Saints Bullpen Gets Even Deeper; Ryan Mason Promoted To St. Paul

ST. PAUL, MN (July 31, 2021) - The St. Paul Saints continue to build a small army with their pitching staff as the Minnesota Twins promoted right-handed pitcher Ryan Mason to St. Paul from Double-A Wichita.

Mason, 26, pitched in a team-high 25 games for the Wind Surge this season. He had a 3-2 record with a 2.29 ERA and six saves in 35.1 innings of work. He did not allow a run in 18 of his 25 appearances in Wichita and has allowed just one earned run in his last 13 outings, spanning 16.0 innings. Mason did not allow a run in his last six appearances before his promotion to Triple-A, the first of his career.

The Auburn, CA native has a career 19-9 record over the course of his six-year minor league career. Prior to the cancelled 2020 season, Mason had a 2-0 record and a 2.35 ERA in Double-A Pensacola in 2019. He struck out 28 batters and walked only four over his 23.0 innings. His strong season with the Blue Wahoos earned him a Southern League All-Star nod, the first of his career. He recorded a career-high seven saves, putting up that number in back-to-back seasons, as he earned seven saves in 2018 as well.

The 2018 campaign was split between Single-A Cedar Rapids and High-A Fort Myers, with the majority of his work coming with the Miracle. He struck out a career-high 67 batters that season while walking just 12. Mason also set a career-high with 10 wins between the two levels and took just three losses finishing with a 2.77 ERA. Over the course of his career, the only time he finished a season with an ERA over 3.00 was his rookie year in 2016, when he finished at 5.33.

It was in 2017 that Mason had the only losing season of his career, where he was 1-2 in his first full season. He appeared in 29 games out of the bullpen for Cedar Rapids, striking out 43 batters while walking 11. He opened his professional career in 2016 with rookie-level Elizabethton, where he started nine of 11 games, the only starts of his career. He went 3-2, throwing one complete game and recorded one save.

Mason was drafted in the 13th round of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of California at Berkley.

The Saints roster now consists of 30 players, 17 pitchers and 13 position players with one Major League Rehab assignment in Rob Refsnyder and five players on the Injured List and one on the Temporary Inactive List.