Twins Prospect Hot Sheet, August 11, 2025: Walker Jenkins, Kaelen Culpepper Form Dynamic Duo

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (Photo of Dasan Hill)

It was another strong week across the Twins’ farm system, with multiple prospects making noise at different levels. While development can often be a slow process, weeks like this remind fans why the organization remains confident in its young core. This week’s standouts include a fast-rising infielder in Double-A, a teenage left-handed pitcher carving up Low-A hitters, and one of baseball’s premier outfield prospects continuing his steady climb toward the majors.

INF Kaelen Culpepper – Double-A Wichita Wind Surge
How He Got Here: The Twins selected Culpepper with the 21st overall pick in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft out of Kansas State University. In his professional debut last year, he split time between Low-A Fort Myers and High-A Cedar Rapids, slashing .242/.330/.394, with eight extra-base hits in 26 games. His combination of quick hands, gap power, and defensive versatility quickly put him on the fast track. Many scouts believed that he was a disciplined hitter who would hit for average over power, but he’s put many of those conversations to rest this season with a power outburst. 

Hitting the Hot Button: This past week in Wichita, Culpepper caught fire. In six games, he batted .367 (11-for-30) with a triple, two home runs, and seven RBIs, posting a 1.000 OPS. His ability to produce both contact and power continues to stand out, and his athleticism in the field makes him one of the Twins’ most complete prospects. Since being promoted to Double-A, he has a .943 OPS with a 162 wRC+. Now, he looks to be part of the team’s long-term plans at shortstop, with Carlos Correa out of the picture at the big-league level. 

LHP Dasan Hill – Low-A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels
How He Got Here: Hill joined the Twins as their second-round pick (69th overall) in the 2024 MLB Draft out of Grapevine High School in Texas. At just 18 years old last season, the Twins worked on adding muscle to his frame, and he didn’t make his pro debut until 2025. Hill caught the Twins’ attention because of his mid-to-upper 90s fastball and a low 80s sweeper that might be his best pitch. Minnesota wants him to refine his secondary offerings, and he has shown more than enough during his pro debut, especially against older competition. 

Hitting the Hot Button: The now 19-year-old southpaw delivered one of his cleanest outings yet on Saturday. Hill threw 4 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, issuing no walks, and striking out three. For the season, he has posted a 30.6 K% with a 14.9 BB%, while holding batters to a .571 OPS. He has only faced younger batters in 15 of his 222 plate appearances this season, and they have yet to record a hit off of him. With a lively fastball and a sharp sweeper, he held his own against Low-A hitters and the organization promoted him to High-A on Monday.

OF Walker Jenkins – Double-A Wichita Wind Surge
How We Got Here: Minnesota got lucky in the 2023 MLB Draft Lottery and moved into the top five, which allowed the team to select Jenkins out of South Brunswick High School in North Carolina. In his first full pro season in 2024, he moved from Low- to Double-A, posting a combined .833 OPS with 22 doubles, six home runs, four triples, and 17 stolen bases in just 82 games. A hamstring injury impacted his season, but he still showed a polished bat and mature approach that have kept him among the sport’s elite prospects.

Hitting the Hot Button: Jenkins and Culpepper have been exciting to watch in the same lineup, as they continue to push one another. Entering play on Sunday, Jenkins had gone 19-for-43 (.442) with four home runs and four doubles in his last 11 games. During that same stretch, he is getting on base nearly 52% of the time and slugging over .800. He has as many walks (7) as strikeouts (7) and continues to be a threat on the bases, with two steals. With production like this, a promotion to Triple-A before the end of the season remains very possible.

Jenkins, Culpepper, and Hill are among the team’s top-ranked prospects, and this week showed why they will all be in the conversation as top-100 prospects entering the 2026 campaign. Culpepper and Jenkins are also on a path to Target Field early next season if everything continues to trend in the same direction. 

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What stands out about this week’s top-performing prospects? Leave a comment and start the discussion. 

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[Derojo]

Early next season, perhaps that will happen. AAA is nearly over and they are still in AA. However, no doubt they will be invited to spring training and depending upon what they do there; it's possible. More likely though they'll arrive by the middle of next season. Lewis needs to get back on track. He's better than he was for about a year, but not good enough. Don't forget about Gabriel Gonzalez who is an interesting prospect. The Twins future is bright, IF the team has new owners.

[Mike Sixel]

38 minutes ago, Derojo said:

Early next season, perhaps that will happen. AAA is nearly over and they are still in AA. However, no doubt they will be invited to spring training and depending upon what they do there; it's possible. More likely though they'll arrive by the middle of next season. Lewis needs to get back on track. He's better than he was for about a year, but not good enough. Don't forget about Gabriel Gonzalez who is an interesting prospect. The Twins future is bright, IF the team has new owners.

Keaschell barely played AAA. Neither of these guys has to play AAA.......other teams have moved elite players to the majors from AA. I see no good reason not to move Culpepper asap next year. If he needs a reset, whatever.....Jenkins? I mean, that depends on if they want to move him, or use one of their other 1000000 LH OF or not to start the year.

[tony&rodney]

Let both Culpepper and Jenkins finish the year with Wichita. If they look ready after a winter of work, put either or both in the Twins lineup. Talent plays.

[Dman]

Happy to see Hill get promoted.  Will be good for him to see what kind of hitters he will face next year.  Couldn't have really asked for much more from an 18 year old arm in his first year of pro ball.  

Culpepper and Jenkins are doing special things.  Haven't been this excited about our young talent since the Buxton, Sano days.  Hopefully both of those guys can handle things when they get to the MLB level.  Some talented hitters would take this team a long way.

[DocBauer]

The AAA season goes a little longer than the rest of MILB for the sake of the ML team, if I'm not mistaken.

Hill has been everything we could have hoped for in his rookie season. Damn but I'm disappointed Soto couldn't have stayed healthy and followed along. Not his fault, but what a disappointment. 

I can't believe I'm saying this as I've argued against it for some time now. But when I look at the system as a whole, plus the deadline teardown, should we be looking at Prielipp more as a power pen arm at this point? I think he needs a 4th pitch to truly rise as the SP we all hoped he could be. But a 4th pitch could also make him that more dominant as a reliever. 

Unless the FO does something STUPID like trade away the strength of the team, there's enough depth of talent, including some interesting LH arms, that MAYBE we should give up on dreams of Prielipp as a STUD SP, and accept that maybe he should just be a STUD RP.

Of course, there is NOTHING WRONG with being a little old school and letting Prielipp work on a 4th pitch in St Paul to begin 2026 and move him to the rotation later. He's just not ready for the ML level yet despite fantasy. 

I'd cool the jets a bit on Culpepper. He's not coming off surgery and missed time like Keaschall was. But he's also a different person playing a different position. I'd rather follow the Brewers way of thinking with earlier promotions than later in a re-tool. BUT, everyone is different. 

I'd make sure he gets a couple of weeks at AAA just to launch his 2026. What's wrong with that?

Jenkins is a bit different.  Many  want him to be some sort of instant stud or savior of the franchise. And MAYBE he's the next TROUT HOF player. But maybe at 20yo we should just relax for a moment, enjoy what he's doing,  and get happy whenever his debut happens.

[darwin22]

2 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Let both Culpepper and Jenkins finish the year with Wichita. If they look ready after a winter of work, put either or both in the Twins lineup. Talent plays.

Agree with you 100%.  Looking forward to seeing both in person the next 2 games as I'm making my annual trip to Springfield, Mo to see the Wind Surge battle against a strong Cardinals team. 

[TL]

Plugging Jenkins and Culpepper into a lineup with Buxton, Keaschall, Wallner, Jeffers (& Lewis?) by mid 2026 looks like it could be dangerous.

And there are so many pitchers close to being ready for the majors they are going to need to start moving some to the bullpen to rebuild that in a hurry (Festa, Preillip, Raya, Bradley are my initial choices)

[Doctor Wu]

9 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I can't believe I'm saying this as I've argued against it for some time now. But when I look at the system as a whole, plus the deadline teardown, should we be looking at Prielipp more as a power pen arm at this point? I think he needs a 4th pitch to truly rise as the SP we all hoped he could be. But a 4th pitch could also make him that more dominant as a reliever. 

Unless the FO does something STUPID like trade away the strength of the team, there's enough depth of talent, including some interesting LH arms, that MAYBE we should give up on dreams of Prielipp as a STUD SP, and accept that maybe he should just be a STUD RP.

Not a bad idea at all at this point. We certainly need an infusion of strong arms in the bullpen and Prielipp seems like an ideal candidate. 

[jmlease1]

Please stay healthy. That's my biggest hope on all three of these guys. (especially Jenkins, who has gotten dinged a couple of times already in his career)

Wouldn't mind at all seeing Culpepper and/or Jenkins get some run in AAA to finish the season: the performance has merited it for sure. I think both are in spring training next season and not just to get a taste of what big league spring training is like, but as guys who can earn a spot. Regardless of how that goes, I'm pretty confident we'll see them at Target Field in 2026 before midseason.

An OF of Buxton, Wallner, and Jenkins is pretty exciting to think about (and E-Rod or GG pushing Wallner to DH through performance would also be exciting) and an infield featuring Culpepper, Lewis, and Keaschall is also exciting. 

Here's hoping the team is sold soon.

[Trov]

I expect the FO of have both start in AAA but both be a quick call up, unless they want to push for that extra pick, but my guess they would rather have the extra year of control. Both will hopefully help the MLB team next year though. 

[Trov]

It will be interesting to see out of the 4 OF taken in that draft, all touted as 1-1 in their own drafts will pan out with Jenkins.  We got the left overs, but possible we got the best of the best.  

Crews the first OF taken has been the worst so far.  Making majors but playing below replacement.  Clark, the first HS taken has done fine, but compared to Jenkins, Clark is not as productive.  Langford, the pick right before Jenkins is having best MLB careers so far, bWAR 7.1 in his 1.5 season so far. He could grow more power, 16 HR last season and 16 so far this season, but Jenkins sure looks like he could leap them all.  That would be amazing for us. 

[chpettit19]

11 hours ago, DocBauer said:

The AAA season goes a little longer than the rest of MILB for the sake of the ML team, if I'm not mistaken.

Hill has been everything we could have hoped for in his rookie season. Damn but I'm disappointed Soto couldn't have stayed healthy and followed along. Not his fault, but what a disappointment. 

I can't believe I'm saying this as I've argued against it for some time now. But when I look at the system as a whole, plus the deadline teardown, should we be looking at Prielipp more as a power pen arm at this point? I think he needs a 4th pitch to truly rise as the SP we all hoped he could be. But a 4th pitch could also make him that more dominant as a reliever. 

Unless the FO does something STUPID like trade away the strength of the team, there's enough depth of talent, including some interesting LH arms, that MAYBE we should give up on dreams of Prielipp as a STUD SP, and accept that maybe he should just be a STUD RP.

Of course, there is NOTHING WRONG with being a little old school and letting Prielipp work on a 4th pitch in St Paul to begin 2026 and move him to the rotation later. He's just not ready for the ML level yet despite fantasy. 

I'd cool the jets a bit on Culpepper. He's not coming off surgery and missed time like Keaschall was. But he's also a different person playing a different position. I'd rather follow the Brewers way of thinking with earlier promotions than later in a re-tool. BUT, everyone is different. 

I'd make sure he gets a couple of weeks at AAA just to launch his 2026. What's wrong with that?

Jenkins is a bit different.  Many  want him to be some sort of instant stud or savior of the franchise. And MAYBE he's the next TROUT HOF player. But maybe at 20yo we should just relax for a moment, enjoy what he's doing,  and get happy whenever his debut happens.

I don't think Prielipp needs a 4th pitch. The only concern about him when it comes to starter vs reliever is whether or not his arm can hold up. If they think his arm can hold up I'd be pretty disappointed if they switched him to reliever at this point. He should get every opportunity to fight for a rotation spot next year. Chris Sale doesn't really even throw a 3rd pitch. Technically he throws 4, but when 2 of your pitches are thrown 6 and 4 percent of the time you really only throw 2 pitches. I agree the expectation should be for him to start in AAA next year, but he should go into spring as part of the group fighting for a rotation spot. 

[SF Twins Fan]

I think both should be pushed up to AAA.  The Saints have 36 games left in their season, and it would be great to get them roughly 30 this season.  They get a taste of AAA and will know what it's like going into next season.  

[SF Twins Fan]

Also, has Kyler Fedko turned himself into a legit prospect?  He struggled last year at AA, but in repeating AA this season has put up very good numbers.  He was promoted to AAA a few weeks ago and hasn't skipped a beat.

[chpettit19]

The Saints schedule goes for 2 weeks longer than the Kernals schedule. I'd like to see Culpepper and Jenkins get at least that many games with the Saints to end the season. No reason not to get them some exposure to a higher level.

[TwinsDr2021]

37 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

Also, has Kyler Fedko turned himself into a legit prospect?  He struggled last year at AA, but in repeating AA this season has put up very good numbers.  He was promoted to AAA a few weeks ago and hasn't skipped a beat.

Unless he gets called up this year, he will be a 26 year old minor league player. IMO that is no longer a prospect. (which doesn't mean he can't/won't be a major league player, just not a prospect)

[DJL44]

13 hours ago, DocBauer said:

The AAA season goes a little longer than the rest of MILB for the sake of the ML team, if I'm not mistaken.

I think the Twins would be perfectly happy having Culpeper and Jenkins play in the Double-A playoffs to end September. If they don't make the playoffs, I think both should spend the last 2 weeks of September in AAA.

[jmlease1]

47 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

Also, has Kyler Fedko turned himself into a legit prospect?  He struggled last year at AA, but in repeating AA this season has put up very good numbers.  He was promoted to AAA a few weeks ago and hasn't skipped a beat.

It's great to see him doing well at AAA so far, but it would also be the first time he hasn't needed to repeat a level to find success in his pro career. At a certain point you have to ask how much of his success is beating up on younger players? It's great that he earned his way up to AAA, and he might be a useful player who can play corner OF/1B/DH...but it's hard to see him as a prospect at his age with inconsistent power and a relatively low BA in the minors. But maybe he's finally putting it all together?

If nothing else, he should be good organizational depth. Let's hope he continues to hit well for the rest of the season at AAA.

[SF Twins Fan]

 

[jkcarew]

7 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

I don't think Prielipp needs a 4th pitch. The only concern about him when it comes to starter vs reliever is whether or not his arm can hold up. If they think his arm can hold up I'd be pretty disappointed if they switched him to reliever at this point. He should get every opportunity to fight for a rotation spot next year. Chris Sale doesn't really even throw a 3rd pitch. Technically he throws 4, but when 2 of your pitches are thrown 6 and 4 percent of the time you really only throw 2 pitches. I agree the expectation should be for him to start in AAA next year, but he should go into spring as part of the group fighting for a rotation spot. 

I agree…kinda. But he’s 25 years old next year. If he’s so talented, it’s time to make a call and use him…or at least find out that he’s not as talented as we thought. Even if that means he’s in the Twins bullpen.

[jkcarew]

Has there been an Em Rodriguez sighting anywhere in the recent past?

The silence is deafening.