Twins’ Kaelen Culpepper homers in big-league debut

Minnesota Twins rookie shortstop Kaelen Culpepper needed just two plate appearances on Friday to blast his first major league home run.

Facing Milwaukee Brewers starter Shane Drohan in the fourth inning of his big-league debut, the Twins’ No. 2 prospect skied a 390-foot shot over the left-center-field fence to give his organization exactly what they desired when he was promoted earlier in the day.

Culpepper, 23, the Twins’ first-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, had been displaying his power and speed this season at Triple-A St. Paul. He appeared in 74 games and batted .271 with 14 home runs, 46 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. He compiled 39 walks, 64 strikeouts and an .845 OPS.

In 116 games heading into Friday’s action, the Twins’ shortstops combined for 11 home runs, 67 RBIs, 21 walks and 91 strikeouts while batting .235 with a .652 OPS.

Culpepper also was brought up for his defensive prowess.

“He’s taken it really seriously and worked very hard at it,” Twins assistant GM Alex Hassan said, per The Athletic. “He’s got a lot of physical tools to do it, and especially his arm is incredible. There’s a lot of good attributes on defense. It’s getting as many reps as possible and learning as many situations as possible.”

He is baseball’s No. 29 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.

The Twins (57-59) were eight games below .500 and seven games behind in the American League Central on June 13 and have slowly worked themselves back into postseason contention.

They entered the series in Milwaukee tied with the Cleveland Guardians for second place in the AL Central — three games behind the Chicago White Sox and a half-game out of the final AL wild-card spot.

–Field Level Media