Carson McCusker and the Game of Inches

[Greggory Masterson]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Carson McCusker is a man who is defined by his height—80 inches, to be exact, but who’s counting? If someone knows the name Carson McCusker, they know it because he’s 6-foot-8. He’s tied for the tallest hitter in MLB history, and only eight pitchers have ever been taller.

For an exceptionally tall person, it’s hard to have the fine motor control needed to succeed in baseball. That McCusker ever made the big leagues is an accomplishment in itself, even if it was brief, and with his intentions to play baseball in Asia after his release from Minnesota, it’s unclear that he will ever don an MLB uniform again.

But even if that doesn’t happen, it did happen. He had 30 big-league plate appearances. He was no Moonlight Graham, no 2021 Drew Maggi. He got his moment in the sun, regardless of how short that moment was.

And he earned it. He did it the hard way. McCusker went undrafted in 2021 and signed with the Tri-City Valleycats of the independent Frontier League. Thousands of men choose to try to keep the dream alive with a couple of years playing in front of a couple of thousand fans every couple of nights, somewhere in rural America.

Really, McCusker’s story is a piece of Americana legend. He was a larger-than-life, Paul Bunyan-like character who did one thing well—hitting the ball a country mile—hoping he could hit it just far enough to get a chance. He left his arid town out west—Sparks, Nevada—to enroll at a community college in Folsom, California (yes, where the county prison of Johnny Cash fame lies), before transferring to Oklahoma State. After his draft disappointment, he found himself in Upstate New York, playing indy ball, trying to put one over the Adirondacks to get his shot.

McCusker’s dream was eventually realized.

Each year, several players are purchased out of independent baseball by some MLB team, and stashed away in some low-level affiliate. McCusker joined the Single-A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels in 2023 as a 25-year-old, nearly four years older than the average player at the level, both he and the Twins hoping that he could hit just enough moonshots off opponents who couldn’t legally drink to justify moving him up the ladder. 

And Baseball’s Paul Bunyan kept marching, hitting enough tape-measure shots to go from Folsom to Stillwater, from Troy to Fort Myers, from Cedar Rapids to Wichita before finally arriving in the Twin Cities by the end of 2024. It’s remarkable, really, that the mountain of a man was able to scale four levels of minor-league baseball in just over a calendar year, two years after every team passed on drafting him at least 20 times.

But once you’re in St. Paul, you’re almost in Minneapolis.

Blast after blast, the big dude dinged enough dongs to put himself on the radar for a call-up. But even the best stories need a little luck. He got his call in May 2025, because of a rash of injuries to Minnesota’s outfield, less than two years after he was first plucked out of the Frontier League. He had his shot.

It was a narrow one—perhaps too narrow a shot for a man of his frame.

In his first stint with Minnesota, he received six plate appearances across nine games, finally achieving his first hit. It didn’t land in the parking lot, merely a blooper into right field, minutes before being demoted back to Triple A. But the lid was off. He’d seen one fall in a big-league stadium. Maybe, next time, the towering home runs would come.

Few opportunities to hit those bombs materialized for the man whose future relied so heavily on them.

In mid-September, after much of the Twins’ talent had been sent off to teams with playoff dreams that Minnesota no longer had, McCusker was given the green light on a 3-0 count, and he uncorked that long swing of his.

With men on first and second, the ball flew off the bat to dead center at 102 miles per hour, soaring through a windy Minnesota night sky—and fell to the earth 402 feet later, directly in front of the 403 sign on the outfield fence.

Just inches from becoming one of just a few thousand players to hit an MLB home run, the Kid Who Only Hit Homers’ fly ball was knocked down and died on the track, marked F-8 like any other. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and there’s no fanfare for almost leaving the yard.

But that’s as close as he ever got. The man who is nearly ubiquitously defined by his height came up inches short of doing what every little boy dreams of doing someday.

It’s heartbreaking.

And it’s beautiful.

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[Doc Lenz]

Never got a real chance. Screwed by Baldelli!

[garn from vancouver]

dinged enough dongs.

good one. 

[old nurse]

There are very few tall people with fine motor control.  They usually play basketball.

[Twins63]

Son an I followed him since he signed. We will continue to follow wherever he ends up. 

Thank you for the summary!

[Greggory Masterson]

1 hour ago, old nurse said:

There are very few tall people with fine motor control.  They usually play basketball.

It is so much easier to dunk or shoot a three pointer than it is to hit a baseball.

[mikelink45]

I hope he is picked up by someone and becomes the next Rooker.  I think they treated him really bad - he had no chance to prove himself.

[mikelink45]

Has anyone noticed that there are teams making trades and signing free agents while we have to have articles about a DFA player who happens to be very tall? 

[Greggory Masterson]

29 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Has anyone noticed that there are teams making trades and signing free agents while we have to have articles about a DFA player who happens to be very tall? 

You get to have articles about some interesting stories written by handsome bloggers.

Edited December 12, 2025 by Greggory Masterson

[Woof Bronzer]

57 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Has anyone noticed that there are teams making trades and signing free agents while we have to have articles about a DFA player who happens to be very tall? 

Hey, this was a nice piece!  Gotta respect an undrafted guy who slogs it out in an independent league and makes it all the way to the bigs.  Dude must truly love the game.  

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, Greggory Masterson said:

It is so much easier to dunk or shoot a three pointer than it is to hit a baseball.

This explains why batters who tire of excelling at hitting baseballs retire and become NBA Hall of Famers.

[Greggory Masterson]

1 minute ago, ashbury said:

This explains why batters who tire of excelling at hitting baseballs retire and become NBA Hall of Famers.

Shoutout Michael Jordan

[old nurse]

8 hours ago, Greggory Masterson said:

It is so much easier to dunk or shoot a three pointer than it is to hit a baseball.

Easier versus harder was not the issue. Fine motor control is. 

[mikelink45]

7 hours ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Hey, this was a nice piece!  Gotta respect an undrafted guy who slogs it out in an independent league and makes it all the way to the bigs.  Dude must truly love the game.  

I love McCusker and wish he had had a better chance with the Twins, but he is gone, his story now belongs to someone else.  By the way have you noticed that some teams are actually adding, trading, signing players with names we do recognize?  It isn't that this was a badly written story, but my point is that the Twins have given us no new names to work with so we explore the past instead of the future.

[mikelink45]

8 hours ago, Greggory Masterson said:

You get to have articles about some interesting stories written by handsome bloggers.

And an excellent article - I just want the Twins to give us some new hope and new names for you to write about.

[Bodie]

10 hours ago, old nurse said:

There are very few tall people with fine motor control.  They usually play basketball.

Never seen an NBA fight???

Kermit Washington wasn't suspended for throwing a particularly cheap shot, it was for throwing the only actual punch in the game's history!  Can't have that...

[old nurse]

10 minutes ago, Bodie said:

Never seen an NBA fight???

Kermit Washington wasn't suspended for throwing a particularly cheap shot, it was for throwing the only actual punch in the game's history!  Can't have that...

That has nothing to do with fine motor control. 

[old nurse]

29 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I love McCusker and wish he had had a better chance with the Twins, but he is gone, his story now belongs to someone else.  By the way have you noticed that some teams are actually adding, trading, signing players with names we do recognize?  It isn't that this was a badly written story, but my point is that the Twins have given us no new names to work with so we explore the past instead of the future.

The no new names by early December is a problem worth complaining about?

[USAFChief]

53 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

And an excellent article - I just want the Twins to give us some new hope and new names for you to write about.

Alex Jackson, Eric Orze and Grant Hartwig say "Hi!"

 

[Jeff K]

Nice article.  It was an enjoyable read.

[Greggory Masterson]

3 hours ago, old nurse said:

Easier versus harder was not the issue. Fine motor control is. 

I’ll amend my statement. It’s much rarer to find someone of that size with the fine motor control to hit a baseball than to dunk or make a 3

[terrydactyls]

12 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Has anyone noticed that there are teams making trades and signing free agents while we have to have articles about a DFA player who happens to be very tall? 

There are too many players to be signed or traded for the Twins to act.  They have to wait until the choices are few and not impactful.  That is their MO.

[AceWrigley]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I love McCusker and wish he had had a better chance with the Twins, but he is gone, his story now belongs to someone else.  By the way have you noticed that some teams are actually adding, trading, signing players with names we do recognize?  It isn't that this was a badly written story, but my point is that the Twins have given us no new names to work with so we explore the past instead of the future.

 

[mikelink45]

3 hours ago, old nurse said:

The no new names by early December is a problem worth complaining about?

Yes - whether it is the imminent promotion of a prospect, the rule V player we traded for, a FA, a trade, the qualities in our 40 man or changes in FO - I would like some new material.  Not the fault of TD writers, they work with what they have, but I do not read the articles about who we should trade for, who we would sign, because the team shows no inclination to take any of these actions.

[mikelink45]

3 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Alex Jackson, Eric Orze and Grant Hartwig say "Hi!"

 

Then we need deeper dives into these players.  It is a new topic at least even if it is not very exciting.

[mikelink45]

40 minutes ago, AceWrigley said:

 

What I see is that this essay got me to make a post, my post has been quoted and commented on by quite a few which is fun for me, but also represents the dearth of materials to work with at this stage in the post season doldrums.  Although I would enjoy articles that look at the signings and works of other teams and how that impacts the league and us.  

Even the speculation on Tarik Skubal is something to explore - how would it change our rival?  How does that compare to the possible trade of Lopez or Ryan?  

Does the rule V choice of the White Sox matter - can they strike gold like last year?

What does the gambling charges against Clase mean for Cleveland?  How does the Twins manage gambling?

KC lost Yastrzemski - does that weaken them? 

How does the signing of Finnegan impact the Tigers? Should we have signed him? 

Cleveland signed Colin Holderman for their BP,  Does that make an impact?

Those are the kind of stories I would like to see and read. 

[laloesch]

15 hours ago, old nurse said:

There are very few tall people with fine motor control.  They usually play basketball.

I don't agree with this.  Tall individuals appear to lack fine motor control because of their larger limb size and in general we (most average sized people) are not accustomed to seeing larger individuals on a regular basis and therefore interpret those visual movements as clumsiness and awkwardness, aka lack of fine motor control.  But that is a visual perception problem. 

I will agree though that in general larger individuals are slower because of body mass difference.  I'm 6'-5" and I played multiple sports in high school and college, but was never a speedster.  Generally speaking once you get over 6'-3" you start to slow down because your just.... bigger. And when you get to 6'-8" to 6'-9" the difference is even more pronounced. But to say they lack fine motor control as rule of thumb? Well that's a fallacy and a generalization based on the brain misinterpreting what it's seeing visually. 

[jmlease1]

13 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I hope he is picked up by someone and becomes the next Rooker.  I think they treated him really bad - he had no chance to prove himself.

They gave him a chance to play in a major league organization. They promoted him up the ranks. They even gave him a shot in MLB. He'll always get to say he was a major leaguer, and has a hit to show for it. Letting him flail away for another 100 ABs wasn't going to change anything, and there's a reason he's going to Asia to continue his professional career.

I wish him luck. But I don't think the Twins screwed him.

[DJL44]

13 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Has anyone noticed that there are teams making trades and signing free agents while we have to have articles about a DFA player who happens to be very tall? 

TwinsDaily can go on vacation from the winter meetings until TwinsFest. Nothing ever happens in between.

[DJL44]

28 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

What I see is that this essay got me to make a post, my post has been quoted and commented on by quite a few which is fun for me, but also represents the dearth of materials to work with at this stage in the post season doldrums.  Although I would enjoy articles that look at the signings and works of other teams and how that impacts the league and us.  

Even the speculation on Tarik Skubal is something to explore - how would it change our rival?  How does that compare to the possible trade of Lopez or Ryan?  

Does the rule V choice of the White Sox matter - can they strike gold like last year?

What does the gambling charges against Clase mean for Cleveland?  How does the Twins manage gambling?

KC lost Yastrzemski - does that weaken them? 

How does the signing of Finnegan impact the Tigers? Should we have signed him? 

Cleveland signed Colin Holderman for their BP,  Does that make an impact?

Those are the kind of stories I would like to see and read. 

I think they want those articles on DiamondCentric