Former Mighty Mussels pitcher Louie Varland has been named the 2021 Minnesota Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
Varland becomes the second consecutive winner of the award to have pitched for Fort Myers. Randy Dobnak began the 2019 season with the Fort Myers Miracle before taking home the same honor.
Per the Twins release….
Varland, 23, split the 2021 season between Single-A Fort Myers and Single-A Cedar Rapids. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound pitcher went 10-4 with a 2.10 ERA (103.0 IP, 24 ER), 30 walks, 142 strikeouts, a 1.09 WHIP and a .214 opponent batting average (82-for-383), leading Twins minor league pitchers in strikeouts, wins and ERA (min. 45.0 innings pitched).
He was named Low-A Southeast Pitcher of the Week while with Fort Myers on June 13 and later named Twins minor league Pitcher of the Week twice (July 25 and September 12) while pitching for the Kernels. The St. Paul, Minnesota native was selected by the Twins in the 15th round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of Concordia University (St. Paul) and has gone 10-5 with a 2.10 ERA (111.2 IP, 26 ER), 34 walks and 152 strikeouts in 23 games (19 starts) through parts of two seasons in the Twins minor league system. He is currently ranked as the club’s 29th-best prospect by MLB.com.
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