Twins’ first-round pick Marek Houston settling into professional baseball life

In his first six games as a professional, Marek Houston has collected 10 hits and two walks, giving him a .370 batting average and a .414 on-base percentage. So it’s probably heartening to hear what has surprised him about Class A baseball in Fort Myers, Fla.

The pitching, “has been a lot better than I expected,” Houston said Friday, during his first visit to Minnesota and Target Field. “I would have thought some pitchers would have some great, great stuff, great velo, but I thought they were going to, like, spray it around a little bit, everybody kind of just getting [used to] pro ball. But it’s been a lot, well, harder than I expected.”

Just imagine when he gets comfortable.

The adjustment from college to pro has caused him to make an adjustment at the plate, too.

“You’ve got to go up there and attack, attack. Can’t just wait around for your pitch. You gotta attack, put the bat on the ball,” said the 21-year-old shortstop, who was taken by the Twins last month with the 16th pick of the draft. “It’s been really good, a lot better than I expected. But that’s good, that challenge — that’s how you get better.”

The Wake Forest alum, who signed with the Twins for $4.497 million, is plenty good already, the team’s scouts say, perhaps one of the safest picks in the draft and perhaps the top fielder. But Houston said he isn’t taking his position for granted.

“I would like to say they like me at shortstop, but I’m always open to play wherever the team needs me, wherever I fit best,” Houston said. “Just doing what I can to help the team win.”

“I’m a little nervous about that,” Houston admitted. “Never done that before.”

Baldelli said he’s heard from friends all around the majors, inquiring about his mental state after the Twins’ trade-deadline roster remake or encouraging him to make the best of the team’s new reality.

It’s appreciated, the seventh-year manager said, but not really necessary. On the occasion of the Twins’ first home game since the team jettisoned 11 players in trades, Baldelli made it clear he relishes the job ahead of him.

“As the manager, when something like that happens, it doesn’t initially leave you with a good feeling,” Baldelli said. “It leaves you with a feeling of wanting more, of thinking you didn’t accomplish what you wanted to. But my job right now is to put our team and organization in the best possible position to succeed. And that’s a combination of us winning games going forward, and also finding out who can do what in our clubhouse. Who’s going to help us win a championship and win a World Series.”

It’s a great challenge, the manager added, and he won’t waste time dwelling on the past.

Catcher Christian Vázquez’s left shoulder swelled up while the team was in Detroit this week, and testing determined that he has an infection. Vázquez was hospitalized and underwent a surgical procedure Friday night to “clean out” the infection, Baldelli said. The 10-year veteran was placed on the 10-day injured list, with Jhonny Pereda called up from Class AAA St. Paul to assume his roster spot.

When Pereda or Mickey Gasper start a game, it will mark the first time since 2022 — 439 consecutive games as of Friday, and counting — that neither Vázquez or Ryan Jeffers will serve as the Twins’ starting catcher.

“It’s almost impossible to believe,” Baldelli said of the three-year platoon. “You’re not going to find too many teams that have had that luxury, of having guys that are that dependable and durable and able to handle that. So yeah, it’ll be a little different because I’m basically pretty certain that streak will come to an end soon. But you’ve got to take it for what it is — a good opportunity and challenge for the guys we put in there.”

Jeffers will get more than half the workload for now, Baldelli said, “but we’ll play it day by day.”

— Simeon Woods Richardson’s “stomach issue” that wound up landing him on the 15-day injured list was a parasite, the righthander said Friday, perhaps introduced into his body by a seafood meal. He underwent a procedure to remove the organism from his digestive tract earlier this week, and said he feels fine now. Baldelli said Woods Richardson, who lost weight while battling the illness, will likely need some time on a rehab assignment to regain his strength before rejoining the rotation.