Twins draft college shortstops Kaelen Culpepper and Kyle DeBarge with first-round picks

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Like any team, the Minnesota Twins were happy to select the 21st pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, rather than holding the 5th and 8th picks the previous two years, because it meant they were coming off a winning 2023 season.

But that made the first-round experience less exciting on Sunday night.

Two years ago, after finishing 73-89 the previous season, the Twins held the No. 8 pick and were thrilled to have landed Cal-Poly shortstop Brooks Lee, widely considered the best college hitter in the draft. Lee was immediately considered a top-100 prospect, quickly rose to the top 30 and is now in the major leagues at age 23, looking like a future star.

Last year, the Twins got lucky in the first MLB draft lottery, moving up eight spots to No. 5 in a loaded class and landing high school outfielder Walker Jenkins in a major moment for the organization. At just 19 years old, Jenkins is already the crown jewel of the Twins’ solid farm system and a consensus top-10 prospect with MVP potential.

This time around, the Twins didn’t lose or get lucky in their bid to crack the top 10, picking at the 21st spot they were assigned in the first-round playoff division. But they still believe they’ve landed a potential impact player in Kansas State infielder Kaelen Culpepper, a right-handed hitter who started at third base as a freshman and sophomore before moving to shortstop last season.

“Picking in the 20s is a long wait and you don’t know how your draft board is going to hold up,” scouting director Sean Johnson said. “Some years you’re completely eliminated. Other years you have a few players you want to take in your draft. Kaelen was definitely a guy we were hoping would be in our draft range. And we’re happy to have him.”

At the plate, Culpepper is coming off two nearly identical monster seasons, batting .328/.419/.574 this year and .325/.423/.576 last year, with 21 homers and 26 steals in 101 games combined.

“I consider myself a five-tool player, b“I’m a fast player, but I want to be a player who steals 30, 40, even 50 bases,” Culpepper said.

Culpepper controlled the strike zone well in college and was praised for his quick hands and balanced line-drive swing, but questions arose about his aggressive approach, especially against off-speed pitches.

The Athletic He was ranked the 30th player in the class, with Keith Law writing: “Culpepper has one of the best swings in the class, and if he could just use it a little less often, he would be a solid regular. When he strikes, he is very quick and direct to the ball and gets good loft in his finish for at least extra-base power, hitting hard line drives to all fields.”

Culpepper was similarly ranked by ESPN (No. 28), MLB.com (No. 31) and Baseball America (No. 34), with most opinions differing on whether the 21-year-old will be able to hold his own defensively at shortstop, and how much home run power he can muster at 6-foot-1, 195 pounds.

““I played third base for my first two years at Kansas State,” Culpepper said.“We had a really good shortstop when I came in. But after he got drafted last year, I was able to go right to shortstop. I think I did a really good job at shortstop, but I’ve always been a shortstop. It feels natural. I could see myself there long term.”

Culpepper played for the U.S. collegiate national team, coached by Brooks Lee’s father and longtime Cal-Poly head coach Larry Lee, who gave the Twins a resounding endorsement of the player and the person.

“We really admire the way (Culpepper) has played, since last summer with Team USA,” Johnson said. “We think he can hit. We think he’s going to have power. He’s at least an average runner. He’s at least an average arm. And we think he can defend, with a chance to stick around at shortstop. So that was very appealing to us.”

Having received a second first-round pick as compensation for losing Sonny Gray in free agency, the Twins used the No. 33 selection on another right-handed college infielder in Louisiana-Lafayette shortstop Kyle DeBarge.

DeBarge had a breakout junior season, adding significant power without sacrificing his solid contact skills, hitting .356/.418/.699 with 21 home runs in 62 games after totaling 10 homers in his first two seasons. DeBarge is even smaller than Culppeper at 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, but the 21-year-old managed to earn Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year honors.

The Athletic He’s ranked 47th in the class, with Law writing: “DeBarge rarely misses fastballs and has never had trouble when faced with good speed. He has the hands for shortstop, but his arm is a little short for the left side of the infield and he’s probably best suited for second base.”

Given the stylistic similarities between Culpepper and DeBarge, it would be hard not to conclude that the Twins had a “type” they were targeting this year: small, good-hitting college infielders with exceptional hand-eye coordination for whom there is industry-wide disagreement about their future defensive home and long-term power potential.

They bet on fluctuations, not size.

“That’s really what drives our decisions, at least for the first night,” Johnson said. “We want to take guys that we think can hit and play multiple positions. It really fits with how (manager) Rocco (Baldelli) deploys his lineup every night. It’s good to give him potential pieces that can play around the field.”

With their second-round pick, 60th overall, the Twins selected Tennessee slugger Billy Amick, who hit 23 home runs in 65 games for the College World Series winners after transferring from Clemson. He played third base this season but is more comfortable at first base, being the prototype of a right-handed hitter with power and the ability to hit and miss.

The Athletic He ranked him 58th, with Law writing: “Amick is a great second-round pick because he has first-round potential with the bat, but he has several areas for development once he gets to professional baseball.”

“He was a good player at Clemson,” Johnson said. “Then he was a part of that decorated Tennessee team that was loaded with really good hitters. You look at his underlying numbers beyond the stat sheet, and we were really happy with his swing. We’re really happy he’s still on the board at 60.”

With their fourth and final pick of Day 1, a competitive balance-round pick, the Twins took Texas high school pitcher Dasan Hill, a 6-foot-5 left-hander with plenty of room to gain weight and add speed, at No. 69.

The Athletic He ranked him No. 40, with Law calling Hill “a projectable lefty who shows average velocity now but should easily reach the mid-90s over time, with the feel of spinning two different breaking balls. He’s the classic high school projection archetype.”

“We saw a lot of Dasan Hill,” Johnson said. “He made a big jump from last summer to this spring. Our area scout, Trevor Brown, saw him pitch eight times this spring, I think. We got a lot of looks at him. He was Trevor Brown’s best player. We think once we get him in our system, we’ll be able to do a lot of things physically and develop his pitches. That pick was a great way to end the day.”

(Photo by Kaelen Culpepper: Gene Wang/Getty Images)





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