Scouting the Saints: Emmanuel Rodriguez, Kaelen Culpepper, Gabriel Gonzalez All Homer in Sunny Slugfest

[Jamie Cameron]

Image courtesy of © Reid Glenn / USA TODAY NETWORK, © Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

It’s starting to warm up in the Twin Cities. Slowly, but surely, it’s feeling more like spring. On Tuesday, the Saints put on an offensive showcase, decimating Iowa Cubs pitching to the tune of six home runs. Here’s some of what I noticed at CHS Field.

Emmanuel Rodriguez
I wrote about Rodríguez in-depth last week. If you missed that piece, here are the headlines; he’s chasing a bit more and swinging at strikes much more. That’s the kind of tradeoff you have to make if you don’t have great bat-to-ball skills, as major-league pitchers will throw too many quality strikes for a hitter to be passive. Rodríguez has also closed his stance slightly at the plate, helping with the directionality and rotation of his swing.

After a quiet week last week, everything was working for Rodriguez on Tuesday. After taking a sweeper low for ball one, Rodriguez hit a 118.3 mph nuke to right field on the next pitch, a 93-mph cutter that Ethan Roberts left over the heart of the plate. That’s the hardest-hit ball in Minor League Baseball in 2026. It’s the second-hardest anywhere, behind only Oneil Cruz. Rodríguez is Cruz, with a much smaller strike zone and better defensive instincts.

The process here is as good as the outcome for Rodríguez, who didn't allow Roberts back into the at-bat after getting ahead. He repeated the trick in his next trip, this time taking a Trent Thornton sinker on the outer half out of the park for his second home run of the game, raising his OPS to .945 on the season. Surely a call up is imminent.

Kaelen Culpepper
Kaelen Culpepper has been mired in his first Triple-A slump. He busted out of it in a big way on Tuesday. Jordan Wicks left a curveball up on the inner third, and Culpepper took into the bullpen for his fourth home run of the year. 

After going down 0-2 to Jace Beck in his third at-bat, Culpepper took three consecutive balls before taking a 94 mph fastball out for his second home run of the day, at 103 mph off the bat. Culpepper has cut his groundball rate significantly in 2026 (from 50% to roughly 38%), and his ability to pull the ball may lead to his power production outpacing his raw power. The one area I’d monitor with Culpepper is his chase rate, which sits around 30%. From my looks this season, he’s been more prone to chase early in counts and often does a great job of battling back in his plate appearances. That approach will be more challenging in the majors.

Walker Jenkins
Walker Jenkins (who turned 21 two months ago) has had a slow start for St. Paul. If you peek under the hood, though, everything looks extremely promising. He’s running an in-zone contact rate of 92% (87% overall) and chasing only 16% of the time, leading to a robust 16% walk rate. He’s hitting the ball harder, too. He’s added to both his average EV and max EV. That’s encouraging, given that the main knock on Jenkins has been a lack of in-game power. It’s likely that facet of his game won’t be fully formed for a while yet.

So why the slow start? Jenkins has had much more of a ground-ball problem this year. He’s swinging about 8% less overall. My theory is that he’s a little passive, and getting into some counts that result in poor quality of contact. He’s never had a ground-ball issue, though, so this isn’t something I’d stew over. He crushed a 107-mph double off lefty starter Wicks in the first inning. I expect the production to catch up to the process pretty soon.

Gabriel Gonzalez
If I don’t include González, I’ll get yelled at. He had a great game, too. After a single in the first inning off Wicks, he took a slider down and in deep for a home run at a 104-mph EV in his second at-bat. González consistently crushes any breaking pitch inside that isn’t buried. 

Notably, González was playing first base for the Saints today. Even though he’s had a slower start offensively, he’s already up to 7 home runs on the season. González has a combination of skills I consider dangerous for a hitter. He has excellent bat-to-ball skills, both in and out of the strike zone, and he chases a ton (39%). My fear for him is, he’ll need to rein in some of his aggressiveness in the majors, or he’ll generate a ton of weak contact. In the right role, though, he can be a dangerous hitter.

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[Nshore]

Does the speed of a hit really correlate to anything - other than that the hitter made good contact on that one pitch?  

[Vanimal46]

I hope we see all 4 of these players on the other side of the river. Some sooner than others. E-Rod and Culpepper any day now 

[Matthew Trueblood]

40 minutes ago, Nshore said:

Does the speed of a hit really correlate to anything - other than that the hitter made good contact on that one pitch?  

Are you asking whether exit velocity correlates with production? If so: yes, very, very much so.