Saturday, August 02

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- He’s not even a ranked prospect, but Carson McCusker is undeniably turning heads in the early going at Triple-A St. Paul.

For one thing, you can’t miss him. McCusker, 26, is listed at 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, and he looks every bit that tall.

For another, he’s got a fascinating back story. McCusker was a 26th-round pick of the Brewers out of a California junior college in the 2017 MLB Draft, didn’t sign, then played four years at Oklahoma State and was undrafted after the ‘21 season. McCusker played three seasons in the independent Frontier League before signing with the Twins as a free agent in ‘23.

Since then, all he’s done is hit. McCusker has 39 home runs in 189 games in the Twins’ system, and he’s turned it up this year. His six homers are tied for the third-highest total in the International League, he’s hitting .306 and he’s got five doubles to boot.

All while the big league team has scuffled at times to score runs.

As a result, there’s more attention on McCusker than ever before. He’s not a ranked prospect largely because of his age, but it’s not like there’s never been a 26-year-old rookie before. The bigger issue may be that he’s not on the 40-man roster. For a brief moment, it appeared the Twins might have room for him after outrighting Diego Cartaya, but the acquisition of Kody Clemens on Saturday means Minnesota is once again at capacity on the 40-man.

So it’s far from a guarantee McCusker will be on the big club any time soon, or even at all. But as long as he keeps hitting, he’ll keep drawing attention.

Elsewhere in the Minors …

Double-A Wichita: Connor Prielipp, the Twins’ No. 1 pitching prospect (No. 5 in the system overall), continues to build slowly as a starter at Double-A, as scheduled. His April 26 outing was his most effective of the year to date, with no hits, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts in three innings. Prielipp, a second-rounder in 2022, has 17 K’s against two walks in 10 2/3 innings over four starts. He’s one of the most exciting arms in the system, but his checkered health history means the club is going to proceed extremely carefully with him.

High-A Cedar Rapids: Kaelen Culpepper, the Twins’ No. 1 Draft pick in 2024, has returned to action for the Kernels. Culpepper suffered a hamstring injury in Spring Training, then missed 10 days in April on the injured list, reportedly due to a right wrist injury. Culpepper didn’t look any worse for wear upon his return, rapping out three hits in his first two games back. Culpepper, a shortstop, is ranked as Minnesota’s No. 4 prospect, per MLB Pipeline.

Single-A Fort Myers: Outfielder Byron Chourio leads the Florida State League in walks. Entering Sunday, he had 20 free passes against 16 strikeouts in 17 games, and his walk total outpaced any other player in the FSL by five.

After Mickey Gasper made his first Opening Day roster out of Spring Training, the fairy tale turned a bit sour. Gasper did finally get his first big league hit, but he went 2-for-18 with a pair of infield singles before being sent back to Triple-A on April 18. Both hits came in losses.

On Friday, pressed into service following Luke Keaschall’s right forearm injury, Gasper got to contribute offensively in a win. He picked up his third and fourth hits, his first double, his first two RBIs and did it all in a much-needed 11-4 win against the Angels.

The Twins always believed Gasper would hit, and on Friday, he made that faith look good.

“He does everything you want to see that makes a pitcher’s life really hard,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “He just hits line drives all over the field. It’s not that easy to come into that spot. We stick him in there, he’s in the three-hole hitting right behind [Byron Buxton], and he just jumped right in.”

“I’m dealing with 'my swing sucks right now,' that’s the only thing I’m dealing with.” -- Carlos Correa, when asked Thursday whether he was dealing with pain or discomfort in the left wrist that sidelined him recently

On April 27, 2023, Correa and Buxton hit back-to-back homers off of Zack Greinke, Brock Stewart pitched two dominant innings in his Twins debut and Minnesota beat Kansas City, 7-1, at Target Field. It was Stewart’s first Major League appearance since ‘19, after he spent ‘20 and ‘21 out of organized baseball and ‘22 building back from injury in the Twins’ system.

The Cure announced a new album, sort of, this week (it’s a remix album). Since they’re one of my all-time favorite bands, that’s enough for me to give you a Cure playlist. Let’s keep it to more recent years in honor of the fact that they’re still going strong.

“Cut Here”

“Watching Me Fall”

“The End of the World”

“Sleep When I’m Dead”

“A Fragile Thing”

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