Saints Get Bullpen Help from Cedar Rapids with Promotion of Lefty Gabriel Yanez

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Saints Get Bullpen Help from Cedar Rapids with Promotion of Lefty Gabriel Yanez

April 11, 2025 - International League (IL)
St. Paul Saints News Release


ST. PAUL, MN - The St. Paul Saints lost their Friday night starter with the promotion of David Festa to the Minnesota Twins. That forces the Saints to go with a bullpen game and with that, they needed an arm. The Twins have announced that left-hander Gabriel Yanez has been promoted from High-A Cedar Rapids and will join the Saints roster for his Triple-A debut.

Yanez, 25, is in his third season with the Twins organization and made one appearance with Cedar Rapids to start the year, throwing two scoreless innings of relief on April 5 in the Kernels' opening series at Wisconsin.

The southpaw is coming off a strong 2024 campaign that he also spent in Cedar Rapids, where he threw the second-most innings among Kernels arms that were used primarily in relief (55.2). He went 4-4 with a 2.26 ERA that ranked 9th in the Midwest League among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched. He punched out 49 (21 K%) against 17 walks (7 BB%) across 38 appearances for Cedar Rapids, his second season with the Twins' High-A affiliate.

Originally signed as a 17-year-old out of Venezuela by the Phillies in 2014, Yanez spent his first seven seasons in the minor leagues never pitching above the Single-A level. Between rookie-ball and two levels of A-ball, he owns a career 3.43 ERA with 298 strikeouts (a 25% K-rate) and 73 walks (6 BB%) in 288.2 innings across 168 appearances, 161 of them as a reliever. Over the first seven seasons of his minor league career, Yanez has allowed just 17 home runs, an average 0.5 per nine innings, which ranks top 100 in MiLB in that stretch among pitchers with at least 250 innings.

Yanez was initially acquired by the Twins from the Phillies in a March 27, 2023 trade.

In addition to Festa and Yanez, right-handed pitcher Darren McCaughan was signed as a Minor League free agent by the Twins and assigned to St. Paul and Austin Martin was placed on the 7-day injured list with a right hamstring strain. The Saints roster stands at the league maximum 28, 16 pitchers and 12 position players.

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