerging at Class AAA St. Paul

There is high entertainment in attempting to search the rosters for the 20 teams in the Mexican Baseball League, the activity that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this season. What makes it great is the discovery of familiar players who are so addicted to the game that they keep playing in the summer heat of our southern neighbor for mostly modest incomes.

A couple of years ago, I discovered Kennys Vargas — one of my all-time favorite, barely-made-it, great-guy Twins — was playing for the Laredo team. Beyond having large, powerful Kennys, the Dos Laredos had this unique characteristic:

They would play half of their home games on the Mexican side of the border in Nuevo Laredo, and the other half in Laredo, Texas. I’m not sure if the “Owls” loyalists move back and forth for home games as comfortably in these Trumpian times, but that split of home games apparently continues.

Marco Raya is a pitching prospect for the Twins who will turn 23 on Aug. 7. And he comes from Laredo, Texas. In a conversation Friday, he was asked whether he had followed the exploits of the Owls in the summers of his youth.

“Yes, I was in that stadium for a few games,” Raya said. “We saw games at home and across the border in northern Mexico. My dad was a fan. He still follows them, I’m sure.”

Raya pitched for United South, a large high school in Laredo. He threw hard, had a couple of breaking balls and was headed to Texas Tech on a baseball scholarship.

He was a senior in 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the big-league schedule to 60 games and the draft to five rounds. The big-spending Twins already had forfeited a third-round selection by signing Josh Donaldson as a free agent.

The selections to be made were a precious few — plus the Twins were coming off 101 wins and had a lowly place in the draft.

They had home run fever after watching the record-setting Bomba Squad in 2019 and took Aaron Sabato, a power threat from North Carolina, in the first round. Sabato reached Class AAA for the first time with the Saints a couple of weeks ago.

They selected Alerick Soularie, an outfielder from Tennessee, in the third round. He was released before spring training in 2024. The fifth-rounder, Kala’i Rosario, a high school outfielder from Hawaii, is currently in Class AA for the Wichita Wind Surge.

Much like Vargas, Sabato can put on a majestic power display and is a fine fellow, but the odds are against him. Five years later, it clearly has fallen on Raya to rescue that mini-draft in the midst of the pandemic.

Cautious folks that they seem to be, the Twins did not have Raya pitch in an official game in his first pro season — 2021 — because of a shoulder strain. He pitched 65 innings in low-A in 2022, 62⅔ innings in 2023, and 97⅔ innings (including five for the Class AAA St. Paul Saints) in 2024.

Asked for his theory on that, Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said Thursday: “No surprise there. Young as Marco is, you’re not going to risk losing that arm.”

The Twins put Raya with the Saints from the start of this season. He struggled, and then some:

An 8.00 ERA in light duty in April, a 10.05 ERA in still light duty in May. He would start on limited pitch counts and go two or three innings.

“He probably wasn’t ready for this league at the beginning; there are a lot of very experienced, professional hitters in the International League,” Gardenhire said. “But Marco was learning. And our pitching coaches, Carlos Hernandez and Jonas Lovin … they’re outstanding. They were helping him every day."

On June 5, Raya started and went 3⅓ innings, allowed seven runs, and his ERA for the season was 10.46. Then, on June 11, he went five scoreless innings vs. Indianapolis, gave up two hits, and that was the start of a run of five very good starts in six games.

The run came in the fourth on a home run by lefty-hitting Owen Caissie, the Cubs’ No. 1 prospect. Two more baserunners followed with one out.

This was a moment of truth for a young pitcher: Does he control the inning or let it turn into a start-ruining mess? Raya got out of the inning with a strikeout and a weak grounder back to the pitcher.

“I’ve done a lot better job in those situations in recent starts,” Raya said in a conversation Friday. “I’ve been pitching at my pace. I think it goes back to a game at Norfolk in late May.

“It was four scoreless innings. That game put me in a good spot. And I’ve tried to make that rinse and repeat.”

Four scoreless — and also no baserunners and seven strikeouts.

“He has what he calls a curve, but it’s not a normal curveball,” Gardenhire said. “It has a late, quick break. It has been a great pitch on several nights.”

We’ll probably see Raya and the quick curve at Target Field, but be patient. He’s just reaching 23 and doesn’t yet have 300 innings as a pro.