Kaelen Culpepper is on his way to Minnesota, as the 23-year-old shortstop will debut for the Twins two years after he was picked by the club in the MLB Draft. Culpepper had a standout collegiate career — and he didn’t stop hitting at any level in the Minors.
A Look at Culpepper
The Twins drafted Kaelen Culpepper two years ago in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft. While the club already had Carlos Correa & Brooks Lee within the organization, teams never draft for need. And for Culpepper, the former college standout was coming off a fantastic career with the Kansas State Wildcats.
Culpepper batted over .320 and had double-digit home run seasons in both 2023 and 2024. That, combined with a good body of work & a strong conclusion to his collegiate career with KSU, which culminated with a Super Regionals berth, cemented his first-round pick status.
Last year was a big one for the now-23-year-old. Culpepper, across High-A and Double-A, slashed 289/.375/.469 with 20 home runs and 39 extra-base hits, plus 25 stolen bases. Out of those 20 home runs, 11 came with Double-A Wichita. And aside from the pop, Culpepper also showed impressive bat-to-ball skills, as he posted one of the tidier Whiff% down in the Midwest League.
This season, the 23-year-old posted a very strong season in Triple-A St. Paul, with the true lone blemish being time missed on the IL. Across 74 contests with the Saints, Culpepper slashed .271/.367/.478 with 14 home runs and 31 extra-base hits, along with 17 stolen bases.
Culpepper, from an offensive standpoint, has the complete package. Strong hitter who can drive the ball with authority to the pull side. And also, like this example, able to see the ball deep & still make solid contact.
Now, in terms of overall contact, Culpepper kept the swing-and-miss down to a minimum with respect to the strike zone. Aside from down and away (as seen below), Culpepper didn’t have any spot in the strike zone where he posted a Whiff% above 20%. And in terms of pitches, he was able to catch up to fastballs well, as well as hit breaking balls & offspeed stuff.
Culpepper also drew a good amount of walks; the 23-year-old received 39 free passes over 343 plate appearances. The one thing that didn’t look great on his track record was a spike in both swing-and-miss & chase over his last few weeks in Triple-A. From July 1 through August 6, he posted a 33.3% Whiff% and a high Chase% (40.2%) rate, too.
Granted, though, he’ll get a pass on some of that simply due to the small sample size. He missed the start of July on the injured list, and didn’t get back into action until July 24. So, a very small sample size. Aside from that outlier month, his chase breakdown looks as expected. Fewer hacks outside on fastballs, and more on the soft stuff.
Defensively, Culpepper is a shortstop by trade. He spent 51 games at short this season but there were also a smattering of games where he played second or third.
Analysis
While these prospects rankings are moot at this point, we did have Culpepper ranked second in the organization among prospects in July, behind only Walker Jenkins. With the addition of Vahn Lackey, Culpepper is now the clear #3, although that doesn’t diminish what he can do, and importantly, how he’ll fit into the Twins.
The Twins cleared a path for Culpepper to join the Major League roster weeks ago, when the club moved Brooks Lee to third. Royce Lewis, the regular at the position, was demoted to Triple-A during the spring and was worked into a utility role. And now, Minnesota gets to see what they have with Culpepper.
Overall, it’s a high floor for Culpepper, who can do a lot of things at the plate, on the basepaths, and in the field. And, he’s set to fit in nicely long-term for a club that has begun to take care of what it might look like come 2027 & beyond.
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