The trade deadline has passed, but the Minnesota Twins will make another move on Friday in promoting No. 2 shortstop Kaelen Culpepper to the majors for the weekend series against the Milwaukee Brewers, a team source told The Athletic.
Culpepper, slowed by a glute strain for the better part of two months earlier this summer, has gone 12-for-45 since returning from the injured list July 24. He has a .271 average with 14 home runs, 46 RBIs and 17 stolen bases in 74 games in his first season at Triple A.
Culpepper, drafted with the No. 21 pick out of Kansas State, has made strides defensively at shortstop this season, an area of concern after he struggled to make routine plays a year ago despite his knack for spectacular ones.
“From the moment we drafted Kaelen, he’s gone out and he’s been a strong performer,” Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll said in June. “It’s been really impressive how committed he’s been to digging in defensively and trying to meet our challenge of improving his shortstop defense. … He understands he can keep getting better.”
One team source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to allow for candor, said in June that Culpepper saved five runs on defense according to the team’s internal metrics.
“He’s taken it really seriously and worked very hard at it,” Twins assistant GM Alex Hassan said. “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.”
The Twins considered promoting Culpepper, recently ranked the No. 53 prospect in baseball by The Athletic’s Keith Law, before he suffered a glute injury on June 13. Though he returned for two games in late June, Culpepper went back on the IL. After a slow start upon his reactivation two weeks ago, Culpepper has gone 7-for-17 with three doubles and a triple in the past four games.
The Twins need a boost in the lineup. They escaped Kansas City with a 4-3 win Thursday; the Twins have scored three or fewer runs in 11 of 19 games since the All-Star break.
While Ryan Kreidler has stabilized the Twins’ defense at shortstop since taking over regularly, his offense has slipped. The Twins want to see if Culpepper can provide a spark on both sides of the ball as they look to remain in the American League playoff picture.
The Twins believe Culpepper, 23, still has room to get better.
“He wants to do everything he can to be the best player he can be, not just coast along and get to the big leagues just to say he did,” Zoll said.
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