PHILADELPHIA — Mick Abel gave the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans a good, long look at what could have been on Saturday night.

The rookie starter, acquired in July in exchange for closer Jhoan Duran, turned in, perhaps, the best start of his career on Saturday night, finishing off his season on a high note. Abel, whom the Phillies drafted in the first-round in 2020, is one of the highest-touted young arms in the Twins’ organization, and he showed why on Saturday, leading the Twins to a 5-0 win at Citizens Bank Park.

Against his former teammates — he made six starts for the Phillies earlier this season, debuting in May — Abel threw six scoreless innings, tying his career high with nine strikeouts.

He began his night by striking out former Twin Harrison Bader, as well as all-star Kyle Schwarber and two-time Most Valuable Player Bryce Harper in his first inning of work, touching 98.9 miles per hour that inning. He averaged 97.5 mph on his four-seam fastball, up 1.2 mph from his season average.

The rookie faced little trouble all night, allowing just three hits in his start. The Phillies put a pair of runners on in the fourth inning, the only time they had a runner reach second off Abel, but he got catcher J.T. Realmuto to pop up to strand a pair in scoring position.

It was a positive development for the 24-year-old, who endured a tough start to his Twins career. Abel gave up six runs in each of his first two outings with the Twins, after which they sent him back to Triple-A for much of September.

Abel, who will be in the mix for a rotation spot next year, pitched with a lead for the entirety of his outing after Byron Buxton blasted his third leadoff home run in four days. Buxton now has 11 this season, tying Jacque Jones for the all-time club record.

James Outman and Ryan Fitzgerald also hit solo home runs in the win, and the Twins added another pair of runs to oust the Phillies in their penultimate game of the season.

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A bicyclist is in serious condition after being struck by a vehicle Saturday morning in Stillwater Township.

According to a spokesperson from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, authorities responded to a call at 8:45 a.m. Saturday about a traffic accident in the 12000 block of Dellwood Road North. A male bicyclist was reportedly struck by a motorist. The bicyclist was treated at the scene and transported to a nearby hospital in serious condition.

The incident is under investigation by the sheriff’s office and the Minnesota State Patrol.

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The Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater is set to operate at half its original capacity by Oct. 1, the state Department of Corrections told lawmakers Thursday, Sept. 25, in a remote hearing.

The closure of the prison in Bayport was announced on May 15 as part of a budget deal between Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders, citing concerns about the deteriorating facility and the cost of upkeep. Its full closure is expected by June 30, 2029, according to the DOC.

The prison’s capacity is set to be half, or 553, by Oct. 1, and the population as of this week is 487 incarcerated persons (IPs), Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said Thursday.

The DOC has transferred 2,017 total IPs across the entire prison system since June 16 — 728 have been transferred out of Stillwater, and 244 have been transferred into Stillwater, Schnell reported.

Of those transferred out of Stillwater, 35% have moved to Rush City; 20% to Lino Lakes; 16% to Fairbault; 14% to Moose Lake; 12% to Oak Park Heights; 2% to St. Cloud; and 1% to Red Wing, according to the DOC.

Inmates don’t have a say in when and where they are moved. Schnell said a “rubric” the DOC created prioritizes medical or mental health needs first, then treatment and education needs. Regarding whether inmates are being moved far away from family members in the Twin Cities area, Schnell said Thursday that the DOC does not place inmates strictly based on the family factor.

“We know the benefit and the effect of visiting, and … I just want to be really clear that while it is nice to have that metro facility, at the same time, we do not place strictly on the basis of where family is located. We simply can’t,” he said. “Part of that’s based on the classification of the facility. Part of it’s based on where we deliver services that an individual may need.”

Schnell said that by the end of the 2025 legislative session, Stillwater employed 567 individuals; by Oct. 1, the prison will be down to 231. He said that so far, 95% of the 567 staff members have been able to retain jobs within the Department of Corrections.

The state’s total prison population is 8,206 — a decrease from what the DOC recorded in the 2010s, with a peak population of nearly 11,000 in 2014. The system’s current total capacity is 9,500, and Schnell said that even with the Stillwater closure taken into account, the current incarcerated population is “stable and manageable.”

Lawmaker feedback

The decision to close the prison has drawn pushback from state lawmakers and Stillwater staff members who said there was no discussion or notice of the closure prior to the budget deal announcement in May.

Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said Thursday that while there have been “vague references” to the closure of Stillwater over the years, there weren’t any public hearings regarding the closure throughout the 2025 legislative session.

“There’s a lot of questions that I have now that I guess the toothpaste is out of the tube, and it’s going to be pretty hard to get it back,” he said. “But nevertheless, I’m very concerned about the public transparency issue; the public safety issue I’m concerned about, perhaps the over-reliance on MRRA (the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act).”

Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, pushed back on the notion that the Stillwater closure came out of nowhere.

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“The closure of Stillwater has been discussed for possibly decades. It’s my understanding that when Oak Park Heights was built, the intention at that point was to close Stillwater,” she said of the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights. “So this is not a new idea, and I’ve been, I have personally been concerned about the plan for Stillwater, because the deferred maintenance is into millions and millions of dollars.”

Schnell reiterated Thursday that the deferred maintenance could have cost the state up to $1.3 billion to reach modern standards.

He also said the DOC has signed a temporary contract with the Washington County Jail, where 49 inmates are currently being held while a fire suppression project is underway at the St. Cloud facility. The St. Cloud project is set to finish by the end of October.

Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said Thursday that it’s “his understanding” the House intends to have a public hearing on the Stillwater closure before the end of 2025.

PHILADELPHIA — As the season nears it end, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has no interest in talking about his future. Baldelli has led the Twins for the past seven seasons, but the team has now missed the playoffs in four of its past five seasons and questions have arisen about his job status.

The Athletic reported in June that the Twins had picked up Baldelli’s contract option for next season, though neither the team nor Baldelli commented on that publicly.

“I haven’t heard anything, and even if I did, I wouldn’t have much to say about it right now because I have a job to do right now and it has nothing to do with me talking about myself,” Baldelli said. “Because me talking about that would be just a distraction and I don’t like distractions.”

But the manager will admit that this season, which was unlike no other, felt like two seasons in one and has challenged him in ways he hadn’t yet experienced in the job.

There were the first four months, during which the Twins had playoff aspirations that they underperformed, leading to a sell-off at the trade deadline. After that, the Twins were an entirely new team and adopted a new style of play to match, becoming more aggressive on the bases in response to Baldelli’s directive.

The deadline, in particular, was “a life experience,” Baldelli said.

The Twins completely turned over their team, sending out nearly 40% of the major league roster and Baldelli had to guide a brand-new clubhouse during the period of change.

“That’s something in your career that you’ll never forget. … You’ll learn from having to go through it,” Baldelli said. “It probably tested me as much as anything I’ve ever experienced in the game, but I’ll always be able to tap back into it and use it going forward in probably a ton of different ways, not just on the baseball side of things (but) in my life, as well, in real life.”

Baldelli said he hasn’t started thinking about his offseason yet and how he might approach it. For now, his focus is just on his players, sitting down with many of them individually as the season wraps up.

“We have a winter of work is what we have,” he said. “That’s literally how I think about all of this. You have to take that as a challenge It’s not a knock. It’s a challenge and we like challenges. It’s good to have an objective and a direction.”

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Vázquez has strong return

Christian Vázquez returned on Tuesday, more than a month after a serious infection in his left shoulder shut him down and announced his return by getting on base four times.

In his next game, he had a pair of hits and on Friday, in the series opener in Philadelphia, the catcher hit a home run to break up what had been a perfect game in the sixth inning and then singled off former teammate Jhoan Duran in the ninth.

“It feels good,” the catcher said. “It’s fun to be back. That’s all. (I’m) having fun and finishing strong.”

Vázquez is at the end of a three-year, $30 million contract with the Twins and will head into free agency this offseason after getting back and proving he is healthy.

“You like seeing it for guys that are super motivated gamers, guys that just will do whatever they can to just get out and play this game and help the team, help their teammates,” Baldelli said. “He was out a long time. He comes back in with that intensity. That’s what makes him who he is and that’s what makes him a really good catcher.”

Briefly

Simeon Woods Richardson, who celebrated his 25th birthday on Saturday, will take the ball on Sunday for the Twins’ final game of the season. The game will start at 2:05 p.m. CDT, the same time as every other game around the league.