What to expect from Twins No. 2 prospect Culpepper in the big leagues

I talked with Kaelen Culpepper in Spring Training back in March, not long after he had been sent down to Minor League camp following 14 Grapefruit League games, wrapping things up with a simple question:

“In a perfect world, your 2026 season ends how?”

His answer was exactly what I was hoping to hear:

“In the big leagues.”

Delivered with a big smile. Then he added:

“Solid year, healthy year. Hopefully we make it to the playoffs. I want to help the big league squad get there, bring back some happy smiles and some good vibes.”

He didn’t quite nail the healthy part, missing a month starting in late June with a glute strain. But he’s bringing his vibes to the big league squad in time for a big weekend series in Milwaukee. It comes at a pivotal point of the season, with the Twins just three games off the AL Central lead and a half-game out of a Wild Card spot. They need some offensive help and are hoping Culpepper can provide a boost, so the 2024 first-round pick and our No. 29 overall prospect (No. 2 on the Twins’ Top 30) is on his way despite having played in just 11 games with Triple-A St. Paul since returning from injury.

While he’s gone 12-for-45 (.267/.313/.400) in that span, there have been signs of him settling back in, going 7-for-17 with four extra-base hits over his last four games. The Twins are hoping they are striking when the iron is hot, and if he is, Culpepper can bring a lot to the table offensively.

The infielder entered pro ball with a reputation of having a strong approach at the plate and a feel for finding the barrel consistently. He lived up to it in his first full season of pro ball, with just a 17.4 percent strikeout rate en route to a 20-20 season (20 homers, 25 steals). That’s continued this year, even with the injury interruption, striking out 18.7 percent of the time and carrying a walk rate of 11.4 percent. Even with the missed time, he was on another 20-20 path with 14 homers and 17 steals. He’s not a burner, but knows how to steal a base, with an 85.2 percent success rate thus far in his career. He worked out with Royce Lewis and others this past offseason and reported being bigger, stronger and faster as a result.

He’s always hit the ball hard, but there were some concerns about his ground-ball rate, which stood at 50 percent in 2025. That’s down to 43 percent, and there’s reason to believe he’ll continue to get stronger and learn to elevate the ball more to take more advantage of his bat speed. That could lead to more over-the-fence pop, which so far has shown up particularly to his pull side.

He can absolutely crush fastballs (around a .912 OPS against all of them in his pro career, according to Synergy) and his overall in-zone miss rate of 13 percent shows that if it’s over the plate, he’s not likely to swing through it. What he will have to pay attention to, and adjust to, are big league pitchers trying to get him to chase out of the zone, especially the softer stuff. His chase rate on breaking and offspeed stuff sits at 38 percent and not surprisingly, his miss rate on those pitches is elevated (30 percent). His ability to stay within himself and spit on the soft stuff off the plate will be a key to his success at the highest level.

All this talk about his offensive game does not mean he’s not a value add defensively. He’s not necessarily a better shortstop than Ryan Kreidler, but he’s consistent at the six, with a plus arm that works from everywhere. He’s also shown he’s versatile and can easily handle moving over to third or second as needed.

Culpepper has faced adversity, hitting a wall in Double-A at the end of that long first full season in 2025. That motivated him to get after it with Lewis and company to help him have plenty left in the tank with the hope that he would give the Twins “a reason to bring me up.” More than anything he might do statistically, his ability to stay even-keeled and bring joy to the ballpark every day is what Twins fans can count on every day.

“That’s baseball; I had plenty of ups, I went through some downs,” he told me back in March. "But I’ll always have a smile on my face, don’t panic, never get too down.”