As the Minnesota Twins experience another youth movement, this time in the pitching staff, the next wave of prospects are starting to bubble up to the surface down on the farm.
Perhaps no prospect is rising faster than 2024 first round pick Kaelen Culpepper, who is already one his way to a promotion after just nine games. Culpepper was assigned to Fort Myers after signing his rookie deal in July, but he got the call to move up to High-A Cedar Rapids on Sunday.
Culpepper's promotion comes after he's played fewer than ten games for the Mighty Mussels and is yet another sign of how much talent is packed into the Twins' farm system.
Kaelen Culpepper is getting promoted to Cedar Rapids after just nine games
Culpepper has been on fire ever since joining the Twins system, as he absolutely lit up pitchers with a .303/.378/.576 slashline in his first eight games in Florida. He heads to Iowa with a whopping .907 OPS and a chance to shine on a higher level as he continues to ascend.
Kaelen Culpepper wallops his first pro homer for the Single-A @MightyMussels 🚀
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 10, 2024
103.5 mph | 416 ft for the No. 21 overall pick in the 2024 Draft (@Twins), a homer in all 30 MLB parks! pic.twitter.com/COFYUbVI2m
He's not going to be knocking on the door of an MLB promotion this season, but there's no reason to pump the brakes on the Culpepper hype train. One of themes of this year's draft class was how many college players were taken, which suggests a potentially expedited timeline on development.
That's the hope with Culpepper, as he's much further along by design than someone like Walker Jenkins. To see him living up to that expection and already earning a promotion to Cedar Rapids is wildly encouraging.
He still has a ton of distance left to run, but it's already looking like the Twins have another fast-rising prospect in Culpepper. That's good news for a team that is likely to be cash-strapped again this winter and either unable or unwilling to make moves to meaningfully improve the roster.
Minnesota has the No. 2 farm system in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline, which translate to the team having a massive reserve of talent ready to help where free agents can't. We've already seen that happen this year with David Festa and Zebby Matthews get a baptism by fire, and Culpepper is well on his way to perhaps joining them this time next year.
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